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Amanda Knox Makes Emotional Plea for Freedom
American Appears in Italian Court to Appeal her Conviction to 26 Years in Prison for the Murder of her College Roommate

By ANN WISE
Dec. 11, 2010

Amanda Knox made an impassioned and emotional plea for her freedom Saturday in the Italian court where she is appealing her conviction to 26 years in prison for the murder of her college roommate, breaking into tears as she spoke of the victim, Meredith Kercher.

"I am innocent," said Knox in Italian to the new jury that is judging her along with her co-defendant and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

"I am innocent. Raffele is innocent. We did not kill Meredith … we are paying with our lives for a crime we did not commit," she added strongly.

"I never would have expected to find myself here," said Knox to the jury, "condemned for a crime that I did not commit … I will never get used to this broken life."

Knox stood to speak at the beginning of the second hearing of her appeal which is taking place in the same courtroom in Perugia, Italy, where she was convicted almost exactly one year ago together with Sollecito, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

A third person, Ivorian immigrant Rudy Guede, was also convicted for participating in Kercher's murder in a separate trial. His 30-year conviction was reduced to 16 on appeal, and he is appealing again to Italy's highest Cassation court next week.

As a defendant, Knox is allowed by Italian law to make a "spontaneous statement" when she chooses during court proceedings.

"I and [Raffaele] deserve our freedom, like everyone else in this courtroom today," Knox insisted.

Knox spoke in an emotional crescendo that turned to sobs as she addressed her words to the family of the victim, Meredith Kercher, the UK student she is accused of murdering.

"To Meredith's family, I want to say that I am very sorry she is no longer living. I cannot know how you are feeling, but I have little sisters too, and the idea of them suffering and missing [someone] forever, terrifies me," she said.

The Kerchers, who live in England, were not present in court, but Knox said she hoped her words "would reach them."

"What you are going through is unacceptable," Knox sobbed, and after a long pause added, "I am sorry that all this happened to you...it isn't right and never will be."

She said Meredith was "nice, intelligent, and friendly, it was she who showed me around Perugia. I am grateful to her and honored to have known her."

In the three years since she was arrested, this was the first time Knox has publicly expressed her sorrow to the victim's family.

Meredith Kercher's father, John, who has spoken out very rarely since Kercher's death, has criticized the Knox family recently for never having expressed their condolences to him and his family, "no letter of sympathy, no word of regret."

Francesco Maresca, the lawyer representing the Kercher's as civil plaintiffs walked out of the courtroom as Knox began her statement.

He later told reporters that he left because he "didn't want to have to listen to these affirmations which come too late, are inappropriate, and devoid of any meaning, and intended to [impress] the appeals court."

It was a big story since like any big story, it gets audience, which gets advertisers; so, in that sense, the story was reported all out of proportion with its importance and the clearness of the legal issues.

The parents of jailed US student Amanda Knox have been ordered to stand trial by a court in the Italian city of Perugia for libelling the police.

The couple told a newspaper that their daughter was abused by police during their investigation into the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

Knox is currently serving a 26-year sentence in an Italian jail for the 2007 murder of her flatmate.

Perugia's police deny the accusations by Curt Knox and Edda Mellas.

Their trial is due to begin on 4 July.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12470220

Scooter wrote:

I never understood what it was about this bitch that caused portions of the U.S. media to abandon all semblance of reason and take up her cause.

Anyone who actually reviews the evidence (follow the link to the PDF attachment at the bottom of the page) as presented in its entirety in the reasoning for sentence issued by the judges in Knox's case, rather than in the distorted bits doled out my Knox's supporters and swallowed wholesale as gospel by some media outlets, could not rationally come to any other conclusion but that Knox had to be involved.

Scooter wrote:The fact that we agree on this one issue (if indeed we do, I have not seen any statement by Savage on the Knox case which would lead me to believe this to be the case) hardly makes Michael Savage and me "two of a kind". Nor are we the only two people in the world to have come to this conclusion, that it should cause you to liken me to him in particular.

THE family of the murdered girl was bereft; the family of the alleged murderer jubilant.

After judges in the Italian hill town of Perugia declared convicted murderer Amanda Knox not guilty on appeal, her sister Deanna said outside court: ''We're thankful that Amanda's nightmare is over. She has suffered four years for a crime she didn't commit.''

Ms Knox, 24, was flying home to Seattle last night, where she is expected to receive offers for multimillion-dollar book and movie deals about her ordeal.

TV networks are already bidding for her first interview.

Ms Knox's mother and other relatives were seen at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport, where Ms Knox joined them on a flight to London before boarding a connection to the United States.

But for the family of the woman she was accused of murdering, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, there was no joy in the legal decision that overturned Ms Knox's conviction and 26-year jail sentence.

They said in a statement: ''We respect the decision of the judges but we do not understand how the decision of the first trial could be so radically overturned. We still trust the Italian justice system and hope that the truth will eventually emerge.''

The prosecutor Giuliano Mignini vowed an appeal to Italy's highest criminal court.

''Let's wait and we will see who was right. The first court or the appeal court,'' Mr Mignini said.

''This trial was done under unacceptable media pressure. The decision was almost already announced; this is not normal.'' If the highest court overturns the acquittal, prosecutors could request Ms Knox's extradition to finish her sentence.

At an earlier media conference Ms Kercher's sister Stephanie said the ''brutal murder'' was being overlooked: ''Meredith has been hugely forgotten.'' Her brother Lyle said: ''It is very hard to find forgiveness at this time. Four years is a very long time but on the other hand it is still raw.''

Judges also acquitted Ms Knox's alleged partner in crime, her Italian former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. The two had been convicted of raping and murdering Ms Kercher, an English exchange student, in the bedroom of a cottage the two women shared in Perugia in 2007.

The case sparked lurid language and an almost lascivious fascination inside and outside Italy's justice system.

Judges have yet to give their reasoning but it is thought they relied on experts who testified the original investigation had been botched, with more than 50 errors in the handling of DNA evidence. The two judges, sitting with a six-person jury, were not swayed by the venomous language of the lawyer who had painted Ms Knox as a she-devil for initially falsely blaming her employer, bar owner Patrick Lumumba, for killing Ms Kercher. Mr Lumumba was arrested and jailed for two weeks after Ms Knox claimed she had heard him enter Ms Kercher's room and then clapped her hands over her ears to muffle screams.

Mr Lumumba's lawyer told the court: ''The woman you see before you today is charming [and] angel faced … [but] she was a diabolical, demonic she-devil. She was muddy on the outside and dirty on the inside. She has two souls, the clean one you see before you, and the other.'' He also claimed: ''She is borderline. She likes alcohol, drugs and she likes wild, hot sex.''

Borderline personality is a serious psychiatric disorder involving severe mood swings, chaotic personal relationships and sometimes dissociation.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/tears-of-fr ... z1ZqcNZVSZ