Cesare Beccaria

Cesare Beccaria was born in Milan on 15 March 1738, the eldest son of a noble family. Educated by the Jesuits in Parma, he took a law degree at Pavia and in Milan joined a circle of young Enlightenment reformers around the brothers Pietro and Alessandro Verri. Encouraged by them, and helped by Alessandro Verri's experience as an official who visited prisoners, Beccaria wrote On Crimes and Punishments, published anonymously at Livorno in 1764. He argued that laws should be plain and public, that punishment should be proportioned to the harm done to society, that certainty of punishment deters better than cruelty, that secret accusations and torture should be abolished, and that the death penalty is neither necessary nor useful. Translated into French in 1766 with a commentary by Voltaire, the book was read across Europe; Catherine the Great and Leopold of Tuscany drew on it, and John Adams quoted it in a Boston court. Beccaria, shy by temperament, became a professor of political economy in Milan in 1768 and later a public official. He died in Milan on 28 November 1794.

Faith: Faith not well documented. Source: Wikipedia

See also: Montesquieu · John Adams · William Blackstone