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Thread: Amanda Knox

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Knox killed her roommate for no reason-prosecutor

    Amanda Knox killed her British roommate "for no reason" and the American student and her former boyfriend should face the maximum penalty for their crime, her appeals trial was told on Friday.

    Prosecutors urged the court to uphold Knox's sentence for murder and said the 24-year-old would flee Italy if freed.

    Knox, jailed for 26 years, and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are fighting their convictions for the murder of Briton Meredith Kercher in 2007. A verdict is due on Monday.

    Knox and Sollecito should be kept behind bars for life, prosecutors said, and they reminded the jury of the gruesome nature of the crime. Kercher's body was found with more than 40 wounds and her throat slit.

    "They were young but they killed for no reason," said prosecutor Manuela Comodi. "They killed for no reason and for this they should be given the maximum sentence, which luckily in Italy is not the death sentence."

    If the guilty verdicts are overturned, both would be freed immediately. Speculation has been rife that Knox would be whisked home to the United States, where the death penalty exists, if she is freed from the Umbrian prison where she has been held for nearly four years.

    Any subsequent appeal by prosecutors or any re-trial might therefore take place in Knox's absence.

    "We know that if the verdict is overturned, there will be an immediate escape overseas," prosecutor Giuliano Mignini told the court in rebuttals after closing arguments.

    "As a result, even if this is the second of a three-step legal process in Italy, it is up to you to ensure justice."

    Kercher's mother and sister are expected to attend Monday's court session when the verdict is announced. They have kept a low profile since the murder, in stark contrast to the Knox family which has waged a tireless media campaign to free her.

    Kercher was on a year-long exchange program in Perugia, a cobble-stoned town popular with foreigners studying Italian, when she was murdered.

    Her family's lawyer, Francesco Maresca, has described her as sunny young woman "full of life" who was killed during a brutal assault during which the 21-year-old was held down by her assailants.

    Knox and Sollecito, who was jailed for 25 years, deny any role in the murder and say they spent the night of the crime in the Italian's apartment watching a movie, smoking pot and having sex.

    Sollecito's father said his son was "very scared. But he is hopeful of the right verdict."

    "I am hopeful that the court has heard well the arguments presented in the appeals trial and has realized that there isn't any evidence against my son and Amanda," Francesco Sollecito told Reuters.

    Rudy Guede, an Ivorian drifter with a criminal record, is also serving time for taking part in Kercher's murder. He has also maintained his innocence.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...7KU1N320110930

  2. #12
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    Amanda Knox: Four Possible Verdicts, Only One in Her Favor

    On Monday morning, when silence fills Perugia's Court of Appeal and Amanda Knox awaits the decision on her fate, there will be four possible outcomes she could hear. Only one is in her favor.

    Knox has been in prison for the past four years, serving a 26 year sentence for murder.

    Whoever loses the appeal on Monday is expected to take the case to Italy's supreme court.

    First, the Italian court could choose to uphold Knox's original conviction and order her to serve the remaining 22 years of her sentence in Italy. Knox, who was 20 when Kercher was killed and is 24 now, would be in jail until she is 47 if this is the outcome.

    Second, the court could uphold the conviction and honor the prosecution's request to increase Knox's sentenceto life in prison, Italy's toughest sentence. This could include six months in daytime solitary confinement.

    The Possible Verdicts for Amanda Knox

    During the prosecution's rebuttal on Friday, prosecutor Manuela Comodi made a jab at the American legal system, saying Knox is lucky that Italy does not have the death penalty.

    The court could also decide to uphold the conviction and reduce Knox's sentence. This was what happened to Rudy Guede, the Ivory Coast drifter convicted in a separate trial of taking part in Kercher's murder. While upholding his conviction, the court reduced his initial 30 prison sentence to 16 years.

    The outcome Knox and her family are hoping for is exoneration. The court could overturn her conviction and release her from prison. It would take a majority vote of the six jurors and two judges throw out the conviction. If they are evenly split, Knox and Sollecito will be free.

    It is unclear how soon Knox would be able to leave Italy, if found innocent. Her passport has expired during her time in prison, so this practical issue would need to be resolved.

    "I'm hoping the judge and jury have seen what I've seen throughout the trial," Knox's father Curt Knox told ABC News. "I'm very hopeful we'll take Amanda home."

