US students convicted of Rome police officer’s murder hope appeal yields ‘truth’

Finnegan Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth sentenced to life in prison for murder of Mario Cerciello Rega, stabbed 11 times in 2019

Lawyers and family of two young American men convicted of murdering a police officer in Rome said they are hoping for a better outcome in the defendants' appeals trial, which began on Thursday in the Italian capital.

Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, who had just returned from his honeymoon, was hailed as a national hero after he was stabbed 11 times in the street while on a plainclothes mission in July 2019, near the hotel where the two US tourists were staying.