 |
| Domenico Codispoti and his sleeping quarters |
A homeless man without a home, must sleep on the sidewalk, while police officers check to make sure he did not move.
The man from Italy, was arrested for petty crimes and was sentenced to sleep on the sidewalk in Milan.
Domenico Codispoti, 48, is under house arrest for a variety of crimes, including minor theft and drug trafficking. Every night at 9:00 pm, Codispoti organizes his blankets and sleeping bag as he gets ready to go to sleep. He is not allowed to move from the spot until 7:00 am the next morning.
Police officers, who patrol the area, check up on him after sunset to ensure that Codispoti is "at his home". "I've always done my stealing at night, that's why the court gave me this sentence,” he said. “Given that I have no house, there was no other solution left. During the night, I cannot move. I have to stay here, trapped in this street," he also said.
Codispoti will have to serve this unusual sentence and he will have to sleep in this particular location near Milan Central Station until April 2014. This punishment was imposed on Codispoti for the first time in 2006 when he was sentenced to two years of supervised “house arrest.”
After a little more run-ins with the law, the sentence was extended until April 2014. One incident, which caused his sentence to be extended, was because one night, a couple of years ago, he went to the other side of the road to pee. The patrolling officers busted him for leaving his sleeping bag. The officer claimed he was trying to escape. He was arrested.
In a plea deal, he was sentenced to two additional years of “house arrest” on the street. Codispoti reportedly asked the judge to be jailed, where he would at least have a roof over his head, but his request was denied. Attorney Andrea D'Amicis, who was representing Codispoti, is working to lift the sentence, or at least get the homeless man in a shelter under humane conditions.