    Regardless of the outcome, either side could appeal the verdict to Italy's supreme court since Italy does not have a double jeopardy rule. If Knox is acquitted and the prosecutors choose to appeal, it is likely that Knox could return home to the United States during the appeal. She would still carry criminal charges during this time, until the Supreme Court weighs in.

    However, even if the Italian Supreme Court eventually reverses the appeal court ruling and finds Knox guilty again, the chances of Italy pursuing her extradition from the United States are considered slim.

    One of Knox's prosecutors, Giuliano Mignini, alluded to this possibility when he spoke to the court on Friday, warning, "An acquittal would mean an escape abroad and no justice in this case."

    Knox's arrest on murder charges has spawned several civil suits which are tangled up in Monday's verdict.

    She is facing civil charges from Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, a Congolese man who owned Le Chic Bar where Knox worked part time. During her nearly 50 hour interrogation by Perugia police, Knox falsely implicated Lumumba in Kercher's death.

    She tried to retract her statement the next morning, saying she has been confused by police who had insisted Lumumba was involved based on a text message she has sent him hours before Kercher's death. The message, an Italian version of "see you later," was interpreted by police as a plan to meet up later that night rather than the American expression for good-bye.

    Lumumba's attorney called Knox a "liar" said her statement destroyed Lumumba as "a man, father and husband."

    Knox's lawyers contend she prodded by Perugia police to implicate Lumumba.

    Knox has also been slapped with lawsuits from Kercher's family and the landlady who owned the house where Kercher died. The landlady claims she lost money because sealed off the crime scene for more than a year and its value has diminished because it has become known as the "cottage of death."

    Even if all those suits are resolved, Knox will still have a case outstanding in the Italian judicial system.

    Seven Perugia police officers and an interpreter have accused Knox of slander for saying that officials were abusive while she was being interrogated prior to her arrest in 2007. During her defense, Knox said the officers shouted at her, discouraged her from making a call to a lawyer, and cuffed her on the head when she did not give the answers that they wanted.

    The maximum sentence for slander charges is three and a half years, and she would likely get credit for the four years she has already spent in prison.

    Knox's parents face similar charges for repeating their daughter's allegation on a British television show.

    http://abcnews.go.com/International/...4644131&page=2

  3. #13
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    Below is Amanda Knox's testimony tomorrow:

    Amanda: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Lemme gooooooo! I'm just a big baby and can't take this anymore! You weren't supposed to bust me when I killed her!

    I'm sure Italian prosecutors and the judges/jury know that only 5% of cases have DNA so even if there is no DNA Amanda can be very guilty!

  4. #14
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    I forgot to mention Amanda has NO alibi and has NEVER said what she was doing during the murder! That's because she CAN'T! She was THERE!

  5. #15
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Actually, she's had at least two different stories. The first one was that she was in her room while Meredith was being murdered. Her second story was that she was at Sollecito's place that night.

    It's just such a weird, weird case. I mean, an African guy, a pampered Italian mama's boy and an American exchange student, all of whom barely know each other, decide to get together and murder someone. Has anyone ever heard of a case even remotely like this?

  6. #16
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    'I have not killed,' tearful Amanda Knox tells jury

    In final appearance before court, American denies murdering her British roommate

    A tearful Amanda Knox told an Italian appeals court Monday that she did not kill her British roommate, pleading for the court to free her so she can return to the United States after four years behind bars. The court began deliberations moments later.

    Knox frequently paused for breath and fought back tears as she spoke in Italian to the eight members of the jury in a packed courtroom, but managed to maintain her composure during the 10-minute address.

    "I'm not a promiscuous vamp. I'm not violent ... I have not killed, I have not raped. I was not there. I was not present," the 24-year-old American told a packed courtroom in Perugia.

    "I want to go home, I want to go back to my life, I do not want to be punished and to have my life taken away from me for something I have not done, because I am innocent."

    The eight-member jury will decide later on Monday if Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito's 2009 convictions and prison sentences — 26 years for Knox, 25 years for Sollecito — should stand, be dismissed or altered. The case has made Knox an unwilling celebrity and placed Italy's justice system under scrutiny. Presiding Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann said the jury would not emerge before 2 p.m. ET at the earliest.

    'Paying with my life'
    Knox, who has spent the last four years in prison, looked tense as she entered the courthouse where she and Sollecito made their final case for their freedom.

