Rome (Italy): The Italy’s High Court has acquitted American Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito in 7 year old Kercher Murder Case.
Amanda Knox was charged in brutal 2007 killing of Meredith Kercher, a British student with whom the then 20-year-old Knox shared flat
The American and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted last year for a second time of taking part in the brutal 2007 killing of Meredith Kercher, a British student with whom the then 20-year-old Knox shared a house in the university town of Perugia.
The prosecution initially said Knox and Sollecito killed Kercher during a sex game that went horribly wrong. A court later convicted the pair by arguing that the murder was the result of a domestic argument. But lawyers for the defense argued the prosecution presented a distorted picture of the evidence.
Kercher, 21, died after being stabbed 47 times and having her throat slashed in 2007. Her half-naked body was found in a pool of blood in a back room of the house she shared with Knox.
Ivory Coast-born drifter Rudy Guede was jailed for Kercher’s murder in 2008, but the judge in his trial ruled that he could not have acted alone.
While prosecutors believe Knox and Sollecito fatally slashed Kercher while Guede held her down, her supporters see her as an innocent abroad who was a victim of a miscarriage of justice produced by an unreliable judicial system.
The pair had already spent four years in jail — two on remand and two after their initial conviction for murder in 2009.
The hearing was scheduled to have been wrapped up on Wednesday but was carried over to a second day, partly as a result of delays caused by the huge media interest.
According to a BBC Report, after the verdict Ms Knox said she was “full of joy” after hearing the verdict. “I’m still absorbing the present moment,” she said, speaking outside her mother’s house in Seattle. “Meredith was my friend,” she said, “she deserved so much in this life.”
No reason for the judgement has been given. The full justification will be delivered, in writing, within 90 days, in accordance with Italian law.
However, Knox is likely to retain a criminal record since her lawyers do not contest that she initially told a fabricated story about what happened on the night of the murder and attempted to pin the blame on the manager of a bar where she worked.
The case had fascinated a global audience thanks to its youthful, photogenic cast, the gory and baffling nature of the crime itself and an endless supply of headline-friendly detail ranging from DNA traces found on the victim’s bra strap to the ‘rabbit’ vibrator that Knox kept in a see-through toilet bag.
Prosecutors wrapped up their presentations on Wednesday by insisting that a Florence court was right to re-convict the pair last year.
That verdict came nine months after the former lovers were freed on appeal, allowing Knox to return home to Seattle, where she now works as a journalist and has reportedly become engaged to a childhood friend.
Her lawyers admit she is “very worried” about a possible extradition request, which legal experts say would stand a good chance of succeeding.
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz told AFP that Knox would likely seek to argue she had effectively been tried twice for the same crime, in breach of the double jeopardy principle.
“These arguments are unlikely to succeed on the merits, but may give American authorities an excuse to do what the American public would like them to do — namely to keep her in this country,” Dershowitz said.
“Legally she would have a weak case, but politically she would have a strong case. The real question is whether politics would prevail over the law.”
Ventuno/AFP/BP