1997-07-29
Coach's back flip resurrects Knox's career
(APW_ENG_19970729.0114)
1) Australian veteran rugby union fly-half David Knox was berated on Saturday as a ``non-tackler'' by the national coach who now rates him an automatic choice for the Wallabies.
2) Coach Greg Smith's amazing back flip on the 33-year-old continued a strange season for Knox.
3) Knox was outstanding in the Super 12 competition but walked out on Australia last month when Smith picked Tim Horan out of position at fly-half. Smith said Knox could not match Horan's defense but with the incumbent breaking a thumb against New Zealand on Saturday, Knox will get another chance to change Smith's mind.
4) After the All Blacks ruthlessly rolled Australia 33-18 in Melbourne, Smith called Knox a ``non-tackler'' in discussing replacements for Horan.
5) It was reported that Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill intervened to urge selectors to call Knox up from his South African base, where he is playing provincial rugby for Natal.
6) Smith said Tuesday that if Knox plays well against South Africa in the tri-nations series match at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday he might retain the position for the remainder of the tournament.
7) Horan is likely to be out for two months, leaving the door open for Knox to make the tour of Argentina and following one-off test against England later this year.
8) ``What you do is give people an opportunity in a position and if they perform they retain the position,'' said Smith.
9) ``I don't have the slightest doubt David Knox will perform. If he doesn't it won't be his fault, it'll be the circumstances.
10) ``Knoxy's the kind of bloke who'll enjoy the circumstances. I'm sure he'll be okay.''
11) Knox was flying back from South Africa Tuesday to prepare for his ninth Test appearance as Australia had its first Brisbane training session since the demoralizing loss to New Zealand.
12) ``When I got the call it was a bit of a surprise but I'm very happy,'' Knox said.
13) ``There's more to a game of rugby than defense, although it's very important, but I've really worked on my defense in the last couple of years.''
14) A majority of Wallaby players believe Knox should have been picked in the Test team from the outset this year.
15) ``If we can keep offering good possession for the back line we know we can maintain a lot of pressure on any opposition,'' said scrum half George Gregan.
16) ``David's got a very good set of hands and plays a style which gives his outside backs more opportunities. That's really going to help our game.''
17) But captain John Eales warned Knox could not be expected to do it himself.
18) ``He's not going to be able to come in and just do it,'' Eales said.
19) It obvious that Knox is not one of his coach's favorites, but he was lucky enough that Smith has even less time for the nearest rival - Queensland's fly-half Elton Flatley.
20) In November last year Smith said ``strewth, he is a bloke with a lot of courage ... but he's not a Test five-eighth.''



2007-11-06
3 detained in Italy on suspicion of murder and sexual assualt of UK student
(APW_ENG_20071106.0611)
1) Police detained the American roommate of a 22-year-old British student stabbed to death in Perugia last week and two others on suspicion of murder and sexual assault, authorities said Tuesday.
2) Meredith Kercher was found dead Friday in her rented room in the central Italian city the morning after attending last a Halloween party, authorities said.
3) Kercher, found half-naked, died fighting off a sexual attack, Perugia Police Chief Arturo De Felice told a news conference. He said Kercher was a "victim and nothing more."
4) A coroner said Kercher was stabbed in the neck, but police said no murder weapon has been found.
5) The three people detained were identified by Italian news agencies as Kercher's 20-year-old roommate, a 24-year-old Italian man who may have been the roommate's boyfriend and a 37-year-old Congolese man.
6) Kercher had been enrolled for a year of study in Perugia, an Umbrian city 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of Rome that is known for its university for foreigners.



2007-11-07
Mother of American suspect in death of British girl arrives in Perugia
(APW_ENG_20071107.1133)
1) An American woman who traveled to Italy to comfort her daughter following the slaying of her British roommate was told during the journey that her daughter was being detained as a suspect, officials said Wednesday.
2) Edda Mellas, of Seattle, arrived in Perugia on Tuesday night and was being hosted in a city-owned apartment, city spokesman Paolo Occhiuto said.
3) Mellas' daughter, Amanda Marie Knox, a 20-year-old University of Washington student, was detained Tuesday along with her 24-year-old Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and a Congolese resident of Perugia, Lumumba "Patrick" Diya, 38, in connection with the sexual assault and death of British student Meredith Kercher.
4) Perugia police did not release the suspects' names, but a police spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday that the names that had appeared in the Italian media were correct.
5) Kercher, 21, was found dead Friday, half-naked, in the apartment she shared with Knox after attending a Halloween party, authorities said.
6) Police chief Arturo De Felice said Tuesday she died fighting off a sexual attack. The coroner said Kercher was stabbed in the neck, but police say no murder weapon has been found.
7) In Italy, police detain people as suspects if prosecutors feel they have sufficient proof that they were involved in a crime. Within 48 hours, a judge must decide at a hearing whether to confirm the detentions or reject them based on the prosecutors' evidence.
8) That hearing is scheduled for Thursday. If the judge confirms the detentions, the prosecutor will likely ask that the suspects remain in prison while the investigation continues, said attorney Valerio Spigarelli, who is not connected to the case but is an expert in Italian criminal law.
9) At a later date, depending on the course of the investigation, prosecutors may ask a judge to formally indict the suspects and put them on trial, Spigarelli said.
10) Members of Kercher's family, meanwhile, arrived Tuesday in Perugia and were being hosted at the city's expense at a central hotel, awaiting word from prosecutors on when they can take her remains home, Occhiuto said in a phone interview.
11) "We don't know how long it will take," he said.
12) In Seattle, the president of the Seattle-Perugia Sister City Association, Mike James, said it helped make travel arrangements for Mellas to get to Perugia. At the time she left, she was going to comfort her daughter and did not know she was a suspect.
13) Occhiuto said Mellas had been informed during the trip that her daughter had not just been questioned by police in the case but had been detained.
14) A spokesman for the University of Washington in Seattle, Norm Arkans, said Knox was a student in good standing, studying this quarter in Perugia.
15) "That's all we can say because of student information privacy," Arkans said. "We don't have a role in any student's private legal problems."
16) Perugia, a city of about 150,000 people, hosts two major universities, the Italian state University of Perugia, with some 20,000 students, as well as the University for Foreigners, with a few thousand students, Occhiuto said.



