Amanda Knox GUILTY in Italy 2009 - Appealed/OVERTURNED 2011

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/03/04/Judges-explain-verdict-in-coeds-murder/UPI-76801267714728/
Judges explain verdict in coed's murder
Published: March. 4, 2010 at 9:58 AM
PERUGIA, Italy, March 4 (UPI) -- The case against the U.S. student convicted of killing her British roommate in Italy had no holes or inconsistencies, documents from the trial indicated.

Two judges Thursday released their explanation of the guilty verdict against Amanda Knox for the 2007 death of Meredith Kercher in Perugia, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

In the 427-page document, Perugia Court President Giancarlo Massei and judge Beatrice Cristiani said evidence against Knox, 27, and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was "without holes or inconsistencies."

Knox, of Seattle, was sentenced to 26 years in jail and Sollecito drew a 25-year sentence. Both deny any wrongdoing and are appealing their convictions reached in December.

The murder, which the prosecution successfully argued resulted from drunken sex gone awry, wasn't planned, and Knox and Sollecito harbored no ill-will toward Kercher, the judges said.

"It was a murder without planning, without any animosity or grudge against the victim," the judges said, explaining it resulted from "purely casual contingencies."
Two appeals are allowed under Italian law, ANSA said. Knox and Sollecito's first appeal is expected to begin during the summer.

A third person, Ivory Coast native Rudy Guede, was convicted separately on charges of rape and murder in the incident. His original sentence of 30 years was commuted to 16 years by an appeals court in Perugia. He is also appealing.

[no rose colored glasses]

Thank-you Trimm, I've been waiting for this, now to find the 427 page document in English somewhere.

[trimmonthelake]

http://ww.examiner.com/x-1168-Crime-Examiner~y2010m3d6-Amanda-Knox-news-Convicted-murderer-Rudy-Guede-says-Knox-not-present-when-Meredith-Kercher-killed
Amanda Knox news: Convicted murderer Rudy Guede says Knox not present when Meredith Kercher killed
March 6, 1:04 AMCrime ExaminerCindy Adams
Convicted murderer Rudy Guede says Amanda Knox not present when Meredith Kercher killed

An Italian newspaper is reporting that convicted killer, Rudy Guede, told a fellow inmate that Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito were not present when British student Meredith Kercher, 21, was murdered in 2007.

Meredith’s body was found partially nude in the home she shared with Knox in the town of Perugia in Italy. Her throat was cut and she was rolled up in a duvet. The prosecution in the case argued that Meredith was killed by Guede, Knox, and Sollecito because she refused to join in on their drug-fueled sex games.

Knox, 22, was sentenced to 26 years in an Italian prison for killing Meredith. Sollecito was also found guilty of the crime and sentenced to 25 years. Each has claimed to be innocent of Meredith's murder.
Guede, 23, who had his 30-year sentence reduced to 16 years in Dec., was tried and found guilty in 2008 of assisting in Meredith’s murder. Initially, during his own trial, he testified that both Knox and Sollecito participated in the crime.

La Repubblica reports that Guede has now admitted to a cellmate that neither Knox nor Sollecito were present during the brutal killing. The fellow inmate also states that Guede told him there was another person during Meredith’s murder.

In January, the prosecutor who put Knox behind bars, Giuliano Mignini, was convicted of abusing his power in a case unrelated to the Kercher murder.

CBS News reports that Guede’s attorney, Valter Biscotti claims that “My client never mentioned this aspect of the story.”

[trimmonthelake]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/AmandaKnox/mystery-man-blamed-amanda-knox-case/story?id=10028590

New Hope? Mystery Man Blamed in Knox Case
Fellow Convict Says Rudy Guede Told Him U.S. Student Amanda Knox Was Not at Murder Scene
 By ANN WISE
ROME, March 6, 2010
Surprise testimony emerged in Italy Friday indicating that American student Amanda Knox, who was recently convicted of murder in Perugia, Italy, was not present at the scene of the crime when her roommate, British student Meredith Kercher, was killed.
This is just the latest twist in the ongoing Italian murder case involving Knox, 22, who was convicted in December along with her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, of sexually assaulting Kercher, then killing her by slashing her throat. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison; Sollecito received 25 years.

