Murder of Meredith Kercher

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The murder of Meredith Kercher took place in Perugia, Italy, on 1 November 2007. At midday on 2 November, police discovered the body of the 21-year-old British student, who was part of a university exchange programme, in the upstairs flat that she shared with three other female students. Kercher was found lying partially clothed under a duvet in her locked bedroom, with her windpipe crushed and her throat partially slashed; her body had 43 bruises, scratches and knife wounds, and there was evidence of sexual assault. Two credit cards and 300 euros were missing, and her two mobile phones (for local and UK) were found in a nearby garden.[1]

On 6 November 2007, police arrested three suspects: Amanda Knox, an American student; Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian student who had been Knox's boyfriend for two weeks; and Patrick Diya Lumumba, the Congolese supervisor of Amanda Knox at his restaurant/bar (or pub).[2] Lumumba had been implicated by Knox during a police interview, but was later exonerated and released.

Subsequently, an arrest warrant was issued against a fourth suspect, Rudy Hermann Guédé, an Ivorian long-term resident of Perugia, based on DNA and fingerprint evidence found near the victim's body. On 20 November 2007 Guédé was arrested in Germany, and on 6 December extradited to Italy.[3][4] The three remaining suspects were held in custody in Perugia and were charged with murder, sexual assault and theft.[5] The prosecution theory was that the three suspects killed Kercher in a sex game that turned violent.[6]

Guédé elected for a fast-track trial.[7] Guédé admitted in November 2007 to being with Kercher when she died. He claimed that he had a date with Kercher and was present in her home as an invited guest. Guédé asserted that an unknown intruder subsequently entered the home and stabbed her.[8] Guédé was convicted on 28 October 2008 of the sexual assault and murder of Kercher and sentenced to 30 years in prison;[9] this was reduced to 16 years on appeal.

The trial of Knox and Sollecito began on 16 January 2009. Knox and Sollecito claimed that they were not at the Kercher home when Kercher was killed and had no motive to kill her. They further claimed that the evidence is consistent with the murder having been committed solely by Guédé, a man with whom they denied having any relationship. On 4 December 2009, both were found guilty of murder, sexual violence and other charges. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, while Sollecito received 25 years.[10] Prosecutors had sought life terms for both.

The case was extensively reported in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. Media interest was intense in the United States. There was widespread support in the U.S. for the defence of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, with concern over the prosecution's theories and a belief that the prosecution's forensic evidence was inadequate.

Meredith Kercher

Meredith Kercher
Meredith-Kercher.jpg
Born 28 December 1985
Southwark, London, England
Died 1 November 2007(2007-11-01) (aged 21)
Perugia, Italy
Nationality British
Other names Nickname - "Mez"
Occupation University exchange student
Known for Murder victim
Parent(s) John and Arline Kercher

Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher, known to her friends as "Mez", was born on 28 December 1985[11] in Southwark, London, England, and lived in Coulsdon, South London. She had two older brothers, John and Lyle, and an older sister, Stephanie.[12] Kercher attended the Old Palace School in Croydon [13] and then the University of Leeds. As part of the ERASMUS student exchange programme, she went to the University of Perugia to complete her degree course in European Studies[14] She appeared in a music video for singer Kristian Leontiou's song "Some Say" shortly before her death.[15] In Perugia, she lived in a suite on the upper floor of a house at Via della Pergola 7, sharing with two Italian women. Amanda Knox moved in when she came to study at the University for Foreigners.[16]

Kercher's funeral service was held on 14 December 2007 at the Parish Church in Croydon, Greater London, with more than 300 people in attendance.[17][18] She has since been awarded a posthumous degree by the University of Leeds.

John Kercher, the victim's father, is a freelance journalist[19] and her mother Arline Kercher is a housewife, born in India.[20] In June 2009, her father wrote a piece for the Daily Mirror in which he described his last interactions with his daughter and how the Kercher family learned of their daughter's murder.[21]

Murder and investigation

Timeline and police investigation

Kercher was murdered on the evening of 1 November 2007.[22] Led by Dr Luca Lalli, pathologists put her time of death at around 23:00.[22]

On 1 November, Kercher had spent the early evening at the home of Robyn Butterworth with some friends,[23] watching the film The Notebook and eating a home-made pizza. Just before 21:00, she left with her friend Sophie Purton to walk home. The two parted company on reaching Purton's flat and Kercher walked the 500 yards (460 m) towards the house alone.[16][24]

An elderly neighbour, Nara Capezzali, heard a scream on the night of the murder, which she later said "was so chilling, I felt as if I was in a house of horrors".[16] Soon after, she "heard running on the metal staircase and then running through the leaves going in the other direction". She concluded that these were the footsteps of "at least two people".[25]