2007-11-08
Italy judge delays decision on holding US student in death of UK roomate
(APW_ENG_20071108.0827)
1) A judge on Thursday postponed a decision for another day on whether there was sufficient evidence to keep an American student in jail in connection with the death of her British roommate, a defense lawyer said.
2) Judge Claudia Matteini said she would decide Friday whether Amanda Marie Knox, a 20-year-old student from Seattle, should remain in jail pending further investigation into the death of Meredith Kercher, Knox's attorney, Luciano Ghirga, told reporters outside the courthouse.
3) At the hearing Thursday, Matteini was still weighing whether to continue to hold Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 24, and a Congolese resident, Lumumba "Patrick" Diya, 38, Ghirga said.
4) The three were detained on Tuesday in connection with the sexual assault and death of Kercher, 21, whose body was found Friday in the apartment she shared with Knox, authorities said.
5) Police said she died fighting off a sexual attack. The coroner said Kercher was stabbed in the neck, but police say no murder weapon has been found.
6) Ghirga said Knox was well but stressed by the experience.
7) "We maintain her innocence, and the prosecutor maintains she contributed to the crime," Ghirga said.
8) Sollecito's attorney, Tiziano Tedeschi, told reporters as he arrived at the courthouse that he was "serene" and had "total faith in the judge."
9) In her profile on the MySpace.com social networking site, Knox wrote that she was majoring in Italian and German and minoring in creative writing.
10) She wrote on her blog last month that she was in "one of my most happiest places right now" and mentions her house, her language classes, working at Diya's bar six nights a week and her observations on Italian life.
11) "Everything shuts down in the middle of the day so everyone can have a 3 hour lunch break. i love it," she wrote. "i wish we had that in america. ... Having that time in the middle of the day reminds you that life really isnt all about going to work and making money. its about who you are and what you choose to do and who you choose to spend your time with."
12) She signed off by wishing her friends well: "Vi voglio bene."
13) Dozens of red commemorative candles remained lit Wednesday evening in Kercher's memory on the stairs of Perugia's medieval cathedral, but many foreign students continued to party as usual.
14) "The Americans still come out as if nothing happened," said Esteban Garcia Pascual, the Argentine-born owner of a downtown pub that is popular among foreign students. "They go out and have fun and continue their adventure."



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2007-11-17
Lawyer: New fingerprints found in blood of British student killed in Italy
(APW_ENG_20071117.0527)
1) New, bloody fingerprints have been found on the pillow of a British student found slain in her bedroom in the Italian university town of Perugia earlier this month, a lawyer for the victim's family said Saturday.
2) The same person's prints were also found on toilet paper in the house where the body of Meredith Kercher, 21, was discovered by police on Nov. 2, said the lawyer, Francesco Maresca, in a telephone interview from Florence. He did not know whether the prints belonged to a potential new suspect in the case, but said they did not belong to any of the three suspects now jailed in the probe.
3) Milan daily Corriere della Sera reported that one of the prints, on Kercher's pillow, was that of a man's thumb, but Maresca said he had no details about the prints, including whether they were believed to be those of a man.
4) Kercher's 20-year-old American flatmate, Amanda Knox, and Knox's 23-year-old Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are being held in a Perugia jail as suspects in the woman's slaying and sexual abuse. Also jailed in the case is a 38-year-old Congolese man, Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, who runs a pub that was frequented by the American.
5) Knox has told investigators that Lumumba was infatuated with Kercher and was in the British woman's bedroom in the hours before the victim was killed, but Lumumba has denied being in the house.
6) All three suspects have denied involvement in the killing.
7) One of Lumumba's lawyers, Carlo Pacelli, told reporters Saturday that the defense is seeking further scientific analysis to better establish how and precisely when Kercher was killed, including a possible new autopsy on the body, which was flown to Britain on Nov. 11.
8) The body has not yet been buried, Maresca said.
9) "In a word, they are seeking to know ... the exact hour, the moment of death," as well as more details on the cause, Maresca said.



2007-11-18
Lawyers for suspects in slaying of British student seek freedom amid new leads on killer
(APW_ENG_20071118.0618)
1) Lawyers for three suspects jailed in connection with the slaying of a British student said Sunday they were hopeful their clients could be freed after investigators found a bloody fingerprint from someone else on the victim's pillow.
2) The lawyers said the discovery bolsters their appeals to a court to review the judge's Nov. 9 ruling jailing their clients. A date for a new hearing on the detentions is expected to be announced this week.
3) Meredith Kercher, 21, was found dead in her Perugia apartment on Nov. 2. She was sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed.
4) Her 20-year-old American roommate, Amanda Marie Knox; Knox's 23-year-old Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito; and a Congolese pub owner, Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, 38, are being held in a Perugia jail as suspects.
5) No charges have been filed. But the Italian judge who upheld the suspects' detentions has said there were "serious indications of guilt" that warranted keeping them behind bars for up to a year while the investigation continues.
6) All three suspects have denied involvement in the killing.
7) Lawyers for the three suspects submitted motions to a court to review the detentions late last week. By early this week, prosecutors must respond by submitting the results of their investigation so far. Also this week, the court is expected to set a date for a hearing as to whether the detentions are justified, the attorneys said.
8) The lawyers praised indications that investigators were turning their attention to another suspect after bloody fingerprints were discovered on Kercher's pillowcase and on toilet paper in the house that did not match those of any of the three jailed suspects.
9) "I'm convinced this is an open case," said Carlo Pacelli, Lumumba's lawyer. He said that he hopes the hearing would confirm that his client had nothing to do with the slaying; Lumumba has maintained he was at his pub, not in the apartment, on the night of the slaying.
10) Tiziano Tedeschi, attorney for suspect Raffaele Sollecito, said the lead on the pillowcase traces was "good news."
11) Tedeschi said investigators knew from the beginning that there were such traces and that Meredith was found with hair clutched in her hands. He said investigators should have focused on identifying the DNA from those samples rather than detaining his client in haste.
12) "This is the first suspect, not the fourth," he said of the new investigative lead. "They should have immediately focused their attention on this subject, and then if there were others."
13) "They (prosecutors) didn't want to find the truth; they wanted to close the case and make a 'bella figura,'" because the case was in the international spotlight, he said in a phone interview.
14) Italian news reports said Sunday that investigators were believed to have identified the "fourth suspect," based on the bloody fingerprints, as a man from the Ivory Coast with a known criminal record, and that he was believed to have been formally placed under investigation.
15) Phone calls placed to prosecutors were not answered Sunday; messages left with police seeking confirmation of the reports were not returned.
16) Luciano Ghirga, Knox's attorney, said the reported identification of a new suspect changed little for his client. He noted that Knox had never mentioned any such person in her two declarations to prosecutors.



