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Amanda Knox acquitted of murder by Italy's top court
Reuters
March 28, 2015, 8:56 am
Amanda Knox reacts while being interviewed on the set of ABC's "Good Morning America" in New York January 31, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
By Massimiliano Di Giorgio
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's top court on Friday annulled the conviction of American Amanda Knox for the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher and, in a surprise verdict, acquitted her of the charge.
The brutal killing and tangle of trials that followed gripped attention on both sides of the Atlantic, inspiring books and films. Kercher's family said Meredith, who died aged 21, risked being forgotten.
The Court of Cassation threw out the second guilty verdict to have been passed on Knox and her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the lethal stabbing, saying there was insufficient evidence to convict either of them.
It had been widely expected that, even if the court overturned the previous convictions, it would order a retrial. Instead, both Knox and Sollecito are now definitively cleared.
"I cannot tell you how I feel in this moment," said her lawyer Luciano Ghirga outside the Rome courtroom after the verdict before he called Knox to tell her the news.
"I personally feel overjoyed that the truth has won out, that she is innocent," said David Marriott, a spokesman for Knox in her home town of Seattle.
Prosecutors had asked for jail sentences of 28 years and three months for Knox, and 24 years and nine months for Sollecito.
Knox, 27, and Sollecito, 31 have both already served four years in jail each after an original conviction in 2009.
The acquittals almost eight years after the murder are sure to stoke further controversy and questions about the Italian justice system, which has now twice overturned guilty verdicts in the case.
South London-born Kercher was found stabbed to death in a house she shared with Knox in the mediaeval hill town of Perugia in 2007. Rudy Guede, originally from the Ivory Coast, is serving a 16-year sentence for the crime, but judges in the previous trials ruled he did not act alone.
If the conviction against Knox had been upheld it would probably have sparked a complicated extradition process by Italian authorities.
Knox, who returned to Seattle in 2011, and Sollecito have maintained their innocence throughout but Knox's lawyer Ghirga said before the verdict on Friday that his client was "very, very worried."
Following the 2011 acquittal, the Court of Cassation ordered a new trial. A Florence court convicted them again, saying the murder had been the result of a domestic argument, squashing the previous theory that it happened when a sex game went wrong.
In Friday's verdict, a previous three-year jail sentence given to Knox for falsely accusing Congolese barman Patrick Lumumba of the murder was confirmed. But as Knox has already served four years in prison this has no practical consequences for her.
(Reporting by Massimiliano Di Giorgio; Additional reporting by Isla Binnie in Rome and Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Writing by Gavin Jones; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Lisa Shumaker)
Timeline of Meredith Kercher murder probe and trial
AFP
March 28, 2015, 10:19 am
Timeline of Meredith Kercher murder probe and trial Timeline of Meredith Kercher murder probe and trial
Rome (AFP) - Italy's top court on Friday quashed the convictions of American Amanda Knox and her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
Here are the main dates in the case:
2007
November 2: The half-naked body of Leeds University exchange student Kercher is found in a pool of blood in the cottage she shared with Knox in Perugia, central Italy. Her throat had been slit and she suffered multiple stab wounds.
November 6: Police arrest Knox, Sollecito and Patrick Lumumba, a bar owner. Knox says she was in the house and that Lumumba committed the murder. She later said she made the statement under duress.
November 20: Police in Germany arrest Ivorian immigrant Rudy Guede, who had fled Perugia, after DNA evidence linked him to the murder scene. He is extradited to Italy. Lumumba is released and exonerated.
2008
October 28: Guede is sentenced to 30 years in jail for the murder and sexual assault of Kercher. His sentence is later reduced to 16 years on appeal.
2009
January 16: Knox and Sollecito go on trial for murder.
December 5: Knox and Sollecito convicted, sentenced to 26 and 25 years respectively.
2010
March 22: The ruling from Guede's appeal says he sexually assaulted Kercher but did not kill her. It says that she was killed during a violent sexual assault involving Guede, Sollecito and Knox.
November 24: Appeal hearings for Knox and Sollecito begin in Perugia.
2011
July 25: Experts tell the court DNA evidence is likely to have been contaminated due to late collection and use of dirty gloves.
October 3: The appeal court acquits Sollecito and Knox, who returns immediately to the United States.
2012
February 14: Italian prosecutors appeal the acquittal
2013
March 26: Italy's highest court overturns the appeal verdict and orders a retrial
September 20: The retrial begins in Florence, with Knox tried in absentia.
2014
Jan 30: Appeal court reinstates Knox and Sollecito's murder convictions and increases her prison sentence to 28 years, 6 months
2015
March 27: Italy's top court rules that Knox and Sollecito did not murder Kercher, bringing the legal process to an end.
