ROME (AP) — When prosecutors sought an indictment for two California teenagers for the fatal 2019 stabbing in Rome of an Italian paramilitary officer, they described them as being in cahoots from start to finish.
That was even though only one defendant wielded the knife in what their lawyers steadfastly contended was in self-defense.
When their trial ended more than 14 months later, the jury convicted both on all charges and sentenced them to life imprisonment, Italy’s harshest punishment.
A lawyer for one defendants' family has called the ruling “a mockery of justice." He lamented that the two Americans got a sentence in Italy that is often meted out to mob bosses who have ordered premeditated assassinations.
