Parents Hope For Acquittal in Knox Murder Case
Posted: Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 9:11 am
The actions of an Italian court are giving hope to family and friends of Amanda Knox, a Seattle native who is being held in an Italian jail on charges of killing her roommate Meredith Kercher in 2007.
The Italian court has forgone an opportunity to re-evaluate evidence in Knox’s trial. This can mean that the court is confident that the evidence is sufficient for a guilty verdict, or that they are confident that she is not guilty, and are proceeding towards an acquittal and dropping the charges against her.
Knox, along with her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, contest the media’s portrayal of them as killers and say they are innocent. The pair were criticized by the media following Kercher’s death and during the investigation, for their demeanor throughout the process. Knox has testified that she was not at her apartment the night of the murder, although DNA evidence from the crime scene seems to dispute that fact.
A third suspect, Rudy Guede, was indicted in a separate trial, found guilty, and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is currently seeking an appeal. A fourth suspect was questioned and then released after investigators were able to prove his alibi.
Prosecutors have told reporters that both Knox and Sollecito have given separate statements to investigators that are contradictory and confusing. Evidence against the two includes a bloody footprint from a shoe next to Kercher’s said to have come from Sollecito, traces of blood belonging to both Knox and Kercher mixed together in a bathroom adjacent to the room where Kercher died, and a bloody knife with both Knox and Kercher’s DNA on it.
Appearing on Larry King, Knox’s mother Edda Mellas said that friends and family told Knox to leave Italy after the murder, to return to Seattle or stay with relatives in Germany. They say Knox refused, in order to stay behind and help with the investigation, to prove she had nothing to do with it.
“Many people asked her to leave, but she said no. ‘I’m going to stay. I’m going to try and help. I’m going to try and finish school,’” Mellas said.
“We have to believe that what they’re hearing in court – and it’s so clear that she had nothing to do with it — then they’ll come out with the right answer,” Curt Knox, Amanda’s father, told Larry King. “I mean, that’s – that’s what we have to believe.”
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