Chico Forti granted day release; he will be able to continue leaving prison

Chico Forti, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in the US for the death of Dale Pike in February 1998 in Miami, has been granted day release.

The court’s decision will not change much about Forti’s daily routine compared with recent months: since December last year, he has in fact been carrying out 40 hours of voluntary work a week at a farm in Verona, leaving Montorio prison – where he has been detained since his arrival in Italia in May 2024 – in the morning and returning in the evening, which he will continue to do under a day-release scheme. It will now depend on the schedule to be drawn up by the prison management.

As well as continuing his work, Forti – who was born in Trento in 1959, where his elderly mother still lives – hopes to be able to visit her much more often. From a legal perspective, he is awaiting a decision on his application for parole, which was submitted last year. The hearing could take place as early as the very first few months of 2027. A previous application for parole had been rejected in September 2025. In June of that same year, Forti was granted permission to attend the prison’s study rooms, and since the previous February he had been allowed to visit his mother in Trento. Initially, the Supervisory Court had rejected the first application on the grounds that it did not consider that ‘feelings of guilt or genuine remorse had emerged towards the victim’s family or his own family’, emphasising the ‘failure to provide compensation for the damage, even if only partial’. Forti decided to leave Trentino in 1992 after winning a large sum on the quiz show *Telemike* to work as a television producer in Florida. In 1998, he was arrested for the murder of Anthony ‘Dale’ Pike, who was shot in the head in Miami in 1998. Pike had flown to the city in Florida to discuss a proposed deal between Forti and his father, Tony Pike, who had agreed to sell him a resort in Ibiza, which had become famous in the 1980s when Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury celebrated his 41st birthday there.

According to the prosecution, Tony Pike was suffering from dementia and Forti allegedly attempted to deceive him. When pressed, Forti admitted to having picked Pike up from the airport but has always denied shooting him, claiming he left him at a restaurant. Sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in 2000, Forti has always maintained his innocence. The Chico case has divided public opinion for years between those who believe he is innocent and those who believe he is guilty. Dale Pike’s brother, Bradley, is also convinced of Forti’s innocence; he managed to meet Forti last May as part of the restorative justice programme. A four-hour meeting was followed by another a few days later.

Forti had arrived in Italia on a government-provided aircraft that had landed at Pratica di Mare Airport, where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was waiting for him: “This outcome is the result of this government’s diplomatic efforts, and of our collaboration with the State of Florida and the US government, to whom I extend my thanks. It is a day of joy for Chico, for his family, and for all of us,” said the Prime Minister. The welcome was accompanied by political controversy, as was the interview conducted by Bruno Vespa. The Verona Public Prosecutor’s Office had also opened an investigation into Forti following statements by a prisoner, convicted of offences linked to the ’ndrangheta, who reported having overheard a conversation between another inmate and Forti in which the latter allegedly asked him to tell the Calabrian criminal organisation to “silence” Marco Travaglio, Selvaggia Lucarelli and Aldo Di Giacomo, general secretary of the Prison Police union. The investigation concluded with a request to dismiss the case.