Maxi Trial
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The Maxi Trial (Italian: Maxiprocesso) was a criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia that took place in Palermo, Sicily. The trial lasted from 10 February 1986 (the first day of the Corte d'Assise) to 30 January 1992 (the final day of the Supreme Court of Cassation), and was held in a bunker-style courthouse specially constructed for this purpose inside the walls of the Ucciardone prison.
Sicilian prosecutors indicted 475 mafiosi for a multitude of crimes relating to
It is considered to be the most significant trial ever against the Sicilian Mafia, as well as the largest trial in world history.[2] Throughout and after the trial, several judges and magistrates were killed by the Mafia, including the two who led it—Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
Preceding events
In the early 1970s, Luciano Leggio was boss of the Corleonesi clan and a member of the Sicilian Mafia Commission, and he forged a coalition of mafia clans known as the Corleonesi with himself as its leader. He initiated a campaign to dominate Cosa Nostra and its narcotics trade. Leggio was imprisoned in 1974, so he acted through his deputy Salvatore Riina, to whom he eventually handed over control. The Corleonesi bribed cash-strapped Palermo clans into the fold, subverted members of other clans, and secretly recruited new members.[3] In 1977, the Corleonesi had Gaetano Badalamenti expelled from the Commission on trumped-up charges of hiding drug revenues.[4] In April 1981, the Corleonesi murdered rival member of the Commission Stefano Bontade, and the Second Mafia War began in earnest.[5] Hundreds of enemy mafiosi and their relatives were murdered,[6] sometimes by traitors in their own clans. By manipulating the Mafia's rules and eliminating rivals, the Corleonesi came to completely dominate the Commission. Riina used his power over the Commission to replace the bosses of certain clans with hand-picked regents.[7] In the end, the Corleonesi faction won and Riina effectively became the "boss of bosses" of the Sicilian Mafia.
At the same time that the Corleonesi waged their campaign to dominate Cosa Nostra, they also waged a campaign of murder against journalists, officials, and policemen who dared to cross them. The police were frustrated with the lack of help that they were receiving from witnesses and politicians. At the funeral of a policeman murdered by mafiosi in 1985, policemen insulted and spat at two attending politicians, and a fight broke out between them and military police, the carabinieri.[8]
On 31 March 1980, politician
The groundwork for the Maxi Trial was done at the preliminary investigative phase by Palermo's Antimafia Pool, created by judge Rocco Chinnici and consisting of Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino, Giuseppe Di Lello and Leonardo Guarnotta.[1] After Chinnici's murder in July 1983, his successor Antonino Caponnetto headed the pool. The Antimafia pool was a group of investigating magistrates who closely worked together sharing information on related cases to diffuse responsibility and to prevent one person from becoming the sole institutional memory and solitary target.[1][11] They would carry out all the investigations on Cosa Nostra, assisted by the deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Ayala and three colleagues, whose task was also to bring the results of the pool investigations as prosecutors and obtain convictions.[12]
Pentiti
Most of the crucial evidence came from
Buscetta revealed information to Falcone for 45 days,
Mobster Salvatore Contorno was arrested in 1982.[26] At first he refused to collaborate with Ninni Cassarà and Falcone. After the decision of Buscetta to collaborate, Contorno changed his mind. According to some, Buscetta met Contorno who supposedly fell to his knees and kissed Buscetta's hand. Buscetta allegedly put his hand on his shoulder and said: “It’s all right, Totuccio, you can talk.”[27][28] Contorno began collaborating in October 1984, and a week later 127 arrest warrants were issued against mafiosi.[29]
Defendants and trial
After the preliminary investigations were concluded, on 8 November 1985, judge
After several years of investigating by the
It was considered to be the most significant trial ever against the
Verdicts
The trial ended on 16 December 1987, almost two years after it commenced. The verdicts were announced, and of the 475 defendants—both those present and those tried in absentia—338 were convicted.