    "I lost a friend, in the most brutal and inexplicable way possible," Knox told the court in Italian. "My absolute faith in the police authorities was betrayed, I've had to face absolutely unfair ... and baseless accusations. I am paying with my life for things I did not commit."

    One of the female jurors appeared to be in tears as Knox spoke, NBC's Lester Holt reported from the courtroom.

    Minutes before, an anxious Sollecito also addressed the court to proclaim his innocence and plead for his release from prison.

    "Every day I have been in prison I have felt dead," Sollecito told the court. "I never hurt anyone, never in my life. I have been in this nightmare and never, ever woken from it."

    The weekend in 2007 when Meredith Kercher was murdered was the first the pair planned to spend together "in tenderness and cuddles," he said.

    At the end of his speech, he took off a bracelet that he said read "Free Amanda and Raffaele," saying that he would like "this bracelet and its history to belong to the past."

    Video: Knox: ‘I have not killed, I have not raped’

    'A little bit frightened'
    The trial has captivated audiences worldwide: Knox, the angel-faced American, and Sollecito, the bespectacled Italian who was once her boyfriend, were convicted of murdering fellow student Kercher in what the lower court said had begun as a drug-fueled sexual assault.

    Knox and her family hope she will be set free after spending four life-changing years behind bars as an innocent caught up in what they say is a monumental judicial mistake. Prosecutors, who have depicted Knox as a manipulative liar, are seeking to increase her sentence to life in prison.

    "She is confident, she is jittery, she is waiting and a little bit frightened by the wait," Knox's lawyer Maria Del Grosso told reporters earlier. "She is not scared of the truth. She worries for a decision over her life. But she is positive."

    A decision could take several hours — jurors are not allowed to leave the deliberation room until they agree on a verdict.

    For the Kercher family, Monday's verdict is a chance at justice for the 21-year-old student, who was living with Knox at the time of her slaying. Her body was found with more than 40 wounds and her throat had been slashed.

    The case has spurred countless articles, books and even movies, and brought the Italian judicial system under a harsh spotlight in the U.S., where many believe the Seattle native was wrongly convicted. At the time of the original verdict, there were suggestions of anti-Americanism that even dragged in U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

    With huge media interest in the case, the verdict by the jury — which is made up of the presiding judge, a side judge and six jurors, five of them women — will be broadcast live.

    The jury has several options as they go into deliberations: They can acquit both defendants and set them free. They can uphold the conviction and confirm the sentence, reduce it or increase it. They can theoretically decide to split the fate of Knox and Sollecito, convicting one and acquitting the other.

    Brutal crime
    Kercher's body was found in her own bedroom in the Perugia apartment she shared with Knox on Nov. 2, 2007. Photos of the crime scene shown to the court in the final days of the appeal showed her chest bared, her face and neck covered in blood — a powerful reminder of the brutal nature of the crime.

    Four days after her body was found, prosecutors arrested Knox and Sollecito, as well as a Congolese man implicated by Knox during police questioning and later cleared. That false accusation against Diya "Patrick" Lumumba remains one of the most powerful arguments in the prosecution's case against Knox, though the American maintains she acted under police pressure during an interrogation where she had neither a lawyer nor a proper interpreter present.

    Defense lawyers accused prosecutors of acting too hastily.

    "An uninhibited young American — she was the perfect culprit," Giulia Bongiorno, a defense lawyer for Sollecito, told the court in her final arguments. "When you want to solve a crime in four days, it's haste."

    Knox and Sollecito were convicted and sentenced after the court deliberated for 13 hours. They have always denied wrongdoing.

    Kitchen knife
    Over the course of the appeals trial their positions significantly improved, mainly because a court-ordered independent review cast serious doubts over the main DNA evidence linking the two to the crime.

    Prosecutors maintain that Knox's DNA was found on the handle of a kitchen knife believed to be the murder weapon, and that Kercher's DNA was found on the blade. They said Sollecito's DNA was on the clasp of Kercher's bra as part of a mix of evidence that also included the victim's genetic profile.

    Slideshow: A murder in Italy

    But the independent review — ordered at the request of the defense, which had always disputed those findings — reached a different conclusion.

    The two experts found that police conducting the investigation had made glaring errors in evidence-collecting and that below-standard testing and possible contamination raised doubts over the attribution of DNA traces, both on the blade and on the bra clasp, which was collected from the crime scene 46 days after the murder.

