La morte come pena: Law, Death Penalty, and State of Exception

Maurizio Vito, University of California, Berkeley

Abstract

My paper deals with a peculiar form of the State of Exception, namely the one that came to light with the death penalty, when this punishment first appeared in Italy during the Middle Ages. In his book La morte come pena. Saggio sulla violenza legale, Italo Mereu analyzes the main reasons that led to its introduction into the Italian penal system up to the moment in which, some six centuries later, it was banned. The point I will make is that a state punishment, such as the death penalty is possible only if the law opens up a space that has been defined as a “state of exception,” which is “a borderline concept.” (Schmitt 1985, 5) That the space at issue inherently belongs to law or is opened by law is an argument I will discuss as well.