With this decision, the Court of Cassation upheld the appeal against a judgment of the Assize Court of Palermo, which had rejected the instance of changing a life sentence in a 30 years imprisonment in application of the favor rei principle, as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights in its judgment of 2009 on the case Scoppola v. Italy. For the Court of Cassation, the argument that the decision of the European Court in the Scoppola case was irrelevant to decide on a different proceeding was erroneous. On the contrary, and also in the light of the decision of the Constitutional Court No. 210 of 2013, the principles resulting from the European Court’s decisions apply to any further case having the same features.
Decision of the Constitutional Court No. 210 of 3 July 2013