On the morning of 2 November, the Italian Post and Communications Police came to investigate the discovery of two mobile phones in a nearby garden, one of which was registered to Kercher.[26] Arriving at the house in Via della Pergola 7, where Kercher lived, at 12:35,[23] they found Knox and Sollecito sitting outside. Knox and Sollecito told them that the premises had been burgled, that a window had been broken and that there were drops of blood in several rooms.[22] At 12:51, Sollecito made the first of two calls to the police, reporting a possible burglary.[22]

The police investigated the upstairs flat, which they reported to have been cleaned thoroughly with bleach,[23] although there were blood drops or smears in several rooms, a bloody footprint in the smaller bathroom, an unflushed toilet in the large bathroom, broken glass in the third bedroom, and blood near Kercher's locked bedroom.[22] The window of Filomena Romanelli's bedroom had been smashed, with broken glass and a large stone on the floor,[22] and the room appeared ransacked.[27] The washing machine was found to be on final cycle with Kercher's clothes inside,[23] but not the clothes she was wearing when attacked.[22] As other residents returned, they informed the police that nothing had been taken.[16]

At the insistence of one resident, the door to Kercher's room was forced open by the boyfriend of one of Romanelli's friends.[22] The police found Kercher lying beneath a duvet "soaked in blood", with pools and smears of blood around the room.[22][28][29] Others were told not to enter, as the area was secured for investigation.[22] Police said at the time that Kercher was found wearing only a cotton shirt rolled halfway up, and they concluded her throat had been slit with a shard of glass or a pen-knife.[30] They subsequently concluded that she had been wearing two cotton-mesh shirts rolled up at the time of the murder,[22] and that the apparent break-in at the flat had been staged.[31]

An early police theory was that Kercher had met her killer the previous night during Halloween festivities.[32]

Knox and Sollecito were interrogated several times by the police in the week after the murder.

Patrick Diya Lumumba was the owner of a bar/restaurant named Le Chic,[22] at which Knox occasionally worked.[2] He was arrested on 6 November 2007 after Knox implicated him in Kercher's murder. He was detained for two weeks until the arrest of Guédé.

The upstairs flat

Diagram of Kercher/Knox flat (Perugia, Italy): blue square (at right) is a corner-shower.

The house at Via della Pergola 7 was investigated, along with the residence of Sollecito and Guédé's former flat. The house was on an open hillside below the city centre, near a motorway. Kercher shared the upstairs flat with Knox, Filomena Romanelli and Laura Mezzetti. The entrance of the flat was along a sidewalk rising from a hillside staircase, at the opposite end of the walkway. The flat comprised a foyer, a kitchen/living room area, two shared bathrooms with sink, toilet and bidet (one had a bathtub, the other, adjacent to Kercher's room, a shower) and four bedrooms.[22] There was a laundry room, with a washing machine, next to the larger bathroom (see diagram). The outdoor balcony extended along the main hallway, which opened via windowed-doors to the outside.

The bedroom of Romanelli had a single window with outward shutters and 2 window-panels that opened inward.

Kercher had arrived in Italy in late August 2007 and soon moved to the flat. Knox arrived in mid-September.

The downstairs flat of the house covered a similar area, but with an enclosed room in the place of the balcony above. It was occupied by four young Italian men who said they had known Rudy Guédé, and that he had visited them several times.[22]

The house was closed as a crime scene in November 2007. It was remodeled and re-occupied about 2 years later.

Forensic investigation

The investigating judge assigned to the case read the pathology report at a preliminary hearing for the suspects and ruled that Kercher's carotid artery had not been ruptured in the attack, and that she likely died a "relatively slow and agonising death."[33] The autopsy results concluded that it took her several minutes to die, as she inhaled her own blood.[16] Her hyoid bone was broken, her superior thyroid artery had been severed by a stab wound, her lungs had bled through asphyxiation and she had suffered bruising to her vagina and perineum.[22]

The body had been found on the floor of Kercher's bedroom, lying on its back, with its head towards the front wall and left foot towards the back wall (along the doorway).[22] Blood was found in various locations in the room.[22]

The fingerprints and DNA of Rudy Guédé were found in many locations in the bedroom.[22] His DNA was found on and inside Kercher's body, on her shirt, on the zipper of her handbag and mixed with Kercher's blood.[22] His partial palm print in Kercher's blood was found on one of her bed linens.[22]

