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At some point during the evening, a neighbour heard a "chilling scream" and, soon after, the footsteps of "at least two people" running from the flat.<ref name="sky270309" /> According to investigators, Kercher died in the flat at around 11 pm.<ref name="GTrial" /> At some point during the evening, a neighbour heard a "chilling scream" and, soon after, the footsteps of "at least two people" running from the flat.<ref name="sky270309" /> According to investigators, Kercher died in the flat at around 11 pm.<ref name="GTrial" />


At 12:08 pm the following day, Knox called a flatmate,<ref name="Massei" />{{rp |346}} telling her that she had returned to the flat and found the front door open, a broken window, some blood, and that Meredith was missing.<ref name="Massei" />{{rp |16-7}} She also called Kercher's two mobile phones.<ref name="Massei" />{{rp |346}} At 12:51 pm and 12:54 pm, Sollecito made calls to ], the Italian emergency number.<ref name="Massei" />{{rp |342}} Before the ] arrived in response to these calls, two officers of the Italian ] came to investigate the discovery of Kercher's mobile phones in a nearby garden.<ref name="times-confesses" /> Knox and Sollecito were standing outside and told the police that the premises had been burgled, that a window had been broken and that there were bloodstains in the bathroom.<ref name="Massei" />{{rp |86}} At 12:08 pm the following day, Knox called a flatmate,<ref name="Massei" />{{rp |346}} telling her that she had returned to the flat and found the front door open, a broken window, some blood, and that Meredith was missing.<ref name="Massei" />{{rp |16-7}} She also called Kercher's two mobile phones.<ref name="Massei" />{{rp |346}} At 12:51 pm and 12:54 pm, Sollecito made calls to ], the Italian emergency number.<ref name="Massei" />{{rp |342}} Before the ] arrived in response to these calls, two officers of the Italian ] came to investigate the discovery of the mobile phones carried by Kercher in a nearby garden.<ref name="times-confesses" /> Knox and Sollecito were standing outside and told the police that the premises had been burgled, that a window had been broken and that there were bloodstains in the bathroom.<ref name="Massei" />{{rp |86}}


At trial, the police officers testified that they had arrived at 12:35 pm, before Sollecito called 112.<ref name=Dempsey/> The defence countered by noting that the time marked at the police station on the receipt for the second of Kercher's phones was 12:46 pm.<ref name=Dempsey>{{cite book |last=Dempsey |first=Candice |title=Murder in Italy |publisher=Berkley |year=2010 |month=May |ISBN= 978-0-425-23083-1 |page=271 }}</ref> At trial, the police officers testified that they had arrived at 12:35 pm, before Sollecito called 112.<ref name=Dempsey/> The defence countered by noting that the time marked at the police station on the receipt for the second of Kercher's phones was 12:46 pm.<ref name=Dempsey>{{cite book |last=Dempsey |first=Candice |title=Murder in Italy |publisher=Berkley |year=2010 |month=May |ISBN= 978-0-425-23083-1 |page=271 }}</ref> and evidence from a security camera showed that the police arrived at 12:58 pm, just as Sollecito said they did.<ref name=Giovinazzo>{{cite journal |journal=La Piazza de Giovinazzo |year=2009 |month=December |title=Un delitto con troppe ombre |trans_title=A crime with too many shadows |page=9 |language=Italian |url=http://issuu.com/sergiopisani/docs/la_piazza_di_giovinazzo_dicembre_2009 |accessdate=31 August 2010}}</ref>


The found blood in several rooms of the flat, and near Kercher's locked bedroom.<ref name="GTrial" /> The window in one of the bedrooms had been smashed and there was broken glass and a large stone in a bag on the floor.<ref name="GTrial" /> At around 1 pm, the flatmate whose window had been broken arrived and said that nothing had been taken.<ref name="SundayTimes061209" /> The communications police investigated the upstairs flat, finding blood in several rooms, an unflushed toilet in the large bathroom and blood near Kercher's locked bedroom.<ref name="GTrial" /> The window in one of the bedrooms had been smashed and there was broken glass and a large stone in a bag on the floor.<ref name="GTrial" /> At around 1 pm, the flatmate whose window had been broken arrived and said that nothing had been taken.<ref name="SundayTimes061209" />


The door to Kercher's room was forced open and the police found Kercher lying beneath a ], soaked in blood, with pools and smears of blood around the room. The area was secured for investigation.<ref name="GTrial" /> The door to Kercher's room was forced open and the police found Kercher lying beneath a ], soaked in blood, with pools and smears of blood around the room. The area was secured for investigation.<ref name="GTrial" />