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2007-11-29
Student life abroad comes under scrutiny after gruesome slaying in medieval Italian city
(APW_ENG_20071129.0944)
1) For many university students, a year studying abroad is an experience of a lifetime to learn a language and live in a new culture. But it's often just as much about partying in a place where alcohol and drugs are readily available.
2) Even for the wild life of college kids away from home, something went horribly wrong in this picturesque central Italian city where a 21-year-old British student was killed Nov. 1.
3) Meredith Kercher was sexually assaulted and stabbed in the apartment she shared with her American flatmate, Amanda Marie Knox -- who has been detained along with two other people in connection with the death.
4) The gruesome tale of sex, drugs and murder has gripped Italy, and even the Vatican has weighed in on what it called the "dangers" of students living far from home and family.
5) Knox, 20, and her one-time boyfriend and Italian co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito, are due in court on Friday for a hearing on whether they should remain in jail while the probe continues.
6) A third suspect, Rudy Hermann Guede, a native of Ivory Coast is in detention in Germany awaiting extradition to Italy. Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, a Congolese who owned the Perugia bar where Knox worked, was recently released from jail for lack of evidence. All four deny wrongdoing.
7) The case, and particularly Knox's alleged role, has made headlines in Italy, Britain and beyond in part because of the light it has shone on the seemingly privileged world of students spending a semester or year abroad studying.
8) And by all indications, Knox was a bright and eager student proficient enough in languages to read Harry Potter in German.
9) She grew up in Seattle, where she attended a $12,000-a-year Jesuit high school. Her parents married in 1987, the year she was born, divorced two years later and remarried.
10) Last spring, she made the dean's list at the University of Washington, where, according to her profile on the MySpace.com social networking site, she was majoring in German and Italian and minoring in creative writing.
11) Before arriving in Italy in September, she had lined up an internship at the Bundestag in Berlin with the help of her uncle. On her first day of work, she left her apartment three hours early since she had to navigate Berlin's public transport system on her own and wanted to be on time.
12) Yet, at the same time Knox also comes across as a typical irresponsible, 20-year-old: She walked off her Bundestag job after just a few days because, she wrote, she had nothing to do.
13) Her MySpace page, in which she calls herself "Foxy Knoxy," includes images of her drunk and acting silly in a video, and she referred several times to drug use and nights spent working and dancing at Lumumba's bar -- providing a different side to what the Italian press calls her "angel face" look.
14) Lumumba said after his release from jail that Knox was a self-confident and flirtatious girl who was intensely jealous of Kercher.
15) "Amanda hated Meredith because people loved her more than they did Amanda," Britain's Sunday Mirror quoted Lumumba as saying last week. "She was insanely jealous that Meredith was taking over her position as Queen Bee."
16) In a Nov. 9 ruling ordering the suspects jailed, a judge in Perugia wrote that Knox, in her statement to prosecutors, had accused Lumumba of killing Kercher and at one point had covered her ears to drown out her screams.
17) The judge noted that Knox's memories were confused since she had smoked hashish earlier in the day.
18) In many European capitals, the close-knit world of study abroad students is hard to miss.
19) Groups of rowdy, mostly English-speaking students are routinely seen staggering through central squares, like Rome's Campo dei Fiori, on any given Saturday night, frequenting bars that carry "Two-for-One" or "Lady's Night" signs that clearly target English-speakers out to get drunk.
20) But the small city of Perugia, population 150,000, seemed to have provided a different experience to its students.
21) With its steep medieval streets and heavy presence of European students attending its University for Foreigners, Perugia was off the beaten-track for Americans, said Carol Clark, the American director of the Perugia Umbra Institute which offers study abroad programs to U.S. students.
22) "Here, foreign students tend to live in apartments with international roommates, buy food, interact with locals," although the foreign community still has their own pubs and meeting points, she said.
23) The students who come to Perugia, she said, "want a place which is less Americanized," than the big cities that attract U.S. college programs.
24) But binge-drinking and drug use is certainly available for those who want it, said Esteban Garcia Pascual, an Argentine whose bar "La Tana dell'Orso" is a top destination for foreign students in Perugia.
25) "Perugia is more of a break to them than a commitment," he said. "For them, it is a new world. They come here, have fun and get trashed in the evening."
26) Yet not all students come to Perugia -- or go on study abroad programs -- just to have fun with other Americans, said Zachary Nowak, a 30-year-old New Yorker who fell in love with Perugia during his own study abroad program and never left.
27) "They are really integrated," he said of the foreign students. "There's no Campo dei Fiori here, they have to make an effort. If they want to order a margarita in English in a bar, they'd go to Rome or Florence."



2007-11-30
Judge orders American suspect to remain in jail
(APW_ENG_20071130.0971)
1) A court ruled Friday that an American suspect in the slaying of her British roommate must remain in jail.
2) Amanda Marie Knox has been jailed in this central Italian city since Nov. 6. The decision was made shortly after the 20-year-old student from Seattle appeared before the court to proclaim her innocence.



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2007-12-06
Ivorian wanted in student slaying in Italy extradited by Germany
(APW_ENG_20071206.0700)
1) An Ivorian wanted in connection with the killing of a British student in Perugia has been extradited to Italy, a German prosecutor said Thursday.
2) Rudy Hermann Guede has denied involvement in the slaying of Meredith Kercher, 21, but has acknowledged being in her room the night she died. He was arrested in Germany on Nov. 20 and has been held in Koblenz.
3) Guede was transferred to a holding facility in Frankfurt on Wednesday and then handed over to Italian authorities, said Koblenz prosecutor Karl-Rudolf Winkler.
4) Airport officials in Rome confirmed that Guede arrived shortly before 1 p.m. aboard an Alitalia flight from Frankfurt. He was handed over to Italian police.
5) Kercher's body was discovered Nov. 2 in the Perugia apartment. An autopsy found she died from a knife wound to the neck, apparently while trying to fight off a sexual assault.
6) The victim's American roommate, Amanda Knox, 20, and Knox's Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 23, have been detained in the investigation into the killing.
7) Another suspect, Congolese pub owner Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, has been released from jail but has not been formally cleared.



