Italy
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1998
Data card
- Legal status
- Abolitionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- NOVEMBER 12, 1998 · On 12 November 1998, Kurd leader Abdullah Ocalan,...
- News items in the archive
- 712
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Italy is classified as Abolitionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 712 news items on Italy, from 1998 to today.
Italy abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in the Constitution of 1948, removed it from the military penal code of war in 1994 and, in 2007, amended article 27 of the Constitution to delete the last reference to it. Since then it has supported a universal moratorium in international forums.
The Italian news in this archive concerns above all the association's other front: conditions inside places of detention, meaning overcrowding, suicides, access to care, life imprisonment without parole and alternative measures, together with the prison visits the association carries out and publishes reports on.
Latest news
NOVEMBER 28, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYITALY. SIGNATURES COLLECTED IN PARLIAMENT TO SAVE STANLEY WILLIAMS
Italy’s deputies and senators are also collecting signatures to ask California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemency to Stanley Williams, scheduled to be executed on December 13.
NOVEMBER 28, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYITALY. SIXTEEN REGIONAL PRESIDENTS SIGN WILLIAMS APPEAL
two more of Italy’s regional ‘Governors’ added their support to the appeal aimed at California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in order to halt the execution of Stanley Williams, scheduled to take place on December 13.
- NOVEMBER 24, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTY
ITALY. MORE SIGNATURES FROM ITALIAN ‘GOVERNORS’ FOR WILLAMS APPEAL
seven regional Presidents have lent their name to an appeal promoted by Hands Off Cain to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to halt the execution of Stanley Williams scheduled to take place on December 13.
- NOVEMBER 24, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTY
ITALY. MORE REGIONAL PRESIDENTS SIGN WILLIAMS APPEAL
seven more of Italy’s Regional ‘Governors’ have added their names to the appeal to ask California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to halt the execution of Stanley Williams scheduled to take place on December 13.
NOVEMBER 17, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYMEXICO. PRESENTATION OF HANDS OFF CAIN’S 2005 REPORT – THE DEATH PENALTY WORLDWIDE
the presentation of the Spanish edition of Hands Off Cain’s 2005 report – The Death Penalty Worldwide took place in Mexico City.
- NOVEMBER 16, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTY
MEXICO. PRESENTATION OF HANDS OFF CAIN’S 2005 REPORT – THE DEATH PENALTY WORLDWIDE
the presentation of the Spanish edition of Hands Off Cain’s 2005 report – The Death Penalty Worldwide will take place tomorrow in Mexico City.
NOVEMBER 12, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYITALY. HANDS OFF CAIN RECEIVES PEACE PRIZE ‘LOVE AND PSYCHE’
Hands Off Cain was awarded the peace prize “Love and Psyche 2005” by the 11th MEDFILM festival, a competitive international film festival dedicated to human rights.
NOVEMBER 7, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYTHAILAND. ITALIAN RISKS DEATH PENALTY FOR MURDER
Thai police arrested Italian national Daniel Testoni, 22, accused of having stabbed to death Japanese businessman Marcio Cristiano Hiraoka.
NOVEMBER 2, 2005IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN. HANDS OFF CAIN JOINS EMBASSY DEMONSTRATION AND DENOUNCES FAILURE OF EUROPEAN POLICY
Hands Off Cain adheres to the candle light vigil, promoted by the Italian daily Il Foglio, to be held on November 3 in front of the Iranian embassy in Rome and also denounces Europe’s policy of ‘constructive dialogue’ with the Mullah’s regime.
- OCTOBER 28, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTY
AFGHANISTAN - Two death sentences for the murder of Maria Grazia Cutuli and three other journalists
an Afghan court ruled that two brothers should be executed for their involvement in the killing of four journalists in 2001.
OCTOBER 19, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYHOC. “DEATH PENALTY FOR SADDAM WOULD BE A RETURN TO THE PAST”
“Sentencing to death Saddam Hussein would not be the best way of presenting the new Iraq as it would not offer a solution to the past,” declared Sergio D’Elia, Secretary of Hands Off Cain, commenting on the beginning of proceedings against the former Iraq
OCTOBER 18, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYNEW YORK. PRESENTATION OF THE DEATH PENALTY WORLDWIDE 2005 REPORT
Hands Off Cain, together with the Transnational Radical Party and the National Association for Criminal Defence Lawyers, presented its 2005 Report - The Death Penalty Worldwide at UN Headquarters in New York.
- OCTOBER 18, 2005ThailandDEATH PENALTY
THAILAND. ITALIAN COULD FACE ON DRUG CHARGES
an Italian could face execution after being arrested on drug trafficking charges in northern Thailand, police said. Stefano Pelliccia, 50, from Rome, was apprehended on October 18 at a checkpoint in Mae Sai district of the northernmost province Chiang Rai
- OCTOBER 9, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTY
ITALY. ITALIANS OPPOSED TO DEATH PENALTY, POLL
many adults in Italy are against capital punishment, according to a poll by Ispo Ltd. 76 per cent of respondents opposed the death penalty.
OCTOBER 4, 2005SpainDEATH PENALTYSPAIN. HANDS OFF CAIN 2005 REPORT AT THE SENATE
Hands Off Cain’s “2005 Report – The Death Penalty Worldwide”, edited in its Spanish edition by HOC board member Begoña R. Antigüedad, was presented in Madrid at the Spanish Senate.
