Amanda Knox Appeal Rests On Forensic Review and New Witness
(HMG Celebrity News) – As part of an appeal to overturn her 26-year sentence, Amanda Knox has appeared in an Italian court for a key decision on whether a review of the evidence used to convict her of Meredith Kercher’s murder will be allowed. An Italian court is weighing the merits of an independent forensic review of evidence that led to the murder conviction of the 23-year-old American and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, also jailed for the murder. Knox and Sollecito were found guilty in the Umbrian hilltop town last year of stabbing the 21-year-old British student to death in 2007, after a drug-fueled sex game. Knox’s lawyer is asking the court to re-examine the DNA found on the kitchen knife that was used to murder Kercher. Knox maintains that she is completely innocent, while prosecutors are pushing for Knox to get a life sentence, the term they had requested at the original trial, if the court still deems her guilty. Her lawyer is also asking the court to enter a new witness: Luciano Aviello, a member of the mafia who is currently in prison, claims that Kercher was killed by his brother. Aviello says that his brother and an Albanian man killed the Leeds University student as part of an attempted burglary.
The evidence against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito is overwhelming. They gave completely different accounts of where they were, who they were with and what they were doing on the night of the murder. Neither Knox nor Sollecito have credible alibis despite three attempts each. All the other people who were questioned had one credible alibi that could be verified. Innocent people don’t give multiple conflicting alibis and lie repeatedly to the police.
The DNA didn’t miraculously deposit itself in the most incriminating of places.
An abundant amount of Raffaele Sollecito’s DNA was found on Meredith’s bra clasp. Judge Massei pointed to the extremely clear RFU peaks associated with the DNA test, the lowest of which was 30% higher than the RFU test widely used for minimum reliability and the highest of which was more than 200% higher. Of the 17 loci tested in the sample, Sollecito’s profile matched 17 out of 17. Dr. Torricelli for the Kerchers affirmed that the alleles (peaks) in the sample constituted the biological profile of Raffaele Sollecito.
According to Sollecito’s forensic expert, Professor Vinci, Knox’s DNA was on Meredith’s bra.
Amanda Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of the double DNA knife and a number of independent forensic experts – Dr. Patrizia Stefanoni, Dr. Renato Biondo and Professor Francesca Torricelli – categorically stated that Meredith’s DNA was on the blade.
There were five instances of Knox’s DNA mixed with Meredith’s blood in three different locations in the cottage.
Knox tracked Meredith’s blood into the bathroom, the hallway, her room and Filomena’s room, where the break-in was staged. Knox’s DNA and Meredith’s blood was found mixed together in Filomena’s room, in a bare bloody footprint in the hallway and in three places in the bathroom.
Rudy Guede’s bloody footprints led straight out of Meredith’s room and out of the house. This means that he didn’t stage the break-in in Filomena’s room or go into the blood-spattered bathroom after Meredith had been stabbed.
Sollecito left a visible bloody footprint on the blue bathmat in the bathroom. Knox’s and Sollecito’s bare bloody footprints were revealed by luminol in the hallway.
It’s not a coincidence that the three people – Knox, Sollecito and Guede – who kept telling the police a pack of lies are all implicated by the DNA and forensic evidence.
Amanda Knox voluntarily admitted that she was involved in Meredith’s murder in her handwritten note to the police on 6 November 2007.