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2008-09-26
American slay suspect attends hearing in Italy
(APW_ENG_20080926.1288)
1) An American student and her former Italian boyfriend suspected in the 2007 stabbing death of a young British woman saw each other for the first time in months Friday at a hearing to decide whether they will stand trial for the slaying.
2) Suspects Amanda Knox, 21, from Seattle, and Raffaele Sollecito have been jailed separately since shortly after the Nov. 1 slaying of Knox's flatmate, Meredith Kercher, whose body, stabbed in the neck, was found in a pool of blood in Kercher's bedroom.
3) The third suspect, Rudy Hermann Guede, of the Ivory Coast, also attended the hearing to decide on the prosecutors' request for charges and indictments.
4) All the suspects have denied wrongdoing.
5) Because Sollecito had skipped the opening hearing last week, Friday's session was the first time he and his ex-girlfriend have been in the same room since they were jailed. In Italy, defendants have the right to skip hearings or trials.
6) The hearings are closed to the media and public. A decision is expected in a few weeks, after more hearings.
7) Lawyers for the defendants described to reporters some details of Friday's nine-hour hearing.
8) One of Knox's lawyers, Luciano Ghirga, told reporters that she flashed Sollecito a "cordial, sober" smile.
9) "It was a kind of 'pleasure to see you' smile, nothing more," Ghirga said.
10) Defendants are not allowed to talk to each other during the hearings.
11) The court heard testimony from an Albanian man who had told prosecutors that he saw all three suspects together the night before the slaying in front of the rented house Knox, Kercher and other students shared.
12) Guede's lawyer, Valter Biscotti, told reporters that all three suspects asked during the hearing for permission to address the court. "They made very brief statements, along the lines of 'everything you heard today is false,'" Biscotti said.
13) The hearings in the central city of Perugia also serve as a fast-track trial for Guede -- a move requested by his lawyers. A quick trial limits the number of witnesses and kinds of evidence that can be submitted to save time and, if he is convicted, carries a lighter sentence.



2008-10-18

2008-10-20
Seattle attorney speaks in support of Amanda Knox
(APW_ENG_20081020.1131)
1) A Seattle attorney volunteering as a spokeswoman for supporters of Amanda Knox, a University of Washington student jailed in an Italian murder case, said Monday that Knox has been treated unfairly by the courts and the media.
2) Knox, 21, of Seattle, is accused in the November 2007 stabbing death of her house mate in the Italian university town of Perugia. Knox says she's innocent, and her friends say she has been mistreated by the Italian legal system.
3) "At some point there has to be some truth put forward on her behalf," said Anne Bremner, a Seattle trial lawyer.
4) Bremner said there have been too many leaks in the case, and the tabloid media has been spreading false rumors.
5) Knox, her former boyfriend and a second man are accused in the death of British student Meredith Kercher.
6) An Italian court is conducting a fast-track trial for Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native charged in the case. He has acknowledged being in the bedroom where Kercher's body, stabbed in the neck and lying in a pool of blood, was found.
7) The same court also is hearing arguments on whether Knox and her former boyfriend, Italian student Raffaele Sollecito, should stand trial for the slaying. A ruling is expected by the end of October.
8) All three have denied wrongdoing.
9) Bremner said Knox's supporters know there is little they can do to influence the Italian legal system, but want to make sure Knox's portrayal in the courts and media is accurate.
10) "We have an American citizen going through the Italian justice system and the friends of Amanda want to insure that the process is fair," Bremner said.
11) "There's been all kinds of leaks in the case from the get-go that contained prejudicial and misleading information about Amanda," Bremner said. "There's never been another side shown about the evidence and how she's been treated."
12) The group she represents, called "Friends of Amanda," is unhappy with the length of Knox's detention, the legal basis for her detention, and information about the case that has been leaked to the media, Bremner said.
13) "There may be a need at some point for our government to respond," Bremner said.



2008-10-21

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2008-10-27
Decision nears in Italy in case of slain Briton
(APW_ENG_20081027.0939)
1) Prosecutors rejected claims Monday that police contaminated evidence used for its case and requested an American woman and her former Italian boyfriend stand trial for killing a British student.
2) The prosecution closed its arguments Monday at the courthouse in Perugia, central Italy, and a judge is expected to rule Tuesday whether Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito will go on trial for the killing.
3) Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old student from Leeds University in England, was found dead in her bedroom Nov. 2 from a stab wound to the neck. Prosecutors say she was killed while an unwilling participant of a sex game.
4) They also asked that a third suspect, Rudy Hermann Guede of Ivory Coast, be sentenced to life. Guede is undergoing a fast-track trial at his request.
5) All suspects, who appeared in court Monday, deny wrongdoing.
6) Prosecutors claim that key evidence linking Sollecito to the death is from his DNA found on the victim's bra.
7) But Sollecito's defense argued in the closed-doors hearing that multiple DNA traces were found on the bra -- not just from one person -- suggesting the evidence was inadvertently contaminated by police. Lawyers said the traces were compatible with the DNA of fellow suspects Knox and Guede, as well as of other people.
8) "This is not a genetic trace belonging to one single person but it's a mix, a combination resulting from contamination, obviously involuntary, and therefore should not be admitted as evidence in court," one of Sollecito's lawyers, Giulia Bongiorno, said. She cited an examination by a defense team expert.
9) Prosecutor Manuela Comodi said during a break in the proceedings that "we gave a substantially different interpretation on the same elements" than the defense, including the bra.



2008-10-28

2008-10-29
Judge to rule if suspects can be freed from jail
(APW_ENG_20081029.0851)
1) A judge is considering whether an American student and her former boyfriend can be freed from jail while they await trial in the slaying of a British student in Italy.
2) Judge Paolo Micheli may rule later Wednesday on whether Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito can be eligible for house arrest. Their trial begins in December.
3) Micheli has convicted Rudy Hermann Guede of Ivory Coast of murder in the Nov. 2 death of Meredith Kercher. Micheli sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
4) Kercher, 21, was stabbed in the neck in the apartment she shared with Knox in the university town of Perugia.
5) All three denied wrongdoing.



