The Cattaneo report reversed the timing of the Garlasco crime. A window of opportunity opens up for Stasi, but the road is uphill
Can eighteen years of judicial history be rewritten? Technically yes, provided that obviously there are concrete elements to do so. In light of the report by Professor Cristina Cattaneo, consultant to the Pavia prosecutor’s office, filed on 23 September with the prosecutor Fabio Napoleone and his deputy Stefano Civardi, can anything change for Alberto Stasi, definitively sentenced to 16 years in prison?
The content, at least for the moment, remains classified, but a revealing element has already been leaked: the attack on Chiara Poggi did not last a few minutes. It was an attack in two phases, longer than established by the sentence that condemned Alberto Stasi. So is this element enough for a review of the process? We don’t have definitive answers, of course, but we can try to put in place the necessary ingredients to make all the necessary hypotheses.
The new expertise
Temporal reconstruction is the heart of the case. 23 minutes passed between the opening of the door of Poggi’s house and the turning on of Stasi’s computer. According to the final sentence, that period of time was sufficient: Stasi would have killed his girlfriend, cleaned himself up, made the weapon disappear and returned home. A possible sequence, but only if the murder had been very rapid. The Cattaneo report, on the other hand, spreads the attack over a broader time frame. Those 23 minutes, at this point, never add up.
The road to revision
The only tool to overturn Stasi’s sentence is a review of the trial, a complex procedure with an outcome that is anything but obvious. The defense can request it from the Court of Appeal of Brescia for two reasons: either because a definitive sentence emerges against Sempio which recognizes him as the sole perpetrator of the crime, or because new decisive evidence emerges. If the revision were admitted and then accepted, reasonable doubt would be enough for acquittal: it would not be necessary to demonstrate innocence, but to undermine the certainty of conviction.
However, there is a concrete obstacle. The investigation into Andrea Sempio indicates him as a possible murderer in collaboration with the Stasinot as sole responsible. Which further complicates the matter: if Sempio were convicted together with Stasi, there would be no incompatibility between the two sentences, and the review would become even more difficult to obtain.
The question of the «queen test»
The Cattaneo report is based on the analysis of traces of blood conducted by the RIS of Cagliari, the morphological analysis of blood stains. Stains on the floors and sketches on the walls that allow us to reconstruct the probable position of the murderer during the crime. The anthropometric analyzes on Sempio served to verify the compatibility of his physique with that posture. The answer, according to what transpires, would be positive. But this compatibility does not correspond to a certainty: it is a clue, yes, but not proof.
Sempio is closely linked to the crime through two elements: the footprint number 33 on the wall of the stairs and his family’s DNA found under Chiara’s nails. Strong clues, but not yet enough. To hold an accusation before a judge, something else is needed, that is, what investigators call “proof”.
The possible scenarios
The next few weeks (and presumably the next few months) will be crucial. If Sempio’s indictment arrives, Stasi’s defense will have concrete elements to request the review. If, however, the investigation ends with a dismissal, everything will remain as it is today: Stasi convicted, no one else responsible. The third hypothesis, the most complex, is that Sempio is convicted as an accomplice in the crime. In that case, the window for Stasi would narrow further.
