Insufficient Evidence

The notorious case of U.S. Actor William Berger, 42, which has created a furor over Italy's undiscriminating narcotics laws and the country's faulty legal machinery (TIME, April 5), finally came to an end last week in a Salerno courtroom. Eight months ago, in a search for drugs along the Amalfi coast, Italian police entered Berger's rented villa while he was entertaining dinner guests and found marijuana (nine-tenths of one gram) in a snuff box, less than enough for one joint. That was more than enough for them to arrest Berger, his wife Carol, 39, and seven guests.

What followed, however, was altogether too much. Berger's friends were told to leave the country. His wife died in a hospital, after surgery, of bronchial pneumonia leading to cardiac collapse. She had been under guard for nine weeks, although no charges were brought against her, and Berger suspects that better medical attention might have saved her. Last week, after his own long incarceration without bail, Berger was acquitted of the charge of possession of the drug because there was no evidence that it belonged to him. He was also cleared of having allowed his villa "Casa Degli Angeli" (House of the Angels) to be used as a fumeria (smoking place or opium den).

Following his release from purgatory, Berger displayed the same fatalistic calm he showed during his long detention. "I don't understand why Carol had to die," he said quietly. "But if she had to die, why that way? The doctors, the priests, the policemen, the guards, they are all nice people. I haven't found any devils. They are all nice people, but they acted differently because of the rules, because of pieces of paper."

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