A knife recovered from the kitchen drawer in Sollecito's home was determined to contain a small trace of Kercher's DNA on the blade and traces of Knox's DNA on the handle.[16] In the trial of Knox and Sollecito, their defence asserted that the knife confiscated was not the lethal weapon because it did not match two out of three of Kercher's wounds.[34] Testing failed to find any blood on the weapon.[35] An outline of a knife used in the murder was imprinted in Kercher's blood on one of her bed linens; it did not match the knife found in Sollecito's kitchen drawer.[34][36]

Other forensic evidence included an analysis of the clasp of Kercher’s bra, which revealed traces of DNA belonging to Sollecito and three other unidentified people.[34][36] The defence argued that the DNA on the clasp, which had been severed from the bra, could have been contaminated when it was left on the floor for six weeks after the murder or in the forensic laboratory in Rome. The judge at the trial of Rudy Guédé (a different judge from the one in the subsequent Knox-Sollecito trial) described the claim of contamination at the laboratory as making "no sense", since there was no material from which such contamination could have come and so "the risk would have been the loss of traces found there, not the risk of somehow discovering new traces".[22] Chemical analysis revealed bloody footprints in the house, which prosecutors said matched the shoes of Knox[37] and Sollecito.[38] Both admitted to having been in the house the day after the murder, and claimed that this was when they stepped in the blood.[34]

Prosecutors claimed that the lethal wound was inflicted by Knox while Kercher was held down by Guédé and Sollecito. Knox's defence claimed that there was no evidence placing Knox in the bedroom where the murder occurred and that she had no motive to murder a girl whom Knox regarded as her friend.[34][39]

The prosecution noted violent literature, such as comic books, that had been found in Sollecito’s apartment.[40][41] Defence lawyers for Knox dismissed the allegations of the prosecution, claiming that they were a "huge fantasy" and that the murder had been committed by Guédé alone.[42]

Prosecutions

The three convicted persons are currently being held in separate Italian jails. Rudy Guédé is being held in Viterbo, Amanda Knox in Capanne prison near Perugia, and Raffaele Sollecito in Terni.[43]

Further information: Italian Criminal Procedure

Rudy Guédé background

Rudy Hermann Guédé
Status Incarcerated
Criminal penalty 16 years imprisonment (originally 30, reduced on appeal)
Conviction(s) Murder and sexual assault

Rudy Hermann Guédé, then aged 20, originally from Côte d'Ivoire but with dual Italian citizenship,[45] was arrested on 20 November 2007, suspected of involvement in the Kercher killing.

Guédé came to Perugia at the age of five with his father,[46] Pacome Roger Guédé,[47] who worked as a labourer in the 1990s.[45]

Guédé was often taken home by his teachers when school ended, until his father returned home from work.[45] His father left Italy when Guédé was 16. Guédé was informally adopted by the family of a wealthy local businessman, Paolo Caporali.[46] Caporali stated that he had been disappointed by Guédé's behaviour, describing him as a "tremendous liar", skipping school and being reluctant to do any work.[46] Guédé played basketball for the local team, which Caporali sponsored.[46] Guédé played basketball for the Perugia youth team in the 2004-2005 season.[45]

Mr. Caporali initially had high hopes for Guédé's future,[45] as he seemed to have integrated well, and spoke fluent Italian with a local Umbrian accent. Guédé even acquired joint Italian nationality. Guédé sporadically studied accountancy and hotel-keeping.[45]

However, Guédé increasingly spent time in the nightlife of Milan. His aunt lived in nearby Lecco, and Guédé sometimes worked in Milan bars.[45] He returned occasionally to Perugia and it has been alleged that he dealt drugs there.[45]

In 2007, Mr Caporali's family offered Guédé a job as a gardener[45] at a family farmhouse bed and breakfast. He hardly ever came to work. In August 2007, he was fired from the job.

Stefano Bonassi, one of four Italian students who lived in the flat below Kercher and Knox,[45] said that he knew Rudy Guédé as being a "tall, thin guy who always wore basketball shoes and baggy trousers; his nickname was Body Roga". However, according to some witnesses, he harassed women and stole from their handbags.[45] [48]

Guédé had contacts with the police at least three times in the weeks leading up to the Kercher murder. On 27 September 2007, Cristian Tramantano, a local bar tender, heard a noise in his home. He was terrified to find Guédé wandering around inside his home with a large knife. There was a confrontation, but Guédé escaped. Tramantano was able to identify Guédé from his work in a nightclub. Tramantano went to Perugia's central police station on four separate occassions to report the break-in and how Guédé was armed and had threatened him.

