Italian life prisioners want death penalty

[Torpedo Fodder]

BBC

Italy inmates seek death penalty

Hundreds of prisoners serving life sentences in Italy have called on President Giorgio Napolitano to bring back the death penalty.

Their request was published as a letter in the daily newspaper La Repubblica.
Italy has almost 1,300 prisoners serving life terms, of whom 200 have served more than 20 years.
Italy has been at the forefront of the fight against capital punishment and recently lobbied the UN Security Council to table a moratorium on it.
But at home some of the country's longest serving prisoners want the death penalty re-introduced.

'Light into shadows'
The letter they sent to President Napolitano came from a convicted mobster, Carmelo Musumeci, a 52-year-old who has been in prison for 17 years.
It was co-signed by 310 of his fellow lifers.
Musumeci said he was tired of dying a little bit every day.
We want to die just once, he said, and "we are asking for our life sentence to be changed to a death sentence".
It was a candid letter written by a man who, from within his cell, has tried hard to change his life.
He has passed his high school exams and now has a degree in law. But his sentence, he says, has transformed the light into shadows.
He told the president his future was the same as his past, killing the present and removing every hope.

'Need for change'
Italy abolished the death penalty after World War II.
Under current laws, prisoners serving life can obtain the right to brief periods of release after 10 years and conditional release after 26 years of good conduct.
The Communist Refoundation party's senator, Maria Luisa Boccia, has proposed draft legislation to abolish the life sentence and replace it with a maximum sentence of 30 years.
The president has spoken many times about the need to change the sentencing regime.
But in his response to the letter, he said it was now for parliament and the government to deal with the prisoners' request.

this is certainly interesting, though I doubt it'll come to anything. In any case I see no reason to give these scum the easy way out.

[kurtz]

Originally Posted by Torpedo Fodder

BBC

this is certainly interesting, though I doubt it'll come to anything. In any case I see no reason to give these scum the easy way out.

Well how about it costs something like £30,000 p.a. to keep each inmate in the luxury they've come to expect. Hanging £5 startup cost for rope from DIY store.

Not to mention the abscence of recidivism amongst hangees

[fatty]

There are easier ways to kill yourself than a letter-writing campaign.

[Happy Times]

It seems life sentence is better than death sentence:hmm:

[SUBMAN1]

Sounds like propoganda to me

[Happy Times]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

Sounds like propoganda to me

Yes, they want sympathy and to get out. They hate it there.
Good, life sentence rocks.

[kurtz]

Originally Posted by kurtz

Not to mention the abscence of recidivism amongst hangees

I'm not out for revenge, just want them out of society and it's expensive to keep them. In fact if we whipped out there organs (humanely, please) they could help repay their debt to society.

Of course I'm not suggesting this for parking offences, amputations for them--kidding

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by kurtz

I'm not out for revenge, just want them out of society and it's expensive to keep them. In fact if we whipped out there organs (humanely, please) they could help repay their debt to society.

You mean like they do in China, and did with hair and skin in the Third Reich.

[kurtz]

Originally Posted by Skybird

You mean like they do in China, and did with hair and skin in the Third Reich.

Do you mean by that because it was done by those regimes we shouldn't do something. The Nazis were the first to build autobahns that doesn't mean no one else should. Thats a purely emotive argument.
The fact is we are getting to a point in the world where we will have to make choices about who gets resources I can't see that any point is served by using those resources on people who damage society.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by kurtz

Do you mean by that because it was done by those regimes we shouldn't do something.

Something? No matter what?

The Nazis were the first to build autobahns that doesn't mean no one else should. Thats a purely emotive argument.

You demand that it is done what your government and othe rwetsern governments critizises china for practicing since long. If I would have let you your way, than I see no more substantial argument that would allow me to attack the Sharia. Ethically, both practices are off limits for me.

And btw, building Autbahnen, and enforcing transplantation and extra-cruelly taking revenge in jurisdiction does not really compare. Justice has nothing to do with cruelty, a judge's job should have nothing to do with emotions of revenge, a law-code should not reflect such motives.

The fact is we are getting to a point in the world where we will have to make choices about who gets resources.

So may the strongest beast win? I use force only to defend me. Beyond that I refuse to accept needing to live in a jungle. That is simply not good enough a life for me - for I am more than just an instinct-driven, genetically programmed beast with a predetermined fate and no free will. I have a strong power and gift: the ability to influence most men for the good or the worse, and the freedom to decide if I want to forgive, or not. As Happy Times indirectly indicated, that better ios used with wisdom only, not blindly.

[TteFAboB]

Since it's far more likely that the law is changed to a maximum sentence 30 years than a re-introduction of the death sentence, I wonder if this is aimed at achieving the first while pretending to ask for the second:

They want to die. But nobody is going to kill them. Here, I have found a compromise: you get out after 30 years and go commit a proper suicide, since it's disgracefull to force you to improvise by smashing your head on the wall or something. Of course, since you're no longer dying day by day, you no longer need to suicide once you're out. But fear not! You'll get killed by the victim's hired hitman.

[bookworm_020]

So there feeling blue about spending the rest of their lives in jail? What about the people who live with the life sentence of the loss of love ones or the injurys they suffered due to them? Death is easy, life is the hardest sentance.

[P_Funk]

Originally Posted by bookworm_020

So there feeling blue about spending the rest of their lives in jail? What about the people who live with the life sentence of the loss of love ones or the injurys they suffered due to them? Death is easy, life is the hardest sentance.

Ah the old victim's rights routine.

Contrary to what you say I'm pretty sure that almost everybody gets over a person's death before they get over not being free. People put death behind themselves all the time and move on. But being incarcerated for the reamainder of your life, robbed of the human dignity to decide your own fate is a punishment that actually exceeds death in its horror. There have been too many revolutions and wars where people have died for freedom.

And the justice system isn't about the victim's families. Its about the crime. The punishment isn't about retribution on behalf of the agrieved. Its about rehabilitation or the protection of society.

[Torpedo Fodder]

Contrary to what you say I'm pretty sure that almost everybody gets over a person's death before they get over not being free.

That is one of the most callous things I've ever seen anybody declare. The murderer chose to kill their victim with full knowledge of the potential consequences. They damn well deserve to suffer a worse fate than their victim, or thier victims' family, who deserve the closure of knowing that the murderer will be punished. Like it or not the justice sisytme is in part about retribution.

Having said that, I wonder if some form of corporal punishment wouldn't be more for suitable for some lesser crimes rather than imprisonment, preferably something that inflicts the greatest level of pain for the least amount of physical injury: We really need to invent an agony booth.

[bradclark1]

I'm all for chain gangs for lesser crimes. At least something gets accomplished.
I'm all for life without parole in an 8'x10' cell now because I think it's a worse punishment than death.