===Police interviews=== ===Police interviews===
On 5 November 2007, Sollecito made a statement to the police in which he said that he was not sure that Knox had been with him on the night of the murder. The police then questioned Knox, who had accompanied him to the police station.<ref name="newsweek" /> Starting at 11 pm that evening,<ref name="newsweek" /> she was questioned firstly by the police alone and, later that night, in the presence of a prosecutor.<ref name="cassazione" /> During these interviews, she said that she had gone to the flat with Patrick Lumumba, the owner of a bar-restaurant named ''Le Chic'', at which she occasionally worked.<ref name="Kington120908" /><ref name="lumumba-character" /> She said that she had been in the kitchen when he committed the murder.<ref name="Moore081107" /> Knox and Sollecito were interviewed several times by the police in the days immediately after the murder. On 5 November 2007, Sollecito made a statement in which he said that he was not sure that Knox had been with him on the night of the murder. The police then questioned Knox, who had accompanied him to the police station.<ref name="newsweek" /> Starting at 11 pm that evening,<ref name="newsweek" /> she was questioned firstly by the police alone and, later that night, in the presence of a prosecutor.<ref name="cassazione" /> During these interviews Knox made statements implicating Patrick Lumumba, the owner of a bar-restaurant named ''Le Chic'',<ref name="Kington120908" /> at which she occasionally worked.<ref name="lumumba-character" /> She said that she had gone with Lumumba to the flat and had been in the kitchen when he committed the murder.<ref name="Moore081107" />


Knox later claimed that these statements were made under duress and that she had been assaulted and threatened by the police.<ref name="Moore221107" /> She repeated these claims at trial, while a police officer testified that Knox had only been questioned "firmly but politely".<ref name="Squires280209" /> Knox's lawyer, summing up at the end of her trial, stated that the interviews had lasted a total of 53 hours, causing "stress and fear".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/03/amanda-knox-meredith-kercher-case|title=Don't force mask of a killer on me, Amanda Knox tells jurors|work=The Guardian|location=London | date=3 December 2009 | first=Tom | last=Kington}}</ref> The police have continued to deny that Knox was mistreated and she has been charged with slander.<ref name="times02062010" /> Knox later claimed that both statements were made under duress because she had been struck twice on the back of the head during the questioning, called a "stupid liar" and told that she would be arrested and put in jail for 30 years.<ref name="Moore221107" /> Knox repeated these claims during her trial, while a female police officer testified that Knox had only been questioned "firmly but politely".<ref name="Squires280209" /> Knox's lawyer, summing up at the end of her trial, stated that the interviews had lasted a total of 53 hours, causing "stress and fear".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/03/amanda-knox-meredith-kercher-case|title=Don't force mask of a killer on me, Amanda Knox tells jurors|work=The Guardian|location=London | date=3 December 2009 | first=Tom | last=Kington}}</ref> The police have continued to deny that Knox was mistreated and she has been charged with slander, for which her trial is due to be concluded in October 2010.<ref name="times02062010" />


Knox was arrested later on the morning of 6 November. Some time afterwards she made a written note to the police, partially retracting her earlier statements, explaining that she doubted her statements because they were made "under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion" and that she had been struck whenever her memory appeared to be failing her. She "stood by" her accusation of Lumumba, but said that she could not clearly remember whether she was at her flat or Sollecito's house at the time of the murder.<ref name="Moore250210" /> She denied involvement in the murder.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1570225/Transcript-of-Amanda-Knoxs-note.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | first=Malcolm | last=Moore | title=Transcript of Amanda Knox's note | date=22 November 2007}}</ref> Knox was arrested later on the morning of 6 November. Some time afterwards she made a written note to the police, in which she partially retracted her earlier statements, explaining that she "doubted" her statements because they were made "under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion" and that she was "hit in the head when I didn't remember a fact correctly". She "stood by" her accusation of Lumumba, but said that she could not clearly remember whether she was at her flat or Sollecito's house.<ref name="Moore250210" /> She ended the note writing "All I know is that I didn't kill Meredith, and so I have nothing but lies to be afraid of."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1570225/Transcript-of-Amanda-Knoxs-note.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | first=Malcolm | last=Moore | title=Transcript of Amanda Knox's note | date=22 November 2007}}</ref>


