Not everyone knows that the Granducato di Toscana was the first State to officially abolish the death penalty and that in these days falls recurrence!
The Tuscany region celebrates the 30 November the edict signed in 1786 in the rooms of the Royal Palace of Pisa, from the hand of Gran Duca Pietro Leopoldo.
The initiative of the Grand Duchy was of Tuscany the first "country" in the world who opted for the abolition of the death penalty, not only but also torture. With this initiative the Tuscany gave life to an art movement, which in a short time was taken model in the rest of the world.
A template exported worldwide
In a few decades, other Italian and European States adopted the Tuscan model recovering the content and methods of Criminal Law reform, the number of 1786 LIX. The abolition of torture and the death penalty were then formalized within the article 51 of the law.
The step back and return the abolition
Despite the commitment, after 4 years the death penalty was reintroduced before disappearing permanently On 30 April 1859, on the eve of the Referendum that led to the annexation of Tuscany Italian State.
Our region remained a pioneering example, considering that the Italian State decided to definitive abolition only thirty years later, in 1889.