2008-11-25

2008-12-11
Knox appears in jailhouse movie
(APW_ENG_20081211.1001)
1) An American student accused of the slaying of her British roommate in Italy has appeared in a jailhouse movie, prison officials and the film's director said Thursday.
2) Seattle student Amanda Knox performed in the 55-minute movie called "L'Ultima Citta" (The Last City), which tells the story of 12 female inmates who take an imaginary journey through seven fantasy cities, said director Claudio Carini.
3) Officials canceled plans to show the film publicly because of fears it might impact on Knox's case.
4) The making of the film was part of a series of social reintegration initiatives for inmates at Capanne prison, near Perugia, that also included sporting and cultural events. Such projects are common in Italian prisons.
5) "Like all the others, she acted very well. She was very disciplined," Carini said in a telephone interview.
6) He said that Knox acted both in English and Italian and "had a lot of fun."
7) The movie, which Carini started shooting in September at the Capanne prison, includes excerpts from Shakespeare and Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. Carini declined to say how much the film cost.
8) Knox, 21, and her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were indicted in October on charges of murder and sexual violence in the 2007 slaying of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia in November 2007. The two deny wrongdoing.
9) A trial is scheduled to open Jan. 16.
10) The film had been slated to screen Dec. 14 at a Perugia film festival but prison officials and the local authorities who commissioned the movie put it on indefinite hold.
11) The idea for the project began in June 2007 -- months before Kercher's murder -- so Knox's participation in it is purely coincidental, regional official Damiano Stufara said in a statement. Carini has been involved in a number of previous film projects.
12) The director of the Capanne prison, Antonio Fullone, who has seen the movie, said Thursday that because of Knox's participation in the film, "We thought it most appropriate not to screen it at the festival."
13) Fullone said a decision on whether to make the movie public has not been made yet.
14) Knox's lawyers in Italy and a spokesman in Seattle representing Knox's family were not immediately available for comment. Lawyers for Kercher's family also could not immediately be reached.
15) Knox and Sollecito have been in custody for over a year. A third man, Ivorian Rudy Hermann Guede has been convicted on the same charges and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Guede had asked for a fast-track trial.
16) The case, and particularly Knox's alleged role, has made headlines in Italy, Britain and beyond in part because of the light it has shone on the seemingly privileged world of students spending a semester or year abroad studying.



2008-12-23

2009-01-15

2009-01-16

2009-01-26

2009-02-06

2009-02-07
Roommate testifies in trial of US student in Italy
(APW_ENG_20090207.0383)
1) An American student and the British woman she is accused of killing were friendly at first but then drifted apart, their roommate testified Saturday.
2) Filomena Romanelli took the stand in the trial of Amanda Knox and Knox's Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who are charged with murder and sexual violence in the killing of Meredith Kercher. Both deny wrongdoing.
3) Kercher was found stabbed to death Nov. 2, 2007, in the apartment she shared with Knox and Romanelli in Perugia, where the American and the Briton were exchange students.
4) In her testimony, Romanelli said Knox and Kercher were initially close, in part because they both spoke English.
5) "They had interests in common, at the beginning they surely had a good relationship, there was no reason not to get along," Romanelli said.
6) "It seemed like along the way they didn't really go separate ways, but they developed personal interests that they pursued individually," she said.
7) While Kercher was dedicated to her studies, Knox was someone with "quite a lot of interests," Romanelli said.
8) "She liked music, sports, yoga, languages," she said. "Sometimes she had unusual attitudes, like she would start doing yoga while we were speaking, or she would play guitar while we were watching TV."
9) Knox and Sollecito were in court Saturday, and appeared to follow proceedings closely.
10) Later Saturday, Giacomo Silenzi, an Italian man who used to date Kercher, was scheduled to take the stand.
11) A third defendant in the case, Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede, was convicted last year of the same charges and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Guede, who had also denied wrongdoing, underwent a fast-track trial at his request.



2009-02-13

2009-02-15

2009-02-27

2009-02-28

2009-03-04

2009-03-05

2009-03-13
Witness: suspect in Italy slaying carried knife
(APW_ENG_20090313.0587)
1) A police officer has testified that an Italian suspect was carrying a knife when he was taken to a police station in the hours that followed the stabbing death of a British student in Italy.
2) Daniele Moscatelli told a court in Perugia on Friday that defendant Raffaele Sollecito looked "confused and nervous" during the questioning and that he was carrying a "long" knife in his pocket. The knife is not believed to be the murder weapon.
3) Another police officer testified that American co-defendant Amanda Knox nervously walked up and down at the station and was hitting her head with her hands.
4) Sollecito and Knox are on trial on charges of murder and sexual violence for the 2007 slaying of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher. They deny wrongdoing.



