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Murder Of Meredith Kercher

Meredith Kercher

Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher, known to her friends as "Mez", was born on 28 December 1985 in Southwark, London, England, and lived in Coulsdon, South London. She had two older brothers, John and Lyle, and an older sister, Stephanie. Kercher attended the Old Palace School in Croydon and then the University of Leeds. As part of the ERASMUS student exchange programme, she went to the University of Perugia to complete her degree course in European Studies. She appeared in a music video for singer Kristian Leontiou's song "Some Say" shortly before her death. In Perugia, she lived in a flat on the upper floor of a house at Via della Pergola 7, sharing with two Italian women. Amanda Knox moved in when she came to study at the University for Foreigners.

Kercher's funeral service was held on 14 December 2007 at Croydon Parish Church, with more than 300 people in attendance. She has since been awarded a posthumous degree by the University of Leeds.

John Kercher, the victim's father, is a freelance journalist and her mother Arline Kercher is a housewife, born in India.

Murder and investigation

Timeline and police investigation

Kercher was murdered on the evening of 1 November 2007. The pathologists put her time of death at around 23:00.

On 1 November, Kercher had spent the early evening with some friends, watching the film The Notebook and eating a home-made pizza. Just before 21:00, she left with a friend to walk home. The two parted company near her friend's flat and Kercher walked the 500 yards (460 m) towards the house alone. Around 21:30, Meredith called her mother in England, but at 22:00, her UK mobile phone dialed another number only once, a wrong number: her London bank without the international prefix, which was the first entry in her phone index. At 22:13, her UK phone received an incoming message, through a different mobile station shared with an adjacent neighborhood, but Meredith never answered.

An elderly neighbour heard a scream on the night of the murder, which she later said "was so chilling, I felt as if I was in a house of horrors". Soon after, she "heard running on the metal staircase and then running through the leaves going in the other direction". She concluded that these were the footsteps of "at least two people".

At midday on 2 November, at 12:07 Amanda Knox called Kercher's UK phone, then called housemate Filomena saying the front door of the cottage had been left open and there was some blood. She also called her mother, although it was around 4am in Seattle. Later, the Italian Post and Communications Police came to investigate the discovery of two mobile phones in a nearby garden, one of which was registered to Kercher. They arrived at the house in Via della Pergola 7, where Kercher lived, at 12:35. Knox and Sollecito were standing outside and told them that the premises had been burgled, that a window had been broken and that there were drops of blood in several rooms. At 12:51 and 12:54, Sollecito made 2 calls to the Carabinieri military police, reporting a possible burglary.

The police investigated the upstairs flat, which they concluded, apart from Kercher's bedroom and the nearby bathroom, had been "thoroughly cleaned with bleach". There was blood in several rooms, a bloody footprint in the smaller bathroom, an unflushed toilet in the large bathroom, broken glass in the third bedroom, and blood near Kercher's locked bedroom. The lower left pane of housemate Filomena's bedroom window had been smashed, with broken glass near a large stone in a bag on the floor, and the room appeared ransacked. The washing machine was found to be on final cycle with Kercher's clothes inside, but not the clothes she was wearing when attacked. When Filomena returned circa 1 pm, she said nothing had been taken.

The door to Kercher's room was forced open. The police found Kercher lying beneath a duvet "soaked in blood", with pools and smears of blood around the room. Others were told not to enter, as the area was secured for investigation. The Carabinieri police arrived, and the forensic lab in Rome was contacted to process the scene. Police said at the time that Kercher was found wearing only a cotton shirt rolled halfway up, and they concluded her throat had been slit with a shard of glass or a pen-knife. They subsequently concluded, from dried blood-spatter patterns and bra-strap marks, that she had been wearing two cotton-mesh shirts rolled up, above her bra, at the time of the murder, and that the apparent break-in at the flat had been staged.

An early police theory was that Kercher had met her killer the previous night during Halloween festivities.

Knox and Sollecito were interviewed several times by the police on the day the murder was discovered and the following two days. On 5 November 2007, Knox voluntarily accompanied Sollecito to the police station where he gave a statement, in the course of which he said that he did not know for sure that Knox was with him on the night of the murder. The police then decided to question Knox and began the interview at 23.00 that evening. Knox was interviewed twice during the night of 56 November, firstly by the judicial police and then, later, in the presence of a prosecutor. During these interviews, Knox made statements implicating Patrick Lumumba, the owner of a bar-restaurant named Le Chic, at which she occasionally worked. She said that she had accompanied Lumumba to Kercher's house and had been in the kitchen and heard screams while Lumumba committed the murder. The contents of these statements was widely reported in the press at the time. Knox later claimed that both statements were made under duress and that she had been coerced into implicating Lumumba: she said that she had been struck twice on the back of the head during the questioning and called a "stupid liar.". This is denied by the police who have now responded with a defamation charge. The conduct of these interviews remains an area of controversy in the case, with Knox's lawyer, when summing up at the end of her trial, stating that they lasted a total of 53 hours, involving a fearfilled and stressful experience for Knox.

Knox was formally arrested later on the morning of 6 November. Some time afterwards she made a written note to the police, explaining that she was confused when she made the earlier statements, saying "I'm very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion". However, she still seemed to incriminate Lumumba, saying: "I stand by my statements that I made last night about events that could have taken place in my home with Patrik [Lumumba], but I want to make very clear that these events seem more unreal to me that what I said before, that I stayed at Raffaele's house." She went on to say "I see Patrik as the murderer, but the way the truth feels in my mind, there is no way for me to have known because I don't remember FOR SURE if I was at my house that night."

This written note was admissible at the trial of Knox and Sollecito. However, following a ruling by the Court of Cassazione, the statements made to police during the night of 56 November were not: one because she was being interviewed as a witness and the other because no lawyer was present. Nevertheless, the judge (at the Knox trial) ruled that both statements were admissible in Lumumba's civil case against Knox, which was being tried in the same court at the same time as the criminal trial of Knox and Sollecito.

Lumumba was arrested on 6 November 2007 as a result of Knox's statements. He was detained for two weeks until the arrest of Guede. Initially doubts about his alibi were reported in the press, but ultimately he was completely exonerated.