This written note was admissible at the trial of Knox and Sollecito. However, following a ruling by the Court of Cassation, the statements made to police during the night of 5–6 November were not: one because she was being interviewed as a witness and the other because no lawyer was present.<ref name="cassazione" /> The judge ruled that both statements were admissible in Lumumba's civil case against Knox, which was being tried in the same court at the same time as the criminal trial of Knox and Sollecito.
Lumumba was arrested on 6 November 2007 as a result of Knox's statements. He was detained for two weeks until the arrest of Guede. Initially, doubts about his alibi were reported in the press,<ref name="times131107" /> but ultimately he was completely exonerated.<ref name="times081209" />

Lumumba was arrested on 6 November 2007 as a result of Knox's statements. He was detained for two weeks until the arrest of Guede. Initially doubts about his alibi were reported in the press,<ref name="times131107" /> but ultimately he was completely exonerated.<ref name="times081209" />


===Arrest of Guede=== ===Arrest of Guede===
A few days after the murder, Rudy Guede had left Perugia by train. ] traced a computer which he used in Germany to access ] and reply to a message from a '']'' journalist.<ref name="Nadeau191107" /> In his message, Guede said that he was aware that he was a suspect and wanted to clear his name.<ref name="Moore201107" /> On 20 November 2007, the German transport police arrested Guede on a train near ], where he was apprehended for travelling without a ticket.<ref name="times201107" /> When questioned, he claimed that he was on his way back to Italy to give himself up.<ref name="times201107" /> He was extradited to Italy on 6 December 2007.<ref name="Pisa06Dec2007">{{cite news |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1571739/Meredith-Kercher-suspect-extradited-to-Italy.html |title=Meredith Kercher suspect extradited to Italy |last=Pisa |first=Nick |date=6 December 2007 |work=The Telegraph |accessdate=5 September 2010 | location=London}}</ref> A few days after the murder, Guede had fled Perugia by train. ] traced a computer which he used in Germany to access ] in order to reply to a message from a '']'' journalist.<ref name="Nadeau191107" /> In his message, Guede said that he was aware that he was a suspect and wanted to clear his name.<ref name="Moore201107" /> On 20 November 2007, the German transport police arrested Guede on a train near ], where he was apprehended for travelling without a ticket.<ref name="times201107" /> When questioned, he claimed that he was on his way back to Italy to give himself up.<ref name="times201107" /> He was extradited to Italy on 6 December 2007.<ref name="Pisa06Dec2007">{{cite news |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1571739/Meredith-Kercher-suspect-extradited-to-Italy.html |title=Meredith Kercher suspect extradited to Italy |last=Pisa |first=Nick |date=6 December 2007 |work=The Telegraph |accessdate=5 September 2010 | location=London}}</ref>


==Evidence== ==Evidence==

Revision as of 15:27, 23 December 2010

Meredith Kercher
Photograph released by the police and used in early news reports about the murder.
BornMeredith Susanna Cara Kercher
28 December 1985
Southwark, London, England
Died1 November 2007(2007-11-01) (aged 21)
Perugia, Italy
Cause of deathKnife wounds
NationalityBritish
Other namesMez (nickname)
OccupationUniversity exchange student
Known forMurder victim

The murder of Meredith Kercher occurred in Perugia, Italy, on 1 November 2007.

Rudy Hermann Guede, a resident of Perugia, was convicted of the sexual assault and murder of Kercher and received a reduced sentence of 16 years after an appeal. Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian student, and Amanda Knox, an American student who shared a flat with Kercher, were convicted of sexual assault and murder and sentenced to 26 years.

The case received much media attention in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Meredith Kercher

Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher, known to her friends as "Mez", was born on 28 December 1985 in Southwark, London, England, and lived in Coulsdon, South London. She had two older brothers and an older sister. Her father is a freelance journalist, and her mother, Arline Kercher, is a housewife, born in India.

Kercher attended the Old Palace School in Croydon and then she took a degree in European Studies at the University of Leeds. At the time of her murder, she was studying for one year at the University of Perugia, as part of the ERASMUS student exchange programme. She appeared in a music video for singer Kristian Leontiou's song "Some Say" shortly before her death.

In Perugia, she shared a flat with Amanda Knox and two Italian women. Kercher's funeral was held on 14 December 2007 at Croydon Parish Church, with more than 300 people in attendance. She has been awarded a posthumous degree by the University of Leeds.

