THE ITALIAN EXECUTIONS

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1777, 2 September 1884, Page 2

THE ITALIAN EXECUTIONS

The executions which took place recently in Italy go a long way towards proving that capital' punishment is altogether a mistake, so far as exciting abhoienco of tho crime committed by the nature of the penalty exacted is concerned. Until last Saturday it was twenty-three years since an execution had been carried out in Naples, and capital punishment was considered to lie' practically, though not formally abolished/in Italy. ' But in certain recent c : ases of murder by soldiers it was considered necessary to show- a signal, example of inexorable legal justice; and on the 21st inst., Scanarari, a private, who tired at and subsequently stabbed his superior officer, in revenge for a well-deserved reproof, was shot just outside. Naples, while almost simultaneously Sal vatore Misdei, another, private, who shot his corporal and six fellow soldiers in the barracks three months ago, was executed in the same manner near Palermo. It would Appear that flagrant disrespect,, frequently culminating in outrage, has been lately very rife in Italian regiments, and stern measures seemed imperatively demanded. Therefore, although Archbishop Fan Filici tele graphed to the King interceding for Misdei, the Ministers recommended that both in'his case and that of Scanarari the death sentence should not be commuted. Certainly if ever a prisoner had merited such a sentence Misdei was that man. Nevertheless, while no interest whatever, was excited by Soanaran's doom, immense sympathy was manifested for the more wholesale and equally cold-blooded murderer of his comrades, Acknowledgements of the Archbishop's intercession were writted over the walls of Naples, and appeals for a pardon were sent up from many, quarters. Misdei himself believed up to the last that he would he reprieved, and was encouvaged s,o to do by the priest in attendance on him, who fainted from emotion upon bidding him farewell. When all was over and the body oonveyed away, the rope which had bound the murderer and the seat on which he had sat to await death by a volley of musketry were broken into small pieces that were oarried home as relics fraught with good fortune by the superstitions people.