Italy Makes Last-Ditch Bid to Save U.S. Convict

Backed by appeals from Pope John Paul II and the European Union, Italy has unleashed a barrage of e-mails and official protests against the scheduled execution tonight of an Italian American convicted of murder in Virginia.

The apparently futile campaign on behalf of Derek Rocco Barnabei, which is to culminate here with a nationally televised vigil counting down what are expected to be the final four hours of his life, has rallied much of this nation in defense of an emigrant’s grandson.

Other European countries, increasingly vocal critics of capital punishment, have joined the effort out of dismay that the United States is one of the few democracies still imposing the death penalty.

In a tent outside the Colosseum here this week, Italians lined up to send computer messages asking Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore to spare the 33-year-old Barnabei from lethal injection. Tens of thousands of e-mails from ordinary Italians and celebrities have reinforced appeals by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and every party in Parliament.

At his weekly Vatican audience Wednesday, the pope told Roman Catholic pilgrims: “In the spirit of clemency of this Holy Year, I once more add my voice to all those who ask that Derek Rocco Barnabei’s life not be taken.

“I also hope that the use of capital punishment can be abandoned, given that the state today has other means of effectively suppressing crime without denying the perpetrator the possibility of redemption,” added the pope, who in July issued an appeal for the prisoner through diplomatic channels.

France forwarded a diplomatic plea from the European Union, whose 15 countries have outlawed the death penalty. The EU called for a delay of execution to hear new evidence and perhaps reopen the case.

Europeans often voice frustration that such high-profile appeals from their side of the Atlantic rarely sway U.S. governors, whose power of mercy is the last hope for death row inmates convicted in state courts.

Lila White, a spokeswoman for Gilmore, said the Republican governor was aware of the Italian-led campaign for Barnabei and had no comment on it.

“He has addressed this matter on the evidence of the case and found it overwhelmingly in favor of conviction,” White said. “He has declined to intervene.”

Barnabei was convicted in the 1993 rape and fatal beating of Sarah Wisnosky, a 17-year-old college freshman he had been dating. He contends that he and Wisnosky had consensual sex, he left her apartment in Norfolk, Va., and someone else killed her.

Gilmore rejected a clemency petition Monday after DNA tests, which defense lawyers had sought, confirmed that Barnabei’s blood was found under the victim’s fingernails. A federal judge Tuesday rejected an appeal for new tests, dismissing a defense claim that the state had tampered with fingernail clippings and other physical evidence before they went to the laboratory.

The case has been sensational news in Italy for weeks, filling newspapers, television screens and Web pages with images of the defendant in a military-style haircut. The media have echoed his claim that police singled him out among several murder suspects because of his Italian origin.

Italy’s unqualified embrace of the Barnabei cause is reminiscent of its mobilization in defense of Italian immigrant anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, electrocuted in Massachusetts in 1927 for murder. The pair were later cleared of the crime.

Three Italian lawmakers traveled to Richmond, the capital of Virginia, last week to plead with the governor. The Tuscan region, from which Barnabei’s paternal grandfather emigrated, once offered to pay for DNA testing.

Italian athletes have threatened an anti-American protest at Friday’s opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, if the execution takes place. A Sicilian mayor has promised to name a cliff in the convict’s memory.

Although many commentators here have challenged the prosecution’s case, many Italians protesting Barnabei’s sentence said simply that no government has a right to take human life.

“You don’t defeat violence with violence,” said Fabrizio del Sette, 23, an engineering student in Rome.

Italy outlawed capital punishment after World War II and has in recent years tried to lead a worldwide campaign to abolish the practice. The Colosseum, infamous as the site of deadly gladiator combat, is illuminated in golden light whenever a country outlaws the death penalty--on Wednesday the lights were on in honor of Ivory Coast--or commutes a death sentence.

Rome Mayor Francesco Rutelli turned the Colosseum into a center of protest this week as he joined others lining up to fire off e-mails to Virginia from three tent-shaded computers under a “Let’s Save Barnabei” poster.

“We know that many Americans are in favor of the death penalty,” the mayor told reporters. But he added that Italy hoped to persuade them that “we live in a world where you can fight crime without killing.”

Italy’s main state television channel on Wednesday aired “Dead Man Walking,” the 1995 film directed by Tim Robbins about a Louisiana execution, which helped galvanize worldwide sentiment against the death penalty.

Tonight at 10:30 the channel will begin a televised vigil: It will broadcast commentary and candlelight protests from cities around Italy, along with live reports from outside the Virginia prison where Barnabei is to be executed at 9 p.m. EDT--3 a.m. in Italy.