Acquitted of suffocating her mother, who had Alzheimer’s: the stress of caregiving
According to the experts, at the time of the events, following a long period of care, he was incapable of understanding and forming his own will. The grounds for the decision will be given in 90 days’ time
Too much stress to look after a mother with Alzheimer’s. According to the Assize Court of the Arezzo District Court, this may have been the reason that led Giuseppina Martin, aged 67, to kill 93-year-old Mirella Del Puglia, at a time when she was completely incapable of understanding and forming her own will. The Court therefore acquitted the woman who had suffocated her mother with a scarf on the night of 8–9 March 2025, at the family home on Via Fermi in San Giovanni Valdarno (Arezzo).
The Confession
Immediately after the crime, it was Martin herself who contacted the police, confessing to what had happened and asking for help. During the most recent hearing, she made unsolicited statements before the court, expressing deep remorse and recounting her long and gruelling ordeal. “I don’t know what came over me; I apologise for what I’ve done.” She also spoke of the long period she spent with her mother, marked by a heavy care burden and the feeling of having been left alone by the authorities.
The reasons for the acquittal
The woman was charged with aggravated murder due to her family relationship with the victim. The prosecutor, Giorgio Martano, had sought a 12-year prison sentence, arguing that partial mental incapacity was the prevailing factor, whilst highlighting that the defendant’s requests for support had gone unanswered. The Court, presided over by Judge Annamaria Loprete, instead accepted the defence’s argument, put forward by lawyer Alessia Ariano. Decisive factors were the psychiatric reports, which highlighted a severe post-traumatic stress disorder linked to her mother’s condition and the burden of care, which, according to the judges, rendered the woman incapable of understanding the significance of her actions or of acting of her own free will at the time of the crime.
“It has been a long legal process,” commented the lawyer, recalling the investigations carried out both by the expert witness and during the preliminary hearing, which led to the recognition of his state of incapacity. In handing down the acquittal, the Court found that Martin was not criminally responsible at the time of the murder. The grounds for the judgement will be filed within 90 days.
