This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/07/amanda-knox-acquitted-because-of-stunning-flaws-in-investigation
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Amanda Knox acquitted because of 'stunning flaws' in investigation | Amanda Knox acquitted because of 'stunning flaws' in investigation |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Italy’s highest court acquitted Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, her former boyfriend, of the 2007 murder of the British university student Meredith Kercher, because there were “stunning flaws” in the investigation that led to their convictions, according to judges’ legal reasoning. | |
| A panel of judges at the court of cassation in Rome also found that the state’s case against the pair, who were definitively cleared of murder in March, lacked enough evidence to prove their wrongdoing beyond a reasonable doubt, and cited a complete lack of “biological traces” in connection to the crime. | A panel of judges at the court of cassation in Rome also found that the state’s case against the pair, who were definitively cleared of murder in March, lacked enough evidence to prove their wrongdoing beyond a reasonable doubt, and cited a complete lack of “biological traces” in connection to the crime. |
| Related: Meredith Kercher murder: Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito acquitted | Related: Meredith Kercher murder: Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito acquitted |
| The 52-page legal motivazioni, published on Monday, detailed the reasons for the stunning acquittal of Knox, an American exchange student, and Sollecito, who each served four years in prison for the murder of Kercher before they were released and then retried. | |
| Releasing the details involved in a court decision months after a verdict has been announced is common practice in Italy’s highest court. | Releasing the details involved in a court decision months after a verdict has been announced is common practice in Italy’s highest court. |
| “The trial had oscillations which were the result of stunning flaws, or amnesia, in the investigation and omissions in the investigative activity,” the judges wrote in their decision. | “The trial had oscillations which were the result of stunning flaws, or amnesia, in the investigation and omissions in the investigative activity,” the judges wrote in their decision. |
| They said evidence pointed only to the guilt of one man – Rudy Guede, a drifter from Ivory Coast who received a 16-year prison sentence for Kercher’s murder following a fast-track trial in 2008. At the time of his conviction, it was stated that he did not act alone. | They said evidence pointed only to the guilt of one man – Rudy Guede, a drifter from Ivory Coast who received a 16-year prison sentence for Kercher’s murder following a fast-track trial in 2008. At the time of his conviction, it was stated that he did not act alone. |
| The court added that the only crime of which Knox was guilty was the false accusation she made to police days after the killing of her room-mate, in which she blamed her boss, Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, a bar owner, for the crime. Lumumba was in jail for two weeks before he was exonerated. Although the charge carried a three-year jail sentence, it was deemed moot because of the time Knox had already spent in jail. | |
| The Knox case became a media circus in Italy and was the subject of intense attention in the press, which nicknamed the young American “Foxy Knoxy”. The Washington state native was portrayed in sensational reports either as a harmless innocent or a sex-crazed killer. | The Knox case became a media circus in Italy and was the subject of intense attention in the press, which nicknamed the young American “Foxy Knoxy”. The Washington state native was portrayed in sensational reports either as a harmless innocent or a sex-crazed killer. |
| The case began on the morning of 2 November 2007, when the body of Kercher, a 21-year-old Leeds University student from Surrey, was found in the bedroom of the flat she shared with Knox in Perugia, central Italy, where both were studying abroad. Her throat had been slashed and she had been sexually assaulted. | The case began on the morning of 2 November 2007, when the body of Kercher, a 21-year-old Leeds University student from Surrey, was found in the bedroom of the flat she shared with Knox in Perugia, central Italy, where both were studying abroad. Her throat had been slashed and she had been sexually assaulted. |