Amanda Knox Convicted Again in 2007 Murder

30 Jan, 2014

American student Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty on Thursday for the second time of the 2007 murder of Briton Meredith Kercher, in a retrial that reversed an earlier appeal judgment.

The verdict, after 12 hours of deliberations, confirmed Knox and Sollecito’s original 2009 conviction. Knox’s sentence was increased to 28 years and six months and Sollecito was sentenced to 25 years. Knox did not attend the retrial, however, having gone home to the United States after the previous appeal.

“I am frightened and saddened by this unjust verdict. Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system,” Knox said in a statement.

Sollecito’s lawyer Giulia Bongiorno confirmed that her client would appeal to Italy’s highest court, and Knox’s lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova said he was “stunned”. The court will publish the reasons for its verdict in 90 days.

For Kercher’s family, who had pushed to have the appeal verdict overturned, the reaction was equally raw.

“We didn’t know what to expect. We are still in shock,” said Stephanie Kercher, Meredith’s sister, after the ruling was read.

If final appeals are heard, neither Knox nor Sollecito, who was banned from leaving Italy, would face arrest or jail time until a final verdict by the highest court.

Knox, who is in the United States and would have to be extradited to serve her sentence, attacked the “overzealous and intransigent prosecution” and “prejudiced and narrow-minded investigation” and said she had been wrongfully prosecuted.

The U.S. State Department declined comment on the matter, given “that that there is room for appeal in this case.”

Kercher, 21, was found stabbed to death in her bedroom in the apartment she shared with Knox in the Umbrian city of Perugia in 2007, where the two were students.

Investigators quickly pointed to Knox and Sollecito as suspects, building a narrative that the two killed Kercher in a sex game gone awry. Both were convicted in 2009 and spent four years in prison.

They were cleared on appeal, but Italy’s highest court last year quashed that verdict due to “inconsistencies” and ordered a repeat of the appeal trial. It was this trial that concluded on Thursday.

Reuters

Image Reuters ALESSANDRO BIANCHI 

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