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Judges and law enforcement officials gathered at the Supreme Court May 23 for a somber ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Italian judge Giovanni Falcone by the Mafia. “It was very moving,” said Giannicola Sinisi, attaché for justice affairs at the Italian embassy. “We wanted to recognize his courage and willingness to prosecute organized crime under very difficult circumstances,” said Senior Judge Arthur Gajarsa of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Reaction to the assassination, Gajarsa said, “caused the eventual demise of the Mafia in Sicily.” Instrumental in dozens of Mafia prosecutions, Falcone was killed along with his wife and three bodyguards while traveling in Palermo, Sicily. U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito Jr. paid tribute to Falcone as a martyr for the cause of justice, as did Italian ambassador to the United States Claudio Bisogniero. At a similar event in 2009, Scalia recalled meeting Falcone in Italy soon after joining the Supreme Court in 1986.