A third person, Rudy Guede, 23, an Ivory Coast native, was convicted earlier of taking part in the murder. He was convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to 30 years in prison, but that term was reduced to 14 years on appeal.
On Friday the lawyers for Sollecito deposited video-taped testimony from a fellow convict of Rudy Guede, Mario Alessi, in which he says Guede confided to him in jail that Knox and Sollecito were not at the house when Kercher was killed but that another man was present. According to Alessi, Guede told him the man, who has never been mentioned or suspected, killed Kercher when he was in the bathroom. Guede did not reveal his name.

Guede has always admitted to being at the house the night of Kercher's murder (his palm-print was found under the victim's body, and his DNA on her body and clothing), but has said in past statements that he was in the bathroom when Kercher was killed, and he found himself face to face with a knife-yielding man when he came out. He has never named Sollecito, and in his most recent statement, to the Perugia appeals court in November, Guede said he did not recognize the man wielding the knife, but that while in the bathroom he had heard and recognized Knox's voice as she argued with Kercher just before the killing. He said he saw Knox's "silhouette" leaving the house with a man, when he looked out the window.

Guede says he then tried to rescue Meredith but fled in a panic.
New Testimony Comes From Notorious Child Killer in Italy

Alessi is well known in Italy as the man who kidnapped and murdered Tommaso Onofri, a 2-year old boy, in 2006 in a case that drew as much media attention as the Knox case. He made his revelations in a letter he addressed to one of Sollecito's lawyers, Giulia Bongiorno, who is a well-known figure in Italian judicial circles. Bongiorno is a parliamentarian and the head of the Justice Commission in Parliament
Alessi is serving a life sentence, recently confirmed on appeal, in the same prison in Viterbo, Italy, as Guede. They are both in the special section reserved for those accused of sex crimes.

According to Alessi's account, Guede told him that the other man killed Kercher when she refused to participate in a sex triangle. Rudy and his friend, according to the account, then met up again later at a disco.

Sollecito's Perugia lawyer, Luca Maori, confirmed to ABC News that they had deposited a 2 1/2 hour video of the interview of Alessi that they conducted two weeks ago in prison with the Perugia court. Maori did not want to comment on the matter because it is "very delicate" and the testimony is being evaluated by the court authorities.
Guede's lawyers, however, discount Alessi's testimony, saying it is just "another desperate attempt by desperate inmates" to get attention and "please the defendants," as in Knox and Sollecito.

Walter Biscotti, Guede's lawyer, told ABC News on Saturday that he had just been to see Guede in prison, during the permitted weekly visit, and that Guede laughed when told about Alessi's testimony. He said he had never spoken to him about his case. Biscotti said Guede "was annoyed" by the latest development that put him back in the headlines.

"Rudy has never spoken to anyone about his trial, except us, his lawyers," Biscotti said. "He doesn't even speak to his friends about it."

This is not the first time in the Knox case that inmates have come forward with "important revelations."

Last year, a jailed mafia turncoat who had shared a prison cell with Sollecito wrote to the judge in the Knox-Sollecito trial claiming he could testify to Sollecito's innocence. He claimed he knew every detail. He also said he was behind the break-ins to the crime scene that took place last year, when the house was still confiscated by police.
New Trial With New Judge and Jury Expected in Perugia in Fall

Police questioned Luciano Aviello in prison but determined he was not reliable and what he had to say was not useful. Aviello had been accused of slander many times in the past
The new version of events recounted by Alessi comes just one day after the Perugia jury released a 427-page document explaining why it convicted Knox and Sollecito. In its "motivations" the jury reconstructed the crime, based, they say, on the physical evidence placing the three defendants in the house the night of the murder. The jury believes Knox and Sollecito met up with Guede, let him into the house Knox shared with Kercher and assisted him when he sexually assaulted Kercher. According to the document, the jurors believe both Sollecito and Knox held knives to Kercher's throat and that Knox inflicted the deepest wound that killed the British student.

The jury felt the DNA, blood, and footprint evidence presented by the prosecution was valid, notwithstanding extensive attempts by the defenses of the two defendants to show it was weak and inconclusive.

The lawyers for both defendants are preparing their appeal of the conviction based on this latest document.

After reading the "motivations," Knox lawyer Luciano Ghirga told reporters that in their appeal they will again present all of the topics that were analyzed in court, insisting on a new evaluation of the forensic evidence by an outside expert, and in particular the DNA evidence. The DNA evidence was hotly contested by the two sides in the first trial.
Ghirga told the ANSA agency that "we are profoundly dissatisfied by the fact that the judges did not believe Amanda."