Appeals
The appeal process lasted over three years, and dozens of mobsters were acquitted on 10 December 1990.[37] Antonino Saetta, a trial magistrate, had been killed with his son on 25 September 1988.[38] On 9 August 1991, Antonino Scopelliti, who was preparing to argue the government's case in the final appeal of the trial, was murdered by the 'Ndrangheta on behalf of the Mafia.[39]
The president of the first criminal section of the Court of Cassation was Corrado Carnevale, a judge suspected of colluding with the Mafia. However, Carnevale was not appointed as prosecutor and the final decision on the Maxi Trial, as he was replaced with judge Arnaldo Valente.[40] Finally, on 30 January 1992, the convictions were confirmed by the Supreme Court of Cassation, and most of the acquittals granted by the appeals process were cancelled.[40] Another trial was held between 1993 and 1995, and all the defendants were convicted to life imprisonment.[41]
Aftermath
As part of the Maxi Trial, Riina was given two life sentences in absentia.[24] Riina pinned his hopes on the lengthy appeal process that had frequently set convicted mafiosi free, and he suspended the campaign of murders against officials while the cases went to higher courts. When the convictions were upheld by the Supreme Court of Cassation on 30 January 1992,[1][42] the council of top bosses headed by Riina reacted by ordering the assassination of Salvatore Lima (on the grounds that he was an ally of Giulio Andreotti), and Falcone.
On 23 May 1992, Falcone, his wife
On 15 January 1993, Carabinieri arrested Riina at his villa in Palermo. He had been a fugitive for 23 years.[46][47][48]
References
- ^ a b c d e Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino and the Procura of Palermo Archived 21 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Peter Schneider & Jane Schneider, May 2002, essay is based on excerpts from Chapter Six of Jane Schneider and Peter Schneider, Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia and the Struggle for Palermo, Berkeley: U. of California Press
- ^ ISBN 978-88-7796-845-6
- ^ Dickie (2007), p. 369-370.
- ^ Dickie (2007), p. 371.
- ^ Dickie (2007), p. 373.
- ^ Dearth of honour Archived 15 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine. The Guardian. February 21, 2004.
- ^ Paoli. Mafia Brotherhoods. p. 54
- ^ Dickie (2007), p. 389-390.
- ^ (in Italian) Norme di prevenzione e di repressione del fenomeno della mafia Archived 21 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Seindal, Mafia: money and politics in Sicily, p. 20 Archived 23 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Stille, Excellent Cadavers, pp. 85-90
- ^ Ayala 2008, pp. 18-19 e 80-81.
- ^ "E LEGGIO SPACCO' IN DUE COSA NOSTRA - la Repubblica.it". Archivio - la Repubblica.it (in Italian). 3 October 1984. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
- ^ "L'11 settembre della mafia palermitana: la tragica fine dei figli di Buscetta" (in Italian). palermotoday.it. 11 September 2019. Archived from the original on 25 September 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- ^ "UN IMPERO BASATO SULLA COCAINA CHE GESTIVA COME UN MANAGER - la Repubblica.it". Archivio - la Repubblica.it (in Italian). 17 July 1984. Archived from the original on 4 June 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- ^ "GIUSTIZIATO IL NIPOTE DI BUSCETTA - la Repubblica.it". Archivio - la Repubblica.it (in Italian). 7 March 1995. Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- ^ "impastato-cronologia le vicende del processo". www.uonna.it. Archived from the original on 13 April 2017. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
- ^ "IL BRASILE HA CONCESSO L' ESTRADIZIONE TOMMASO BUSCETTA PRESTO IN ITAL - la Repubblica.it". Archivio - la Repubblica.it (in Italian). 28 June 1984. Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- ^ "FORSE GIA' DOMANI TOMMASO BUSCETTA ARRIVA IN ITALIA - la Repubblica.it". Archivio - la Repubblica.it (in Italian). 15 July 1984. Archived from the original on 4 June 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- ^ "BUSCETTA CI DISSE: 'NON SONO UN NEMICO' - la Repubblica.it". Archivio - la Repubblica.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- ^ "'SONO DON MASINO. NON DICO ALTRO...' - la Repubblica.it". Archivio - la Repubblica.it (in Italian). 18 July 1984. Archived from the original on 4 June 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- ^ "Tommaso Buscetta, 71, Dies; First Italian Mafia Informer - New York Times". The New York Times. 26 March 2014. Archived from the original on 26 March 2014.
