Meredith Kercher: Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito murder convictions stand (but they’re not guilty)
AMANDA Knox always said she never murdered Meredith Kercher, the British student found with over 40 wounds to her body in the Perugia, Italy, flat the pair shared.
Kercher died in November 2007. Knox was jailed. Then acquitted. Now Italy’s top court has overturned her acquittal. Knox’s original conviction stands. But that does not mean she is guilty. It just means we go again.
This will be a battle between the Italian and US justice systems.
Knox lives in Seattle. The new trial will take place in her abscence in the Florence Court of Appeal.
If convicted, Knox might be extradited from the United States. Expect a huge fight.
Says Knox:
“No matter what happens, my family and I will face this continuing legal battle as we always have, confident in the truth and with our heads held high in the face of wrongful accusations and unreasonable adversity.”
Meredith’s sister Stephanie says:
“We are all looking to find out the truth. We welcome the decision that a retrial has been ordered and are pleased it is a step forward to finding an answer to some of those questions.”
Also in the dock will be Raffaele Sollecito, Knox’s ex-boyfriend. He live in Verona.
Francesco Maresca, the Kercher family lawyer, is elated at the third trial:
“This decision serves to review the definitive and final truth of Meredith’s murder. [Rudy] Guede [an Ivorian who is in prison for the murder of Ms Kercher] was not alone, the judges will tell us who was there with him… There was a lot of external pressure and the judge showed a will from the start to acquit.”
Before that third trial, Knox is due to publish a book called Waiting to be Heard.
Sollecito wrote Honour Bound.
We’ve seen their sides of the story.
But still we’re not sure what happend to Meredith Kercher.
One fact we do know for certain is that Knox was convicted of trying to pin Kercher’s murder on Patrick Lumumba, a Congolese bar owner for whom she worked. She was convicted ot defaming Mr Lumumba. That conviction stands.
Meanwhile, Guede is still in jail after the same Court of Cassation confirmed his sentence and found that he committed the crime with two other people whom it did not name.
Such are the facts.
Francesco Maresca, lawyer of Meredith Kercher’s relatives, center, arrives at Italy’s Court of Cassation, in Rome, Tuesday, March 26, 2013. Italy’s highest criminal court has overturned the acquittal of Amanda Knox in the slaying of her British roommate and ordered a new trial. The Court of Cassation ruled Tuesday that an appeals court in Florence must re-hear the case against the American and her Italian-ex-boyfriend for the murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Luciano Ghirga, lawyer of Amanda Knox, center, talks to journalists as he leaves Italy’s Court of Cassation, in Rome, Tuesday, March 26, 2013.
Giulia Bongiorno, lawyer of Amanda Knox’s ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, talks to reporters as she leaves Italy’s Court of Cassation, in Rome, Monday, March 25, 2013.
Posted: 26th, March 2013 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