Knox's parents said in a statement Thursday that in their opinion "there is a lot of conjecture in these motivations, a number of discrepancies as well as a number of inconsistencies and contradictions; as well as conclusions not supported by evidence."

The lawyers have 45 days to file their appeals and the next trial, with a new set of jurors and judges, is expected to be scheduled in Perugia this fall.

[Nut44x4]

Not buying it. There may have been another man there---but this guy is lying when he says Amanda was not there. Liar Liar pants on 

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20006538-504083.html
June 2, 2010 6:14 PM
Amanda Knox Faces Slander Charges for Police Beating Accusation

PERUGIA, Italy (CBS/AP) Amanda Knox, the American student who was convicted in Italy in 2009 for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher, could face an additional six years on top of her 25-year sentence if prosecutors are able to prove a slander case against her.

PICTURES: Verdict In Italy

Knox appeared briefly in court Tuesday, the first time the public has seen her since December 2009 when she was taken away in tears and handcuffs after being convicted of the 2007 murder, to face slander charges for saying in court that she was beaten by police while being interrogated.

Police in Perugia, Italy filed charges against Knox after she testified that she had been the subject of a "crescendo" of police pressure and that a policewoman hit her twice on the head. She said that behavior led her to accuse an innocent man - the owner of a pub in Perugia where Knox worked - who was arrested as a result of Knox's statements before being later cleared.

Knox has never been able to identify the officer she says hit her, and at the time of her testimony the prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, said there was no proof that the abuse took place. Under Italian law a slander conviction can lead to a fine or up to six years in prison.

The 22-year-old Seattle native sported a shorter haircut, prompting some tabloids to proclaim that she was depressed and not faring well under the pressures of prison life, but her stepfather says she's doing fine.

"Amanda is doing pretty good," Knox's stepfather, Chris Mellas, told reporters in Perugia, a hill town in central Italy. "She is looking forward actually to being able once again to put forward her side of the case and kind of defend herself."
Last November, Knox's divorced parents were placed under investigation for repeating their daughter's claim that police officers had beaten her during questioning.

Knox has been jailed since shortly after Kercher's body was found on Nov. 2, 2007, in the house the two students shared.

Her ex-boyfriend and co-defendant at the trial, Raffaele Sollecito of Italy, was also convicted and sentenced to 25 years. A third person, Ivorian Rudy Hermann Guede, was convicted of murder in separate proceedings and sentenced to 16 years.

All three are appealing their convictions.

[Nut44x4]

Amanda Knox is innocent, jailed Italian mobster says his brother killed Meredith Kercher

BY Sean Alfano
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, June 9th 2010, 8:08 AM

"Foxy Knoxy" was framed.       (BULLCRAP )

That's the tune an Italian mobster jailbird is singing, claiming his brother brutally murdered a female British college student, not American Amanda Knox.

Luciano Aviello, who is currently serving a 17-year sentence for his mafia ties, told Knox's lawyers his brother Antonio slaughtered Meredith Kercher and asked him to hide the bloody knife and Kercher's keys, the Daily Mail reports.

Aviello said his brother showed up to his house wearing a bloodstained jacket the night of the murder saying he broke into a house and killed a woman. He then asked Aviello to hide the knife.

"I had everything under a little wall behind my house and covered it with soil and stones. I am happy to stand up in court and confirm all this and wrote to the court several times to tell them but was never questioned," he said.

Aviello claims he wrote to the court three times to give his testimony, but was ignored.

Last year, an Italian court convicted Knox and her then-boyfriend her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. She got 26 years, he got 25 years. A third man, Rudy Guede, was also convicted.

Aviello swears all three are innocent. However, Antonio is nowhere to be found.

In 2007, Kercher's half-naked body was found, her throat slit in the bedroom of the house she shared with Knox in Perugia.

Aviello, who is from Naples, said he and his brother were living in Perugia the year Kercher was killed.