The upstairs flat

The upstairs flat at Via della Pergola 7 (in Perugia, Italy). The blue square (at right ) is a corner shower, in the bathroom with no window, where a few blood smears were found.

The house at Via della Pergola 7 was investigated, along with the residence of Sollecito and Guede's former flat. The house was on an open hillside below the city centre, near a motorway on the edge of town. Kercher shared the upstairs flat with Knox and two long-time Italian friends who rented the flat in August 2007. It was accessed via a path at the top of some steps, to a parking lot, and included a foyer, a kitchen-living room area, two shared bathrooms with sink, toilet and bidet (one had a bathtub, the other, adjacent to Kercher's room, a shower) and four bedrooms. There was a laundry room, with a washing machine, next to the larger bathroom. The outdoor balcony extended along the main hallway, which opened via windowed doors to the outside, overlooking the town hillside and valley below.

Kercher rented one of the upstairs bedrooms since she had arrived in late August. Amanda Knox rented the remaining room, and returning from Germany, moved in on 20 September 2007, when she met Kercher.

The house was closed as a crime scene on 2 November 2007, and Knox was unable to retrieve her jacket, clothes, PC or other items. After the Knox-Sollecito jury visited in April 2009, the house was released, remodelled and re-occupied at the end of 2009.

Forensic investigation

The investigating judge assigned to the case read the pathology report at a preliminary hearing for the suspects and found that Kercher's carotid artery had not been ruptured in the attack, and that she likely died a "relatively slow and agonising death." The autopsy results concluded that it took her several minutes to die, as she inhaled her own blood. Her hyoid bone was broken, her superior thyroid artery had been severed by a stab wound, her lungs filled with blood causing asphyxiation and she had suffered bruising to her vagina and perineum.

The body had been found on the floor of Kercher's bedroom, lying on the back, with head towards the front wall and left foot towards the back wall, along the doorway. Blood pools, smears, finger streaks, drips, blood spatter and footprints were found in various locations in the room.

The forensic pathologist, Dr. Lalli, initially concluded that the pattern of bruises, defensive wounds/cuts, and stab wounds could not indicate whether one or multiple attackers had been present. There were larger cuts on her right hand, possibly as defensive wounds (with no one restraining her right hand), but only small cuts on her left hand. Both hands were covered in blood, as if holding her neck after it was stabbed. Dr. Lalli concluded that strangulation was attempted before the stab wounds were made. The large blood pools at the wardrobe cabinet, with hair formations and strap marks on the floor, were considered evidence that the death occurred outside the wardrobe, but that the body had been further disrobed and moved near the bed, after some blood patterns had set. Her clothes were not piled to the side, but rather, placed separately between the body and the doorway.

On November 19, 2007 it was reported in the press that Rudy Guede's fingerprint left in Kercher's blood had been matched to a print in Guede's file at the register of foreign residents at Perugia town hall. Guede left a bloody left hand print on a pillow found behind the victim's head. The DNA of Rudy Guede was found in many locations in the bedroom. His DNA was found on and inside Kercher's body Guede's DNA was also found on Kercher's shirt and bra (right side and severed strap)and mixed with Kercher's blood splatter. Guede's DNA was also found on Kercher's handbag (purse). Guede was an acquaintance of the residents of the ground floor of the cottage, a group of 4 young Italian male students, one of whom had been dating Kercher.

Other forensic evidence included an analysis of the metal clasp of Kercher's bra (retrieved in a second forensic search on 18 December 2007), which revealed small traces of DNA matching Sollecito or three other unidentified people, and the DNA testing was disputed (as "contamination") during the trials (see below: DNA disputes about bra clasp).

Chemical analysis revealed slight footprints in the house, which prosecutors said matched the shoes of Knox and Sollecito. Both admitted to having been in the house the day after the murder, and claimed that this was when they stepped in the blood.

Prosecutions

The three convicted persons are currently being held in separate Italian jails while their cases are under appeal. The appeal process is expected to take a period of years. Rudy Guede is being held in Viterbo, Amanda Knox in Capanne prison near Perugia, and Raffaele Sollecito in Terni.

Further information: Italian Criminal Procedure

Rudy Gud background

Rudy Hermann Guede

Born

26 December 1986 (1986-12-26) (age 23)

Abidjan, Cte d'Ivoire

Conviction(s)

Murder and sexual assault

Penalty

16 years imprisonment (originally 30, reduced on appeal)

Status

Conviction under Appeal

Rudy Hermann Gud (in English, usually 'Guede'), then aged 20, originally from Cte d'Ivoire, was arrested on 20 November 2007 for suspected involvement in the Kercher killing. He was subsequently convicted of murder and sexual assault and sentenced to 30 years, on 28 October 2008. On appeal, the conviction was confirmed but the sentence was reduced to 16 years.

During the week of the murder, Guede was staying in a house a few blocks from Sollecito. Sollecito's parents had purchased a flat for him on Via del Canerino. However, Guede knew a backstreet route to the Kercher-Knox house which enabled him to avoid travelling near the Sollecito flat.

Guede had come to Perugia at the age of five with his father, Pacome Roger Gud, who worked as a labourer in the 1990s. With no mother to watch him, Rudy was often taken home by his teachers when school ended, until his father returned from work. His father left Italy when Guede was 16, and he was informally adopted by the family of a wealthy local businessman, Paolo Caporali. Caporali stated that he had been disappointed by Guede's behaviour, describing him as a "tremendous liar", skipping school and being reluctant to do any work. Guede played basketball for the local team, which Caporali sponsored. Young Rudy was a natural and played basketball for the Perugia youth team in the 2004-2005 season.

Caporali initially had high hopes for Rudy Guede's future, as he seemed to have integrated well, and spoke fluent Italian with a local Umbrian accent. Rudy even acquired joint Italian nationality, and he sporadically studied accounting and hotelkeeping.

However, Rudy spent more and more time in the big-city nightlife of Milan. His aunt lived in nearby Lecco and Guede sometimes worked in Milan bars. He returned occasionally to Perugia to mingle with the 36,000-student community.

