Amanda Knox Freed After Appeal in Italian Court
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
Published: October 3, 2011
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PERUGIA, Italy — With a rapt worldwide television audience looking on, an Italian court on Monday reversed the murder conviction of 24-year-old Amanda Knox, the American student whose sensational murder trial had reverberated on both sides of the Atlantic.
Pier Paolo Cito/Associated Press
Amanda Knox broke into tears after hearing the verdict at the Perugia court on Monday. More Photos »
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The decision was read out a little before 10 p.m. to a courtroom heavy with tensions and emotions built up over the four years since the arrest of Ms. Knox and her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, for the killing of her roommate, Meredith Kercher. Mr. Sollecito’s conviction was also overturned Monday.
As it became evident that she was being cleared of all charges, save one of defamation, a deeply stressed Ms. Knox slumped in her chair and began to sob, before falling into the arms of one of her lawyers, Maria Del Grosso.
“She’d been terrified; if I hadn’t held her up she would have crumbled,” Ms. Del Grosso said. “All she could say was thank you.”
Throughout the original trial and the appeal, prosecutors tried to paint Ms. Knox as a calculating femme fatale, a “she-devil” capable of murderous acts despite her sweet courtroom appearance and demeanor.
But their case was based mostly on circumstantial evidence. The validity of the main forensic evidence, microscopic amounts of DNA on the murder weapon and on a bra clasp, was thrown into doubt this summer by a report from independent experts that was highly critical of the police’s handling and analysis of the materials.
The joyful reaction of the defendants contrasted sharply with the looks of ashen disappointment by prosecutors and relatives of Ms. Kercher. They had flown to Perugia on Monday.
“It was a bit of a shock obviously,” her sister, Stephanie Kercher, said on Italian television after the verdict. Lyle Kercher, the brother of the slain woman, said he was “very disappointed.” He added, “In any case, no one will give us Meredith back, but we are very upset.”
The acquittal, reached by an appellate court jury of six Italian citizens and two judges, can be appealed to the Italian Supreme Court, and prosecutors indicated that they would.
The decision overturns the December 2009 ruling that sentenced Ms. Knox to 26 years in prison and Mr. Sollecito to 25 for the murder of the 21-year-old Ms. Kercher, a Briton who shared an apartment with Ms. Knox. Ms. Kercher was found stabbed in her room on Nov. 2, 2007, in what prosecutors described as a game of rough sex involving Ms. Knox and Mr. Sollecito that went horribly wrong. Ms. Knox and Mr. Sollecito were arrested a few days later.
A third defendant, Rudy Guede, 24, was also convicted of Miss Kercher’s murder in a separate trial and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. His conviction was upheld on appeal, but his sentence was shortened to 16 years. Defense lawyers in this trial tried to convince the court that Mr. Guede had been the sole perpetrator of the crime.
The families of all three were present as the verdict was read out to gasps and muted cheers from many of those assembled in the courtroom. Members of the Knox and Sollecito families celebrated in the courtroom, crying and hugging one another. Ms. Knox herself was so overcome with emotion that court officers had to support her with both arms as they hurried her away.
Tensions were high outside the courtroom, too, where hundreds of mostly young Perugia residents had gathered to await the verdict. Catcalls and whistles, and loud chants of “for shame, for shame,” suggested that even though the Perugia court found Ms. Knox innocent, at least some of the Italian public were likely to remain unconvinced.
Earlier in the day, Ms. Knox read a tearful statement in fluent Italian beseeching the court to overturn the verdict, claiming her innocence. “I did not kill,” she said. “I did not rape, I did not steal. I was not there. I want to go back home. I want to go back to my life. I don’t want to be punished. I don’t want my life and my future to be taken away for something I didn’t do.
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.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/world/europe/amanda-knox-defends-herself-in-italian-court.html
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