Knox's lawyers are planning an appeal. A court date is expected for the fall.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/06/09/2010-06-09_amanda_knox_is_innocent_jailed_italian_mobster_says_his_brother_killed_meredith_.html

[trimmonthelake]

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38963984/ns/today-today_people/
Behind bars, Amanda Knox dreams of adopting a child
American student's jailhouse conversations with an Italian lawmaker to become basis of a book

 updated 9/1/2010 8:02:24 PM ET

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ROME — Amanda Knox, the American student convicted in Italy of murdering her British roommate, has told an Italian lawmaker in a series of jailhouse conversations that she hopes to adopt children and be a writer when free.

Lawmaker Rocco Girlanda told The Associated Press on Saturday that he kept a diary of his frequent visits with Knox in her Perugia jail, material that has formed the basis of a book being published in Italy and the U.S. later this fall.

Girlanda's "Take Me With You - Talks with Amanda Knox in Prison" also includes letters and poetry Knox sent to Girlanda, the president of a foundation that promotes ties between the two countries.

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-national/retired-fbi-agent-who-once-thought-amanda-knox-guilty-of-murder-now-proclaims-she-s-innocent-video
Retired FBI agent who once thought Amanda Knox guilty of murder now proclaims she's innocent (video)
    * September 1st, 2010 11:56 pm ET

 Retired FBI agent who once thought Amanda Knox guilty of murder now proclaims she’s innocent (video)

Steve Moore retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2008, and believed American student Amanda Knox was guilty of murder after following her trial. However, just a year after Knox was convicted of the 2007 killing of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, in their Perugia, Italy cottage, Moore is coming to Knox’s defense.

“I am not the kind of person to go on causes to get people released from jail,” Moore said. However, he explained his position saying “If you were a paramedic and saw a car accident, you wouldn’t say, ‘I’m retired’ and walk on by.”

His current stance is that Knox was the victim of a flawed police investigation, a prosecutor who was overzealous, and a tabloid media frenzy, according to KING 5 News. He even calls her interrogation by police as “the most coercive” he’s seen “in the last 20 years.”

Moore said he’s been studiously examining hours and hours of investigator videotape, which shows police collecting evidence at the crime scene, and was “startled” by what he saw.

He said he felt as though he was peering into the bad dream of another when perusing over Knox's case. According to Moore, much of the evidence presented at Knox’s trial was flawed and should have been allowed in the courtroom.
 During Knox’s trial, Italian prosecutors posited that Knox was the mastermind behind a drug-fueled sex game with her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito and a drifter named Rudy Guede. Authorities presented the theory that Knox cut Meredith’s throat because she refused to participate in their sexual escapade.

Moore argues that if such a scenario were true, a massive amount of DNA would be at the scene and spread across the bedroom. Lab tests determined that Guede's was the only person who left prints at the scene.

“There was blood everywhere, there were footprints, fingerprints, palm prints, hair fluid samples, DNA of one person,” said the retired agent. “There is no way that two people could have just levitated over all the blood while one person stepped through it.”

Moore also does not believe that Knox fit’s the profile of a cold blooded killer. She has no history of violence, was an honor student at the University of Washington, and never displayed a dark or disturbed side.

“There’s a thing called leakage,” Moore told KING. “… leakage is the inability of a person with violent tendencies to control everything.” He explained that fist fights, arrests, and cruelty to animals would be present in someone who was trying to conceal a disturbed personality.

KING reporter Linda Byron questioned Moore’s perspective by writing, “If Moore’s theories are correct, then one wonders why Knox would sign statements that she was in the house when Kercher was murdered, but later changer her story.”

Knox was sentenced to 26 years behind bars for the murder, but is appealing her conviction. She is due back in court regarding her appeal in October.

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/844294-ugly-amanda-knox-im-not-angelina-jolie
'Ugly' Amanda Knox: I'm not Angelina Jolie

Amanda Knox feels ‘ugly’ about being well-known for murdering British student Meredith Kercher, according to a new book. Knox also speaks of her hopes to marry, adopt children and become a writer.
The book, called Take Me With You – Talks With Amanda Knox In Prison, was put together by Rocco Girlanda and based on his series of conversations with the American

She was jailed last year for 26 years for the murder and sexual assault of Miss Kercher in Italy.

‘Everybody tells me, “You’re famous”. And I answer, “I’m not Angelina Jolie!”,’ Knox, 23, is quoted as saying

‘How ugly to be famous for this. I would have preferred to be [famous] for something I built, I achieved.’