In 2007, Caporali's family offered Rudy Guede a final job, as a gardener at a family farmhouse bed and breakfast. Yet Rudy hardly ever came to work, and in August 2007 he was fired. One of the four Italian students who lived in the flat below Kercher and Knox said that he remembered Rudy Guede as being a "tall, thin guy who always wore basketball shoes and baggy trousers". According to Guede, his nickname was "Byron Scott" after the legendary high scorer for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team. However, according to Times Online, Rudy Guede was known as a small-time drug dealer, a drifter with a prior record of petty crime and drug offenses who, according to some witnesses at trial, harassed women and stole from their handbags.

On September 27, 2007, a Perugia bartender heard a noise downstairs in his home and found Guede wandering around with a large knife. He recognised Guede from his work in a nightclub. He confronted Guede, who then ran away.

In early October 2007, there had been a break-in at a nursery school in Milan. During that burglary, a thief stole 2,000 euros and a digital camera. The school's owner reported it to her local police station. Three weeks later, on Saturday, October 27 (5 days before the murder) she arrived at the school early in the morning with a locksmith to fix the front door. There she was confronted by Rudy Guede standing inside her office, indicative of another break-in, and she called the police. The police questioned and searched Guede. The police found a laptop and mobile phone, plus a large knife that the owner claimed was stolen from the school kitchen.

In the meantime, on the weekend of October 13, there had been a break-in at a Perugia law office. In that burglary, an upstairs double-pane window twelve feet above the ground had been smashed with a large rock. The Perugia police were informed that the thief stole a computer, printer and other items from the law office, and that the alarm system had been disabled. The Milan police later found the laptop computer and a mobile phone stolen from the law office in Guede's possession, but police released him after fingerprinting and booking for carrying a concealed weapon (16-inch/40-cm kitchen knife) and possession of stolen property.

In Germany, Guede was discovered riding a train without a ticket and was apprehended by the police.

Rudy Gud trial and appeal

Rudy Gud elected for a "fast-track" trial which began on 16 October 2008. He was charged with murder, sexual assault and theft of 300 euros (~US$440), two credit cards and two mobile phones.

Guede's account was that he had met Kercher the night before the murder at a Halloween party which she had attended with her friends. Kercher, he claimed, spent the latter part of Halloween with him, rather than continuing on with her friends. He said that he and Kercher had scheduled a date for the next evening at her home.

On the night of the murder he claimed to have gone to Kercher's home, waiting outside until she arrived and let him in. He claimed that they talked in the kitchen and she then went into her bedroom and discovered that money had been taken from her room. Guede claimed that he calmed Kercher so that she did not phone her flat-mates or parents about the missing money. He claimed that he became intimate with the victim in her bedroom but, feeling sick from a bad kebab, he left the room to use the toilet.

He said that he was listening to music on his iPod, might have heard the doorbell ring and did hear Kercher scream. He claimed that he emerged from the bathroom to see a man whom he did not know holding a knife over the victim while she lay on the floor of her bedroom.

Guede claimed that he struggled with the man and that his hand was cut by a knife. He claimed the man then fled, also claimed that the man said, in perfect Italian: "He is black. If a black man is found, then a black man will be found guilty. Let's go". Guede claims to have used bath towels to stem the flow of blood from Kercher's neck and to wipe up blood. He claimed that he then held Kercher as she gave her last utterance: "A-F", which he wrote on the wall in her blood. He claimed that he left Kercher fully clothed on the bed and that, in haste and panic, he touched almost everything in the victim's room.

Without calling police or an ambulance for Kercher (he explained that there was no mobile phone nearby and that he was confused ), Guede fled, leaving the front door unlocked. He went home to wash the victim's blood off his body and clothing. Later, he went out to the Domus and Shamrock nightclubs.

Investigators called Guede's version of events "a highly improbable fantasy."

DNA tests indicate that Guede had manually or genitally penetrated Kercher before her murder. His DNA was found mixed with Kercher's blood at the crime scene, on Kercher's body, on her bloodstained clothing and on her handbag. His palm print in Kercher's blood was found near the body. DNA tests also revealed that he had used toilet-paper found in the front bathroom.

A few days after the murder, on hearing news reports, Guede fled Perugia by train to Germany. Interpol traced a computer which he used in Germany to access Facebook in order to reply to a message from a Daily Telegraph journalist. In his message, Guede said that he was aware that he was a suspect and wanted to clear his name. On 20 November 2007, the German transport police arrested Guede on a train near Mainz, Germany, where he was caught traveling without a ticket. Following his arrest, German officials noted a cut on his hand.

Guede had originally claimed that he was wearing Adidas shoes at the time of the murder, but he later stated that his shoes were Nike (which matched the shoe package found in his Perugia flat), and those shoe-prints matched the 3 or 4 blood shoe-prints found inside Kercher's room. He claimed that he had discarded those shoes in a dumpster in Germany, so they could not be tested for broken glass embedded from the broken window in Kercher's flat.

Guede's claims about having planned a date with Kercher were dismissed at trial by Judge Paolo Micheli, because Guede had changed the details of where he claimed to have met Kercher, and because friends who had accompanied Kercher for Halloween testified that no meeting between them had taken place. Details about Kercher's Halloween activities had been announced on worldwide news and Internet websites prior to Guede's arrest.

On 28 October 2008, Guede was found guilty of the murder and sexual assault of Kercher and sentenced to 30 years in prison. On 22 December 2009, the Corte d'Appello upheld Guede's convictions but reduced his sentence to 16 years. According to his lawyer, Guede continues to assert that he is innocent and will pursue a second and final appeal to the Corte di Cassazione.

The indictment of Knox and Sollecito was also decided and issued during the Guede trial. From a detailed analysis of the very large number and positions of bloodstains in the flat, and the cuts and bruises sustained by Kercher, Judge Micheli concluded that Kercher had been sexually assaulted and then murdered by multiple attackers. He also concluded that one or more people returned to the crime scene, rearranged the body and tried to fake a break-in, some time after the murder. Judge Micheli concluded that it was suspicious that Sollecito called the Carabinieri military police, saying that a burglary had occurred but "nothing had been taken" when other roommates had not yet returned to inventory their rooms for missing items. He also found suspicious Amanda Knox's claim to have taken a shower in a room which Sollecito described as having a "pool of blood" on the floor (the blood-footprint on the bathmat).

