Americans hope for ‘truth’ in officer’s murder trial in Rome

By FRANCES D’EMILIO and ANDREA ROSA
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Lawyers and family of two young American men convicted of murdering an Italian police officer are hoping for a better outcome in an appeals trial in Rome. The judge ruled the appeals trial, which began Thursday, is closed to media due to pandemic concerns. The slain Carabinieri officer, 35-year-old Mario Cerciello Rega, was mourned as a national hero after he was stabbed 11 times while on a plainclothes mission in 2019. Finnegan Lee Elder, now 22, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, were convicted last year of the slaying. Since they were given Italy’s harshest punishment — life imprisonment — the defendants had nothing to lose in seeking the appeals trial.