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
- FEBRUARY 10, 2000ItalyDEATH PENALTY
Liga Veneta (northern autonomist party) senator Antonio...
Liga Veneta (northern autonomist party) senator Antonio Serena tabled a parliamentary question to the Prime Minister probing the ethics of having photographs of American death row prisoners plastered on billboards all over Italian cities
- FEBRUARY 9, 2000ItalyDEATH PENALTY
Attorney General Jay Nixon filed a lawsuit in Circuit...
Attorney General Jay Nixon filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court, accusing the Italian clothing company Benetton and Gonzaga University law professor Speedy Rice of deceiving the state in their use of inmates at Potosi Correctional Center
- FEBRUARY 9, 2000ItalyDEATH PENALTY
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon filed a lawsuit...
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court, accusing the Italian clothing company Benetton and Gonzaga University law professor Speedy Rice of deceiving the state in their use of inmates at the Potosi Correctional Centre
- JANUARY 13, 2000ItalyDEATH PENALTY
Government coalition member Rinnovamento Italiano senator...
Government coalition member Rinnovamento Italiano senator Ombretta Fumagalli Carulli said the Ankara government's decision to postpone the execution of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan presented a good opportunity to request a moratorium on all death senten
- JANUARY 12, 2000ItalyDEATH PENALTY
Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini welcomed the decision...
Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini welcomed the decision of the Turkish coalition government to postpone Kurdistan Worker's Party leader Abdullah Ocalan's execution following a request by the European Court of Human Rights
- JANUARY 7, 2000ItalyDEATH PENALTY
The Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani launched...
The Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani launched in New York the new Benetton (fashion wear) campaign for death penalty awareness
- JANUARY 1, 2000ItalyDEATH PENALTY
On December 12, 1999, Hands off Cain, together with...
On December 12, 1999, Hands off Cain, together with Amnesty International and the St Egidio Community, inaugurated the initiative "The Coliseum Illuminates Life"
- JANUARY 1, 2000ItalyDEATH PENALTY
The Constitution approved in 1948 abolished the death...
The Constitution approved in 1948 abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes
- DECEMBER 12, 1999ItalyDEATH PENALTY
On December 12, the initiative "The Coliseum illuminates...
On December 12, the initiative "The Coliseum illuminates life" was inaugurated
- DECEMBER 11, 1999ItalyDEATH PENALTY
On December 11, after the European Union had accepted...
On December 11, after the European Union had accepted Turkey's application for membership, and in reply to those who asked him if the granting of candidate status to Ankara would have blocked Abdullah Ocalan's execution, Italian President of the European
- DECEMBER 1, 1999ItalyDEATH PENALTY
In December, Rocco's mother Jane Barnabei, came to...
In December, Rocco's mother Jane Barnabei, came to Italy to try and raise the money to cover the cost of new DNA tests
- NOVEMBER 24, 1999ItalyDEATH PENALTY
On November 24, following the European Union's decision...
On November 24, following the European Union's decision not to put the resolution presented at the UN General Assembly to the vote, the Italian Senate unanimously approved a motion, first signatory Ersilia Salvato, engaging the Government to take action w
- NOVEMBER 3, 1999ItalyDEATH PENALTY
On November 3, Ambassador of Singapore Kishore Mahbubani,...
On November 3, Ambassador of Singapore Kishore Mahbubani, referring to this initiative at the Third Committe of the General Assembly, said, "We are puzzled to read that a decision has been taken by the UN to make the Coliseum in Rome a symbol of the cause
- SEPTEMBER 30, 1999ItalyDEATH PENALTY
On September 30, the Rome Court of Appeal upheld the...
On September 30, the Rome Court of Appeal upheld the request for extradition presented by the authorities of the People's Republic of China with regard to Song Zhicai, a Chinese citizen arrested in Italy on November 6, 1998, with a international warrant i
- APRIL 28, 1999ItalyDEATH PENALTY
Italy was a cosponsor and voted in favor of the resolution...
Italy was a cosponsor and voted in favor of the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 28 (1999/61)
- APRIL 28, 1999ItalyDEATH PENALTY
The Constitution approved in 1948 abolished the death...
The Constitution approved in 1948 abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes
- FEBRUARY 25, 1999ItalyDEATH PENALTY
On February 25, the Italian Senate passed a motion,...
On February 25, the Italian Senate passed a motion, first signatory Ersilia Salvato, engaging the Government to expand the text of the resolution for presentation at the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, by including paragraphs regarding the refusa
- JANUARY 16, 1999ItalyDEATH PENALTY
On 16 January 1999, before the Italian authorities...
On 16 January 1999, before the Italian authorities had decided to grant or deny him political asylum, Ocalan left for Russia again
- JANUARY 1, 1999ItalyDEATH PENALTY
From the day of his arrest, Rocco Derek Barnabei, 32,...
From the day of his arrest, Rocco Derek Barnabei, 32, an American citizen of Italian origin condemned to death for murdering his fiancée in September 1993 in Norfolk, has maintained his innocence
- JANUARY 1, 1999ItalyDEATH PENALTY
In 1999, the Italian Parliament and Government, together...
In 1999, the Italian Parliament and Government, together with Hands off Cain, organized the international lobbying of various countries in support of a UN moratorium on executions
- JANUARY 1, 1999ItalyDEATH PENALTY
In 1999, while the EU Resolution for a moratorium on...
In 1999, while the EU Resolution for a moratorium on executions was being discussed at the UN, Hands Off Cain and former European Commissioner, the Hon
- NOVEMBER 12, 1998ItalyDEATH PENALTY
On 12 November 1998, Kurd leader Abdullah Ocalan,...
On 12 November 1998, Kurd leader Abdullah Ocalan, accompanied by Refounded Communist deputy Ramon Mantovani, landed at Fiumicino Airport in Rome on a flight from Russia