pentito

thumb|Tommaso Buscetta (with sunglasses), the first important pentito of the [[Sicilian Mafia, escorted into a court of law.]]

Pentito (; lit. "repentant"; plural: pentiti) is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public prosecutor. The judicial category of pentiti was originally created in 1970s to combat violence and terrorism during the period of left-wing and right-wing terrorism known as the Years of Lead. During the 1986–87 Maxi Trial and after the testimony of Tommaso Buscetta, the term was increasingly applied to former members of organized crime in Italy who had abandoned their organization and started helping investigators.