Amanda Knox

Amanda Marie Knox

Born

9 July 1987 (1987-07-09) (age 22)

Seattle, Washington, US

Conviction(s)

Murder, sexual assault and obstruction of justice

Penalty

26 years imprisonment

Status

Conviction under Appeal

Amanda Marie Knox was, at the time of Kercher's murder, a 20-year-old University of Washington language student from Seattle, Washington. She was in Perugia attending the University for Foreigners for one year, studying Italian, German and creative writing. She stayed in the bedroom next to Meredith in the Kercher-Knox upstairs flat. Knox had no known association with Rudy Guede, having met him only in passing. Raffaele Sollecito had been the boyfriend of Knox for a few weeks before the murder. Sollecito and Guede had never met.

Knox's parents visited her frequently during her pre-trial detention, steadfastly maintaining her innocence.

Knox was arrested on the morning of 6 November 2007. The prosecution against Knox and Sollecito contended that they were involved with Guede in the sexual assault and murder of Kercher, in an attempted sex orgy in which Kercher would not cooperate, and that they had returned to the crime scene to move the body and stage a break-in. Knox contended that she was not present during the murder, had no association with Guede, and had no reason to murder Kercher, whom she regarded as her friend. Knox's defence claimed that there was no evidence placing Knox in the bedroom where the murder occurred.

Knox's DNA was found on two of the knives kept in Sollecito's kitchen drawer for cooking, and a small amount of Kercher's DNA was found on one of the two. At trial, the defence countered that Knox's DNA would normally be on the knife because she used knives for cooking at Sollecito's apartment. The defence also challenged the Kercher DNA sample as being too small to be reliable. Knox and Sollecito's defence teams also asserted that this knife was not the lethal weapon because it did not match two of the three wounds and tested negative for blood. However, a forensic evidence expert for the prosecution testified that it was compatible with one of the wounds on Kercher's neck, but that two other wounds might have been inflicted by a different weapon;

There was no forensic evidence, such as DNA, hair, fibre, blood or skin, directly indicating that Knox had been in the bedroom where Meredith Kercher was sexually assaulted and murdered. The only fingerprints of Amanda Knox found in the apartment were consistent with her use of the apartment as a resident, including one matched to a glass in the kitchen sink, but Knox's fingerprints were not found in Kercher's bedroom.

Mixed samples of Knox's DNA and Kercher's blood were found in the apartment, including in the bathroom sink and in Filomena Romanelli's room. The defence argued that Knox's DNA should be expected to be present there in the ordinary course of her use of the apartment and bathroom as a resident of the cottage.

Knox attracted attention for her demeanour during police questioning and the trial. For instance, she was observed cartwheeling while waiting to be questioned by police. However, Knox and her family explained this as a yoga type exercise intended to reduce tension in a distressing situation. It was also reported that Knox had earlier written a story about the drugging and rape of a young woman for a school assignment and posted it online. Knox admitted to using marijuana on occasion, including the evening on which Kercher's murder occurred.

On 4 December 2009, Knox was convicted by the Corte d'Assise of Perugia of all counts except theft and was sentenced to 26 years in prison.

Knox now has available to her two levels of appeal of her conviction in accordance with the rules of Italian Criminal Procedure. The first appeal is to the Corte d'Appello (Court of Appeals), which will retry the case, including making findings of fact in a trial de novo. The judgment of the appeals court can then be appealed to the Court of Cassation, which is the Supreme Court of Italy. It is anticipated that the appeals process will take a period of years.

Raffaele Sollecito

Raffaele Sollecito

Born

26 March 1984 (1984-03-26) (age 25)

Giovinazzo, Italy

Conviction(s)

Murder and sexual assault

Penalty

25 years imprisonment

Status

Conviction under Appeal

Raffaele Sollecito, from Giovinazzo, Bari, was 23 years old and nearing the completion of a degree in computer engineering at the University of Perugia at the time of the murder. He had been the boyfriend of Knox for about two weeks before the time of Kercher's murder. Sollecito is from an affluent family, the son of a urologist from Bari. Sollecito did not know Guede and claimed never to have heard of his name prior to news reports about the murder.

Sollecito claimed that he was in his flat and spent the evening using his computer on the night of the murder. Detectives have said that his alibi is not substantiated by records of his internet service provider, though a private detective working for Sollecito disputed this. The defence has argued that the hard drives of three computers belonging to Sollecito and Knox, destroyed by the prosecution's computer expert when he performed examinations of them, had contained exculpatory evidence. Like Knox, Sollecito admits to having smoked marijuana on the day of the murder.

The prosecution claimed that his shoe-print was found in blood on a bed linen in Kercher's room, and that his DNA was on a severed bra clasp, but the DNA testing was disputed (as "contamination") during the trials (see below: DNA disputes about bra clasp). The shoe-print also matched Guede's Nike shoe-print with the cloth folded to appear as a narrowed print.

On 4 December 2009, Raffaele Sollecito was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Like Knox, Sollecito will next proceed through the two level appeal process in accordance with the rules of Italian Criminal Procedure.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito trial

The trial of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito began on 16 January 2009, with much attention from the media. In November 2008, they had been indicted by Judge Paolo Micheli, who had presided over the Guede trial in October 2008. They were charged with murder, sexual assault, simulating a crime (burglary), carrying a knife, and theft of 300 euros (~US$440), two credit cards and two mobile phones.

Personnel involved

The head prosecutor in the trial was Guiliano Mignini. He had led the interview with Amanda Knox in which she implicated Patrick Lumumba.[citation needed] Mignini was convicted of abuse of office and the bugging of journalists in relation to a separate case on 22 January 2010.

