STORY: "Amanda Knox back on trial for Kercher murder in Italy," by reporter Catherine Hornby, published by Reuters on September 30, 2013.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Amanda Knox during an interview on the "Today" show, Friday, Sept. 20, 2013 in New York. Knox defended her decision not to return to Italy for a new appeals trial over the 2007 killing of her British roommate, even as she acknowledged that "everything is at stake," insisting she is innocent. In March, Italy's supreme court ordered a new trial for Knox and her former Italian boyfriend. An appeals court in 2011 had acquitted both, overturning convictions by a lower court. Italian law cannot compel Knox to return for the new legal proceeding."
GIST: "The retrial of Amanda Knox for the murder of her British roommate in 2007 opens in Florence on Monday, refocusing international attention on the sensational case although the American will not be in court. Knox and her Italian boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted in 2009 of killing 21-year-old Leeds University student Meredith Kercher in what was described as a drug-fuelled sexual assault. After winning an appeal in 2011 quashing the guilty verdict, both were freed from prison. But the case is being tried again after Italy's supreme court overturned the acquittals in March, citing "contradictions and inconsistencies". On Monday the Florence court is expected to mainly discuss technical issues such as the dates for further hearings.
Knox, 26, has always denied murdering Kercher in 2007, when both were university exchange students in Perugia, and she told U.S. television earlier this month that "common sense" told her not to return to Italy for the retrial. "I was imprisoned as an innocent person and I just can't re-live that," she told NBC television.........Prosecutors said that Kercher was held down and stabbed after she resisted attempts by Knox, Sollecito and Guede to involve her in an orgy. The supreme court has said the theory of a sex game that spiraled out of control should be re-examined. The prosecution's case was weakened in the last trial by forensic experts who undermined the credibility of DNA evidence provided by police and sharply criticized their initial response procedures at the scene of the killing."
The entire story can be found at:
http://news.yahoo.com/amanda-knox-back-trial-kercher-murder-italy-220319355.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
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