Amanda Knox In review

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Edda Mellas and Curt Knox say they have never believed their daughter was guilty.


Amanda Knox has been on trial in Italy for nearly two years.

* Story Highlights
* Knox is on trial in Italy, accused of killing her British roommate, Meredith Kercher
* Italian court refused defense request to re-evaluate evidence
* Amanda Knox's parents hope that means she will be found not guilty of murder

updated 28 minutes ago

(CNN) -- Amanda Knox's parents are hopeful that an Italian court's decision not to re-evaluate the evidence against their daughter means she will be found not guilty of killing her roommate.

"We asked for the independent review because we were sure that anybody [who] independently looked at it would support our position," Edda Mellas, Knox's mother, told CNN's Larry King in an interview to air Friday night.

"Now, maybe the court decided that they don't even need that support. That our arguments have already been good enough."

Knox, of Seattle, Washington, has been in an Italian jail and on trial for nearly two years on charges that she helped murder her roommate, British student Meredith Kercher.

Knox's defense lawyers had asked the court for an independent review of the evidence, which can be requested if there is contested or contradicting evidence.

Prosecutors say a kitchen knife, allegedly the murder weapon, has Knox's DNA on the handle and Kercher's DNA on the blade. The defense disputes that, but last Friday, the court denied the request for a review.

Closing arguments in the trial are expected at the beginning of November, and Knox's parents hope a verdict will finally vindicate their daughter. Video Watch Curt Knox say why he thinks his daughter was arrested »http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/16/...ml#cnnSTCVideo

Her father, Curt Knox, told CNN that he thinks Amanda Knox was targeted as a suspect from the beginning.

Within days of Kercher's murder, Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were questioned and portrayed in the media as the undisputed killers.

"I believe that there was a huge mistake made very, very early on by, you know, having a -- literally a 'case closed,' you know, presentation by the police over there," he said.

Prosecutors held news conferences weeks after the killing, declaring the case solved. Knox, Sollecito and bar owner Patrick Lumumba were believed to have killed Kercher during a sexual game gone horribly awry.

Knox was criticized in newspapers and tabloids around the world for her demeanor after the killing, which included photos of her and Sollecito comforting each other as crime scene investigators looked for clues in her house.

Knox's mother told King that those headlines couldn't be further from the truth.

"You know, she's very much a person who internalizes," Mellas said. "She was extremely upset, and her roommate testified that when she found out it was Meredith that was killed, she was very upset. She cried; she did all of that. But by the time those photos were taken, it was hours later, and she was being comforted by Raffaele."

As the investigation went on, the scenario of what happened changed.

Lumumba was released because he had an airtight alibi, and DNA evidence from the crime scene soon pointed to a different suspect: Rudy Guede. Guede was sentenced to 30 years for the murder in a separate trial and is appealing the verdict.

Knox's parents believe that Guede is the sole killer, but because the prosecution hammered the idea that Knox and Sollecito were guilty, they couldn't back away from it.

"They were just too far into it, and they've been trying to press it ever since," Curt Knox said.

Knox's family and friends insist that the girl they know wouldn't kill anyone. Her parents say they never believed that she was guilty.

After the murder, Mellas said, friends and family told Knox to leave Italy -- to either come home or stay with relatives in Germany -- but Knox refused because she wanted to help find the killer and prove that 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.



Looking back, her parents wish Knox had left. Now, all they can do is wait -- and hope things turn out how they believe they should.

"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 said. "I mean, that's -- that's what we have to believe.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/16/...nts/index.html

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Meredith Kercher was found dead with a stab wound to her neck
• Amanda Knox and former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito on trial over murder
• Prosecutors say Knox, Sollecito and a bar owner killed Kercher during a sex game gone wrong
• Knox has denied this saying conflicting statements she made were due to police pressure

The family of Meredith Kercher say they will never get over her death.

By Hilary Whiteman
CNN
November 2, 2009 12:12 p.m. EST

London, England (CNN) -- It has been two years since the body of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher was found in the house she shared with fellow students in Perugia, Italy.

Months may have passed but her parents, John and Arline Kercher, say they are still struggling to comprehend what happened and why.

