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In Italy, the first pre-unitarian state to abolish death penalty was the Grand Duchy of Tuscany as of the 30th of November 1786, under the reign of Leopold II. It was the first civil state in the world to do away with torture and capital punishment.

However, death penalty was sanctioned in the Law Codes of all the other pre-unitarian states, therefore when the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1860 legislation was divided, since death penalty was legal in all Italy but in Tuscany.

Afterwards death penalty was definitively abolished in the Penal Code in 1889 with the almost unanimous approval of both Houses of Parliament under suggestion of Minister Zanardelli. However executions in Italy had not been carried out since 1877, when King Umberto I granted a general pardon (Decree of Pardon of January, 18 1878). Death penalty was still contemplated only in military and colonial penal codes.

In 1926 it was reintroduced by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to punish those who made an attempt at the Royal Family or the Head of State and for various crimes against the State. The Rocco Code (1930, in force from Juli, 1 1931) added more crimes to the list of those punishable with death penality and reintroduced capital punishment for some common crimes.

The last people executed for civil crimes were three robbers also convicted with murder who battered and threw in a tank ten people still alive on a farm near Villarbasse (Province of Turin) in 1945. The then Head of State Enrico de Nicola denied the pardon and these convicted were executed by a firing squad on the 4th of March, 1947 in the prison of Basse di Stura near Turin. It was the last execution in Italy.

The Italian Constitution, approved on December the 27th, 1947 and in force since January the 1st, 1948, completely abolished death penalty for all common military and civil crimes at peace time. Such measure was carried out with the laegislative decree 22/48 of the 22nd of January, 1948 (Provision of coordination as a consequence of the abolishment of the capital punishment). Death penalty was still in force in Italy in the military penal code (though no execution ever took place) until the law 589/94 on the 13th of October, 1994 abolished it completely from the military code as well and substituted it with the maximum penalty of the penbal code.

Death penalty was sanctioned in the Art.21 of the Italian Penal Code, subsequently abolished. It stated that Death penalty is to be carried out by shooting inside a penitentiary or in any other place suggested by the Ministery of Justice. The execution is not public, unless the Ministry of Justice determines otherwise.

1. Death penalty in pre-unitarian Italy