There are odd statements by the PGP which are laughably lacking in context. It's not clear if these garbled statements result from a serious lack of subject-matter knowledge or an intent to provoke a response. The absence of context renders these statements totally devoid of relevance.
Take, for example, the statement: Judge "Hellmann has never presided over a murder case appeal in the Supreme Court."
Now, Judge Hellmann at the relevant time was a judge in an Italian court, the Assize Appeal Court of Perugia.
Similarly, Judge Nencini at the relevant time was a judge in an Italian court, the Assize Appeal Court of Florence.
Judge Massei at the relevant time was judge in the Assize Court of Perugia.
For a trial of a serious crime, such as murder, the Assize Court and Assize Appeal Court each consists of a panel of two professional judges and 5 "lay judges" who are citizens who are not professionally trained judges. The lay judges must have at least an elementary school education (Assize Court) or high school education (Assize Appeal Court).
The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation (CSC) includes about 400 judges. About one-half the judges serve in the Civil Division and one-half in the Criminal Division. Each Division consists of a number of Sections, each of which is assigned to only certain types of cases. An appeal of a criminal case judged in an Assize Appeal Court (and some other appeals) are heard by the CSC by a panel of judges, which consists of 5 judges assigned from a Section of the Criminal Division. In rare cases, for example, where there is some issue of conflict of law, CSC decides that an appeal must heard by a larger panel of nine judges, a panel called the "United Sections" or "Joint Sections", assigned from several Sections.
Among the judges serving on the CSC at the relevant time were Gemelli, Chieffi, and Marasca.
In each motivation report, the names of the judges who heard the case are given on the first page of the text.
There is also an Italian Constitutional Court, also called the Supreme Constitutional Court, which is separate from the CSC. The Constitutional Court is the only Italian court authorized under the Italian Constitution to interpret the Italian Constitution. It receives cases only as forwarded by the decision of a lower regular (criminal or civil) court or by request from the executive branch of the Italian government. Unlike the US system, an individual may not petition the Italian Constitutional Court to have a case reviewed by the Italian Constitutional Court.