2009-03-14

2009-03-16

2009-03-20
Italy trial of slain Briton continues
(APW_ENG_20090320.0986)
1) The cell phones of two defendants in the murder of a British student killed in Italy remained inactive the night of the murder, witnesses testified Friday.
2) Investigators say having their cell phones turned off made their whereabouts untraceable. Defense lawyers contend that the cell phone data were inconclusive.
3) The session in the trial over the November 2007 stabbing death of Meredith Kercher was largely devoted to analyzing evidence recovered by police and telecoms experts from the cell phones of both the victim and the defendants.
4) The victim's roommate, U.S. student Amanda Knox, and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are on trial for the murder. The two, in jail in Italy since shortly after the murder, deny wrongdoing.
5) Police inspector Letterio Latella, who analyzed the data, said Knox's and Sollecito's cell phones showed no activity on the night of the crime. His testimony confirmed previous witness accounts and provided details of the cell phones' traffic.
6) In lengthy testimony supported by PowerPoint slides, Latella said Sollecito's cell phone remained inactive between 8:42 p.m. of Nov. 1 and 6:02 a.m. of Nov. 2, when he received a text message from his father.
7) Latella suggested that the cell phone had been turned off because the text message had been sent the night before. He said there were no reported glitches in the network that night, and that other cell phones active in the area appeared to function properly.
8) Knox's cell phone was inactive between 8:35 p.m. of Nov. 1 and 12:07 p.m. of Nov. 2, according to Latella, who studied documents provided by the phone operators. At 12:07 p.m., Knox's called Kercher's British number.
9) Kercher, who was stabbed in the neck and lying in a pool of blood, was found in the apartment she shared with the American in the late morning of Nov. 2. Her two cell phones were discovered in a neighbor's garden.
10) Based on the autopsy and accounts by Kercher's friends of when she ate dinner with them that night, the 21-year-old woman is believed to have died between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Nov. 1, according to court documents.
11) Prosecutors allege that Kercher was stabbed to death during what began as a sex game. They have already won the conviction of a third person implicated in the case, Rudy Hermann Guede of the Ivory Coast. The man, who also denied wrongdoing, was sentenced to 30 years in prison at a separate trial last year.
12) Sollecito, 24, has maintained he was at his own apartment the night of the murder. He said he was working at his computer, though one witness testified recently that there was no sign of Sollecito using his computer during the hours Kercher was killed.
13) Knox, a 21-year-old former University of Washington student, has given conflicting accounts. Eventually, she said she wasn't home.
14) Phone records showed she exchanged text messages with the Congolese owner of a pub where she used to work part-time, Latella and other witnesses said.
15) The messages Knox sent at 8:35 p.m. to the man, Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, said: "Sure. See you later. Have a good night!" said Simone Tacconi of the telecommunications branch of Rome police. The message was written in Italian.
16) Lumumba was detained for two weeks in November 2007 after he was implicated by Knox. He has since been cleared and is seeking defamation damages from Knox.
17) On Thursday, police reported that intruders had broken into the house of the murder, the second time in a month.
18) The intrusion was noticed during a routine inspection Thursday, when police realized that a window had been broken.
19) In February, intruders ransacked the house in Perugia and left four kitchen knives and some candles in various rooms. This time the intruders didn't leave anything behind but moved things around, according to local reports.
20) Lawyers and court officials turned down a police request to putting metal bars on some windows in the house, which is still under police wraps.



2009-03-21
Witness contradicts accused in Italy murder trial
(APW_ENG_20090321.0429)
1) A U.S. student on trial for allegedly murdering her British roommate in Italy was recognized by a witness Saturday as a woman in a grocery store the early morning after the killing, although the defendant says she woke up at mid-morning that day.
2) That defendant, Amanda Knox, and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito are accused of killing Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British student who was found dead Nov. 2, 2007.
3) The prosecutors say that Kercher was killed the night before, between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., at the apartment she shared with Knox after what had begun as a sex game.
4) The two defendants deny wrongdoing. Sollecito said he spent the night at his house, and that he does not remember whether Knox spent part of all of the night with him. Knox, after conflicting statements, eventually said she was not home. She has said she awoke at Sollecito's house at mid-morning.
5) Witness Marco Quintavalle said Saturday that a young woman entered his grocery store near Sollecito's house in Perugia at 7:45 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2007. He said the woman was waiting for him to open the store and that he and she exchanged glances when she entered.
6) "It really struck me, she had a very pale face and these light eyes," said Quintavalle. "I can still see the image in my head."
7) Asked by the presiding judge if that woman was present in the courtroom, Quintavalle said he was sure it was Amanda Knox.
8) "Now I'm sure," he said, looking at her. Knox did not appear to react.
9) Quintavalle, who said he was not at the cash register, said he was not sure whether Knox had bought anything that morning.
10) Quintavalle said he had seen Knox one or two times before at his store with Sollecito, who was a frequent customer. Quintavalle said he did not realize the woman who entered the store was Knox until he saw her face in newspaper articles and on TV days later.
11) Quintavalle volunteered this information to the prosecution a year later upon the suggestion of a reporter friend. He said Saturday that he had waited because he had "no enthusiasm about getting involved in this story."
12) Defense lawyers questioned the reliability of the witness. Carlo Dalla Vedova asked him if he could say how tall Sollecito is and what is the color of his eyes. He gave an indication on the height and said he wasn't sure about the eye color.
13) Chris Mellas, Knox's stepfather, said the trial had so far failed to show "any evidence that she's done anything, which is the truth."
14) "With each court session that passes she feels a little bit better," Mellas told The Associated Press before Quintavalle took the stand. Mellas has been coming to court and visiting Knox in jail.
15) In other testimony, Jovana Popovic of Serbia said Sollecito had agreed to drive her to a bus station in Perugia the night of the murder. They ended up not going as Popovic changed her plan. Popovic went to Sollecito's house at 8:40 p.m. to tell him she no longer needed to go, and Knox opened the door to take the message, the Serbian woman testified.
16) Another person implicated in the case, Rudy Hermann Guede of the Ivory Coast, was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison at a separate trial last year. He also denies wrongdoing.



2009-03-27
Witness at Italian trial: I heard woman scream
(APW_ENG_20090327.0545)
1) A witness at the Italian trial of two people accused of killing a British student says she heard a woman's scream that "made her skin crawl" on the night of the murder.
2) Nara Capezzali also testified Friday that shortly after the scream, she heard the steps of at least two people running. The witness imitated the scream for the court. Capezzali's apartment in Perugia overlooks the one where Meredith Kercher was slain in 2007.
3) Kercher's body was found in the bedroom of the flat she shared with U.S. student Amanda Knox. Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito are being tried for the murder. Both defendants deny wrongdoing and looked relaxed in court.



2009-03-28
Witness: I saw suspects at time Briton was slain
(APW_ENG_20090328.0396)
1) A prosecution witness has testified he saw two suspects accused of killing a British woman in Italy in a basketball court near the site of the slaying at the time the victim is believed to have died.
2) Homeless Antonio Curatolo said Saturday that U.S. student Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were "chatting, at times animatedly," from about 9.30 p.m. to "shortly before midnight."
3) The witness said the basketball court is a few dozen meters (yards) away from the apartment where Meredith Kercher was killed in 2007.
4) The 21-year-old Kercher is believed to have died between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Nov. 1, 2007, based on the autopsy and the accounts of friends with whom she had eaten dinner that night, court documents say.



