œ«ˆˆMi chiamo Misdea Salvatore, detenuto per aver esploso diversi colpi di fucile...essendo ubbriaco». Soldati delinquenti, scienza giuridica, e processi penali militari nell'Italia unita,

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the science of criminal law began a campaign against the abolition of the death penalty for crimes committed by the army and for the revision of the Military Penal Code of 1869. It was believed that the soldiers should enjoy the same guarantees of common citizens, especially in trials for certain types of offenses such as insubordination, for which the prescribed penalty was very severe. The discussion is placed within the broader debate on the freedom and rights of citizens and the consequent elimination of all those privileges and differences in treatment in a more or less explicit were allowed under Italian law after unification. A paradigmatic example is the process to Misdea Salvatore, who is accused of murder in the army barracks where he was making the compulsory military service. The story of Salvatore Misdea is illustrative of how the legal science would address during the second half of the nineteenth century some crucial points for the 'constitutional criminal law'. Eligibility, natural judge, guarantees, technical expertise and its relevance in the criminal trial were all issues at the center of scientific debate of those years and represented moments and opportunities to a rethinking of some institutions and an attempt, where possible, to refine the look of the jurist and guide policy choices of law.