In a short statement commemorating their daughter's murder, the Kercher's said: "The two years since Meredith's death have passed very quickly. But, we still miss her more than ever."

"We can only hope now that a conclusion is reached in the next five weeks, so that we can finally dedicate ourselves to remember Meredith for the person that all of us knew and not as a victim or as a news item."

On November 2, 2007, Meredith's partially-dressed body was discovered. She had suffered a stab wound to her neck.

The case generated headlines worldwide, not least because one of the suspected murderers was a young American woman who prosecutors allege was involved with two males in a "drug-fueled sex game," which led to Kercher's death.

The trial of 22-year-old Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, from Italy, started in an Italian court in January and is set to draw to a close later this month.

They are accused of sexual assault and murder. Both deny all charges.

In June, Knox took the stand to deny allegations that she was at the villa she shared with Kercher the night of the murder November 1, 2007. She was with Sollecito at his house that night, she said.

She said that any conflicting statements she made to police during questioning were a result of police pressure, their suggestions, and her confused and frightened state of mind.

In the media, Knox's parents have mounted their own defense for their daughter.

Two weeks ago, they appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" to proclaim their daughter's innocence.

Curt Knox told CNN his daughter was targeted as a suspect from the beginning.

"I believe that there was a huge mistake made very, very early on by, you know, having a -- literally -- a 'case closed,' you know, presentation by the police over there," he said.

In contrast, Kercher's parents have kept a low media profile. They have broken their silence on few occasions to express their grief.

In Britain's The Daily Mirror newspaper, John Kercher described the gut-wrenching moment he learned that the British student killed in Perugia was his daughter.

"I drop the phone. I don't believe it and think there must be a mistake. But I know it's probably true. I can't cry. I'm numb with shock," he wrote in June.

He spoke with Meredith Kercher on the phone just the day before. She called from Perugia where she studied European politics and Italian through the Erasmus program with Leeds University.

She had been in Perugia for only two months.

The family would never get over her death, her mother, Arline, said in court at the start of the trial.

"It was unbelievable, unreal and in many ways it still is -- I am still looking for her. It's not just her death, it's the nature of it, the brutality, the violence and the great sorrow it brought for everyone -- it was such a shock."

"You send your daughter away to study and she doesn't come back. We will never, ever get over it," she told the court.

On Sunday, the family held a private ceremony to remember their daughter, "as Meredith would have liked," they said in a statement from their lawyer. The congregation at the family's local church were asked to say prayers for her; afterwards the family planned to lay flowers on her grave.

They hope now, two years after the intense shock, that the conclusion of the trial will bring them some closure.

However, their pain may yet be prolonged by any subsequent appeals.

The third person charged with Kercher's murder, 22-year-old Rudy Guede from the Ivory Coast, is appealing his conviction. He was found guilty in October 2008 and sentenced to 30 years in prison. His case is due to be heard in late November.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe...ary/index.html

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By PAOLO SANTALUCIA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

PERUGIA, Italy -- A man appealing his conviction for murdering a British student testified Wednesday that he heard her arguing with her American roommate Amanda Knox minutes before she was slain.

Rudy Hermann Guede of Ivory Coast spoke at the opening of his appeal at a court in Perugia, saying he had tried to save Meredith Kercher after he heard a loud scream coming from her bedroom.


FILE - This Dec. 6, 2007 file photo shows Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native who has been detained in the slaying of British college student Meredith Kercher in Perugia central Italy, being held by Italian police officers as he arrives after his arrest in Germany to Rome's Fiumicino airport. On Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009, an Italian court began hearing Guede's appeal against his conviction in the 2007 slaying of Kercher, for which the victim's American roommate Amanda Knox is also on trial
Guede was convicted last year in a fast-track trial and sentenced to 30 years in prison for killing the 21-year-old exchange student from Leeds, England in Italy. He has maintained his innocence.


Guede's appeals process began even as the murder trial implicating Knox, from Seattle, and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, continued. Knox and Sollecito, who are accused of murder and sexual violence in Kercher's slaying, deny any wrongdoing. A verdict in their trial is expected next month.

