Americans hope appeal yields ‘truth’ of officer’s Rome death

By FRANCES D’EMILIO and ANDREA ROSA
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Lawyers and relatives of two young American men convicted of murdering an Italian police officer are hoping for a better outcome from an appeals trial in Rome. Finnegan Lee Elder, now 22, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, now 21, were convicted last year in the July 2019 fatal stabbing of the 35-year-old Carabinieri officer, as well as of attempted extortion, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause. They received Italy’s harshest punishment, which is life imprisonment. Prosecutors argued during the appeals trial that opened on Thursday for the convictions of both defendants to be upheld. But they called for Natale-Hjorth’s sentence to be reduced to 24 years.