Italian prosecutor, Alessandro Crini, has appealed an appellate court to convict Amanda Knox for the 2007 murder of her British roommate. The prosecutor urged the appeals court Monday not to repeat mistakes made by the high court that freed her.
Amanda had been convicted in 2009 of the murder of Meredith Kercher – a British student, and sentenced to serve 26 years. She only served 4 years of the 26-year sentence before her conviction was overturned on October 3, 2011 by an appellate court. In yet another twist, her acquittal was overturned by the Supreme Court on March 26, 2013 and her case was sent back to the high court for reconsideration.
Kercher’s body was discovered in a pool of blood in her room on Nov. 2, 2007 with her throat slit. There were also signs that she was sexually assaulted. The lower court had argued that the crime was fueled by a sexual game gone wrong, but the prosecutor departed from that line of argument saying that the crime was not so much sexually motivated; instead, it was an act of physical aggression with a sexual expression.
Prosecutor Crini said that the Supreme Court had “razed to the ground” the appellate court’s 2011 decision to nullify the guilty conviction. The high court has ordered a fresh appeals trials saying that the earlier appeal was marred with contradictions.
The prosecutor’s demands came after more than 10 hours of closing arguments spread over two days during which he argued that Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito (co-defendant) committed the crime in concert of a third man (Rudy Guede ) who was convicted separately. The crime was reportedly committed as a result of disagreement between the roommates over cleanliness. Testimonies indicate that there had been tensions between Kercher and Knox about the level of cleanliness.
Following this development, the Meredith Kercher’s 2007 murder case will be getting its third trial. Knox’s co-accused, Sollecito, has also attended two hearings so far. The third person in the case, Rudy Guede, is already serving 16 years in prison after being found guilty of Kercher’s murder.
(main image via YouTube)