Tramantano claims that on each occassion the police intentionally ignored him, refused to take any steps to investigate the break-in or pursue charges, and refused to even log his complaint against Guédé.[49][50]

The following weekend, there was a break-in at a nursery school in Milan. During that robbery a thief stole 2,000 euros and a digital camera. Maria Antoinette Salvadori del Prato, the school's owner, reported it to her local police station.

Three weeks later, on Saturday, 27 October, four days before the murder, Prato arrived at the school early in the morning with a locksmith to replace the front door. There she was confronted by Rudy Guédé standing in the main entrance.

Prato called the police. The police questioned and searched Guédé. The police found a stolen laptop, a digital camera and a ten-inch kitchen knife in his backpack.

The police refused to arrest and charge Guédé. Instead, the police merely escorted him to Milan's central railway station and placed him on a train back to Perugia.[45] [51][52]

Two weeks earlier, on the weekend of 13 October, there had been a break-in at the Perugia law office of lawyers Luigi Palazzoli and Paolo Brocchi.[53] In that burglary, an upstairs window was smashed with a large rock. A similar broken upstairs window and rock were found at Kercher's house. The Perugia police were informed that the thief stole a computer, printer and other items from the law office. The Milan police later found the laptop computer and a mobile phone (Italian: computer portatile e un telefono cellulare) in Guédé's possession, but police did not arrest or charge him (as with receiving stolen property).[54]

According to at least one news source, this series of criminal activities by Guédé and the apparent acquiescence of the police has led Knox's defence team to believe that Guédé may have been a drug informant (confidential informant) being protected by someone in law enforcement.[55]

Rudy Guédé trial and appeal

Rudy Guédé elected for a "fast-track" trial which began on 16 October 2008.[56] He was charged with murder, sexual assault, and theft of 300 euros (~US$440), 2 credit cards and 2 mobile phones.[1]

Guédé's account was that he had met Kercher the night before the murder at a Halloween party which Kercher had attended with her girlfiends.[22] Kercher, he claimed, spent the latter part of Halloween with him in Perugia, rather than continuing on with her girlfriends.[22] He added that he and Kercher had scheduled a date for the next evening at her home.[22]

According to Guédé, on the night of the murder he went to Kercher's home, where he waited outside until she arrived and let him in.[22] He claimed that they talked in the kitchen and she then went into her bedroom and discovered that her money-drawer had been emptied. Guédé claimed that he calmed Kercher so that consequently she did not phone any roommates about the missing money. He claimed that he became intimate with the victim in her bedroom, and subsequently he felt sick from a bad kebab and left the room to use the bathroom.[22]

According to Guédé, he listened to music on his iPod,[57] and might have heard the doorbell ring.[22] He said that he did hear Kercher scream.[57] Guédé claimed that he emerged from the bathroom to see the murderer, a man whom he did not know, holding a knife over the victim while she was on the floor.[22]

Guédé claimed that he struggled with the man, and during the struggle Guédé's hand was cut by a knife. The unknown man then fled, allegedly saying (possibly to others outside) in perfect Italian, "...is black, found negro, found guilty; let's go" (from Italian document by Micheli: "in perfetto italiano: è nero, trovato negro, trovato colpevole, andiamo").[22] At that point, Guédé claims to have used bath towels to stem the flow of blood from Kercher's neck and to wipe up blood. Guédé claimed that he then held the dying Kercher as she uttered a final "A-F" which he wrote on the wall[57] in her blood.[22] He also claimed that he left Kercher fully clothed on the bed. Guédé further argued that in his haste and panic he touched almost everything in the room of the victim[22] (Italian: probabilmente dopo aver toccato quasi tutto all'interno della camera della vittima).

Without calling police or an ambulance for Kercher, Guédé fled and left the front door unlocked. During the week of the murder, Guédé was staying in a house a few blocks from Sollecito. Sollecito's parents had purchased a flat for him on Via del Canerino.[22] However, Guédé knew a backstreet route from the Kercher/Knox house which enabled him to avoid travelling near the Sollecito flat.[22]

Guédé went home to wash the victim's blood off his body and clothing. Later, he went out dancing and socializing at the Domus and Shamrock nightclubs.[22] Guédé explained his decision not to call the police or an ambulance for Kercher by stating that there was no mobile phone nearby (although one might have been in Kercher's handbag) or that he was too confused.[22]

The investigators stated that Guédé's version of events was "a highly improbable fantasy."[57]

DNA tests indicate that Guédé had been intimate with Kercher before her murder.[22] His DNA was found mixed with Kercher's blood at the crime scene.[58] Guédé's palm print in Kercher's blood[22] was found near the body. His DNA was found on Kercher's body, on her bloodstained clothing and on her handbag.[58] DNA tests also revealed that he had used toilet-paper found in the front bathroom.

