Trial Narratives and Truth. From a Political Tragedy to a Farcical Verdict. The Podlech Case

Abstract

How can it be possible that the law stays powerless after political violence? How can it be possible that a nation looks at the future without sealing the wounds of victims and coming to terms with its past? However, the expression transitional justice is often only a euphemism; when dealing with crimes that involve whole communities, the law experiences great difficulty, if not inability, to face and explain the immensely complex issue of justice. Furthermore, the judicial process of the past shows its various limitations, due to the tragic nature of such political crimes. In this contribution through an ethnographic observation of the trial procedures, is analyzed the role of mnemonic narrations in the reconstruction of truth in a specific criminal trial highlighting the divide of the judicial reality, the epistemological dichotomy between the victim’s and the executioner’s narrations and, finally, the gap between historical and judicial truth, represented by the operative part of the judgment.

Vignola M., Punzi C. (2019) "Trial Narratives and Truth. From a Political Tragedy to a Farcical Verdict. The Podlech Case " Italian Journal of Sociology of Education, 11(2), 278-302. DOI: 10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-2-13  
Year of Publication
2019
Journal
Italian Journal of Sociology of Education
Volume
11
Issue Number
2
Start Page
278
Last Page
302
Date Published
07/2019
ISSN Number
2035-4983
Serial Article Number
13
DOI
10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-2-13
Issue
Section
Special Section