The American Amanda Knox is Acquitted of Murder in Italy Meredith Kercher
by The Court of Appeal of Perugia (central Italy) on Monday acquitted the American Amanda Knox for the murder in November 2007 of the British girl Meredith Kercher, a student at Erasmus university exchange program. After a last view of the process and about ten hours of deliberation behind closed doors, the Court decided, in addition, Italian Raffaele Sollecito acquittal, Knox’s boyfriend at the time, not "exist" and "committing" both the facts against them.
The Perugia prosecutor had requested last September 24 life sentences for Knoxand Sollecito, who were convicted in December 2009 in the first instance to 26 and 25 years in prison, respectively.
The Court of Appeal also ordered the “immediate release” for Knox and Sollecito, who had been held in separate Italian prisons for about four years and upon leaving the courthouse were booed by a crowd shouting “Shame, shame” .
This time spent in prison is that also allows the U.S., who collapsed in the courthouse to hear the absolution, has already served the sentence of 3 yearsagainst it issued Monday by the Court of Appeals for libel Patrick Lumumba, aCongolese musician who Knox implicated in the events and was investigated, but finally was free of charge.
The Ivorian Rudy Guede was sentenced for the murder of Meredith Kercher to 16 years jail with a firm statement in December 2010. Guede was sentenced in first instance in October 2008 to 30 years in prison and in the second degree to the penalty that would later be confirmed as final. Guede was the first, and now the only one to be convicted of the death of the British, after reaching an agreement to request a fast track trial, which prompted his decision to split the trial if Knox andSollecito general and whose status is now a question mark to his alleged accomplices were acquitted of the crime.
the charge
The prosecution accused Knox, Sollecito and Guede of being responsible for the murder of British student, found dead half-naked and stabbed in the neck in November 2007 in the Perugia house she shared with American and two Italianstudents.
The reconstruction of the facts established by prosecutors that the young Britishdid not want to participate in a “sexual game”, so that supposedly raped GuedeMeredith, while Knox stabbed her while Sollecito held her. Kercher’s body, who was 21 years old when the events occurred, was found with ”a deep lesion in theleft anterior lateral and right lateral neck, arm and cutting edge,” the summary of the case.
The defense of both Knox and Sollecito, 27, had asked for the total absolution toconsider that there was no phone, no evidence of the presence of youth in the crime scene and no murder weapon.
A final expertise ordered by the Court of Appeal in Perugia questioned the work done by the scientific police after the killing, seen as key in the conviction at first instance to the then partner. The latter denied that there remains expertise ofKercher’s DNA on the knife from the Italian considered the smoking gun, whileSollecito DNA testing and the British found in the clasp of the bra of the victim wasconsidered inconclusive.
On leaving the courthouse after the sentence a statement broadcast live ontelevision than half the world, Diana, sister of Amanda Knox said they were very grateful to everyone who had supported them, because ”in recent years have been a nightmare. “
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