This Article is From Jan 31, 2014

American is again found guilty in 2007 murder of her roommate in Italy

American is again found guilty in 2007 murder of her roommate in Italy

File photo of Amanda Knox (L) and Raffaele Sollecito

Florence, Italy: Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend were convicted on Thursday for a second time in the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, who shared an apartment with Knox in the university town of Perugia, where both women were exchange students. The presiding judge in the Florence court sentenced Knox to 28 and-a-half years in prison and the boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, to 25 years.

In so ruling, the court upheld a 2009 conviction for the murder. Knox, now 26, and Sollecito, 29, spent four years in prison before an appellate court in Perugia acquitted them in 2011, but the Court of Cassation, Italy's highest court, overturned that ruling last year, sending the case back to the appellate court in Florence.

Both defendants staunchly maintain their innocence.

The courtroom fell still as the presiding judge, Alessandro Nencini, read the sentences 11 1/2 hours after the jury, consisting of two judges and six lay jurors, began its deliberations.

Sollecito attended many of the hearings with his father, but neither he nor his family was present when the verdict was read.

Knox did not return to Italy to attend the appellate trial because she feared being wrongly incarcerated again, she said in an interview last week in her hometown, Seattle.

Carlo Dalla Vedova, one of her lawyers, called her as soon as the sentence was read. Asked what her reaction had been, he said, "She just listened."

Expressing her "respect and support" for the grief of the Kercher family, Knox said in a statement issued Thursday that she was "frightened and saddened by this unjust verdict," and had "expected better from the Italian justice system," which continued to subject her to "wrongful persecution."

"Clearly a wrongful conviction is horrific for the wrongfully accused, but it is also terribly bad for the victim, their surviving family and society," she wrote.

Lyle and Stephanie Kercher, the older siblings of Meredith Kercher, who have always supported the prosecution's case, were in court as the sentence was read.

"This confirms everything we've said all these years," said Francesco Maresca, one of the lawyers for the Kercher family. "Above all, I hope it brings justice for Meredith and her family."

Defense lawyers vowed to appeal the latest conviction with the Court of Cassation, waiting to file until after the court publishes its reasoning within 90 days.

 "It's evident we will appeal," said Luciano Ghirga, another one of Knox's lawyers. "We continue to say that there is no evidence."

Sollecito's lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, said the trial had been "empty of proof and evidence," and she pledged to fight on.

"The outcome will prolong our efforts and Raffaele's suffering," she said.

The court rejected the Florence prosecutor's request to issue an arrest warrant for the defendants, whom the prosecutor considered a flight risk. The court ruled that Knox was legitimately in the United States. Sollecito was ordered to surrender his passport and barred from leaving Italy.

The Italian authorities would have to extradite Knox for her to begin serving her sentence, but that possibility will arise only when her sentence is definitive.

Julian Ku, a professor at Hofstra University law school and an expert on international law, said that although it was hard to predict what would happen, "I don't think there is a strong legal basis to prevent her extradition."

He added, however, that extradition was ultimately up to the U.S. secretary of state, and that some sort of "political decision" by the Italian or American governments could influence the outcome.

Knox was originally sentenced to 26 years, but the Florence court added two and a half years because it confirmed Knox's previous conviction for slander, adding aggravating circumstances.

Shortly after the killing on Nov. 1, 2007, Knox accused Patrick Diya Lumumba, her Congolese-born boss, of the crime. He was arrested but later released when his alibi was confirmed.

The ruling adds a new twist to a polarizing case that has produced vastly contradictory verdicts as it meanders through the Italian legal system.

Thursday's ruling upheld the prosecution's case that Knox and Sollecito killed Kercher, 21, on the night of Nov. 1, 2007, acting with a third defendant, Rudy Guede, born in Ivory Coast but raised in Perugia.

Guede, now 27, was convicted of the murder in a separate, fast-track trial and is serving a 16-year sentence.

The judge and jury at the appellate trial did not rehear all the testimony or re-examine the entire body of evidence but focused instead on a few elements; for example, asking for new tests to be carried out on the knife the prosecution believes to be the murder weapon.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the verdict, the Florence prosecutor, Alessandro Crini, shook his head. "You can never be satisfied when people are convicted," he said. "But after 11 hours of deliberations we are encouraged that the jury accepted what we argued throughout the trial."

Speaking to journalists earlier in the day, Lyle Kercher, the victim's brother, said the case was not over as long as the defense appealed to the Court of Cassation. "We're not going to get closure today, so there won't be any celebration on our part, but it's hopefully a step towards reaching a conclusion," he said. "But it's not the final word."

Kercher said losing a loved one was hard enough, but the family's stress had been compounded by the length of time that the legal process was taking. "It makes it very difficult to start the grieving in earnest," he said.

This case, said Vieri Fabiani, a lawyer for the Kerchers, "has no winners or losers. It's a tragedy that involves four young people."
© 2014, The New York Times News Service
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