The chief judge was Giancarlo Massei. Deputy judge at the trial was Beatrice Cristiani. A panel of eight judges (the two professional judges and six lay judges) was assembled to hear the case and determine the verdicts. Amanda Knox was represented in Italy by attorneys Luciano Ghirga and Carlo Dalla Vedova. Raffaele Sollecito was defended by attorney Giulia Bongiorno. Investigations had been assisted by personnel from Rome. The forensic biologist Patrizia Stefanoni, who had collected evidence at the crime scene, testified during the trial. There were many other witnesses, including the other two housemates in the Kercher-Knox flat (Romanelli and Mezzetti) and residents of neighbouring properties.

Courtroom events

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (February 2010)

In October 2008, well prior to the start of the trial, a judge in the case, Paulo Micheli, gave an interview to an Italian newspaper published in Perugia, Messaggero Umbria, indicating that he believed Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were present at the murder of Kercher. Nevertheless, on 16 January 2009, Knox's and Sollecito's lawyers began the actual trial before Judge Giancarlo Massei by proclaiming their clients' innocence. Hearings were held nearly every two weeks (except for a summer break) until 4 December 2009. Rudy Guede attended the trial, but declined to testify in the trial. During the first session, judge Giancarlo Massei rejected a request by the Kercher family to hold the trial behind closed doors. He ruled that the trial would be public, but with closed sessions to be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Knox testified for the first time on 12 June 2009, pleading her innocence. She told the court that she had been with Sollecito in his apartment on the night of the murder. Knox testified that she regarded Kercher as her friend and had no motive to kill her. She also testified that during her interrogation by the police and prosecutor she had been intimidated, threatened with incarceration and hit on the head, causing her to give false testimony implicating Patrick Lumumba.

The Corte Suprema di Cassazione had ruled her remarks during part of her initial questioning were inadmissible because no lawyer had been present. They were, however, admissible in the concurrent action against Knox for falsely accusing Lumumba. Her voluntary handwritten note, partially retracting her statements was also available to the court during the trial.

On 2627 June 2009, 2 Perugia lawyers and a school director testified that Rudy Guede had been caught with a large stolen knife (16-inch, 40-cm) inside a closed Milan school on 27 October 2007 (5 days before the murder) with a laptop PC reported stolen 14 October 2007 from a Perugia law office burgled with a rock breaking an upstairs window. The Perugia police were notified Guede had the laptop, plus a mobile phone also stolen from the Perugia office with the broken window. However, Guede was released by the Milan police, and not transferred to the Perugia police, as testified by the two Perugia lawyers (attorneys) at the Knox/Sollecito trial hearing on 26 June 2009 and by the school director 27 June, who testified money was also missing from the office. Hence, the reports of Guede holding a woman's watch, a hammer, a stolen knife and stolen property from a prior upstairs-window burglary could be confirmed by Milan police, Perugia police, and the 2 solicitors whose PC, printer and mobile phone were reported stolen on 14 October 2007. One of the solicitors testified that Guede appeared at his doorstep after the burglary and claimed that he had bought both the PC and mobile phone at a Milan train station (200 miles or 320 km away, in far northern Italy).

On 4 December 2009, Knox was convicted by the Corte d'Assise of Perugia of all counts except theft and was sentenced to 26 years in prison. Sollecito was found guilty of all five charges attributed to him and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. The decision was delivered by the presiding judge at around 11:45 pm local time, following 13 hours of deliberation. The final hours leading up to the verdict were closely covered by American television stations across the country utilizing "countdown" clocks on their screens.

Various controversies

Theories on motive for the murder

A source of controversy in the case has been the lack of motive to explain why Knox and Sollecito would want to murder Kercher. The prosecution's theory on the motive varied during the course of the investigation and the trial. The initial theory centered on a Halloween ritual sex orgy killing, then later evolved into a sex game turned violent theory. The prosecution later claimed that the killing was motivated by Knox's alleged desire for revenge against a roommate who was too prissy and critical of Knox.

The hearing on the indictment of Knox and Sollecito was held in closed session in October 2008. Following this, Sollecito lawyer Luca Maori described the prosecution's theory on the motive for the murder as being part of a "satanic rite". Although the prosecution has never used the term "satanic" in open court, it has been widely reported in the press and linked with the fact that the murder occurred on the day after Halloween, late on All Saints Day (All Souls Day).

The Italian newspaper Messaggero Umbria, in an article on October 19, 2008, quoted Mignini as follows: "...the three, and especially Sollecito, were very susceptible to 'cultural' influences....That night was the feast day of the Saints, the Catholic 'heir' to the Celtic new year Samhain, with all the implications which are focused on the eve of the feast day, that is the night between October 31 and November 1."

The Italian newspaper La Nazione wrote on October 20, 2008 that, according to the police theory, "Meredith could have died on the evening of October 31st because that night was favorable for a 'sexual rite' in accordance with the traditions of Halloween."

Peter Popham, writing in The Independent said that Prosecutor Mignini "decided only a few days after Kercher died that the murder was the culmination of an orgy in which Knox, Sollecito and one other person were involved". He references Il Tempo newspaper's account of the closed session where they say that Mignini told the court that the murder, as premeditated and was in addition a ite celebrated on the occasion of the night of Hallowen. A sexual and sacrificial rite...In the intention of the organisers, the rite should have occurred 24 hours earlier on Hallowen itself ut on account of a dinner at the house of horrors, organised by Meredith and Amanda Italian flatmates, it was postponed for one day. The presumed assassins contented themselves with the evening of 1 November to perform their do-it-yourself rite, when for some hours it would again be the night of All Saints.123]

According to one report of the closed hearing: "Mr Mignini saw the scene so clearly in his mind that he was able to describe it to the judge in detail: Meredith on her knees before the wardrobe, Rudy holding her immobile, Raffaele grasping one arm, Amanda in front of her, pricking her throat teasingly with the knife until the blade in her hand struck home." "To prove it," he told the judge, "the only thing missing was a video camera in the room."