Knox also states in the book that she has received marriage proposals while in jail near Perugia. A lawyer for 21-year-old Ms Kercher’s family said the book was ‘inappropriate’.

[trimmonthelake]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/amanda-knox-family-hopes-book-helps-fight-freedom/story?id=11905840
Amanda Knox Family Hopes New Book Helps Her Fight for Freedom
Author Rocco Girlanda Believes Amanda Knox Is Innocent of Murder
 
Post a Comment By ANDREA CANNING and SARAH NETTER
Oct. 18, 2010

Video at link

[Nut44x4]

Amanda Knox indicted on slander charges

Associated Press
Posted: Monday, November 8, 2010 6:44 am

American student Amanda Knox has been indicted on slander charges for claiming she was beaten by police when questioned in 2007 about her roommate's slaying.

The judge made the decision after a closed-door hearing in Perugia on Monday.

More at link
http://www.stltoday.com/news/world/article_60a2ccad-2684-582c-9c9d-6429d806102f.html

[Nut44x4]

Amanda Knox drawings show dark side, tabloid claims

by LINDA BYRON / KING 5 News
KING5.com
Posted on November 2, 2010 at 6:01 PM
Updated today at 6:43 PM

SEATTLE - The British Daily Mail says fluorescent pictures drawn by Amanda Knox reveal the inner thoughts of a violent killer. The paper describes the drawings as self- portraits of the 24-year-old. They show the back of a naked woman and close-ups of hands in vivid colors.
The paper says a psychologist analyzed the drawings and says the colors could suggest Knox is disturbed. The expert is quoted as saying that the color red represents anger and frustration while the blue can represent coldness.
The reports prompted a swift response from Knox’s family in Seattle. In a news release, the family called the tabloid reports “absurd, bizarre and ridiculous.” The family claims that the drawings were not self portraits by Amanda, but simply illustrations of no one in particular drawn by Amanda to help her pas the time in prison.
The family said “this is typical of the sensationalized, inaccurate and irresponsible reporting that has characterized much of what has been written about Amanda. It is unbelievable to us why these individuals go to such lengths to harm Amanda.”
Amanda Knox was convicted last December of murdering her British roommate Meredith Kercher in the cottage they shared in Perugia, Italy. Tuesday was the third anniversary of the day Kercher's body was found.
Knox’s appeal is scheduled to begin on November 24 and will take place in Perugia, the same town where the first jury convicted her. Her parents are very concerned about sensational stories. British tabloids are widely read in Italy and the jurors hearing Knox's appeal are free to read and discuss media reports.
http://www.king5.com/news/local/Amanda-Knox-drawings-show-dark-side-newspaper-claims-106573409.html

[Nut44x4]

3:20pm UK, Monday November 08, 2010

Tom Parmenter and Nick Pisa in Italy

Convicted killer Amanda Knox will face a further trial after she claimed she was mistreated by the Italian police.

The 23-year-old American student appeared in court in Perugia to hear that prosecutors will pursue slander charges against her.

During the course of her questioning at the original murder trial, Knox said police had called her a "stupid liar".

She also insisted she had been hit around the head by a female police officer during her time in custody in 2007. "I'm sorry but it's true", Knox had said.

In 2009, the American was jailed for 26 years for killing her roommate British student Meredith Kercher.

The police officers and interpreters who gave evidence in the trial all testified Knox was not put under pressure or mistreated.

At a new hearing to decide if there was enough evidence for the slander case to proceed, Knox, dressed in a blue top and trousers, stood up and spoke to the court.

She said: ''I didn't mean to offend or slander anybody. I reiterate, I was only trying to defend myself. I was exercising a right.''

Her lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova had argued the case should be thrown out.

But judge Claudia Matteini decided she had enough evidence to order a trial for slandering a total of seven officers.

During the murder trial, Knox recalled her police questioning and said: ''One shouted, 'You don't remember?' then a policewoman behind me hit me across the back of the head.

"I turned towards her and she did it again. They were only decent with me when I made my statement. They wanted a name, but I couldn't give them one.''

Under Italian law, slander is punishable with a fine and or a prison sentence of between two and six years.

The latest hearing in Perugia was held behind closed doors and Knox's lawyer said her client had never intended to slander anyone and was just trying to defend herself.

Court insiders said when the judge sent her for trial, Knox looked ''distressed and upset".

In 2009, Knox's then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, was also found guilty and was given a 25 year sentence.