Defendants

Rudy Guede

Rudy Hermann Guede
Criminal statusDefinitive conviction
Conviction(s)Murder and sexual assault
Criminal penalty16 years imprisonment (originally 30, reduced on appeal)

Rudy Hermann Guede was aged 20 at the time of the murder. Originally from Côte d'Ivoire, he had come to Perugia at the age of five with his father, who worked as a labourer in the 1990s. At the age of 16, when his father left Italy, Guede was informally adopted by the family of a local businessman. Guede had acquired joint Italian nationality and sporadically studied accounting and hotelkeeping. He also played basketball for the Perugia youth team in the 2004–2005 season. He often stayed with his aunt who lived in Lecco, near Milan, and sometimes worked in Milan bars, returning occasionally to Perugia. Guede had no criminal record at the time of the murder.

Amanda Knox

Amanda Marie Knox
Criminal statusConviction under appeal
Conviction(s)Murder, sexual assault and obstruction of justice
Criminal penalty26 years imprisonment

Amanda Marie Knox, from Seattle, Washington, was, at the time of Kercher's murder, a 20-year-old University of Washington language student. She was in Perugia attending the University for Foreigners for one year, studying Italian, German and creative writing. In Perugia she lived in the same shared flat as Kercher. Knox had met Raffaele Sollecito at a classical music concert and had become his girlfriend.

Raffaele Sollecito

Raffaele Sollecito
Criminal statusConviction under appeal
Conviction(s)Murder and sexual assault
Criminal penalty25 years imprisonment

Raffaele Sollecito, from Giovinazzo, Bari, was 23 years old at the time of the murder, and nearing the completion of a degree in computer engineering at the University of Perugia, which he finished while awaiting trial in prison. He is from an affluent family, the son of a urologist from Bari.

Events surrounding the murder

At 8:40 pm on the night of the murder, witness testimony placed Amanda Knox at Raffael Sollecito's flat. Kercher spent the early evening with three friends and set off for home at about 8:45 pm, accompanied by a friend. They parted company near the friend's flat shortly before 9 pm. Kercher then walked the remaining 500 yards (460 m) to her flat.

At some point during the evening, a neighbour heard a "chilling scream" and, soon after, the footsteps of "at least two people" running from the flat. According to investigators, Kercher died in the flat at around 11 pm.

At 12:08 pm the following day, Knox called a flatmate, telling her that she had returned to the flat and found the front door open, a broken window, some blood, and that Meredith was missing. She also called Kercher's two mobile phones. At 12:51 pm and 12:54 pm, Sollecito made calls to 112, the Italian emergency number. Before the Carabinieri arrived in response to these calls, two officers of the Italian Post and Communications Police came to investigate the discovery of the mobile phones carried by Kercher in a nearby garden. Knox and Sollecito were standing outside and told the police that the premises had been burgled, that a window had been broken and that there were bloodstains in the bathroom.

At trial, the police officers testified that they had arrived at 12:35 pm, before Sollecito called 112. The defence countered by noting that the time marked at the police station on the receipt for the second of Kercher's phones was 12:46 pm. and evidence from a security camera showed that the police arrived at 12:58 pm, just as Sollecito said they did.

The communications police investigated the upstairs flat, finding blood in several rooms, an unflushed toilet in the large bathroom and blood near Kercher's locked bedroom. The window in one of the bedrooms had been smashed and there was broken glass and a large stone in a bag on the floor. At around 1 pm, the flatmate whose window had been broken arrived and said that nothing had been taken.

The door to Kercher's room was forced open and the police found Kercher lying beneath a duvet, soaked in blood, with pools and smears of blood around the room. The area was secured for investigation.

Police interviews

Knox and Sollecito were interviewed several times by the police in the days immediately after the murder. On 5 November 2007, Sollecito made a statement in which he said that he was not sure that Knox had been with him on the night of the murder. The police then questioned Knox, who had accompanied him to the police station. Starting at 11 pm that evening, she was questioned firstly by the police alone and, later that night, in the presence of a prosecutor. During these interviews Knox made statements implicating Patrick Lumumba, the owner of a bar-restaurant named Le Chic, at which she occasionally worked. She said that she had gone with Lumumba to the flat and had been in the kitchen when he committed the murder.