Press reports also stated that prosecutor Mignini claimed that police had found a hoard of the Japanese anga comics in Sollecito apartment. Mignini claimed that many depicted the brutal slaying of naked ampire women with blood covering furniture and walls in his view, the way detectives found Kercher. Mignini theorized that Sollecito and Knox had been influenced by the comic books to kill Kercher, who had worn a vampire costume on Halloween.

Judge Micheli, who conducted the hearing on the indictment of Knox and Sollecito, dismissed as antasy prosecutor Mignini's claims that the sex game in which Kercher is alleged to have died was inspired by Satanic rites, Halloween rituals or violent Japanese anga comics about dead vampires.

Subsequently, at the commencement of the trial, prosecutor Mignini presented a theory that the murder was motivated by a sex game turned violent. However, at the conclusion of the trial, prosecutor Mignini changed the motive to a desire on Knox's part to retaliate against Kercher for being too "prissy" and critical of Knox. Mignini told the jury that he could imagine Knox saying to Kercher: "Ah, you were pretending to be such a little saint...Now we are going to show you." A second prosecutor conceded that the motive was not known.

Guede's entire fast-track trial and some parts of the trial of Knox and Sollecito, where the attack on Kercher was described in detail, were held as closed sessions without journalists, or the public, being present, so the full details of the prosecution's theories are not in the public domain.

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (December 2009)

Claims of police mistreatment

On her fourth day of questioning, Amanda Knox, then a 20-year-old student, was questioned at various times during the night of 5 and 6 November 2007. Knox testified on 12 June 2009 that she had accompanied Sollecito to the police station for his interview by the police because she did not want to be alone. While working on her schoolwork, she was approached by the police and taken into a separate room where police officers began questioning her. According to Knox, she was questioned first by a large group of police officers and then by prosecutor Mignini.

Knox testified that during her interrogation by the police she was subjected to a great deal of pressure and intimidation, was called a "stupid liar" and was hit on the head twice. According to Knox, the police told her that they had solid evidence that she was at the scene of the murder and that her inability to remember being there might be due to a traumatic mental block interferring with her memory. Knox claimed that she was pressured, with the threat of 30 years in prison, to recall suggested details. According to Knox, that pressuring led her to make certain statements and then later to make her written declaration of 5:45 am on 6 November 2007, still with no sleep, placing herself at the murder scene and implicating Patrick Lumumba as the murderer of Kercher. Knox had no lawyer or official interpreter present to assist her. She claimed that she had been dissuaded from seeking an attorney. Since by 5:45 am Knox was a suspect, Italian law prohibited her interrogation without her attorney present, so that part of her interrogation was unlawful.

Hours later, Knox retracted some of her statements. She explained in a written note that the intimidation she had experienced during the interrogation had caused her fear and confusion. Knox wrote in part:"In regards to this "confession" that I made last night, I want to make clear that I'm very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion. Not only was I told I would be arrested and put in jail for 30 years, but I was also hit in the head when I didn't remember a fact correctly. I understand that the police are under a lot of stress, so I understand the treatment I received."

A female police officer testifying at the trial denied that Knox was pressured, and said, she had questioned Knox "firmly but politely." She also said that Knox had been given chamomile tea and cakes from a vending machine, and later had breakfast in the police station, over the course of the 14-hour interrogation. When describing her interrogation to her family, Knox told them: "I've never been so scared in my life."

The prosecution denied Knox's claims of having been coerced or intimidated into accusing Lumumba. In January 2010, Knox and her legal team were informed that due to her testimony at the trial she would be charged with defamation of the police and face a further criminal trial. If found guilty, the penalty is a fine and/or a prison sentence of between two and six years. The prosecutor and/or police are also prosecuting, suing or investigating (or have threatened to do so) both of Knox's parents and other individuals or news organizations for making statements the prosecutor or police consider defamatory.

DNA disputes about bra clasp

The Rome forensic lab made an analysis of the metal clasp of Kercher's severed bra strap (retrieved in a 2nd forensic search on 18 December 2007), which revealed small traces of DNA matching Sollecito or three other unidentified people;

The defense argued that the DNA on the metal clasp, which had been severed from the bra, could have been contaminated when it was moved on the floor, six weeks after the murder, or in the forensic laboratory in Rome. The judge at the trial of Rudy Guede acknowledged that the DNA sample was considered small, but described the claim of contamination at the laboratory as making "no sense", since there was no material from which such contamination could have come, and so "the risk would have been the loss of traces found there, not the risk of somehow discovering new traces". However, the judge did not address the issue of leftover or transferred DNA from numerous other Sollecito personal items being analyzed in the Rome laboratory, before the clasp was retrieved on 18 December 2007. Also, two witnesses testified that, when the body was found, one of the postal-police officers immediately stepped past Sollecito at the doorway, into the room (without shoe-covers) to check for life-signs under the quilt (although during the trial, the officer denied such entry), and the bra clasp had been moved about 1m (39 inches) across the floor when recovered 47 days later.

Claim of bleaching of the crime scene

The police originally claimed that the flat of Kercher and Knox had been cleaned with bleach, in an attempt to destroy evidence. However, blood smears, drops, and blood footprints were found in several rooms of the flat, including: the entrance area, Filomena's room, Kercher's hallway, Kercher's room, and the nearby bathroom. During the Knox-Sollecito trial, several witnesses talked about the possible use of bleach. Police found two bottles of bleach at Sollecito's apartment. Sollecito's former housekeeper testified at trial that she had asked Sollecito to buy bleach months earlier for general housekeeping purposes and that when she stopped working for Sollecito in September 2007, there were one and a half bottles of bleach at his house.

Mobile phone evidence

Phone records of Amanda Knox revealed calls on the day of the killing between her and Patrick Lumumba, her manager at the Le Chic bar, which were discussed during her police interview as possible evidence of a pre-planned rendezvous. The judge in the Guede trial explained the lack of calls with Guede by saying Guede's phone was in the possession of the police days before the murder.

The death of Kercher was estimated at approximately 11 p.m. The prosecution noted that Knox and Sollecito turned their phones off on the evening of the murder at around 8:40 pm. Phone records showed that Sollecito's phone was off 3 nights in October, at approximately 7-7:30 pm.

