The death penalty was abolished from the constitution...

The death penalty was abolished from the constitution of the Vatican City State. Capital punishment was banned by Pope Paul VI in 1967, but was still part of the 'Fundamental Law', equivalent to a constitution, enacted in 1929. Pope John Paul II approved the new fundamental law for the abolition of the death penalty in November 2000. The new constitution, consisting of 20 articles, is a more streamlined version of the existing one, and deletes anachronisms such as the death penalty. The Pope, in the preface, wrote that he promulgated the new law "having recognised the necessity of giving systematic and organic form to the changes introduced in the successive phases of the Vatican City State legislation."