HISTORY OF THE PENALTY OF DEATH IN ITALY
The penalty of death started to be applied in Italy in the Low-Middle Ages for the different forms of homicide replacing the payment of an amount of money that the killer had to give to the family of the killed man to avoid the revenge of them.
In the ‘500 and in the ‘600 it was presented as the consolidation of the legal violence in name of the "reason of state" and the penalty was inflicted for punishing a wide range of crimes. In the ‘700 the penalty was abolished, but this truce lasted only a few years, in fact it was reintroduced for the "rebels" and "lifter".
In 1859 State of Tuscany abolished it in its territory, while in the rest of the peninsula it was abolished only toward the end of the 19° century.
In the first decades of the ‘900 it reappeared again up to 1944 when a law of the Italian State abolished the penalty of death for all the crimes except for the Fascist ones or for the cooperation with Nazi-Fascist. Some years after the end of the II World War, in 1947, the penalty was banished definitely for all crimes except in the cases foreseen by the military laws of war but, in 1994 it was defenitely abolished .
IN FAVOUR OF THE PENALTY OF DEATH
The teacher Isaac Ehrlich underlines an increasing of the homicides with a contemporary lowering of capital executions. This study has been criticised for having omitted the connection between the increasing of the homicides with the lowering of the availability of fire weapons.
AGAINST THE PENALTY OF DEATH
The doctor Sadataka Kogi, analysing 115 persons accused of homicide, is come to the conclusion that despite they were to knowledge of the existence of the penalty of death, because of their impulsiveness they didn’t succeed to hold the control to do these actions.
INCREASE OF THE HOMICIDES AFTER AN EXECUTION
The supporters of the penalty of death think that this has a preventive effect on some potential murderous, arousing fear. But is this true?
Some studies done in USA have noticed that after a capital execution the number of the homicides increases showing that the penalty of death can be seen like an example to follow, thinking that the homicide is a correct thing.
Besides this type of penalty opens a way that the assassin increases the number of the victims and it would become therefore a bomb for the society.
written by Elisa Bolgia & Alessandra Griziotti