Knox later claimed that both statements were made under duress because she had been struck twice on the back of the head during the questioning, called a "stupid liar" and told that she would be arrested and put in jail for 30 years. Knox repeated these claims during her trial, while a female police officer testified that Knox had only been questioned "firmly but politely". Knox's lawyer, summing up at the end of her trial, stated that the interviews had lasted a total of 53 hours, causing "stress and fear". The police have continued to deny that Knox was mistreated and she has been charged with slander, for which her trial is due to be concluded in October 2010.

Knox was arrested later on the morning of 6 November. Some time afterwards she made a written note to the police, in which she partially retracted her earlier statements, explaining that she "doubted" her statements because they were made "under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion" and that she was "hit in the head when I didn't remember a fact correctly". She "stood by" her accusation of Lumumba, but said that she could not clearly remember whether she was at her flat or Sollecito's house. She ended the note writing "All I know is that I didn't kill Meredith, and so I have nothing but lies to be afraid of."

This written note was admissible at the trial of Knox and Sollecito. However, following a ruling by the Court of Cassation, the statements made to police during the night of 5–6 November were not: one because she was being interviewed as a witness and the other because no lawyer was present. The judge ruled that both statements were admissible in Lumumba's civil case against Knox, which was being tried in the same court at the same time as the criminal trial of Knox and Sollecito.

Lumumba was arrested on 6 November 2007 as a result of Knox's statements. He was detained for two weeks until the arrest of Guede. Initially doubts about his alibi were reported in the press, but ultimately he was completely exonerated.

Arrest of Guede

A few days after the murder, Guede had fled Perugia by train. Interpol traced a computer which he used in Germany to access Facebook in order to reply to a message from a Daily Telegraph journalist. In his message, Guede said that he was aware that he was a suspect and wanted to clear his name. On 20 November 2007, the German transport police arrested Guede on a train near Mainz, where he was apprehended for travelling without a ticket. When questioned, he claimed that he was on his way back to Italy to give himself up. He was extradited to Italy on 6 December 2007.

Evidence

Forensic evidence

Kercher's body was found on the floor of her bedroom, with blood in various locations in the room. Her superior thyroid artery had been severed by a stab wound and she had died a relatively slow and agonising death as she inhaled her own blood. Her hyoid bone was broken, indicating that she had been choked before she was stabbed. There were also signs of sexual assault. Her body had been disrobed and moved some time after death.

DNA matching that of Rudy Guede was found on and inside Kercher's body, on her shirt and bra and on her handbag. A bloody handprint found on a pillow under the victim's back was matched to Guede.

A severed piece of Kercher's bra, including its metal hooks, revealed traces of her DNA and that of Raffael Sollecito. Sollecito's lawyers argued that that a 49-day delay in retrieving the sample could have led to contamination. The judge at Guede's trial described the claim of contamination as making no sense, there being no material from which such contamination could have come, and so "the risk would have been the loss of traces found there, not the risk of somehow discovering new traces".

Luminol revealed footprints made in blood in the flat, compatible with the feet of Knox and Sollecito. Knox's DNA was found mixed with Kercher's blood in the footprints and elsewhere in the apartment. A further footprint, believed to be a woman's, was found under the body. It was the right size to be Knox's, although it was never matched to her footwear. An expert defence witness claimed that this was a partial print that matched the pattern of Rudy Guede's right shoe.

Knox's DNA was found on a kitchen knife, recovered from Sollecito's flat, and Kercher's DNA was found on the blade. The knife could have made one of the three wounds on Kercher's neck. At trial, Knox's lawyers argued that she used knives for cooking at Sollecito's apartment. A group of American academics wrote an open letter in 2009 expressing concern that contamination of this evidence was a possibility, noting in particular that, whilst DNA was found on the knife, tests for blood were negative.

Apart from the knife, there was no forensic evidence directly indicating that Knox had been in the bedroom where Meredith Kercher was murdered. Knox's fingerprints were not found in Kercher's bedroom, nor her own bedroom.

Investigators concluded that an apparent break-in at the flat had been staged, partly because the window seemed to have been broken after the room had been ransacked.

In December 2010, the judge at Knox and Sollecito's appeal ordered a review of DNA evidence relating to the knife and the bra-clasp.

Prosecution and defence arguments

In the Knox and Sollecito trial, the prosecution sought to prove that a break-in at the murder scene had been staged. An officer testified that shards of glass from the broken window were found on top of a computer and clothes that had been strewn around the room, suggesting that the window had been broken after the room had been ransacked. A flat-mate testified she had left her room tidy and nothing had been stolen.