2009-04-03

2009-04-04

2009-04-18

2009-04-23

2009-04-24

2009-05-08

2009-05-09

2009-05-22

2009-06-05

2009-06-06

2009-06-07

2009-06-11

2009-06-12

2009-06-13

2009-06-14

2009-06-19

2009-06-20

2009-06-23

2009-07-03
Kercher trial: no staged break-in
(APW_ENG_20090703.0105)
1) News reports say a police official and defense consultant has testified in the murder trial of a U.S. student in Italy that no break-in was staged in the apartment where a Briton was slain in 2007.
2) The testimony casts doubt on a key prosecution argument.
3) Prosecutors say Amanda Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito killed Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher, and then broke one of the apartment's windows from the inside to stage a burglary. A stone was found in one of the bedrooms, with shattered glass on the floor.
4) The ANSA news agency said Francesco Pasquali testified Friday in Perugia, central Italy that the window was broken from the outside.
5) ANSA said Pasquali used a video to reconstruct how the stone was thrown. Knox and Sollecito deny wrongdoing.



2009-07-06

2009-09-14

2009-09-18
Expert: bloody footprint not Italy defendant ' s
(APW_ENG_20090918.0526)
1) A bloody footprint found at the house where a British student was killed in Italy was wrongly attributed to one of the defendants in the case, a forensic expert for the defense testified at the murder trial Friday.
2) The footprint was found on a bathroom rug in the house in Perugia, central Italy, where Meredith Kercher was killed in November 2007. Prosecutors and police scientists have attributed the print to Raffaele Solicit, an Italian who is on trial on murder charges with American student Amanda Knob, his girlfriend at the time.
3) Both defendants deny wrongdoing.
4) In his testimony, expert Francesco Vinci compared detailed pictures of the footprint on the rug with images of Sollecito's feet, arguing that the sizes and shapes "absolutely don't match."
5) "Differences, one by one, can be seen," said Vinci, who was called by Sollecito's defense team.
6) The images showed what were described by Vinci as differences between the shape of toes and the ball of Sollecito's right foot and those of the bloody footprint.
7) Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini insisted during a break in the proceedings that such discrepancies could have an explanation.
8) "It could be that the foot's sole was not completely covered in blood," and the print could be the result of pressure from only part of his foot, the prosecutor said.
9) According to Vinci, the footprint was "compatible" with the foot of a third defendant, Rudy Hermann Guede, who was convicted in a separate trial last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
10) Guede, of the Ivory Coast, denies wrongdoing and has appealed his conviction.
11) The expert said he participated in one of the crime scene investigations by forensic experts at the murder scene.
12) Vinci said he also examined a blood trace left on Kercher's mattress sheet, which he said came from a knife with a 3 1/2-inch-long (9-centimeter-long) blade that was placed on the bed.
13) His contention contrasts with prosecutors' allegations that a 6 1/2-inch (16.5 centimeters) knife found at Sollecito's house matched the victim's wounds and might be the murder weapon.
14) Prosecutors say the knife had Kercher's DNA on the blade and Knox's on the handle, but defenses have argued that traces of the victim's DNA are too low to be attributed with certainty.
15) Knox and Sollecito could be sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted.
16) On Saturday, the knife that prosecutors say could be the murder weapon is expected to be shown in court.
17) Prosecutors allege that Kercher was killed during what had begun as a sex game. Her body was found in her bedroom in the apartment she shared with Knox on Nov. 2, 2007.
18) The house, which has been broken into by intruders in recent months, has been fixed up and is now available for rent, said Letizia Magnini, a lawyer representing the owner.



2009-09-19

2009-09-25
Defense witness testifies at Italy murder trial
(APW_ENG_20090925.0630)
1) A neurologist testifying Friday at the trial of an American student accused of killing her British roommate said stress could have caused the defendant to have false memories about the night of the killing, news reports said.
2) The expert was called by the defense team of Amanda Knox, who is on trial with her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the 2007 slaying of Meredith Kercher, 21. They deny wrongdoing.
3) In the days after the slaying, Knox gave authorities conflicting statements, at one point saying she was in the house the night Kercher was killed there.
4) Neurologist Carlo Caltagirone told the court in the city of Perugia that Knox was under stress after long police questioning, which might have led to her confusion, the ANSA and Apcom news agencies reported.
5) "To be questioned for long hours in a foreign country without fully realizing the situation one is in ... can lead to a lot of stress," Caltagirone said, according to ANSA.
6) Knox initially accused Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, a Congolese man who owns a pub in Perugia where she worked, of being the killer. As a result of her accusations, Lumumba was briefly jailed. He was later cleared and is seeking defamation damages from Knox.
7) Knox, 22, of Seattle, Washington, has since maintained that she spent the night of the murder at Sollecito's house.
8) In June, the American testified in court that she was beaten by police and was confused when she was questioned. She said it was the pressure that led her to accuse Lumumba.
9) Police have denied any misconduct.
10) The trial began in January.



2009-09-26
Italian jury hears last witnesses in Knox trial
(APW_ENG_20090926.0359)
1) The jury in the trial of an American college student and her former boyfriend accused of murdering her roommate has finished hearing evidence from witnesses.
2) Among the last to testify Saturday before the court in Perugia was a computer expert who appeared as a defense witness.
3) Amanda Knox is being tried along with Italian Raffaele Sollecito over the stabbing death of British student Meredith Kercher.
4) The defendants deny wrongdoing.
5) News reports quoted the expert as saying that while Sollecito was being questioned at police headquarters a few days after the slaying, someone used his home computer to read about the killing.
6) The trial resumes Oct 9. The court is expected to take up procedural matters before closing arguments begin. A verdict could come in a few weeks.



2009-11-20

2009-11-21
Life requested for US suspect in Italy murder case
(APW_ENG_20091121.0302)
1) Prosecutors have requested a life sentence for an American student and her former Italian boyfriend accused of killing a young British woman in Italy.
2) Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini on Saturday asked a jury in Perugia to convict Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito on charges of murder and sexual violence for their alleged role in the 2007 slaying of Meredith Kercher. They deny wrongdoing.
3) Knox took a deep breath when Mignini made his request. Life in prison is Italy's stiffest punishment.
4) Mignini argued that Knox, Sollecito and a third man who was convicted in a separate trial killed Kercher during a drug-induced sex game.



