AP wire

September 29, 1995

Shouts of "Pataki Don't Kill!" outside a Via Veneto hotel greeted new York Gov. George Pataki as he arrived in Italy to visit family and develop economic ties for the state.

Mayor Francesco Rutelli, who had said he'd lecture the governor about the inalienable political and moral reasons behind Italy's and the European Parliament's opposition to the death penalty, did not discuss the death penalty with Pataki.

"I want to respect (his) different point of view," the mayor told reporters in English. "My welcome was very sincere."

Rutelli said he would pass on the city council's written criticism of New York's death penalty.

Italy's steepest criminal sentence is life in prison, but most life-term prisoners are released after about 20 years.

Fulfilling a campaign promise, the Republican Pataki reinstated the death penalty shortly after being elected over Mario Cuomo, who vigorously opposed capital punishment during his 12-year tenure in Albany.

More than 40 Italian demonstrators waited for about three hours outside a hotel where Pataki will be staying across from the US Embassy at the top of the Via Veneto. Pataki showed up shortly before midnight after taking a flight from Budapest. A few shouts went up from the protesters as Pataki, his wife, mother and entourage got off a tour bus and entered the hotel. The governor appeared to pay no attention to the demonstration which broke up shortly after he went inside the lobby.

Protesters carried banners reading, "No to the Death Penalty" in English and the same slogan in Italian, "No alla Pena di Morte" Another placard read, "Why kill those who kill to prove that you must not kill?"

Members of Amnesty International's Italian chapter were among the demonstrators.

Said one to the vigil's organizers, Sergio D'Elia, "We will follow him in all his stops in Italy. Where he will be, we will be."

About 10 police officers kept watch on the peaceful protesters. One hotel guest, Barbara Kranz, from Omaha, Neb, passed the demonstrators on her way out to take an evening stroll. "I can understand what they're saying, but they don't understand what it's like in the States," she said mentioning the problem of crowded prisons. She said she supported the death penalty.