A few days following the murder, after hearing news reports, Guédé fled Perugia riding on trains north into Germany.[59]

Interpol traced a computer IP address which he used in Germany to access Facebook. Guédé went on to the Facebook website to respond to a journalist from the Daily Telegraph.[60] In his message, Guédé said that he was aware that he was a suspect, and wanted to clear his name.[61] On 20 November 2007, the German transport police arrested Guédé on a train near Mainz, Germany, where he was caught riding without a ticket.[46] When Guédé was arrested, German officials noted a cut on his hand,[22] but they could not determine if it was self-inflicted.

During the trial, witnesses were called to corroborate or contest Guédé's claims about meeting Kercher and planning a date. Witnesses also described Guédé as being "drunk" on several occasions before the night of the murder.[22]

Guédé's claims about having planned a date with Kercher were discredited during his trial. Judge Paolo Micheli pointed out, firstly, that the accused had changed the details of where he had supposedly met Kercher, and secondly, the friends who had accompanied Kercher for Halloween evening testified that no meeting between them had taken place.[22] Also, details about Kercher's Halloween activities had been announced on worldwide news and Internet websites, and possibly viewed by Guédé, before he was arrested three weeks later.[22]

On 28 October 2008 Rudy Guédé was found guilty of the murder and sexual assault of Meredith Kercher and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The full details of the judgment were published on 26 January 2009.[62]

In the judgment, Judge Micheli set out the reasoning that led to the guilty verdict and the basis for his conclusion that more than one person was involved in the murder. From a detailed analysis of the very large number and positions of bloodstains in the flat, and the cuts and bruises sustained by Kercher, he concluded that Kercher was sexually assaulted and then murdered by multiple attackers. He also concluded that one or more people returned to the crime scene and rearranged the body, as well as tried to fake a break-in, some time subsequent to the murder after Guédé may have already left the scene.

Guédé appealed his murder conviction and related charges at the Corte d'Appello (Court of Appeals) starting in November 2009.[63] On 22 December 2009, the Corte d'Appello upheld his conviction for murder but reduced his sentence of 30 years imprisonment to 16 years.[64] According to his lawyer, Guédé continues to assert that he is innocent and will pursue a second and final appeal to the Corte di Cassazione (Supreme Court) to challenge his conviction.[64]

Amanda Knox

Amanda Marie Knox
Status Incarcerated
Criminal penalty 26 years imprisonment
Conviction(s) Murder and sexual assault

Amanda Marie Knox was, at the time of Kercher's murder, a 20-year-old University of Washington language student from Seattle, Washington.[65] She was in Perugia attending the University for Foreigners for one year, studying Italian, German and creative writing.[66] She stayed in the bedroom next to Meredith in the Kercher/Knox upstairs flat.

Her parents, Kurt Knox and Edda Mellas, divorced when she was two.[67] Knox's parents visited her frequently during her pre-trial detention and steadfastly maintain her innocence.[68]

Knox was arrested on the morning of 6 November 2007, following police questioning on 5-6 November, during which police had made a decision to class her as a suspect in the case.

Knox attracted attention for her demeanour during police questioning and the trial; for instance, she was witnessed cartwheeling and laughing during police questioning.[69] It was also reported that Knox had earlier written a story, and posted it online, about the drugging and rape of a young woman.[70]

The Italian press described Knox's media appeal by saying that she had "the face of an angel - but the eyes of a killer".[66] The BBC reported, "The only explanation, according to prosecutors and feverish media coverage, was that Knox was that most-loved of villains - the middle-class monster whose white-bread exterior hides a diabolical soul."[66]

The prosecution against Knox and Sollecito contended that they were involved with Guédé in the sexual assault and murder of Kercher, in an attempted sex orgy in which Kercher would not cooperate, and that they had returned to the crime scene to move the body and stage a break-in.[71] Knox contended that she was not present during the murder, had no association with Guédé, and had no motive to murder Kercher, whom she regarded as her friend.[72]

Mixed samples of Knox's DNA and Kercher's blood were found in the apartment, including in the bathroom sink and in Filomena Romanelli's room.[73] The defence argued that Knox's DNA should be expected to be present there in the ordinary course of her use of the apartment and bathroom,[72] during the previous six weeks.

