After spending four years in prison and havin been convicted of murder, Amanda Knox has a chance at freedom today when an appeals court decides if she is the murder. Amanda is an unwilling celebrity now and the trial placed Italy’s justice system under question.
Amanda Knox has rejected “completely unjust” accusations she murdered the English student Meredith Kercher, proclaiming in court: “I didn’t kill, I didn’t rape, I’m innocent”. The court and 8 judges will give the final verdict in the coming hours, and seal the fates of Amanda Knox and his former Italian boyfriend Sollecito, who formerly have been verdicted to 26 years of prison in 2009 but an appeal of the verdict caused the court to reconsider and trial started anew. The Kerchers’ legal representatives at the appeal have unequivocally aligned themselves with the prosecution’s case, that Knox slashed the British student’s throat as she was held immobile by Knox’s then boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and Rudy Guede, a small-time drugs trafficker from Ivory Coast. The family’s lawyer, Francesco Maresca, said: “Just as they respected the verdict at the trial, so they will respect the outcome of the appeal.”
Amanda Knox told the appeal court that she was innocent of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, saying: “I have paid with my life for things I did not commit.” Amanda Knox has been offered millions of Us dollars just for his first interview by greedy Us Television channels, she has already published her diary from inside the Italian Prison, and a movie is surely on its way, if the 24 year old should be acquitted of murder charges.
Amanda Knox: ‘I didn’t kill, I didn’t rape, I’m innocent’
Latest on Amanda Knox Verdict Appeal Court in Perugia:
Amanda Knox spoke in front of the judges for her life. Is she the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, whose throat is allegedly cut by Amanda Knox, or will her innocence will be official and she will be a material American media will ferociously will attack like vultures attack a carcass ?
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito’s final words in front of grand jury before the verdict Timeline
09.42 The court has now retired to consider its verdict.
09.37Knox finishes:
”I had good relationships with everyone who lived in my flat. We all had good relationships. We helped each other. I shared my life, particulary with Meredith. We were friends. She was worried about me. She was very kind to me. I have never run away from the truth. I insist after four desperate years, that our innocence is true and needs to be recognised. I want to go back home. I want to go back to my life. I don’t want my life and my future taken away from me for something that I didn’t do. I am innocent. We do not deserve this. We never did anything to deserve this. I have the upmost respect to this court and the care that it has shown. Thank you.”
09.35 Amanda Knox is speaking with real emotion.
I trusted the police’s sense of duty and trust. I trusted them completely. I was betrayed on the night of November 5. I was manipulated. I am not who I say I am. I am not violent. Have a lack of respect for life. And I did not kill. I did not rape. I did not steal. I wasn’t there at the crime scene.
09.32 Voice breaking, and speaking with emotion, she continues:
The only thing different from four years ago is what I have suffered. I lost a friend, a girlfriend, in the most brutal way in the most unexplained manner. My trust in the police authorities has been betrayed. I have had to dealt with unfair and unfounded charges. I have paid with my life for things that I did not commit. Four years ago I did not know what tragedy was. I have never faced so much anger before. How did we react when we found out Meredith had been killed? I did not believe it. How was it possible? Her bedroom was next to mine. She was killed in our home. If I had been there that night I would have died. The only difference is, I was not there.
09.31 The judge tells a very nervous Knox that she can sit down. She refuses.
09.30 Amanda Knox addresses the court in fluent Italian:
Members of the court. Many times people have said I am the person (who killed) but people don’t understand whom I am.
09.28 He finishes:
Walking in a dark tunnel. The light at the end of the tunnel is very, very far away. The tenderness we have shown each other since that day belongs in the past. I know I represent the past, I hope there is a new future for Amanda and myself, which I think we deserve. Thank you.
09.26 That evening he says he and Knox just wanted to spend the evening “hugging” each other and being “tender” with each other – “Nothing else”. Knox was a nice, sweet girl.
Raffaele Sollecito challenging his conviction in court on Monday (Picture: REUTERS)
09.22 He says he and Knox have been in prison for more than 1400 days, for 20 hours a day, in a cell that is about 2.5 x three metres big.
Even small things are of fundamental importance. Some comforting words – a hug. A show of affection, some tenderness. Somehow, for a moment you hope it will help you forgot everything. I hope these problems will be overcome. Having to deal with them every day is difficult. Our families have all made huge sacrifices.
09.17 He says that every day has been awful. He dimisses prosecution claims that he is Knox’s boyfriend who “kills for nothing”
Every day I have been in prison I have felt dead.
09.14 Former Knox boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito now addressing the jury.
I have never, ever harmed anyone in my life. I have been in this nightmare and I have never ever woken from it.