Media coverage

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (December 2009)

The case has received extensive media coverage in Italy, Britain and the United States, with Knox receiving significantly more attention than Sollecito or Guede. Knox has been portrayed in some articles as a femme fatale who took part in killing her friend in a sex game and alternatively as an innocent young girl caught up in unjustified court proceedings in a foreign country. Following the crime, Knox's MySpace website became the subject of media scrunity.

Just after the guilty verdict, the New York Times reported, "Ms. Knox is often portrayed as an innocent girl unwittingly caught up in the Kafkesque Italian justice system. But even one of her lawyers, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said that he believed the trial was fair. He added that he isagreed with news media coverage that depicted it otherwise."

The Italian press[who?] described Knox's media appeal by saying that she had "the face of an angel - but the eyes of a killer". The BBC spoke of "feverish media coverage", describing Knox as "that most-loved of villains - the middle-class monster whose appearance hides a diabolical soul."

Peter Popham wrote an opinion piece for The Independent in which he raised doubts about the evidence against Knox and Sollecito and claimed that the prosecution's leaking of details about the case to the media was intended to prejudice public opinion and "makes miscarriages of justice horribly likely". Timothy Egan wrote in the New York Times that the Italian media frenzy and tabloid sensationalism against Knox had tainted public perceptions of her.

Knox's family has claimed that she was convicted because of a wider culture clash. Italy's judicial process was criticised by Knox's supporters. The Knox family engaged the services of a Seattle-based public relations firm in order to counter what they perceived as a media bias against her.

Anne Bremner, spokeswoman for the "Friends of Amanda" support group, criticised the Italian media for its presentation of the case against Knox. Bremmer stated that the "character assasination" directed against Knox by the Italian media had impaired her chance of obtaining a fair trial because the jury had not been sequestered and was exposed to such sensationalized reporting of the case.

Reactions to the trials and convictions

Soon after the verdict, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell of the State of Washington released a statement expressing her concerns:

am saddened by the verdict and I have serious questions about the Italian justice system and whether anti-Americanism tainted this trial. The prosecution did not present enough evidence for an impartial jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Knox was guilty. Italian jurors were not sequestered and were allowed to view highly negative news coverage about Ms. Knox. Other flaws in the Italian justice system on display in this case included the harsh treatment of Ms. Knox following her arrest; negligent handling of evidence by investigators; and pending charges of misconduct against one of the prosecutors stemming from another murder trial."

Cantwell indicated her intention to seek assistance from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Secretary Clinton herself has not commented on the case, but a spokesman for the US Department of State stated at a press conference on 7 December 2009 that the State Department has followed this case very closely and will continue to follow the case during the appeal process. He stated that the State Department's role is to ensure that any American citizen is treated fairly, according to local law. He added that, in this case, "It is still in the early days but...we haven't received any indications necessarily that Italian law was not followed". He also stated "This is an ongoing process" and "It does not mean that we are not going to have some kind of statement as the process goes forward." The State Department has stated its intention to hold ongoing discussions about the case with Senator Cantwell and to continue staying in contact with the Knox family to monitor the situation during the appeal process.

Another major public figure in the U.S. commenting on the case is Donald Trump. Trump is a billionare business magnate, owner of Trump Towers and Trump Place in Manhatten, and celebrity star of the television show The Apprentice. He also is the owner of Trump World Tower, a residential skyscraper across the street from the United Nations building in Manhatten. During a televised interview on March 1, 2010 Trump stated:

"I think the president should get involved. This [verdict] is a miscarriage of justice. I think the president should absolutely get involved, and I think people should boycott Italy. They should not go to Italy. This is not a close call that she may be guilty. She's not guilty."

Trump has stated on his website "TrumpUniversity" that he is personally boycotting Italy as a result of the verdict.

Knox, her family and supporters in the U.S. and around the world maintain that she has been unjustly convicted.

John Kercher, Meredith's father, has described the suggestion of anti-American bias during the trial as "ludicrous", saying: "The Americans seem completely ignorant to the fact that there was a mass of evidence other than the DNA. I don't blame them because they are going on what they have seen and read. But it is upsetting for my family".

On 9 December 2009, when visited in prison by Democratic Left Italian Member of Parliament Walter Verini, Knox reportedly stated that, although disappointed by the verdict, her "rights were respected" in the trial and that she still has had faith in Italian justice.

During a prison visit from a delegation of the Italy-USA Foundation, Knox is reported to have said: am waiting and always hoping. I don understand many things, but I have to accept them, things that for me don always seem very fair.176]

Most of the mainstream UK media reported on the guilty verdicts and included quotes from the Kercher and Knox families on their reactions while some focused more on the Kercher family's reaction to the verdict. In the days immediately following the verdict, they published various opinion pieces, mainly focusing on Knox, with some sympathetic toward her and others not. The weekly Perugia court hearings were suspended, pending a 90-day documentation period before appeals can be filed, and media interest in the case in the UK then rapidly dwindled. Media interest remains high in the U.S..

Civil actions

Kercher's family filed a civil suit for US$33 million (approximately 20 million or 22 million) against anyone found guilty of the murder.

Patrick Lumumba, the man Knox originally accused of murdering Kercher, sued Knox for more than $500,000 (approximately 300,000 or 330,000) in damages, but the outcome of the civil action was that the court ordered Knox to pay Lumumba 40,000 (approximately $60,000 or 36,000) compensation. Lumumba also pursued compensation from the Italian authorities for unjust imprisonment and the loss of his business and, in December 2009, a court awarded 8,000 (approximately equivalent to US$12,000 or 7,200 as of December 2009) in damages. In February 2010, Lumumba announced that he would be taking his claim for compensation from the Italian authorities to the European Court of Human Rights.

