The Lateran Treaty of 1929 copied from the contemporaneous Italian legal code ( concerning attempted assassinations of the King of Italy ) , providing for capital punishment for anyone who attempted to assassinate the pope within Vatican City . Article 8 of the Lateran Treaty provides : There were no attempted assassinations of the pope within Vatican City while the statute was on the books . It was no longer in force in 1981 , when Mehmet Ali Ağca attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II , and in any case Ağca was tried by an Italian court rather than in the Vatican
attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II assassination attempt
Capital punishment in Vatican City