A court cannot merely refer to a defence memorandum without examining its arguments. This was reiterated by the Italian Court of Cassation, Sixth Criminal Division, in judgment no. 37272, filed on 23 October 2026.

The Court identified two possible consequences of failing to consider a defence memorandum: nullity under Article 178(1)(c) of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure, arising from an infringement of the defendant’s rights to participate in the proceedings and receive legal assistance, and defective reasoning, where the judgment fails to address the defence’s arguments.

In the case examined, the memorandum developed grounds already raised on appeal, highlighting inconsistencies in the complainant’s statements and exculpatory evidence, without introducing new grounds of appeal.

The judgment was quashed and the case remitted because of inadequate reasoning: by overlooking those arguments, the Court of Appeal had failed to undertake an examination potentially decisive to assessing the reliability of the main source of evidence against the defendant.

Source: Italian Court of Cassation, Sixth Criminal Division, judgment no. 37272/2026. Read the decision on Simpliciter (in Italian).