2009-11-28

2009-11-30

2009-12-04

2009-12-05

2009-12-06

2009-12-07

2009-12-09
Italy: Knox counting on appeal to clear her name
(APW_ENG_20091209.0355)
1) An Italian lawmaker who visited Amanda Knox in prison says the American student is counting on an appeals trial to regain her freedom, two years after she was arrested in the slaying of her British roommate.
2) An Italian jury in Perugia last week convicted Knox of murdering Meredith Kercher in the house they shared in that university town. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison.
3) Walter Verini, an opposition lawmaker in the Chamber of Deputies, spoke with Knox Tuesday as part of his monitoring of conditions in Italian prisons.
4) Corriere della Sera on Wednesday quoted Verini as saying Knox told him she still has faith in the Italian justice system, including the appeal her lawyers are preparing.
5) Verini couldn't immediately be reached for comment.



2009-12-13
AP visits Knox in jail; she says she ' s ' scared '
(APW_ENG_20091213.0278)
1) Amanda Knox told The Associated Press from her jail cell Sunday that she is scared but hopeful eight days after an Italian court sentenced her to 26 years in prison for the murder of her British roommate.
2) "I am scared because I don't know what is going on," the 22-year-old American student said during a 10-minute visit by two Italian lawmakers, prison officials and a pair of reporters in Capanne prison on the outskirts of Perugia.
3) Know has been jailed for two years since she was arrested a few days after the slaying of Meredith Kercher in the house the two students shared in this Umbrian university town.
4) "I am waiting and always hoping," Knox said, switching from English into Italian for the delegation. "I don't understand many things, but I have to accept them, things that for me don't always seem very fair."
5) Sitting on her bed in the 9-square-meter cell when the visitors arrived, the Washington State woman said "I was feeling horrendous" after the Dec. 5 verdict that she was guilty of murder and sexual assault.
6) "The guards helped me out. They held me all night," she said.
7) Her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was convicted of the same charges and given a 25-year-sentence. After the verdict, he was transferred to another prison. Both insist they are innocent.



2009-12-22

2010-01-05

2010-03-04
Reasons for Knox guilty verdict released in Italy
(APW_ENG_20100304.0911)
1) The judges who convicted Amanda Knox of murdering her British roommate in Italy say the American student and her co-defendant in the case acted without any planning or resentment against their victim.
2) The judges said Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito showed a "sort of repentance" when they covered the naked body of Meredith Kercher after the 2007 murder.
3) But the judges also say there were no holes or inconsistencies in the prosecution's case against the two.
4) The judges on Thursday released the reasons behind the Dec. 5 guilty verdict in Perugia.
5) The Seattle woman was sentenced to 26 years in jail, while Sollecito received a 25-year sentence. Both have insisted they are innocent.



2010-03-05

2010-03-11

2010-03-22

2010-06-01

2010-08-28
Amanda Knox tells lawmaker she wants to adopt
(APW_ENG_20100828.0160)
1) An American student convicted in Italy of murdering her British roommate has told an Italian lawmaker in a series of jailhouse conversations that she hopes to adopt children and be a writer when free.
2) Lawmaker Rocco Girlanda told The Associated Press on Saturday that he kept a diary of his frequent visits with Amanda Knox in her Perugia jail, material that formed the basis of a book being published in Italy and the U.S. later this fall.
3) Girlanda's "Take Me With You - Talks with Amanda Knox in Prison" also includes letters and poetry Knox sent to Girlanda, president of an Italian-U.S. foundation.
4) Knox, 23, is appealing her Dec. 5 conviction for murder and sexual assault in the 2007 death of Meredith Kercher. She was sentenced to 26 years in prison.



2010-10-17

2010-11-08
Amanda Knox indicted on slander charges
(APW_ENG_20101108.0454)
1) American student Amanda Knox has been indicted on slander charges for claiming she was beaten by police when questioned in 2007 about her roommate's slaying.
2) The judge made the decision after a closed-door hearing in Perugia on Monday.
3) Knox's lawyer said the 23-year-old told the judge that she never meant to slander anybody and she was just trying to defend herself.
4) She is serving a 26-year prison term after her conviction for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.



2010-11-23

2010-11-24

2010-11-25

2010-12-11

2010-12-16

2010-12-18
Knox trial resumes in Italy
(APW_ENG_20101218.0165)
1) The appeals murder trial of American student Amanda Knox resumed Saturday in this central Italian city, with the court expected to issue a key decision on whether to allow a review of the case's evidence and new witnesses.
2) Defense lawyers are seeking a full independent review of forensic evidence, including on contentious DNA evidence that was found on a knife allegedly used in the murder, and new witnesses. A rejection would be seen as dealing a blow to their hopes of overturning the guilty verdict.
3) Knox was convicted last year of sexually assaulting and murdering her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, and sentenced to 26 years in prison. Her co-defendant and ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito of Italy, was convicted of the same charges and sentenced to 25 years.
4) Both deny wrongdoing in the 2007 slaying.
5) The defense maintains that DNA traces presented at the original trial were inconclusive, and also challenged that they may have been contaminated when they were analyzed.
6) Prosecutor Giancarlo Costagliola said a review would be "useless" and that "this court has all the elements to be able to come to a decision."
7) Knox, a 23-year-old from Seattle, was hunched and pale as she was escorted into the courtroom. Her mother, Edda Mellas, was in court and said she would stay to spend Christmas with her daughter.
8) The hearing was held just two days after Italy's highest criminal court upheld the conviction and 16-year-prison sentence of the third person charged with the murder, Rudy Hermann Guede of the Ivory Coast. Guede has admitted being at the house the night of the murder but denies killing Kercher.
9) He has been tried separately.


Italian court OKs evidence review for Knox
(APW_ENG_20101218.0367)
1) An Italian court says it will allow independent review of crucial DNA evidence in Amanda Knox's appeals trial on her murder conviction.
2) The ruling Saturday evening by the appellate court in Perugia is an important victory in the defense strategy to try to overturn a lower court conviction of Knox and 26-year prison sentence for the 2007 slaying of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher. The lower court trial had rejected a similar defense move for an outside check of DNA found on the victim's bra clasp and on a knife the prosecution alleged was used in the fatal stabbing.