A third man, Rudy Guede, was also convicted of murder.

The slander case will take place after an important appeal hearing for Knox and Sollecitio which is due to start on November 24.

Their legal teams have indicated they will highlight discrepancies in DNA evidence to try to convince the courts their convictions are unsafe.

The original trial heard how a 30cm kitchen knife had DNA from Meredith on the blade and that of Knox on the handle and it was found in Sollecito's kitchen.
 
Her lawyers will say the methods used in collecting the evidence were ''contaminated'' and the results produced were ''flawed'' and ''too low'' and should not have been used as evidence.

Sollecito's team will focus on Meredith's bloodied bra clasp which was found at the scene by police the day the body was discovered but then 'lost' for six weeks before being found again.

The court heard that Sollecito's DNA was found on the clasp.

But his lawyers will argue it was poorly handled and the six week gap meant the findings on it were more than likely to have been contaminated.

After the latest hearing, Knox was driven back to Perugia's Capanne jail where she is serving her sentence. Her slander trial will be heard on May 17 next year.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Amanda-Knox-Faces-New-Court-Case-In-Italy-Over-Claims-She-Was-Mistreated-By-Police/Article/201011215797338?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_4&lid=ARTICLE_15797338_Amanda_Knox_Faces_New_Court_Case_In_Italy_Over_Claims_She_Was_Mistreated_By_Police

comments at link

[2NJSons_Mom]

Perugia, Italy, Amanda Knox has been indicted on slander …
– 2 hrs 57 mins ago
ROME (AFP) – Amanda Knox, the American convicted of the sex-murder of a British student in Italy, was indicted Monday on charges of slander for claiming police beat her during questioning, her lawyer said.

The 23-year-old's trial on the charges of slandering seven police officers and an interpreter is due to start on May 17 next year, Luciano Ghirga said.

Knox was sentenced in December 2009 to 26 years in prison for the murder of Meredith Kercher in a drug-fuelled sex game that turned violent.

Kercher was found on November 2, 2007, semi-nude in a pool of blood with stab wounds to the neck in her room in the cottage she shared with Knox.

During the trial the Seattle native accused police of beating and intimidating her during questioning after the gruesome murder.

Knox said her false statements -- notably, that her part-time employer Patrick Lumumba was the killer -- were the result of "suggestions" during aggressive police questioning by interrogators who called her a "stupid liar."

She said a policewoman had twice hit her on the back of the head during questioning, a charge which Italian police have strongly denied.

Knox said she was under duress when she originally stated she was at home at the time of the murder and could hear Kercher's screams.

Instead, Knox said, she spent the night of November 1, 2007, with her then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito at his flat, where they smoked marijuana, had sex and watched a film.

Sollecito and a man from Ivory Coast, Rudy Guede, were also convicted of the murder.

Knox has repeatedly protested her innocence, and her trial on appeal for the murder is set to start on November 24.

The case continues to garner widespread media attention in Italy and abroad.

Knox has spoken in detail of her imprisonment in a book by Italian lawmaker Rocco Girlanda, president of the Italy-USA Foundation, who has taken a personal interest in the case and has visited Knox in prison.

Knox is quoted in the book as saying that she longs to live a normal life and hopes to one day become a mother and start a writing career.

The case is also serving as the basis for two films.

Robert Dornhelm's "The Amanda Knox Story," starring US actress Hayden Panettiere as Knox, will screen on television in the United States early next year.

Colin Firth has also been asked to star as a journalist investigating the murder in Italy in a planned British feature film directed by Michael Winterbottom.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101108/wl_uk_afp/italyusbritaincrimemurder_20101108154156

[Nut44x4]

I hope she gets another 25 years.....

[trimmonthelake]

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/12/11/italy.knox.appeal/?hpt=T2
Amanda Knox: Court has made 'huge mistake'
From Barbie Nadeau, For CNN
December 11, 2010 -- Updated 1159 GMT (1959 HKT)
Perugia, Italy (CNN) -- Former American student Amanda Knox gave an emotional plea Saturday while appealing her conviction in the murder of her British roommate in Italy.

Knox spoke for about 15 minutes and broke down in tears. She said that she and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are innocent and unjustly accused.

"I've been condemned for the crime I did not commit," Knox said.

Knox also added that court has made "a huge mistake."

