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DEATH PENALTY: RECOGNIZED THE ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP TO ANTONY FARINA
November 8, 2012: With the release of an Italian passport, was reached a first positive result of the international campaign to save the life of Anthony Farina. The campaign was launched on October 1 in Rome by Hands Off Cain with the Community of Sant'Egidio, the British humanitarian organization "Reprieve" and the Northwestern University in Illinois. Farina, who was sentenced to death in Florida, and his family is originally from Santo Stefano di Camastra, a small coastal town in the province of Messina.
The Italian Consulate in Miami has indeed released on November 2 an Italian passport to Anthony Farina making it more effective a direct intervention by the Italian Government to U.S. authorities. Anthony's lawyers were also able to obtain an extension of the November 20 deadline for the submission, even by Italy, of a defense in the form of "amicus brief".
While thanking the Italian Foreign Ministry, the associations promoting the campaign recall that on May 9, 1992, Jeffrey and Anthony Farina, two brothers aged 16 and 18 years, robbed the collection of a fast-food restaurant in Daytona Beach. During the robbery Jeffrey shot an employee, Michelle Van Ness, who died the next day in hospital. Anthony did not shoot or wound anyone, but was tried along with his brother, and both were sentenced to death.
In 2000, in view of the minor age at the time of the robbery, the death sentence of Jeffrey Farina was reduced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years. Anthony, who was only 18 years old when arrested, is still under the death sentence, and soon will have exhausted all appeals.
Anthony's case is currently pending before the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which decided to review the case to determine whether to inform a new jury of the fact that the author of the murder is today to life in prison, and also to judge the correctness of the behaviour of the prosecutor, who during the trial has invoked the Bible to proclaim himself God's agent, thus inducing the jury to hand down the death penalty. (Sources: HOC, 08/11/2012)
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