Police evidence was presented showing that Knox and Sollecito did not have provable alibis for the time of the murder. Sollecito maintained that he was at his apartment, using his computer, but police computer analysts testified that his computer had not been used between 9:10 on the evening of the murder and 5:32 the next morning. Knox has maintained that she was with Sollecito at the time, but in his statement to police, he said that he could not remember if she was with him or not. Their version of events was further contradicted by a homeless man, who testified that he had seen Knox and Sollecito chatting animatedly on a basketball court, within sight of Kercher's house, around five times, between 9.30 and midnight on the night of the murder. A Perugia shopkeeper gave evidence that Knox had gone to his supermarket at 7:45 on the morning after the murder, at a time when Knox was, according to her account, still at Sollecito's. At trial the shopkeeper's testimony was contradicted by the testimony of workers who were also at the shop at that time.

Knox told the court that she had been with Sollecito in his apartment on the night of the murder. The defence claimed that, despite having put forward several different theories, the prosecution had produced no convincing evidence of a motive for murder. Knox testified that she regarded Kercher as her friend and had no reason to kill her.

The defence sought to show that Guede could have been a lone killer. A school director testified that he had been caught with a stolen 16-inch knife inside a closed Milan school on 27 October 2007, and was also in possession of a laptop PC and a mobile phone previously stolen by somebody from a Perugia solicitors' office, burgled with a rock breaking a window. Guede said that he had bought both the stolen laptop and phone at a railway station in Milan. The school director testified that a small amount of money was also missing after she found Guede looking inside a cabinet in the school office. An expert witness testified that the window of Kercher's flat had been broken from the outside and presented a video of stones shattering similar windows.

Guede trial and appeal

Trial

Guede elected for a "fast-track" trial which began on 16 October 2008, presided over by Judge Paolo Micheli. In this way he exchanged the right to test the evidence in a full trial for a more lenient sentence, if found guilty. The trial was held in closed session, with no reporters present. He was charged with murder, sexual assault and theft.

Guede claimed that Knox and Sollecito had entered the Perugia flat and committed the murder while he was in the bathroom. He said that he was listening to music on his iPod, but heard Kercher scream.

On 28 October 2008, Guede was found guilty of the murder and sexual assault of Kercher and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Appeal

At appeal, Guede claimed that, while in the bathroom, he had heard Knox's voice arguing with Kercher about some missing money in the bedroom. He further said that when he glanced out of the window, he saw the silhouette of Knox leaving the house.

On 22 December 2009, the Corte d'Appello upheld Guede's convictions but cut his sentence to 16 years. In March 2010, the court issued a detailed report of its ruling, explaining that it had reduced Guede's sentence by 14 years because he was the only one of the three defendants to apologise to the Kercher family for his actions.

In May 2010, Guede launched a second and final appeal to the Court of Cassation; the hearing was subsequently fixed for 16 December 2010. On 16 December 2010 Corte di Cassazione confirmed the verdict.

Knox and Sollecito trial and appeals

Committal hearings

The indictment of Knox and Sollecito was decided and issued at the same time as Guede's trial in October 2008 and was also held in a closed court session before Judge Micheli.

Micheli concluded that Kercher had been sexually assaulted and then murdered by multiple attackers. He also concluded that the apparent break-in had been faked and that one or more people had returned to the crime scene, rearranged the body, and staged the fake break-in some time after the murder. Judge Micheli also believed that it was suspicious that Sollecito called the Carabinieri military police, saying that a burglary had occurred but "nothing had been taken" when other flatmates had not yet returned to check their rooms for missing items. He also found suspicious Knox's claim to have taken a shower in a room with blood on the floor.

Following the court session, Sollecito’s lawyer Luca Maori described the prosecution's theory on the motive for the murder as being part of a "satanic rite" and this was widely reported in the press, some of whom linked this with the fact that the murder occurred on the day after Halloween. However, Judge Micheli dismissed this motive as fantasy and made it clear that the committal for trial of the two suspects was not based on this theory.

Trial

The trial of Knox and Sollecito began on 16 January 2009, before judge Giancarlo Massei, deputy judge Beatrice Cristiani and six lay judges at the Corte d'Assise of Perugia, with considerable media attention. They had been charged with murder, sexual assault, simulating a crime (burglary), carrying a knife and theft of 300 euros, two credit cards and two mobile phones.

