Corte d'Assise

The Corte d'Assise (EN Court of Assizes) is an Italian court composed of two professional, stipendiary judges (giudici togati) and six lay judges (giudici popolari), who are selected from the people. The Corte d'Assise has jurisdiction to try all crimes carrying a maximum penalty of 24 years in prison or more. These are the most serious crimes, such as terrorism and murder. Also enslavement, killing a consenting human being, and helping a person to commit suicide are serious crimes that are tried by this court. Penalties imposed by the court can include life sentences (ergastolo). The Corte d'Assise does not preside over cases involving attempted murder. The prosecution is conducted by the Public Prosecutor at the Courts of Assizes (Pubblico Ministero presso la Corte d'Assise). Decisions are made by giudici togati and giudici popolari together at a special meeting held behind closed doors, named Council Chamber (Camera di Consiglio), and the Corte d'Assise is required to publish written explanations of its decisions.

The Corte d'Assise is composed of two judges and six lay citizens. The presiding judge must be a member of a Court of Appeals. The other judge is known as judge a latere (EN sitting by). In the Corte d'Assise d'Appello (EN Appellate Courts of Assizes), the presiding judge must be a member of the Supreme Court of Cassation, and the judge a latere must be a member of a Court of Appeals.

Lay judges for both the Corte d'Assise and the Corte d'Assise d'Appello have to be older than thirty and younger than sixty-five. Lay judges for the Corte d'Assise must have completed their education to the level of junior high school (scuola media). The lay judges for the Corte d'Assise d'Appello must hold a diploma from a senior high school (scuola superiore).

The following people cannot be appointed to the office of lay judge:

In every municipality (comune), a board composed by the Mayor and two members of the Municipal Council (Consiglio Comunale) form two registers containing all the citizens meeting the aforementioned criteria. If they do not see to that, the President of the local Courthouse (Tribunale) acts in their stead. The registers are then transmitted to the President of the Courthouse. A board is then convened, formed by the President and all the mayors of the municipalities of the district, to form a register of all the eligible citizens living in that district. The register is then published and all citizen may raise objections within 15 days from publication. The registers are revised every two years. When a crime needs to be tried, the President of the Courthouse draws the names of the lay judges and of their substitutes in a public audience. After being appointed, the lay Judges take the following oath:

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