SEPTEMBER 13, 2005IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN. CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE TO CONTINUE, EUROPEAN COMMISSION
the European Commission shares in the concern on the human rights situation in Iran, particularly with regards to the death penalty, but does not indent to interrupt the politics of constructive dialogue with the regime.
AUGUST 30, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYSOMALIA. PROSECUTOR SEEKS DEATH SENTENCE IN TRIAL
prosecutors in the self-declared republic of Somaliland asked a regional court to sentence to death 10 people suspected of killing aid workers between 2002-2004.
JULY 26, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYTURIN, ITALY. PRESENTATION OF “THE DEATH PENALTY WORLDWIDE 2005 REPORT”
Hands Off Cain, together with the ‘Adelaide Aglietta’ association presented the 2005 edition of the annual Hands Off Cain Report: “The Death Penalty Worldwide”.
JULY 25, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYEUROPEAN UNION. PANNELLA CALLS FOR END TO ALL DEALINGS WITH IRAN
MEP and Hands Off Cain President Marco Panella deposited a parliamentary question to the European Commission regarding the European bloc’s relations with Iran.
JUNE 28, 2005Vatican CityDEATH PENALTYNEW CATECHISM. D’ELIA SAYS CATHOLIC CHURCH’S JUSTICIALISM STILL IN EVIDENCE
on the Compendiun of New Catechism to be presented tomorrow, HOC General Secretary Sergio D’Elia declared: “We have never been fundamentalist about death penalty abolition – in fact we campaign for a UN moratorium on capital executions with a view to abo
- JUNE 24, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTY
LAUNCH OF HOC’S 2005 REPORT: CIAMPI, CASINI, FINI, SALVI, BONINO AND D’ELIA
Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi expressed “sincere appreciation of Hands Off Cain for its strong commitment to the consolidation in the international order of the modern humanist values founded on the protection of rights and the individual” in a m
- JUNE 24, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTY
HANDS OFF CAIN’S 2005 REPORT: MORE ABOLITIONIST STATES AND FEWER EXECUTIONS WORLDWIDE
The Death Penalty Worldwide 2005 Report illustrates a continued positive evolution towards abolition globally. HOC’s annual report, edited by Elisabetta Zamparutti, shows 8 countries dropped the death penalty in 2004, bringing up to 138 the total of count
- JUNE 24, 2005SenegalDEATH PENALTY
SENEGAL PRESIDENT ABDOULAYE WADE PLEDGES TO LEAD IN AFRICA
“I shall endeavour to be a guide for the future, to create a future for Africa,” President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal said on receiving the Abolitionist of the Year Award. The award was presented to President Wade by the President of the Italian Chamber o
JUNE 2, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYSPAIN. ‘THOUGHT IS FORBIDDEN’ OPENS IN MADRID
44 panels with the images of some of the 75 activists detained in March 2003 by the Castro regime in Cuba are part of the exhibition inaugurated in Madrid in the presence of the Euro MP Emma Bonino and City Councilor for Employment Ana Botella.
MAY 26, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYITALY. TORCHLIT DEMONSTRATION FOR MAJDA, A MOROCCAN WOMAN AT RISK OF DECAPITATION IN SAUDI ARABIA
the plight of Majda Mustapha Mahir, a 40-year old Moroccan woman condemned to death in Saudi Arabia for the murder of her husband in 1998, took Hands Off Cain and the Association of Moroccan Women in Italy to the streets of Rome in protest.
MAY 20, 2005CubaDEATH PENALTYDEMONSTRATIONS IN FAVOUR OF THE “ASSEMBLY FOR THE PROMOTION OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN CUBA”
“Freedom, Rights and Democracy in Cuba” states a banner during the protest organized by the Radical Party outside the Cuban embassy in Rome.
MAY 17, 2005YemenDEATH PENALTYITALY. PRESIDENT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION MAKES APPEAL FOR AMINA
President of the Italian Senate’s Human Rights Commission, Enrico Pianetta (Forza Italia), appealed to Yemen’s President, Ali Abdallah Saleh, for immediate clemency to be granted to Amina Ali Abdulatif Al Tuhaif, sentenced to death in Yemen for having par
MAY 13, 2005CubaDEATH PENALTYCUBA. OLIVIERO TOSCANI’S EXHIBITION ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN CASTRO’S REGIME OPENS IN CADIZ
to keep public attention on the plight of political prisoners and the repression of dissent in Cuba two years after the wave of crackdowns, HOC, Con Cuba en la distancia and Reporters sans frontiers have promoted an exhibition in Cadiz by Oliviero Toscani
MAY 10, 2005YemenDEATH PENALTYYEMEN. HOC APPEALS PRESIDENT ALI ABDULLAH SALEH NOT TO EXECUTE AMINA
Hands off Cain, the international association which has been promoting an international campaign for a global moratorium on capital executions, appealed President of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh to spare the Amina’s life. Amina al-Abduladif, a 21-year-old mot
APRIL 28, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYITALY. ‘DIE EASY’ COMMERCIAL WINS THE 34TH KEY AWARD
the ‘DIE EASY’ commercial, produced by Diaviva Films in support of Hands Off Cain’s anti death penalty campaign, won the 34th KEY AWARD, the event organised by the Media Key publishing group which awards the best advertisments to appear on TV and Cinema.