ONE MORE CHANCE

Two American Citizens Granted Retrial for Murder of Italian Cop

The defendants had their guilty verdicts thrown out Wednesday evening after being convicted in the fatal stabbing of Mario Cerciello Rega in 2019.

Two American citizens will now get a retrial in Italy after they were convicted and given a life sentence for the fatal stabbing of a plain-clothes police officer in Rome in 2019. Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth had their guilty verdicts thrown out Wednesday evening, and in the coming weeks the court will release their reasoning and engage in talks with an appeals court. Elder’s lawyer told reporters a new trial may allow them to negotiate a reduced sentence, claiming Elder—who was a teenager at the time, along with Natale-Hjorth—was not aware he was with a police officer. In 2019, Mario Cerciello Rega died of 11 stab wounds during a plain-clothes operation to recover a backpack that the defendants allegedly took during a failed drug deal while vacationing in Rome. Elder claims he pulled out a knife in self-defense, and Natale-Hjorth claims he grappled with Rega’s partner before fleeing to their hotel, unaware of the stabbing.