Buried newborns, Chiara's defense: 'she must be acquitted because she was not mentally fit'

Chiara Petrolini is not criminally liable due to her incapacity to understand and intend her actions at the time of the events, and should therefore be acquitted. This is reiterated by the defence of the student from Traversetolo, as argued during the first-degree trial, as they appeal the first-degree ruling of the Parma Assize Court, which sentenced the young woman to 24 years and three months for the case of her two newborn children, buried in the garden of her home.

In filing the appeal, lawyer Nicola Tria and new defence counsel Guglielmo Gulotta are requesting that the trial proceedings be reopened, with the acquisition of a supplementary neuropsychological assessment and, where applicable, a new psychiatric evaluation: the one conducted during the Assize Court proceedings had concluded that the defendant was fully capable of understanding and intending her actions.

The new expert opinion on behalf of the defence also draws on the contribution of Professor Giuseppe Sartori, in addition to those of Pietro Pietrini and Alessandra Bramante. According to the consultants, "Chiara Petrolini's mental processes were severely impaired and susceptible to further collapse under the exceptionally stressful conditions of childbirth." The defence also requests, in the event that a total mental disorder is not deemed to have existed, and following a legal reclassification of the charges as either culpable homicide or infanticide, a reduction in sentence.

The Parma Public Prosecutor's Office has, in turn, filed an appeal against the acquittal of the young woman for the murder of her first child. The young woman from Traversetolo had in fact been convicted of murdering, with premeditation, her second-born child, while, in the view of the first-degree judges, there is insufficient evidence that the first child was born alive. The prosecutors also insisted on seeking recognition of the suppression of a corpse charge for both cases: the ruling had reclassified the second episode under the less serious offence of concealment.

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