Knox was represented by Luciano Ghirga and Carlo Dalla Vedova, Sollecito by Giulia Bongiorno. The head prosecutor was Guiliano Mignini, assisted by Manuela Comodi. Since the trial, Mignini has been convicted of "abuse of office" and sentenced to 16 months in prison by a Florence court for tapping the phones of police officers and journalists investigating the still unsolved Monster of Florence case. He has protested his innocence, and remains in office, pending an appeal.

Rudy Guede was called by the prosecution to testify but asserted his right to silence. During the first session, Judge Massei rejected a request by the Kercher family to hold the trial behind closed doors, ruling that the trial would be public with closed sessions where appropriate.

After nearly six months of hearings, the trial was shut down early for summer vacation when Judge Massei ordered the prosecution to release to the defence previously withheld biological evidence. The subsequently released evidence documented that the luminol-revealed footprints did not contain Kercher's blood. On 14 September 2009, the defence requested that the murder indictments of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito be thrown out due to the length of time that the prosecution had withheld evidence. Judge Massei rejected the defence’s request.

Towards the end of November, the prosecution and defence began summing up their cases. On 4 December 2009, after 13 hours of deliberations by the panel of judges, Knox was convicted of all counts except theft and was sentenced to 26 years in prison. Sollecito was found guilty of all five charges attributed to him and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Judges' report

On 4 March 2010, the Corte d'Assise of Perugia released a 427-page report, detailing its rationale in reaching its verdicts. The Court determined that Rudy Guede had been supported by Knox and Sollecito in subduing Kercher after she resisted his sexual advances. It was noted that Knox and Sollecito had consumed hashish and been reading sexually explicit and violent comics collected by Sollecito, which were alleged to have influenced their behaviour. The court ruled Knox and Sollecito acted without premeditation, and that there was no grudge motivating the crime.

The judges concluded that Knox and Sollecito had stabbed Kercher in the neck using two different knives, but after the murder they had covered the body with a duvet in an act of repentance. The court also stated that a bloody footprint found on a bathroom mat was made by Sollecito, while a footprint in a bedroom was made by Knox. The Court further believed that Knox and Sollecito had staged the apparent break-in at the house to make it appear that Kercher had been killed by an intruder and that Knox had attempted to shift the blame by falsely accusing Patrick Lumumba.

Filing of appeals

In April 2010, appeals were filed by the prosecution and both Knox's and Sollecito's defence teams. The prosecution assert that the current sentences are too lenient and are seeking to increase them to life sentences. Matters on which the defence are appealing relate to Knox's questioning by police and the DNA and other forensic evidence. They also intend to produce a new witness.

The appeals are proceeding as trial de novo which started on 11 December 2010 before the Appellate Court of Assizes, presided over by Claudio Pratillo Hellman.

Media coverage

Media portrayals of the fairness of Knox and Sollecito's trial included a range of views. A number of commentators in the United States have harshly criticised the Italian legal process, including Donald Trump, Timothy Egan and journalist Judy Bachrach. Other commentators, including Wendy Murphy, Ann Coulter and Jeanine Pirro, have viewed such criticism as misguided.

Alex Wade, writing in The Times, was critical: "If by some cruel miracle a British judge had found himself presiding over 12 good men and true ... it is inconceivable that he would not have made strong, telling directions to acquit". Libby Purves, writing in the same newspaper, said "both evidence and reconstruction look pretty convincing" and described the American campaign for Amanda Knox as "almost libellously critical of the Italian court".

The Kercher family have made clear their views that the trial was fair, but have generally avoided much media attention. On 2 December 2010, Kercher's journalist father, John, writing in the Daily Mail, condemned Knox's elevation to "celebrity" status as "utterly despicable," and that the "Foxy Knoxy" nickname, "trivialises the awfulness of her offence." He maintained that to the Kercher family, Knox is, "unequivocally culpable. As far as we are concerned, she has been ­convicted of taking our precious Meredith’s life in the most hideous and bloody way."

Reported views of Knox's lawyers include a piece in the New York Times, during Knox and Sollecito's trial, which reported, "Ms. Knox is often portrayed as an innocent girl unwittingly caught up in the Kafkaesque Italian justice system. But even one of her lawyers, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said that he believed the trial was fair. He added that he 'disagreed' with news media coverage that depicted it otherwise." On the other hand, at the filing of appeals, Knox's lawyers have been quoted as saying that the original case was "botched" by the prosecution.

According to Knox's lawyers, family and some media, the pretrial publicity tainted the public perception of Knox and may have prejudiced the trial. The lawyers filed complaints with a Milan court and with Italy's privacy watchdog.

