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Updated at 10.20am
AMANDA KNOX and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito are to learn today of the success or failure of their murder appeal.
Both are appealing their conviction for the sexual assault and murder of Knox’s flatmate, British student Meredith Kercher, in 2007. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito to 25. Both deny any involvement in the murder.
Today, they could be acquitted, or they may have to face longer terms than their original sentencing; the prosecution has called for life sentences to be imposed.
Addressing the court this morning before the jury retired to consider its verdict, Knox and Sollecito insisted they are innocent. Sollecito spoke first and told the court he had never hurt anyone in his life.
Giving her statement in Italian, La Repubblica reports that an emotional Knox said: “I did not kill, I have not raped, I did not steal. I was not present at this crime.” She also disputed “the perversion, the violence, the lack of respect for life” which her accusers claim she exhibited.
Knox said she never knew pain before Kercher’s death and that she has “always wanted justice for her”.
“She had her bedroom next to mine, she was killed in our apartment. If I had been there that night, I would be dead,” she said. “But I was not there.”
Closing arguments
In their closing arguments, the prosecution criticised an “almost obsessive” media campaign in support of Knox, saying it has forgotten the victim of the crime, Kercher. Reviewing their main evidence in the case, prosecution lawyers showed graphic images of the murder scene and played down a recent independent review of DNA evidence which was crucial to convicting Knox and Sollecito.
The review questioned the quality and possible contamination of DNA samples taken from the scene.
Meanwhile, Knox’s defence team also criticised the media focus on the case, saying their client has been unfairly portrayed as manipulative and sex-obsessed. Comparing Knox to the Who Framed Roger Rabbit character Jessica Rabbit, her lawyer Giulia Bongiorno said Knox “is not bad, she’s just drawn that way”.
‘Meredith has been forgotten’
In a recent television interview, Kercher’s sister Stephanie and mother Arline said that their daughter is being forgotten as attention focuses on Knox and Sollecito. “She was lovely and kind and we lost her,” Stephanie said of her late sister.
“In this whole case - going on four years – Meredith has been forgotten. The attention has completely moved from Meredith to Amanda and Raffaele,” she said.
Meredith’s father John said he has refused to view her body as he wants to hold on to the memories he has of meeting her for the last time, when she was on a trip home from Italy to buy winter clothes a few weeks before her death. He said that although Knox may seem an unlikely killer to some, the Kercher family believes she is guilty.
The verdict for Knox and Sollecito’s appeal is expected to be returned this evening.
A third person was convicted for Kercher’s murder in a separate proceeding: Rudy Hermann Guede from Ivory Coast. He has been sentenced to 16 years and also denies wrongdoing.
- Additional reporting by the AP
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But she is! Foxy Knoxy!
The initial media coverage was very bias and like many people I thought these two were guilty. However having read a detailed article about the case, there seems to be an untold story and it may very well be the case that Knox and Sollecito are innocent. The Mercher family clearly need justice for their daughter, we just have to hope that the correct people are convicted.
Id say she’d be like a Praying Mantis in bed… Too soon?
Please, please, please don’t say she’s hot…
I wouldnt touch her with yours…physcopath.
aww crap. should have kept my mouth shut .
but seriously folks the kercher family must be in bits at the moment as it looks like this one is gonna get away with it.
let’s just hope she doesn’t land a tv job or something like that , she would be delighted at fooling people on a regular basis..
How do you know that she isn’t innocent? Certainly the defence case has been very well made and this could indeed be a miscarriage of justice.
I have read the Italian coverage on and off of this case and I still cannot work why she implicated Patrick Lumumba, an innocent person, unless it was to throw up a smokescreen around Guede. There has been some scepticism about the validity of the convictions partly due to some cases not working out so well in the past.
Is there proof that Knox murdered this girl?
The DNA evidence that originally convicted them, is said to be significantly flawed, according to the news reports regarding their appeal.
Ya there got a expert in to say the DNA evidence was flawed. They claimed the % of the sample used was not enough to get an accurate reading.
have your say