"I don't know how to face the time ahead," she said.

Knox was sentenced last year to 26 years in prison for the killing of Meredith Kercher at the villa they shared in Perugia, the central Italian town where both were students.
Kercher, 21, was found in November 2007, semi-naked with her throat slashed. Knox and Sollecito were both found guilty of the murder.

Sollecito is serving a 25-year sentence.

A third person, Rudy Guede, a drifter originally from the Ivory Coast, was tried separately and is serving a 16-year prison sentence.

Knox's appeal hearing started in November, but lasted only 15 minutes before the judge adjourned it until Saturday because one of the lawyers was not present.

Knox's family said in April that she is innocent and that no forensic evidence puts her at the crime scene.

"Meredith was Amanda's friend," the family said. "They liked each other and spent time together when not in school. Amanda would not hurt Meredith."

The family said the appeal would detail "a lot of conjecture in these motivations, a number of discrepancies as well as a number of inconsistencies and contradictions; as well as conclusions not supported by evidence."
Jurors said they believed Knox played a role in the killing but that the death was not premeditated, according to a report released in April by the judges in the case.

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11975764
11 December 2010 Last updated at 06:27 ET
Amanda Knox speaks at Meredith Kercher murder appeal
The BBC's Duncan Kennedy said Amanda Knox's defence team will attempt to challenge the DNA evidence and introduce new witness testimony
Amanda Knox has told an Italian appeal court her conviction for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher was an "enormous mistake".

The 23-year-old American is trying to overturn her conviction after being jailed last year for 26 years for the killing in Perugia in 2007.

In an emotional address to a court in Perugia, Knox said her life had been "broken" by three years in jail.

Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, south London, was found with her throat cut.

The Leeds University student's semi-naked body was found partially covered by a duvet in her bedroom in the house she shared in the Italian city.

Knox's former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was jailed for 25 years for the murder.
Italian notes

During her address to the appeal court, Knox said she is not the "dangerous, diabolical" person described by the prosecution. She became tearful as she told how she thinks of Miss Kercher as someone she was "grateful and honoured" to have met.

Reading in Italian from handwritten notes, she said: "I am unjustly convicted.

"I will never get used to this broken life. To Meredith's family and loved ones, I would like to say that I am sorry that Meredith is not here.

"What you're going through and what Meredith went through is incomprehensible and unacceptable."

She also apologised to Patrice Lumumba, the man she indicated as the possible culprit during police questioning after the killing.

"I should have withstood the pressures that made me do you wrong," she said.

Knox was charged last month with slander for claiming police beat her during questioning.
DNA dispute

The original trial heard the pair had cornered Miss Kercher after starting a sex game with Ivorian drug dealer Rudy Guede, who was jailed for 30 years for the killing, although that was reduced to 16 years on appeal.

Italian Sollecito was convicted after a trial heard how he held down Miss Kercher while Knox attacked her with a knife.

The appeal had previously been adjourned because one of the lawyers is five months pregnant and has been advised not to travel to the court from Rome.

Knox's defence team maintains that the DNA evidence in the case was inconclusive and has argued it may have been contaminated when analysed.

It particularly focuses on disputed traces of DNA found on the knife the prosecution said was used in the murder, and on the clasp of Miss Kercher's bra.
In their appeal motion, defence lawyers were sharply critical of the verdict, maintaining it was based on mere hypotheses and saying that the motive was absent. Knox's parents, from Seattle, have said they are hopeful their daughter will be released once judges in Italy have re-examined the evidence.

However, if her conviction is upheld, her sentence could be increased.

The result of the appeal is not likely to come before the new year. As in the original trial, the verdict will be decided by the judge, a fellow magistrate and six jurors.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.kvue.com/news/entertainment/113116629.html
Murder trial of Amanda Knox featured in TV movie
January 7, 2011

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — The murder trial of American college student Amanda Knox is recreated in a television movie that had the actors debating her innocence or guilt.

Hayden Panettiere plays Knox and she says it's a riveting story where viewers don't know if Knox committed the crime or not, and she's not sure anyone will ever know.

"Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy" airs Feb. 21 on Lifetime.

The movie focuses on the trial of Knox, who was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering her British roommate in the rented house they shared in the university town of Perugia, where both were studying.

Knox's appeals trial began late last year in Perugia.

[Sister]

I hope she gets another 25 years.....