Justices, Law Enforcement Officials Pay Tribute to Falcone

Justices, Law Enforcement Officials Pay Tribute to Assassinated Italian Judge
Tony Mauro
The National Law Journal
November 02, 2009


A high-level gathering at the Supreme Court paid tribute on Thursday to Giovanni Falcone, an iconic Italian judge who was assassinated in 1992 as he waged legal war against the Mafia.

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., along with Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito Jr., Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, Deputy FBI Director John Pistole and former FBI Director Williams Sessions spoke at the tribute, which was co-hosted by the Italian Embassy. Judge Arthur Gajarsa of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, who was a driving force behind the event, also spoke.

Falcone, instrumental in some of the most important prosecutions against the Mafia in the 1980s and early 1990s, was driving with his wife in Palermo, Italy in 1992 when lookouts spotted his car and triggered a bomb that killed them both along with three bodyguards. He was remembered Thursday for developing the "follow the money" strategy that helped expose Mafia operations.