State Department warns U.S. citizens in Italy retribution possible

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The State Department warned U.S. citizens in Italy to be especially careful if a young American of Italian descent is executed as planned on Thursday, citing threats of retribution made by unknown individuals.

"The department has learned that unknown individuals have made threats of retribution against American citizens in Italy should Derek Rocco Barnabei be executed in the United States," it said in a public announcement. It gave no further details.

"While we have been unable to determine whether the threats are credible at this time, we consider it prudent to apprise American citizens in Italy of this information so that they may take those precautions they deem necessary to ensure their safety," it said.

Barnabei, whose mother is Italian and lives in Italy, was executed by lethal injection on Thursday.

Barnabei, 33, was sentenced to die for the September 1993 rape and murder of his 17-year-old girlfriend Sarah Wisnosky, an Old Dominion University freshman who was bludgeoned to death and her nude body dumped into a river near the campus in Norfolk, Virginia.

In separate rulings issued hours before the death sentence was carried out, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Barnabei's conviction and rejected a last-ditch plea to stay the execution. The rulings exhausted Barnabei's appeals.

Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore on Monday rejected a clemency plea after DNA tests ordered last week further implicated Barnabei in the slaying of Wisnosky, who was a freshman at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Barnabei steadfastly has maintained his innocence in the murder, and alleged his conviction was part of a conspiracy that has included tampering with evidence in the case.

Barnabei's case has become a cause celebre in Italy, where the death penalty is outlawed and Pope John Paul II on Wednesday called on U.S. authorities to spare his life.

Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato also weighed in on the debate on Thursday, describing the death penalty as an inhumane form of social vendetta in a front page article in Rome daily la Republica.

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