NEW YORK (CNN) -- Benetton's new advertising campaign, which has begun appearing in magazines, isn't about jackets or pants. It's about convicted murderers like Jerome Mallett, a 41-year-old Missouri native who has been on death row since 1986.

"I was born. I am going to die," says Mallett, who was convicted of killing a highway trooper. "I know I'm going to die. Unfortunately, it will be probably through execution."

Mallett in the Benetton catalog

Mallett is one of 26 death row inmates profiled in the Italian clothing manufacturer's new catalog. There's no sign of the company's trademark sweaters, just stories about the convicted killers. Benetton says the campaign -- called "Looking Death in the Face" -- is designed to show the human cost of capital punishment.

"These portraits ... are the result of [Benetton creative director] Oliviero Toscani's work for more than two years, in which he visited death rows in several American prisons," says a press release on the company's Web site. "Leaving aside any social, political, judicial or moral consideration, this project aims at showing to the public the reality of capital punishment."

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VIDEO CNN's Deborah Feyerick looks at the debate started by Benetton's death row ad campaign. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

Toscani is no stranger to controversy. Previous Benetton ad campaigns have focused on AIDS, war and interracial relationships.

"I don't think nobody's got the right to sign somebody to death," Toscani says.

In the campaign, inmates talk about their childhoods, their dreams and their heroes -- everything except their victims. Victims' rights advocates call that an outrage.

"Benetton is glamorizing killers," says Diane Clements of the victims' group Justice for All. "Benetton has built their campaign on the blood of victims."

The site Pro-death penalty.com has posted a protest Web page offering case histories of 19 of the convicted killers (including Mallett) featured in the Benetton advertising campaign.

Benetton says its ads highlight the "human cost" of capital punishment

"While Benetton tries to improve their poor market share in the U.S.," says a statement on the Web page, "they are causing unnecessary pain and distress to the families of the innocent people killed by the men the campaign intends to 'humanize.'"

Benetton is based in Europe, where the death penalty is for the most part banned. In the United States last year, 98 people were put to death -- the highest number since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Texas leads the way in executions.

Benetton is not paying any of the death row inmates who appear in the ad campaign, which is slated to appear on billboards worldwide by the end of January.

 RELATED SITES:

The United Colors of Benetton
     "We, On Death Row"
Pro-death penalty.com
     The United Killers of Benetton
Justice for All: A Criminal Justice Reform Organization
Gregg v. Georgia (1976): Text of U.S. Supreme Court death penalty decision
American Civil Liberties Union: Execution Watch
Death Penalty Information Center
Amnesty International: List of countries that have the death penalty

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