Italian Prisoners Ask for Death

More than 300 of Italy’s life-sentence prisoners have signed a letter asking the Italian president to reinstate the death penalty and change their sentences.  Italy is one of the world’s leading opponents of execution and even allows prisoners serving life sentences conditional release after years of good behavior. But the inmates who signed the letter seem to feel that life behind bars is not worth living.

BBC:

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.

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