Knox's DNA was found on the handle of the alleged murder weapon, a knife found in Sollecito's kitchen drawer, with a tiny amount of Kercher's DNA found on the blade. Questions were raised as to whether the Kercher DNA sample was too small to be reliable.[36][74][75] During the trial of Rudy Guédé, the judge had rejected claims that the DNA sample was too small to be reliable.[22]

The defence also questioned whether the knife was actually the murder weapon, because it was a 6.5 inch knife, which did not match two out of three of the wounds on Kercher's body that were made by a 3 to 3.5 inch knife.[76][77]

Apart from the alleged murder weapon, there was no forensic evidence, such as DNA, hair, fibre, blood, skin or fingerprints, directly indicating that Knox had been in the bedroom where Meredith Kercher was sexually assaulted and murdered.[34][72][78] Knox's defence and supporters claimed that it would have been impossible for her to have engaged in an attempted sex orgy and violent murder without leaving some DNA or other trace of herself in the bedroom.[72]

On 4 December 2009, Knox was convicted by the Corte d'Assise of Perugia of all counts except theft against Kercher and was sentenced to 26 years in prison.[76][77][79]

Raffaele Sollecito

Raffaele Sollecito
Status Incarcerated
Criminal penalty 25 years imprisonment
Conviction(s) Murder and sexual assault

Raffaele Sollecito, from Giovinazzo, Bari, was 23 years old and nearing the completion of a degree in engineering at the University of Perugia at the time of the murder. He had known Knox for two weeks when Kercher was murdered,[80] at which time Knox and Sollecito were lovers.[81] He is from an affluent family, the son of a urologist from Bari.[80]

Sollecito claimed that he was in his flat and spent the evening using his computer on the night of the murder.[82] Detectives have said that his alibi is not substantiated by records of his internet service provider, though a private detective working for Sollecito disputed this.[83] The defence has argued that the hard drives of three computers belonging to Sollecito and Knox, destroyed by the prosecution's computer expert when he performed examinations of them, had contained exculpatory evidence.[36] Like Knox, Sollecito admits to having smoked marijuana on the day of the murder.[83]

The prosecution claimed that his footprint was found in blood in Kercher's room, and that his DNA was on a severed bra clasp.[82][84] However, the defence claimed that the footprint belonged to Guédé, not Sollecito,[34] and that the DNA evidence on the bra clasp had been contaminated.[34]

On 4 December 2009, Raffaele Sollecito was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to 25 years in prison.[85]

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito trial

The trial of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito began on 16 January 2009, with much attention from the media. In November 2008, they had been indicted by Judge Paolo Micheli, who had presided over the Guédé trial in October 2008.[22] They were charged with murder, sexual assault, simulating a crime (burglary), carrying a knife, and theft of 300 euros (~US$440), 2 credit cards and 2 mobile phones.[1]

Personnel involved

The head prosecutor (Italian: Pubblico Ministero) in the trial, was Guiliano Mignini.[86] He had led the interrogation of Amanda Knox in which she implicated Patrick Lumumba.[87][88] The chief judge was Giancarlo Massei. Deputy judge at the trial was Beatrice Cristiani.[89] A panel of eight judges (the two professional judges and six lay judges) was assembled to hear the case and determine the verdicts.[89]

Amanda Knox was represented in Italy by attorneys Luciano Ghirga and Carlo Dalla Vedova.[90][91] Raffaele Sollecito was defended by attorney Giulia Bongiorno.[73] Investigations had been assisted by personnel from Rome. The forensic biologist Patrizia Stefanoni, who had collected evidence at the crime scene, testified during the trial. There were many other witnesses, including the other two housemates in the Kercher/Knox flat (Romanelli and Mezzetti) and residents of neighbouring properties.

Courtroom events

On 16 January 2009, Knox's and Sollecito's lawyers began by proclaiming their clients' innocence. Hearings were held nearly every two weeks (except for summer break) until 4 December 2009.[92] Rudy Guédé declined to testify in the trial of Knox-Sollecito.[93] During the first session, judge Giancarlo Massei rejected a request by the Kercher family to hold the trial behind closed doors. He ruled that the trial would be public, but with closed sessions to be decided on a case-by-case basis.[94]

Knox testified for the first time on 12 June 2009, pleading her innocence. She told the court that she had been with Sollecito in his apartment on the night of the murder. She also alleged that, when taken for interrogation, the police had intimidated and beaten her, causing her to give false testimony and to falsely accuse Patrick Lumumba.[95][96]

The prosecution contended that Knox and Sollecito were involved with Guédé in the sexual assault and murder of Kercher, as an attempted sex orgy in which Kercher would not cooperate, and that they had returned to the crime scene to move the body and stage a break-in to deflect suspicions away from them.[71]