Support for Knox

Knox's family and various supporters maintain that she has been unjustly convicted.

The Knox family's public relations campaign

Knox's family engaged the services of David Marriott, of Gogerty Stark Marriott, a Seattle-based public relations firm, to handle the public relations aspects of their campaign. Marriott is a former television news reporter and has been the press secretary for a former Seattle mayor, as well as having run several communications consulting firms.

Marriott ensured that journalists in Perugia in the early stages of the case could only get access to the Knox family if they gave guarantees about positive coverage. As time went on the family opted to speak, primarily to the American television networks. Since then, they have appeared on several TV talk shows, such as the Oprah Winfrey Show on 23 February 2010.

Senator Maria Cantwell's accusations of anti-Americanism

On 4 December 2009, the day the verdict on Knox and Sollecito was announced, Maria Cantwell, US Senator for Washington, released a statement expressing her sadness at the verdict, saying that she had "serious questions about the Italian justice system and whether anti-Americanism tainted trial". She claimed that evidence against Knox was insufficient, that Knox had been subjected to "harsh treatment" following her arrest and that there had been "negligence" in the handling of evidence. She also complained that jurors had not been sequestered, allowing them to view "negative news coverage" about Knox and that one of the prosecutors had a misconduct case pending in relation to another trial.

Cantwell said she would seek assistance from US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Secretary Clinton herself has not commented on the case, but a spokesman for the US Department of State stated at a press conference on 7 December 2009 that the Department had followed the case closely and would continue to do so. He said that the State Department's role is to ensure that any American citizen is treated fairly, according to local law. He added: "It is still in the early days but ... we haven't received any indications necessarily that Italian law was not followed". The State Department stated its intention to hold ongoing discussions about the case with Senator Cantwell and to stay in contact with the Knox family to monitor the situation during the appeal process.

Other court cases arising from the events of the murder

Civil lawsuit filed by Kercher's family

Kercher's family filed a civil suit against anyone found guilty of the murder. The court awarded a sum of €1,000,000 to each of the parents and €800,000 to each of Kercher's siblings.

Patrick Lumumba's civil lawsuit against Knox

Patrick Lumumba, the man originally accused of murdering Kercher, sued Knox for defamation and was awarded €40,000. He also pursued compensation from the Italian authorities for unjust imprisonment and the loss of his business and, in December 2009, a court awarded €8,000 in damages. In February 2010, Lumumba announced that he would be taking his claim for compensation from the Italian authorities to the European Court of Human Rights.

Civil lawsuit filed by Knox

In March 2010, Knox won a civil case against Fiorenza Sarzanini, the director of Corriere della Sera, and Paolo Mieli, RCS Quotidiani SpA and RCS Libri SpA , for violation of her privacy and illegal publication of Court documents. Sarzanini had written and Mieli published the book "Amanda e gli altri" ("Amanda and the Others"), containing long excerpts from Knox's diary as well as from witness interviews that were not in the public domain. The book also included intimate details professing to be about Knox's sex life. Knox was awarded €40,000 in damages.

Criminal slander case against Knox

Following an investigation into Knox's claims of mistreatment by police during questioning about the murder, a case for criminal slander was opened against her on 1 June 2010. In November 2010, Knox was ordered to stand trial on the slander charge by a judge in Perugia.

Portrayals in English-language books and documentaries

Books

  • Candace Dempsey: Murder in Italy: The Shocking Slaying of a British Student, the Accused American Girl, and an International Scandal, Berkley, ISBN 978-0425230831
  • Paul Russell, Graham Johnson, Luciano Garofano: Darkness Descending - the Murder of Meredith Kercher, Pocket Books, 7 Jan 2010, ISBN 1847398626, 978-1847398628 (Paperback)
  • John Follain: Death in Perugia: The definitive account of the killing of British student Meredith Kercher, Hodder & Stoughton General, ISBN 034099309X, 978-0340993095
  • Barbie Latza Nadeau: Angel Face: The True Story of Student Killer Amanda Knox, Beast Books, 15 May 2010, ISBN 0984295135, 978-0984295135
  • Gary C King: The Murder of Meredith Kercher, John Blake Publishing Ltd, 4 Jan 2010, ISBN 184454902X, 978-1844549023
  • Rocco Girlanda: Take me with you - Talks with Amanda Knox in prison, Piemme, Oct 2010, ISBN 8856615622, 978-8856615623

Television documentaries

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