An Italian who remained in prison for 33 years for a triple crime he didn’t commit has been acquitted: “I don’t feel hatred”

The Court of Appeal of Rome acquitted a man who had spent 33 years in prison, unjustly sentenced to life imprisonment for a triple murder that occurred in 1991. “It’s the end of a nightmare”, said an emotional Beniamino Zuncheddu, after the court’s decision to drop the charges against him.

The former pastor, 58 years old, had been free since last November 25, when the same court suspended the now ratified sentence after several testimonies had demonstrated that the investigations at the time of the events had been manipulated by a police officer.

The triple crime occurred on January 8, 1991, when they were there kill shot in a sheepfold Gesuino Fadda, 56 years old; his son Giuseppe, 24 years old; and his employee Ignazio Pusceddu, 55 years old.

Fadda’s son-in-law, Luigi Pinna, 29, was seriously injured and became the only witness to the so-called Sinnai massacrethe mountainous area of ​​the province of Cagliari where the triple murder took place.

During the trial, the attorney general, Francesco Piantoni, credibility was questioned from the testimony of Pinna, who at the time of the events accused Zuncheddu, although he always declared himself innocent.

And in one of the hearings Pinna confessed: 33 years ago, before «identifying the suspects, the policeman leading the investigation showed me Zuncheddu’s photo and told me that he was the culprit of the massacre. It was like this: I made a mistake listening to the wrong person.

From the beginning, the investigators had identified arguments between farmers in the area as the cause of the murder, in light of some episodes that occurred before the triple crime, in particular the killing of some animals, as well as arguments between farmers.

Zuncheddu, who was 27 years old, was arrested a few days later, when a judicial ordeal began for him which ended yesterday evening, after having spent almost 33 years in prison.

This is the “biggest judicial error in republican history. Almost 33 years behind bars, 12 thousand days of deprivation, suffering, pain, distance from loved ones and from one’s life”, according to Errorigiudiziari.com (Erroresjudiciales.com), which deals with miscarriages of justice and was present at the appeal process.

“I don’t feel hate”

Zuncheddu assures that he has “never” felt “hatred” because “judges make mistakes”, but he feels it “they stole everything” after spending more than half his life in prison. “I wanted to have a family, build something, be a free citizen like everyone else. 30 years ago I was young, today I am old. They stole everything from me. Now I will rest, at least mentally,” he told a press conference a few hours later the acquittal sentence.

“I felt like a caged bird. I looked at their faces and wondered why. Even now I don’t understand why,” although “I have never felt hatred or anger” because “judges make mistakes,” she told the media.

“In prison they always told me: if you repent we will give you freedom. But what would I have regretted if I hadn’t done anything? I do not accept“, he explained, before thanking “the Radical Party, those around me, my family, my people, Burcei”, whose parish priest, after the sentence, rang the bells.