Eight years after the fact, the Italian Supreme Court put an end to the trial for the murder of Meredith Kercher. The judges of the highest court of the country decided Friday, March 27th that American Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito of Italy, did not commit the crime for which they were sentenced on appeal to heavy prison sentences in January 2014.
After the first trial, both trial and on appeal an initial decision of the Court of Cassation, the new verdict is unexpected. The judges have in fact not only overturned the decision of Florence Appeal Court – which convicted Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito to 25 and 28 years in prison – but they also decided not to order a new trial.
“I am extremely relieved and grateful for the decision of the Italian Supreme Court,” said Amanda Knox in a statement. “Me knowing my innocence gave me strength in the darkest hours of the test,” she added. Raffalele Sollecito’s lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno literally jumped out of his chair to the verdict, falling into the arms of his colleague Dalla Vedova, before calling his client on the phone. “He is at home with his father and he is very happy,” she said.
In the nights of November 1st and 2nd in 2007, Meredith Kercher, a British student of 21 years, was found dead and half-naked and in a pool of blood in the apartment she shared with Amanda Knox in Perugia in central Italy. The autopsy revealed that she had been raped and beaten with 47 stab wounds.
Meredith Kercher’s mother said she was surprised and very shocked by the verdict, given that the two accused had been convicted twice for the murder of the British student. She asked what she planned to do after this decision, she replied, “I really do not know right now […]”
A year later, the Ivorian Rudy Guede was sentenced to 16 years in prison for involvement in the murder, but the judge on his case concluded that he could not have acted alone. Aged between 20 and 24 years old at the time, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were convicted in December 2009 to 26 and 25 years in prison before being acquitted on appeal in 2011 after four years behind bars.
But the Supreme Court returned the case to another Court of Appeal, which held on January 30th, 2014, the couple had killed Meredith Kercher when an argument with Amanda Knox has degenerated.
In its decision, the appellate court relied on the fact that the DNA of Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede had been found on the crime scene. But the DNA of Raffaele Sollecito only appears on one strap bra that defense says contaminated due to police incompetence. As for Amanda Knox’s DNA found in the bathroom, mixed with the blood of the victim, but not in the room where Meredith Kercher died. The appeals court also relied on a written confession of Knox during interrogation, in which it says that he was found in the house and heard the killing, without having taken part and without signal the possible presence of Sollecito. But she later retracted, saying he wrote under duress.