He had “a completely altered emotional condition at the time of the commission of the facts”, he was “a man who felt like a failure as a parent” and “husband”. For these reasons, the Court of Assizes of Milan decided, last November 15, to grant extenuating circumstances for his “emotional state” to a 42-year-old manager of Mexican origin who on June 19, 2021 in Arese, in the province of Milan , killed his 48-year-old wife, suffocating her, and attempted to kill one of their three 18-year-old children with a belt. The recognition of the extenuating circumstances allowed the defendant to avoid the life sentence requested by the Public Prosecutor, with six months of daytime isolation, obtaining instead a sentence of 27 years in prison. While life imprisonment, according to the public prosecution would have been justified by the crimes of aggravated voluntary homicide and attempted murder. The violent character of the man had been highlighted to the carabinieri by the same children who – as recalled by the prosecutor himself – during the preliminary investigations stage, had described their father as “a violent and dangerous man”. For the Court, the defendant Rodriguez was «a broken, split man», as acutely understood by one of the three sons «shortly before being attacked, a man who felt himself a failure as a parent for failing to build “a good family ”, as a father for the mistakes he made and as a husband».
The jurisprudence of the Cassation
The Court of Assizes also supports its decision on the basis of the jurisprudence of the Cassation according to which «emotional or passionate states, while not excluding or diminishing imputability» can «be considered by the judge for the purpose of granting generic extenuating circumstances, influencing them on the extent of criminal liability”.
States of mind examined by the Cassation most recently with sentences 28561/2022 22211/2022 and 10386 due to “uncontrollable inner suffering” or “emotional storms” to which the Supreme Court has denied any relief for the purposes of extenuating circumstances, in however linked to crimes determined by jealousy or frustration for the failure of a life project.