decorahnews.com analysis: In the Fazzino murder trial, "probably" won't be good enough

Alex Fazzino

Friday was a day of graphic images in third floor courtroom of the Winneshiek County Courthouse.  Jurors saw pictures of the autopsy performed on Emily Fazzino.  Alex Fazzino, her husband, stands accused of first degree murder in Emily's death.

Associate State Medical Examiner Dr. Michele Catellier testified that the more than one dozen injuries to Emily Fazzino's body could have been caused by strangulation and an injury to her larnyx was a "strangulation type" injury.

But the medical examiner also left a lot of room for doubt in her testimony.  At the end of the first half of her testimony, she said she would "lean to" homicide as being the cause of Emily's death--but ruled that the caused was "undetermined."

Which probably takes jurors back to a point that defense attorney William Kutmus stressed during jury selection--that Alex Fazzino must be assumed to be innocent entering the trial and that any verdict that he is guilty of his wife's murder must be not only unanimous but "beyond a reasonable doubt."

Unless prosecutors have more damaging testimony coming this week in the second week of the trial, the question for jurors when they begin deliberations will be just how sure they are of their opinions.