Italian Jury Acquits Two Of Shooting Boy To Death An American Family Who Were Touring Southern Italy Were Attacked On Lonely Road, Leaving 7-Year-Old Boy Dying

Nicholas Green, 7 years old, lay sleeping in the back seat as his parents drove their rented Fiat along a lonely Italian road.

Suddenly, in a crime that shocked Italy, masked assailants overtook the California family, tried to run them off the road and opened fire with a volley of shots.

Nicholas was shot in the head, fell into a coma and was declared brain-dead. His parents donated his organs in an act that saved seven other lives, inspired a surge of organ donations in a country where such gestures were rare - and turned Nicholas’ family into a symbol of generosity.

On Thursday, a court in southern Italy acquitted two men in the Sept. 29, 1994, shooting, a killing that prompted a wave of soul-searching over violence in Italy.

Two judges and six civilian jurors in Catanzaro, a city on the toe of the Italian boot, delivered the verdict without explanation. The court has 90 days to issue a written opinion.

The verdict, capping an 11-month trial, came after five hours of deliberation. Prosecutors said they would appeal the acquittals, as is allowed under Italian law.

The Green family of Bodega Bay, Calif., was traveling on a remote stretch of highway in the Calabria region when the crime happened.

Nicholas’ parents and younger sister were uninjured.

Prosecutors said the assailants mistook the Fiat for a robbery target, and their case mainly rested on circumstantial evidence.

Francesco Mesiano, 23, and Michele Iannello, 28, were cleared of murder, attempted murder and armed robbery.

“We respect the verdict,” prosecutor Maurizio Salustro said grimly, adding that he would wait for the court’s opinion before commenting.

In the courtroom after the verdict, the boy’s father, Reginald Green, shook Mesiano’s hand and embraced the defendant’s weeping mother.

“Tears were in my eyes,” Green said later by telephone. He added that he did not want to express bitterness toward the defendants.

“I have no way in the world of knowing who did this that night, no certainty. I know whoever it was, was wild and savage.”

Green said he and his wife, Maggie, had considered the trial a “very minor part in the whole drama.”

“For us, the loss of Nicholas has been the overwhelming thing.”

More important, “it has inspired this outpouring of compassion all over the world, and on a practical level, the increase in donations in organs. Literally, hundreds of people are alive because of Nicholas,” Green said.