EGN NEWS DESK
Pope Francis held a personal assembly on Friday with Beniamino Zuncheddu, an Italian man exonerated earlier this yr after spending 33 years in jail for crimes he didn’t commit. The encounter passed off within the library of the Apostolic Palace.
Zuncheddu, now in his 60s, was convicted in 1991 for the homicide of three shepherds on the Italian island of Sardinia. The crimes occurred at night time in a distant mountain space, and Zuncheddu was implicated by the one eyewitness, who initially acknowledged he couldn’t establish the killer. The witness later accused Zuncheddu, reportedly below a lot strain from a police officer.
Despite the dearth of strong proof, Zuncheddu was convicted and sentenced to life in jail. He remained incarcerated for over three many years, enduring harsh situations and sharing crowded cells with as much as eleven different inmates.
During his imprisonment, Zuncheddu maintained his innocence and drew power from his religion in God, whilst he misplaced what ought to have been among the greatest years of his life. Describing his time in jail as an inhumane expertise, Zuncheddu stated he survived day-to-day by serving to others who had been worse off than himself. He additionally discovered resolve by trusting in God’s enduring love and considering of his household.
In January 2024, the Italian Court of Appeals overturned Zuncheddu’s conviction, citing inadequate proof and questions surrounding the reliability of the witness testimony. His launch introduced an finish to a wrongful imprisonment that spanned greater than half of his life.
During the assembly with Pope Francis, Zuncheddu introduced the pontiff with a duplicate of his guide, ‘Io Sono Innocente’ (I Am Innocent), which he co-authored along with his enchantment lawyer. The guide, printed in May 2024, recounts his ordeal and the function his religion performed in serving to him survive the expertise.
Holding agency to his Christian beliefs, Zuncheddu has publicly expressed forgiveness for the person who falsely accused him, regardless of the lengthy years of struggling that adopted.
