Witness retraction: Judgment No. 15652 of 2023 and a contrary approach in 2025
Court of Cassation Judgment No. 15652 is a 2023 judgment: it was decided on December 21, 2022 and filed on April 13, 2023. Its headnote considers investigative statements lawfully used to challenge testimony where they help assess the unreliability of a retraction at trial.
Witness credibility and proof of facts
Article 500(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure permits statements read out to challenge testimony to be assessed for witness credibility. That use is distinct from admitting the statements as proof of the facts narrated, which requires the applicable statutory conditions.
Subsequent Judgment No. 26387 of 2025
No. 26387, filed on July 18, 2025, states that investigative statements used to challenge testimony and not confirmed at trial concern only witness credibility, not corroboration or proof of facts. This remains so where other evidence makes the retraction unreliable; the headnote preserves the exception for proven unlawful conduct under Article 500(4).
The official digest expressly identifies No. 15652 of 2023 as a contrary precedent. The two approaches must therefore be distinguished and the permitted use of the statements assessed in the particular proceedings. Source: July–August 2025 digest, headnote Rv. 288386-01 (Italian).
