The Ersatz Napoleon of Perugia
I believe that this is strongly relevant to the condition of the Italian criminal justice system today, and that therefore by extension it's relevant to the Knox/Sollecito trials.
I'd go even further than this though. My take on "epoch transition" government is that although the head of the serpent is cut off (Hitler, Mussolini, Saddam...) and the overarching political philosophy may change, it usually takes an incredibly long time for the long civil service arms of government to change. Partly this is out of necessity and a desire to maintain public order: the US saw in Iraq that you can't just sack the entire police force without chaos and disorder ensuing, and that's even more of an issue when it comes to criminal justice. It's incredibly dangerous (from a public order and public confidence point of view) to tell the people that vasts amounts of things which were illegal yesterday are legal today, and vice versa. Instead, even with a total will for change, things must happen slowly and gradually in order to make a smooth transition to a new philosophy.
However, as your quote illustrates well, there's often a fundamental barrier to change inasmuch as the people responsible for day-to-day administration of government (in this case the judges, prosecutors and police) are very often a) reactionary by nature, and b) philosophically wedded to a greater or lesser extent in the old system. So these two factors, combined with the underlying natural inertia, mean that old habits and philosophies can die very hard indeed.
And that's exactly what I believe we're seeing in the Knox/Sollecito trials. I think that most of the judges, prosecutors and police involved in this case have unlawfully reverted to past, defunct legislation (now overwritten and discredited) in order to ensnare Knox and Sollecito. Furthermore, I think the Supreme Court has failed spectacularly so far in its sovereign duty to uphold the law as it is written today. My observation is that the SC is possibly in the thrall of reactionary bigots with quasi-fascist leanings, who have established - unchecked thus far - a system where they can dictate law to the lower courts in a way that is not enshrined in legislation.
Just wanted to reiterate that I believe this conversation about Italian courts and the background in which the Knox/Sollecito false convictions occurred, is very close to the heart of the matter.
Again, its fascinating how the guilter's show up on cue to distract the conversation.
The case was always about Giuliano Mignin, without that deranged madman clinging to false coerced confused statements, and rushing to foist himself in front of the international media and deflect attention away from his own imploding career, there never would have been a trial for Amanda and Raf.
But many of the phrases that have come up discussing this historical thread are intriguing; reactionary, reverting to local customs, napoleonic code, inquisitorial versus adversarial trials, reluctance of the court functionaries to change with the new laws, and so much more.
Mignini himself has written two articles which touch on these themes. Here's a link to one of them:
http://www.alleanzacattolica.org/idis_dpf/voci/v_viva_maria.htm
Google translate is the best I have, but Mignini describes a local Italian uprising against Napoleon's armies in Italy in the vicinity of Perugia.
Mignini describes the "counter-revolutionary"'s war cry, "Viva Maria", and the appearance of 'actual miracles' at the time; weeping madonna statues and the like. It's not written like a mere objective historian, Mignini seems to hope to convey to the reader that the miracles are genuine.
He also provides explanations as to why the local citizens revolted in the first place: they correctly hated having the foreigners ways imposed on the locals, whose tradition of all powerful city-states, where local authorities ruled their cities, answering only to the papal authorities. Public officials like Mignini were justifiably petit tyrants onto themselves, in the good old days.
Mignini also describes the brief victories of the rebels, and the 'most beautiful page of history' written by the rebels as they fight on in the face of certain defeat, and as their enemies, "take their revenge".
You can see the whole tragedy of Mignini's persecution of Amanda and Raf justified in his writings. No one should have any cause to believe that Giuliano Mignini is not a legitimate madman, a paranoid, a sadist, a power mad narcissist; an unscrupulous madman who first invents his lies, and then believes them wholeheartedly, attacking anyone who challenges his delirium.
The irony that the Napoleonic code, is the antiquated inquisitorial system Mignini defends, while vilifying both Napoleon for imposing the code originally, and then modernizers for attempting to reform the code in his own life time.
We don't really have a character type for Mignini, he is well past the hypocrite, well past the madman. A vile contemptible coward who merits the same sentence he sought to impose on Amanda Knox. Or maybe not. Maybe Mignini should be treated with kindness, once he has been safely shut away in a secure sanitarium.
But he really does see himself as a kind of Napoleon. Here is a picture of Mignini at the Kercher crime scene on DAY ONE:
Remind you of anyone?