- ^ "Archivio - LASTAMPA.it".
- ^ a b c d "338 GUILTY IN SICILY IN A MAFIA TRIAL; 19 GET LIFE TERMS". The New York Times. 17 December 1987. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
- ^ "E IN NOME DI FALCONE BUSCETTA HA ROTTO IL SILENZIO SUI POLITICI - la Repubblica.it". Archivio - la Repubblica.it (in Italian). 22 October 1992. Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- ^ Stille, Excellent Cadavers, pp. 187-88
- ^ Stille, Excellent Cadavers, pp. 130-32
- ^ Dickie (2007), p. 290.
- ^ Stille, Excellent Cadavers, p. 147
- ^ La mafia – 150 anni di storia e storie (Compact Disc), la Repubblica, 1998.
- ^ Ayala 2008, p. 134.
- ^ Italy Slicing Up the Beast, Time Magazine, 24 February 1986
- ^ "L'Ucciardone cambia volto e diventa casa di reclusione" (in Italian). 7 January 2015. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
- ^ "Il blindato, l'aula bunker e le gabbie: i trent'anni del maxiprocesso alla mafia" (in Italian). 10 February 2016. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
- ^ Italy: Putting the Finger on Il Papa Archived 20 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Time Magazine, 3 March 1986
- ^ "I GIUDICI HANNO CREDUTO A BUSCETTA" (in Italian). repubblica.it. 17 December 1987.
- ^ "'IO NON LOTTO, FACCIO SOLO SENTENZE'" (in Italian). ricerca.repubblica.it. 12 December 1990. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ "L'ultimo massacro firmato mafia" (in Italian). repubblica.it. 27 September 1988. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ "Scopelliti, il giudice solo" (in Italian). raistoria.rai.it. 9 August 1991. Archived from the original on 20 December 2013.
- ^ a b ""Imputato Andreotti lei e Cosa Nostra..."" (in Italian). repubblica.it. 20 February 1999. Archived from the original on 8 May 1999. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ Delitto Dalla Chiesa: ottavo ergastolo a Riina Archived 3 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Corriere della Sera, 18 March 1995.
- ^ "Archivio - LASTAMPA.it". Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
- ^ "Gli esecutori materiali della strage di Capaci - Sentenza d'appello per la strage di Capaci" (PDF) (in Italian). Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 July 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ Interview of agent Vullo the day after the massacre. Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine (in Italian)
- ^ "Audizione del procuratore Sergio Lari dinanzi alla Commissione Parlamentare Antimafia - XVI LEGISLATURA" (PDF) (in Italian). Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ^ Italy Arrests Sicilian Mafia's Top Leader Archived 8 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, 16 January 1993
- ^ Brother of top Mafia turncoat shot Archived 8 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, 21 March 1998
- ^ Follain pp. 212–213
Bibliography
- Dickie, John (2007). Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-1403970428.
- Schneider, Jane T. & Peter T. Schneider (2003). Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo, Berkeley: University of California Press ISBN 0-520-23609-2
Further reading
- Jamieson, Alison (2000). The Antimafia: Italy’s fight against organized crime, London: Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-80158-X.
- ISBN 0-09-959491-9
External links
- (in Italian) Buscetta e la Mafia sfila al Maxiprocesso di Palermo YouTube
- (in Italian) Il maxiprocesso alla mafia – Palermo 1986 Teleacras on YouTube
- (in Italian) Michele Greco il "papa" della mafia siciliana YouTube