Amanda Knox New Appeal Trial Starts

Amanda Knox New Appeal Trial Starts

The new trial of Amanda Knox started recently in Florence, Italy. Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, will be facing charges of killing Meredith Kercher in 2007. Although the two received an acquittal on the murder charges, the acquittal was overturned by the Italian Supreme Court. The court also indicated that Florence will become the venue of the new appeal trial of Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox.

The American student will not be required to attend the trial since the presence of the defendants is not required under Italian law.

The decision of the Italian Supreme Court indicated that one vital piece of evidence important to the final verdict was not yet examined. This evidence is a small material that was found on the knife supposedly used in killing Kercher. When the knife was discovered, Italian Scientific Police reportedly found a small amount of the DNA of the victim. The evidence was labeled Number 36-I.

The DNA trace evidence was not accepted by the appellate court in 2010 since lab testing and results of the police were not considered reliable.

However, the Supreme Court of Italy indicated that evidence 36-I should be part of the new trial. The evidence will be a decisive factor in the case. If the evidence will contain the DNA of Meredith Kercher, Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend may be found guilty. However, if the presence of the DNA of Kercher is not found, the defendants may be acquitted again.

Since a number of outcomes may result from the examination of the evidence, it is essential to repeat the test to confirm the results of the first test. However, this may not be easy since evidence number 36-I is only 120 picograms, which makes it difficult to make a confirmatory test on the evidence.

The appeal trial of Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox will be supervised by Judge Alessandro Nencini.

Posted by James Fried on Thursday October 03 2013, 3:45 AM EST. Ref: CBS News. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0