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| FILE - This is an undated file photo released by the Italian Police of 22-year-old murdered British university student Meredith Kercher. Few international criminal cases have cleaved along national biases as that of American student Amanda Knox, awaiting half world away her third Italian court verdict in the 2007 slaying of her British roommate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher. Whatever is decided this week, the protracted legal battle that has grabbed global headlines and polarized trial-watchers in three nations probably won't end in Florence. With the first two trials producing flip-flop guilty-then-innocent verdicts against Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, the case has produced harshly clashing versions of events. A Florence appeals panel designated by Italy's supreme court to address errors in the appeals acquittal is set to deliberate Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, with a verdict expected later in the day. |
FLORENCE, Italy
(AP) -- An appeals court in Florence on Thursday upheld the guilty
verdict against U.S. student Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend for the
2007 murder of her British roommate. Knox was sentenced to 28 1/2 years
in prison, raising the specter of a long legal battle over her
extradition if the conviction is upheld.
Lawyers
for Knox and her co-defendant Raphael Sollecito vowed to appeal to
Italy's highest court, a process that will take at least another year,
dragging out a legal saga that has divided court-watchers in three
nations.
In a statement from Seattle, where
she had awaited the verdict, Knox said she was "frightened and saddened"
by the decision, which she said was unjust and the result of an
overzealous prosecution and narrow-minded investigation.
"This has gotten out of hand," she said. "Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system."
After
nearly 12 hours of deliberations, the court reinstated the guilty
verdicts first handed down against Knox and Sollecito in 2009 for the
death of Meredith Kercher. Those verdicts had been overturned in 2011
and the pair freed from prison, but Italy's supreme court vacated that
decision and sent the case back for a third trial in Florence.
Knox's
attorney, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said he had called Knox by telephone and
informed her that the Florence court had not only confirmed the guilty
verdict, but had increased the sentence from the original 26 years.
"She was petrified. Silent," he said.
Sollecito was in court Thursday morning, but he didn't return for the verdict.
Sollecito's lawyers said they were stunned by the conviction and Sollecito's 25-year sentence and would appeal.
"There isn't a shred of proof," attorney Luca Maori said.
Presiding
Judge Alessando Nencini ordered Sollecito's passport revoked but made
no requests for Knox's movements to be limited, saying she was
"justifiably abroad."
Experts have said it's
unlikely that Italy would request Knox's extradition before the verdict
is final. If the conviction is upheld on a final appeal, a lengthy
extradition process would likely ensue.
Knox's
defense team gave its last round of rebuttals earlier Thursday, ending
four months of arguments in the third trial for Kercher's murder in the
Italian university town of Perugia.
Kercher's brother and sister were in the courtroom for the verdict, and said the outcome was the best they could have hoped for.
"It's
hard to feel anything at the moment because we know it will go to a
further appeal," said her brother, Lyle Kercher. Asked if he was
satisfied, he said: `'No matter what the verdict was, it never was going
to be a case of celebrating anything."
Knox's
lawyer, Dalla Vedova, had told the court he was "serene" about the
verdict because he believes the only conclusion from the files is "the
innocence of Amanda Knox."
"It is not possible
to convict a person because it is probable that she is guilty," Dalla
Vedova said. "The penal code does not foresee probability. It foresees
certainty."
Dalla Vedova evoked Dante, noting
that the Florentine writer reserved the lower circle of hell for those
who betrayed trust, as he asserted that police had done to Knox when
they held her overnight for questioning without legal representation and
without advising her that she was a suspect.
Knox
had returned to Seattle after spending four years in jail before being
acquitted in 2011. In an email to this court, Knox wrote that she feared
a wrongful conviction.
