Prisoners ask for death penalty

Hundreds of life prisoners in Italy have written to the country's President asking to be executed, saying that would be preferable to rotting away in jail.

At a moment when Italy's government is pushing for a global ban on capital punishment, 310 lifers have pleaded with President Giorgio Napolitano for him to end their misery.

"Dear President of the Republic, We are tired of dying a little each day. We have decided to die only once, we ask that our life sentences be changed into the death penalty," they wrote. The death penalty is banned by all 27 European Union countries and the EU has mandated Italy to draft a text to be presented the UN General Assembly calling for a global moratorium on capital punishment.

Human rights groups opposed to the death sentence say it is inhumane and out-moded, but the Italian prisoners said living out the rest of their life in jail was even worse.

"It's a death you drink sip by sip," the letter, part of an organised campaign among prisoners, said.