This is off the current topics but I have an unanswered question that maybe someone can answer for me. Or direct me to a discussion.
I have have been curious for some time as to how it was that Raffaele a was put into solitary confinement before final conviction. does anybody know the legal basis for this? This is in fact happened? And if it did happen, at what point during all of these proceedings did it happen?
I would like to think that at least it did not happen until the first conviction. even though by all discussions that conviction was not final according to Italian law. I did make a brief stab at researching this again but could find no discussion about this. I only found my previous similar request for information from about a year ago or something like that. it seems like the level of extra punishment must surely trigger some human rights violation. Numbers?
Thanks in advance.
Acc. to "Honor Bound", Raffaele's book, he was taken to solitary confinement at his arrival at Capanne on Nov 6, 2007. Raffaele seems to blame his father's chosen lawyer, Tedeschi, for being out of his depth and completely ineffectve in challenging what the PM was doing - Raffael's father eventually fired Tedeschi. Raffaele was being held in complete isolation in the 48 hours up to ten minutes before the preliminary hearing - not allowed to see a lawyer or family - in a manner usually reserved for terrorists or major Mafia crimes.
Raffaele then blames himself for his statements at the hearing in front of Matteini. The main issue was whether or not Raffaele's Nikes were a match for the Nike's print found in Meredith's room. Mignini could only get an, "it's a theoretical possibility," from the Foligno police, who themselves were working off of a photograph of the shoes.
Raffaele says that the big mistake was insisting that he be allowed to speak at this preliminary hearing. IMO he makes the same mistake all innocent people make, that their innocence will be obvious. He also made some bad gaffes, saying he'd never before met Lumumba, when in fact he had.
Although Matteini eventually rejected two of Mignini's criteria for keeping him in prison for up to a year in "preventative detention" - namely, 1) being a danger to reoffend, and 2) being a danger to tamper with evidence - Matteini agreed with Mignini on the third - flight risk, chiefly because Patrick and Amanda were foreigners. It was deemed that if Amanda fled, Raffaele might flee with her.
Raffaele was sent back to solitary, although had access to telegram-communication with his father. Apparently, Lumumba was in an isolation cell next to him.
Raffaele eventually got a working TV, newspapers and proper blankets. Lawyer visits were now permitted.
Despite the Nov 21 search of Guede's apartment, where Delfo Berrerri (one of Raffaele's new lawyers) got a picture of Nike prints there made in mud - showing a match with the Nikes in Meredith's bedroom.....
.... officially the defence was not allowed to get copies of prosecution's official files until the investigation was declared over.
At the end of November 2007, there was a three-judge review of the Matteini decision. At this hearing Mignini invented the "mushroom theory of digestion", to explain a late time of death for the victim. The one thing coroner Lalli was adamant about was that stomach digestion argued for an early TOD. Not so, said Mignini, Meredith and Amanda could have eaten mushrooms after both arrived home on Nov. 1.
Also, based on eye-balling photos of the climb in through Filomena's window, which they deemed impossible, as well as taking Amanda's secretly recorded prison statement, "I was there," to refer to being at the cottage, the panel confirmed everything Mignini brought, save for inexplicably moving the TOD to 10 pm.
Raffaele says he was returned to solitary confinement, now convinced it was a tactic to get him to turn on Amanda. Also at this time despite his doubts expressed in Matteini's court about Amanda's whereabouts on Nov 1, he figured out she couldn't have gone out. That story has remained unchanged since.
Eventually even in these conditions, Raffaele was allowed to finish his thesis, relying on his lawyers to ferry back and forth essential materials/books. It was after the defence of his thesis in front of five professors that his solitary confinement was supposed to end, with his transfer to Terni.
Yet when he got to the prison, it had no room anywhere except for solitary confinement. He was there until May 2008, mainly for internal administrative reasons. He was sent to the "protected section" of the prison where all the rapists and jailhouse snitches were. However, he was told that the move was because of his notoriety.