Guede told the court Wednesday that he went to the house where Kercher was killed on Nov. 1, 2007, together with Kercher, but then fell ill and went to the bathroom along with his iPod.

"Then I heard Meredith's and Amanda's voices, arguing about some money missing," he said. "I was listening to music and at one point I heard a very loud scream."

Guede said he rushed into Kercher's bedroom where he saw an unidentified man who tried to attack him. Backing down into the hallway, Guede said he heard the man say "'Let's go, there's a black man in the house.'"

Guede said he heard footsteps leaving the house and looked out of the window, where he saw a silhouette that he later identified as Knox's.

Guede said he then tried to rescue Kercher, who was lying in a pool of blood after her throat was slit. He said he took her in his arms and tried to mop up the blood with towels, but then panicked and left the house.

"Seeing Meredith in these terms was agonizing," he said. "She tried to tell me something, but I couldn't understand her. I held her hand, I asked her what had happened. ... In that moment, I entered into a state of shock" and fled.

"I want to let the Kercher family know that I did not kill or rape their little daughter," he said. "I am not the one who took her life away from them."

He added: "I don't know if I could have saved her. That's the only thing I can apologize for."

Later Wednesday, prosecutor Pietro Catalani asked the court to confirm the sentence of 30 years in jail for Guede.

"He is not credible," Catalani said, adding that wounds on Kercher's body suggest it took far longer for her to die than Guede's testimony indicated.

Proceedings were adjourned to Dec. 21, when Guede's defense lawyers will argue their case.

Guede's appeals trial is separate from that of Knox and Sollecito, and his testimony cannot be included in the proceedings against them, lawyers said. Guede took the stand during Knox and Sollecito's trial but declined to answer prosecutors' questions or offer any spontaneous testimony.

Prosecutors say Kercher was killed during what began as a sex game.

According to the prosecutors, Sollecito held Kercher by the shoulders while Knox touched her with a knife. They say Guede tried to sexually assault Kercher and then Knox fatally stabbed her in the throat.

Guede was arrested in Germany shortly after the killing on an international arrest warrant and was later extradited to Italy.

Authorities began looking for Guede after his fingerprint was found in bloodstains on Kercher's pillow, and other DNA traces were recovered on toilet paper and on the victim's body.

Defense lawyers for Knox and Sollecito are working on the theory that Guede was the sole attacker.

The 22-year-old Knox maintains she spent the night of the murder at Sollecito's house in Perugia. The 25-year-old Sollecito has said he was home working at his computer that night. He said he does not remember if Knox spent the whole night with him or just part of it.

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/11...ent_slain.html

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Did Guede's Outburst Hurt Amanda Knox's Case?

Testimony Comes Just Days Before Summations Begin in Murder Trial

By ANN WISE and NIKKI BATTISTE

PERUGIA, Italy Nov. 18, 2009


Rudy Guede of the Ivory Coast gives a thumbs-up as he sits in the appellate court in Perugia November 18, 2009. Guede, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison last year in connection with the November 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher, appealed the verdict. Guede along with U.S. student Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Rafaelle Sollecito are accused of the rape and murder of Kercher.
(Reuters)

Just days before lawyers will begin summations in the Amanda Knox murder case, the one person already convicted of the crime appeared in an Italian courtroom today and said he saw Knox leaving the cottage as her British roomate lay dying of a knife wound to the throat.

Rudy Guede was in the Perugia court to appeal his conviction and 30 year prison sentence in the death of Meredith Kercher.

He ended his statement by turning to the lawyer representing Kercher's family and said, "I want the Kercher family to know that I did not kill and did not rape their daughter. It was not me that took her life away."

Guede's appeal is not part of Knox's trial, but in Italy the jury is not sequestered and the Italian press has had lurid coverage of the year-long trial. It comes at a key moment in the procedings. Summations in the case begin Friday.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/rudy-guede-...ory?id=9117060

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Amanda Knox tortured, killed roommate, prosecutor says in closing

From Hada Messia,
November 20, 2009 8:09 p.m. EST

Perugia, Italy (CNN) -- Accompanied by two smitten young men vying to impress her, a resentful Amanda Knox toyed with a knife and then plunged it into her roommate's neck, killing her, an Italian prosecutor charged in closing arguments Friday.