On 4 December 2009, Knox was convicted by the Corte d'Assise of Perugia of all counts except theft against Kercher and was sentenced to 26 years in prison.[76][77][79] Sollecito was found guilty of all five charges attributed to him and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.[85] The decision was delivered by the presiding judge at around 11:45 pm local time, following 13 hours of deliberation.[85]

Civil actions

Kercher's family filed a civil suit for US$33 million (approximately £20 million or €22 million) against anyone found guilty of the murder.[97]

Patrick Lumumba, the man Knox originally accused of murdering Kercher, sued Knox for more than $500,000 (approximately £300,000 or €330,000) in damages.[97] In December 2009, a court awarded Lumumba €8,000 (approximately equivalent to US$12,000 or £7,200 as of December 2009[98]) in damages for unjust imprisonment.[99] Knox has also been ordered to pay Lumumba €40,000 (approximately $60,000 or £36,000) compensation.[85]

Reactions to the trials and convictions

In the U.S., the verdict against Knox gave rise to extensive controversy and media coverage. The Senator from Knox's state of Washington, Maria Cantwell, stated that she had concerns whether "anti-Americanism tainted this trial." [100] She expressed the view that there had not been enough evidence to convict Knox beyond a reasonable doubt[citation needed] and also spoke of the "harsh treatment of Ms. Knox following her arrest; negligent handling of evidence by investigators; and pending charges of misconduct against one of the prosecutors stemming from another murder trial." Cantwell indicated her intention to seek assistance from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has yet to take a position on the case.[101]

John Kercher, Meredith's father, has described the suggestion of anti-American bias during the trial as "ludicrous", saying: "The Americans seem completely ignorant to the fact that there was a mass of evidence other than the DNA. I don't blame them because they are going on what they have seen and read. But it is upsetting for my family".[102]

On 9 December 2009, when visited in prison by Democratic Left Italian Member of Parliament Walter Verini, Knox reportedly stated that her "rights were respected" in the trial and that she still has had faith in Italian justice.[103]

Knox, her family and supporters in the U.S. maintain that she has been unjustly convicted and vow to continue to appeal.[104]

A delegation of the Italy-USA Foundation met Knox in Capanne prison, in an effort to heal any rift over accusations that Italy's justice system is unfair. “I am waiting and always hoping,” Knox said. “I don’t understand many things, but I have to accept them, things that for me don’t always seem very fair.”[105]

Various controversies

Claims of police mistreatment

Amanda Knox was held for questioning overnight between 5 and 6 November 2007[106] for nearly 14 hours, during which time she was interviewed twice. She alleged that she was insulted by being called a "stupid liar", and that she was hit on the head to force her testimony.[107][108] The highest court in Italy ruled, due to lack of an attorney during initial questioning, that her remarks during part of that questioning were inadmissible for the trial; however, due to the fact that it was admissible in the concurrent action against Knox for falsely accusing Lumumba, her voluntary handwritten statement was available to the panel of judges during the trial.[106]

The prosecution rejected Knox's claims of having been forced to accuse Lumumba. Her claims were refuted in court by several witnesses.[citation needed]

Possible bleaching the crime scene

The police believed that the flat of Kercher and Knox had been cleaned with bleach, in an attempt to destroy evidence.[109] Blood smears and blood drops remained present on walls, doors, floors, sinks and light switches in the Kercher house.[22] During the Knox-Sollecito trial, many witnesses talked about the possible use of bleach.[110] The police recovered till receipts showing that Sollecito had purchased bleach from a supermarket the morning after the murder, at a time when he had claimed to be asleep.[111] Sollecito and Knox were witnessed browsing the cleaning ailse of the supermarket.[112] Police found two bottles of bleach at Sollecito's apartment. Sollecito's former housekeeper testified at trial that she had asked Sollecito to buy bleach months earlier for general housekeeping purposes.[110] and that when she stopped working for Sollecito in September of 2007, there were one and a half bottles of bleach at his house, unused.[110]

Mobile phone evidence

Although the prosecution alleged that Knox and Sollecito had committed the murder with Guédé, who had admitted he saw Meredith Kercher die,[8] none of their mobile-phone records in 2007 showed any calls between them.[citation needed] Phone records of Amanda Knox revealed calls on the day of the killing between her and Diya "Patrick" Lumumba (aged 38),[106] her manager at the bar Le Chic, which were discussed during her interrogation as possible evidence of a pre-planned rendezvous.

