Amanda Knox Freed in Italy After Meredith Kercher Murder Appeal
Amanda Knox is freed in Italy after successfully appealing against her conviction for Meredith Kercher’s murder.
Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, have both been acquitted of the murder of Meredith Kercher after a high profile appeal in Perugia, Italy.
Both Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito have been in an Italian jail for four years after being convicted of murdering the 21 year old UK language student, Meredith Kercher, in 2007.
Amanda Knox had been sentenced to 26 years in jail for the murder of Meredith Kercher. Raffaele Sollecito had been sentenced to 25 years in jail. A third person, Rudy Guede a small time drug dealer, was convicted in a separate trial to 30 years in jail.
Deanna Knox spoke to the press after the judgement was announced saying,
“We are thankful that Amanda’s nightmare is over, she has suffered for 4 years for a crime she did not commit. We are thankful to the court for having the courage to look for the truth and overturn the conviction.”
Amanda Knox & Raffaele Sollecito Evidence Unreliable
Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox were friends and shared a cottage in Perugia, Italy in 2007. Prosecutors had successfully argued that Meredith Kercher was murdered during a sex game that went wrong. Her throat had been slit and she had been sexually assaulted.
In the successful appeal, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito’s lawyers argued that the evidence against them was unreliable.
They showed that experts could not be certain that the DNA found on the alleged murder weapon was that of Meredith Kercher, even though it was a crucial part of their conviction. Proper DNA procedures were not followed by police and samples could have been contaminated.
Another piece of evidence, a bra, was found so long after the event that any evidence it contained was also unreliable. Lawyers also pointed out that no DNA evidence of Knox was found at the murder scene.
Forensic experts also cast doubt on the assertion that bloody footprints found near the scene belonged to Knox and Sollecito, that the burglary had been staged to throw police off the scent, that one witness was unreliable and that Rudy Guede had confessed to another inmate that Knox and Sollecito were innocent even though he had named them in court.
Amanda Knox’s conviction of slander after she accused a bar owner of carrying out the murder was upheld by the judge and she was sentenced to 3 years.
Having already spent 4 years in jail Knox was free to return back to America and attempt to rebuild her life. It seems that she will be in demand with the media and could set herself up for life, but she will never get those 4 years of her life back and the traumatic events in Italy will not be easy to forget.
Meanwhile Meredith Kerchers family are still left with many unanswered questions, namely what did happen in 2007 and who exactly did kill their Meredith?
Photo: Tim Pearce
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