An analysis of the Avetrana Murder Case through Abstract Argumentation

Argumentation is the activity by which one justifies his own position in a discussion. It plays a fundamental role in court trials, for faithfully reconstructing the course of the events from evidence and testimonies. So, the availability of automated techniques for carrying out argumentation would be extremely useful in that domain. Abstract argumentation focuses on the inter-relationships among the available arguments, neglecting their internal structure or specific interpretation. In this paper we report about the application of abstract argumentation techniques to a very famous criminal case happened in Italy. Our aim is, on one hand, showing a practical and relevant application of abstract argumentation, and, on the other, comparing the outcome of the automated approach to that of the judges in the real court.