The lack of phone-contact evidence with Guédé was a point of controversy. The judge in the Guédé trial said that the fact that Guédé's phone was in the possession of the police during the period leading up to the murder explained the lack of a record of calls between him and the other suspects.[22]

The death of Kercher was estimated to have occurred circa 10:30-11 pm. The prosecution noted that both Knox and Sollecito turned their mobile phones off on the evening of the murder at around 8:40 pm.[22] Sollecito's phone records show that his phone was turned off (or the battery quit) on several days: at around 7-7:30 pm on three separate days during the previous month (October).[22]

Emphasis on Halloween rituals

The murder was estimated to have occurred on the day after Halloween, late on All Saints Day, a Catholic holiday.

Prosecutor Mignini decided only a few days after Kercher died that the murder was the culmination of an orgy in which Knox, Sollecito and one other person were involved.[113] Il Tempo newspaper reported Mignini as telling the court that the murder, “was premeditated and was in addition a ‘rite’ celebrated on the occasion of the night of Hallowe’en. A sexual and sacrificial rite ... In the intention of the organisers, the rite should have occurred 24 hours earlier” – on Hallowe’en itself – “but on account of a dinner at the house of horrors, organised by Meredith and Amanda’s Italian flatmates, it was postponed for one day. The presumed assassins contented themselves with the evening of 1 November to perform their do-it-yourself rite, when for some hours it would again be the night of All Saints.”[113]

According to one report: "Mr Mignini saw the scene so clearly in his mind that he was able to describe it to the judge in detail: Meredith on her knees before the wardrobe, Rudy holding her immobile, Raffaele grasping one arm, Amanda in front of her, pricking her throat teasingly with the knife – until the blade in her hand struck home. 'To prove it,' he told the judge triumphantly, 'the only thing missing was a video camera in the room.'"[113][114][115]

To further explain the crime, Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini claimed that police had found a hoard of the Japanese “manga” comics in Sollecito’s apartment. Mignini claimed that many depicted the brutal slaying of naked “vampire women” with blood covering furniture and walls – in his view, the way detectives found Kercher. Mignini theorized that Sollecito and Knox had been influenced by the comic books to kill Kercher, who had worn a vampire costume on Halloween.[114] However, the prosecution did not follow through with this theory to the conclusion of the trial. [116]

Media coverage

The case has received extensive media coverage in Italy, Britain and the United States, with Amanda Knox receiving significantly more attention than Sollecito or Guédé.[117] Knox has been portrayed both as a femme fatale who took part in killing her friend in a sex game[117] and as an innocent girl caught up in the court proceedings of a foreign country.[19][118]

Immediately following the crime, Knox's MySpace website was subject to analysis in the press.[119][120] According to Vanity Fair, she had posted a picture of herself in a mini dress while posing "provocatively" with a museum Gatling gun.[19] Knox had also posted to her site a short story about rape described by "Vanity Fair" as "utterly unrealistic". The Vanity Fair article goes on to discuss how Knox's story was widely characterized in the media as a "blueprint for crime".[19] Vanity Fair also claimed that her "Foxy Knoxy" moniker had sexual connotations.[19]

Other journalists were more doubtful about Knox's guilt and criticised the way the case was handled in the Italian judiciary system. As an example, journalist Peter Popham wrote an opinion piece for The Independent in which he raised doubts about the evidence against Knox and Sollecito and claimed that the publication of details about the case by the prosecution "makes miscarriages of justice horribly likely".[121] Knox's family has claimed that she was convicted because of a larger culture clash.[122]

The Knox family engaged the services of a Seattle-based public relations firm in order to counter what they perceived as a media bias against her.[123]

Another facet of coverage was public criticism of Italy's judicial process, by Knox's friends, supporters and various public figures.[citation needed] Certain media experts[who?] have claimed such critical statements may have backfired against Knox.[citation needed]

Anne Bremner, spokeswoman for the "Friends of Amanda" support group, criticised the Italian media for its presentation of the case against Amanda Knox. Bremner also claimed that the Italian media overly dramatized the relationship between Knox and Sollecito, stating that the two had only been dating for two weeks. She also stated that incorrect reporting about Knox had impaired her chance of obtaining a fair trial,[124] because the jury had not been sequestered.

In the last days of the trial it was reported that media sentiment in Italy shifted in favour of the defendants Knox and Sollecito.[106]

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  124. ^ "How Strong is the Evidence Against Amanda Knox". TIME Magazine. June 14, 2009. 

External links

  • Google Map showing location of Kercher/Knox house [1]
  • Photos of Kercher House and Perugia [2]
  • Excerpt from the report of Judge Claudia Matteini, of the Civil and Penal Tribunal of Perugia, published Nov. 9. 2007 [3]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Murder_of_Meredith_Kercher&oldid=336161868"