ABSTRACT: Editorial published in issue n.2 of "1994". "Perhaps we abolitionists should base ourselves on a methodological belief", i.e. not on the "moralistic arrogance" with which the others, the "uncivilized", are looked upon. We should simply point out a "new juridical-social boundary". Think of slavery, for instance: only in the past century did slaves cease to be "the engine of the economy". As with slavery yesterday, today "the death penalty is a fact in most parts of the world". "The list of barbarities is endless: but it is recognized as such only someone unveils the fact".

(1994 - IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, 26 October 1993)

Perhaps we abolitionists should base ourselves on a methodological belief: the question is not basing our arguments on the moralistic arrogance with which one would view the others, the uncivilized. On the basis of what? Obviously not on the basis of history. No people can judge another and no religion can judge another. As single individuals, we are pointing out a new juridical-social border, as in remote times other men found other borders that escaped the attention of even the most sensitive individuals.

We have the example of slavery, with embarrassing dates and places: as recently as in the past century slaves ceased, perhaps only in part, to be the engine of the economy. Today no one would want to set foot in a home where you are attended by slaves. Even the most indifferent and cynical person would sense an inner clash as if he were witnessing a cannibalistic meal. Gottfried Benn wrote that "ancient society was based on the bones of the slaves; it consumed them, whilst the city thrived above...No one considered them worthy of attention: Plato and Aristoteles regarded them as low beings: the crude fact. That is what not even the profoundest and most intelligent minds of the history of man can see, can isolate from the rest: the fact. Legend once had it that by eating the adversary's flesh you would acquire his virtues. Then men believed that killing a person who had killed would square the accounts. In most of the world the death penalty is an objective fact.

On the eve of the third millenium, our challenge is writing the date when the death penalty will be abolished: or rather, year 2000 could be the date when the international community will consider a new principle, i.e. that state assassination is no longer a collective compensation. By then humanity will have realized that the state cannot kill, cannot torture, cannot imprison individuals who have different ideas...The list of barbarities is endless, but they are recognized as such only when someone unveils what lies behind the crude fact.