The November 2, 2007, death of British student Meredith Kercher occurred during a twisted sex game in which Knox taunted Kercher, and the two men -- boyfriend Rafael Sollecito and acquaintance Rudy Guede -- sexually assaulted her, prosecutor Guilano Mignini said during his seven-hour closing.

The prosecutor said Knox hated and resented Kercher and had decided the time had come to exact revenge.

Knox, 22, and Sollecito, 26, are on trial for sexual assault and murder.

Police found Kercher's bloody body under a duvet on the floor of the apartment she shared with Knox. Both deny the charges.

Mignini said Kercher died about 11:30 p.m. after she and Knox had quarreled -- either over money or Guede's presence at the house.

The prosecutor said the men pinned Kercher down by her arms while Knox played with the knife, prodding at her throat and saying, "Ah, you were pretending to be such a little saint. ... Now we are going to show you."

Knox's lawyer, Carlos Della Vedova, later told reporters, "I believe that Mignini's presentation was very suggestive, but we are in a courtroom, and proof is needed in order to convict a person."

Mignini defended his investigation, saying the criticism came from journalists, detectives, bloggers and lawyers from Italy and abroad who were seeking fame. He said police and prosecutors handled the case professionally, adding that it was time to bring the saga to a close.

Francesco Maresca, a lawyer for the Kercher family, said he was "very satisfied" with the prosecutor's argument, adding that the crimes should bring a life sentence.

Knox appeared drained as she sat in court Friday. Prosecution arguments focusing on the forensic aspects of the case will continue Saturday, and possibly into next week. Then it will be the defense's turn to make its points. The jury is due to get the case December 4.

After the court recessed, Knox's stepfather defended her against the prosecutor's strong accusations.

"She's an innocent girl looking at having to spend a lifetime in prison,"

Chris Mellas told reporters. "Of course she was upset. She had to sit there as he continued to say, 'Amanda this, Amanda that.' Yeah, it gets to you."

Police arrested Knox and Sollecito soon after Kercher's death, along with Guede, a native of the Ivory Coast who opted for a separate, fast-track trial and was convicted of murder and attempted sexual assault in October 2008.

The court sentenced Guede to 30 years in prison. He began an appeal of the verdict this week.

The key piece of evidence against Knox is a 6½-inch kitchen knife that prosecutors say was used to slit Kercher's throat.

The knife belonged to Sollecito and was found at his apartment with Knox's DNA on the handle and Kercher's DNA on the blade, according to a source close to the prosecution who did not want to be identified discussing an ongoing case.

Kercher had never been to Sollecito's apartment and wouldn't have come in contact with the knife, which shows it played a role in the murder, the source said.

Experts testifying for the defense, however, say there is no way the knife could be the murder weapon because it would not have made the wounds left on Kercher's body.

Anne Bremner, a lawyer and former prosecutor working with the group Friends of Amanda, told CNN that investigators improperly handled the knife, leading to questions about the validity of the DNA evidence.

Another defense expert, geneticist and private coroner Sarah Gino, testified that the DNA sample on the knife was too small to be definitive.

Prosecutor Mignini, however, argued that the knife was not contaminated by investigators. He said it was picked up by crime scene investigators wearing new gloves, placed in a new bag and sealed.

He challenged the defense to prove that the knife had been contaminated.

On the night Kercher was killed, Knox and Sollecito say, they were at his house watching a movie and smoking marijuana.

They admitted their recollection of events was hazy from the drugs, but both swore they went back to the house the next morning. Knox said she could not get in, so she called police.

Prosecutors also pointed to what they say is a confession by Knox, but she later said any apparent admission that she was at the scene was made when investigators told her to imagine what she might have seen had she been there.

The argument became moot when a higher court ruled the alleged confession could not be used because the statement was made without an attorney or translator present.

Kercher had been away from home for only two months when she was killed. The Leeds University student was studying European politics and Italian in Perugia.

Knox, who attended college in her home state of Washington, also was studying abroad.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/20/...nts/index.html