    The review was crucial in the case because no motive has emerged and witness testimony was contradictory and, in some cases, flat-out unreliable. It was a huge victory for the Knox camp and a potentially fatal blow for the prosecution.

    Sensing danger, prosecutors spent several hearings and a significant portion of their closing arguments to refute the review, attacking the experts as unqualified, standing by their original conclusions and defending the work of forensic police. They challenged the experts to show exactly how the alleged contamination took place and said there is no scholarly consensus of the minimum amount of DNA required in order for a test to be admissible.

    They also pointed to what a prosecutor, Manuela Comodi, called "gigantic, rock-solid circumstantial evidence" that contributed to the original convictions:

    There was a staged burglary in the apartment, used to sidetrack the investigation.

    Knox made contradictory statements early on, saying she was home and had to cover her ears to block out Kercher's screams while Lumumba killed her. Lumumba, who owned a pub where Knox occasionally worked, was jailed for two weeks as a result of that claim.

    On Nov. 2, 2007, Knox called her mother three times, including one call that took place before Kercher's body was found and when it was the middle of the night in Seattle.

    There was no activity on Sollecito's computer that night, even though he maintained he used it during the hours in which Kercher was killed.

    The prosecutors do acknowledge the lack of motive, but said many murders that aren't premeditated often happen without a motive.

    "They killed for nothing but they did kill; they are young but so was Meredith," Comodi told the court as she wrapped up the case. "They deserve the harshest penalty, which luckily in Italy is not the death penalty."

    A third person was convicted in the case — Rudy Hermann Guede, a small-time drug dealer and drifter who spent most of his life in Italy after arriving here from his native Ivory Coast. Guede used to play basketball near the crime scene and was a passing acquaintance of Knox.

    Bruises
    The courts that convicted him say Guede took part in the assault, leaving traces of DNA on the victim and at the crime scene. Guede was convicted in a separate fast-track procedure and saw his sentence cut to 16 years in his final appeal.

    Defense lawyers maintain that Guede was the sole killer, while prosecutors say that bruises and a lack of defensive wounds on Kercher's body prove that there was more than one aggressor holding her into submission.
    Story: Amanda Knox prepares to 'plead for her life'

    Guede says he is innocent, though he admits being in the house the night of the murder. Taking the stand during the appeals trial, he said he believes Knox and Sollecito are guilty.

    The pair insist they were at Sollecito's house the night of the murder, watching the French movie "Amelie" on Sollecito's computer, having sex and smoking pot.

    Their defense maintains that a perverse sexual game is an implausible scenario for two people who had been dating for just six days and were infatuated with each other. They point to the lack of their traces in the crime scene, saying that the defendants could not possibly have cleaned up their traces but left Guede's. Knox's defense notes she could have left the country in the aftermath of the killing, but said she decided to stay to help out investigators. They also say the kitchen knife, found at Sollecito's house, is not the murder weapon.

    What gives the defense hope is the DNA review, which took most of the appeals trial and is a formidable argument for their side. "Today there's very little left. A clue is not enough," Knox's lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova said.

    Over the course of the 10-month appeal, Knox has slimmed down, dressed more conservatively and appeared more somber than during the original trial. She would sometimes take notes, sometimes exchange words with her lawyers or glances with Sollecito. A snapshot caught her winking at Sollecito, but at other times she appeared tried by what was going on around her.

    http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/447529.../#.Tomko2PLpEI

  7. #17
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    [Posted at 1:59 p.m. ET] An Italian jury has reached a decision on whether it will uphold or overturn the convictions of Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

    The ruling will be read at 3:30 p.m. ET (9:30 pm local time), the court said Monday.

    http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/03...eal/?hpt=hp_t1

  8. #18
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    [Updated at 3:13 p.m. ET] Italian media outlet ANSA reports that the ruling has been pushed back to 3:45 p.m. ET.

    http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/03...eal/?hpt=hp_t1

  9. #19
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  10. #20
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    [Updated at 3:48 p.m. ET] A jury has partially overturned the conviction of Amanda Knox.

    The jury as overturned the murder conviction but upheld the conviction on the defamation charges after she accused club owner Patrick Lumumba of killing British college student Meredith Kercher in 2007 in Perugia

    The judge has called for silence in the courtroom as applause erupts.

    The jury has also overturned the murder conviction of Raffaelle Sollecito. Both will be free to leave.

    http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/03...eal/?hpt=hp_t1

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