Detailed forensics

The Italian forensic police (in Italian source: Servizio di Polizia Scientifica), from Rome (100 miles or 160 km north of Perugia), were immediately contacted to process the crime scene on 2 November 2007. They also processed evidence seized from other sites. The various investigations included:

Kercher/Knox house on Via della Pergola

(the downstairs was also searched; see above: The upstairs flat)

1st visit: 23 November 2007 (body examined 1am 3 November)

2nd visit: 18 December 2007 (bra clasp re-found under Kercher desk)

Sollecito's flat (apartment) on Via Garibaldi, purchased by parents

Guede's flat (found empty package for Nike shoes)

Sollecito's automobile (found no evidence of blood or knives)

Lumumba's pub Le Chic (closed November-December 2007)

Each site was closed for a different length of time. Intruders broke into the main crime scene multiple times, such as in February 2009, when they ransacked the upstairs and left 4 kitchen knives and candles in various rooms.

Detailed timeline

The following is a list of events that occurred on 12 November 2007, with each event documented by a footnote to the source:

18:00 Amanda Knox leaves Raffaele Sollecito's house (mobile phone locator)

18:27 Raffaele Sollecito interacts with his laptop to watch the film "Amelie" at home.

20:18 Amanda Knox in Via Ulisse Rocchi receives a text message (sms) from manager Lumumba telling her not to come to work that night.

20:30 Amanda Knox travels back to Via Garibaldi to the apartment of Raffaele Sollecito.

20:35 Amanda sends text message (sms) reply to Patrick Lumumba

20:35 Knox mobile phone is inactive (in prior weeks, Sollecito's is off 3 times at 7-7:30pm)

20:42 Sollecito turns off his mobile phone, still at home in Via Garibaldi.

21:10 Last use of Raffaele Sollecito's computer (according to prosecution)

20:55 Kercher friend Sophie arrives home after leaving Kercher walking along street

21:15 Kercher returns to flat after seeing DVD film with friends (estimated time)

21:30 Kercher calls her mother in UK

22:00 Kercher UK mobile phone dials her London bank but wrong prefix code prevents call

22:13 Kercher's UK mobile phone receives call (unanswered) through another mobile station

22:25 Rudy Guede claims he left Meredith dying around this time & went home along backstreets

22:30-23:00 Kercher dies around this time (according to coroner time estimate)

00:10 Kercher's 2 mobile phones are left in garden at Via Sperandio[citation needed]

02:30 Rudy Guede is seen dancing at "Domus" nightclub (3 hours after the death)

04:00 Rudy Guede is again seen at "Domus" nightclub

06:02 Sollecito mobile phone turned on & receives father's text msg (sms) from prior night

06:04 both Knox/Sollecito mobile phones are on now & can receive calls

10:30 Amanda Knox claims she returns home and finds front door open but no one answers inside; Knox claims she takes shower in dark small bathroom (no window)

10:58 Lana B. arrives at the police station with phone #1 (Vodafone registered to Filomena R.)

10:?? Amanda Knox goes to larger bathroom #2 and notices toilet #2 unflushed

11:38 Postal police trace phone #1 to Filomena R. who lived at 7 Via della Pergola

11:50? Amanda Knox brings Sollecito over; Knox/Sollecito both try to climb to look in MK window

11:55? Sollecito confused that Knox says toilet #2 is clear now

11:50 Postal police record that Lana B. & daughter (called) say they do not know this Filomena

12:00? Postal police are called by Lana's daughter about finding phone #2 (UK) in garden

12:07 Amanda Knox calls Meredith Kercher UK phone

12:08 Knox calls Romanelli open door/blood

12:11 Amanda calls the Italian phone that Meredith had borrowed from Filomena

12:11 Amanda calls MK's UK phone again

12:12 Filomena calls Amanda.

12:15-30 Filomena R. makes two attempts to telephone Kercher

12:20 Filomena calls Amanda (again)

12:35 2 Postal police claim they arrive outside flat, meet Knox/Sollecito who talk of glass/blood

12:46 Postal police station logs receipt of mobile phone #2 delivered by neighbor's daughter

12:47 Amanda Knox calls her mother in the US (4:47am Seattle time)

12:50 Sollecito calls his sister in the Carabinieri, a different branch of the Italian police

12:51 Sollecito calls "112" Carabinieri (military police) about burglary

12:54 Sollecito calls "112" Carabinieri, again, about burglary

12:5x Knox/Sollecito claim they talk to postal police about glass & show bloodspots

12:55 Filomena boyfriend Marco Z. & Luca A. (boyfriend of Paola G.) arrive at flat

12:55 Filomena R. and her friend Paola arrive at the flat (now total of 8 people inside)

13:xx An electric cord plug extends under Kercher's bedroom door, laying near a hall outlet

13:00? Postal police say they lack evidence to kick in the door & damage property.

13:10 Postal police, Paola, Filomena, Marco Z., Luca A. & Sollecito gather in hall at Kercher's door

13:15 Luca A. kicks door (4 kicks?) & Italians see into dark room, but Knox is in kitchen

13:15 Marco Z. yells, "Sangue! Sangue! ...Blood!"

13:15 Filomena R. exclaims "Un Piede! Un Piede!" ("A foot!") seen on floor under quilt.

13:15 Postal police see the horror of all the blood

13:15 Postal Inspector seen lifting duvet covering Kercher's body (denied in court)

13:16 Postal police tell everyone to leave the flat (to go outside). Soon, the Carabinieri police arrive outside the flat.

Details of Kercher's room

As the main crime scene, the bedroom of Meredith Kercher was extensively analyzed on 23 November and 18 December 2007.

In Kercher's bedroom, the body had been found on the floor, lying on the back, with head towards the front wall and left foot towards the back wall (along the doorway). Blood was found on numerous items in the room, including:

some white tennis shoes, blue jeans and a white severed bra on the floor, a zippered blue shirt, and two towels partially or totally soaked in blood. On the bed there was a book with blood at the corner plus two blood patches on the mattress sheet, between a white terrycloth towel with blood smears and a beige woman's handbag of imitation leather (Italian: una borsa da donna in similpelle). Around the floor were patches of blood (some with the imprints of "hair formations") and 3 floormarks with blood "signs of concentric circles" (Italian: segni circolari concentrici) considered to be a foot trail of three bloody shoeprints. Underneath the body was a white pillow, containing a blood handprint. Dried blood pools were found around the wardrobe case in the outside corner of the room, with leather boots standing in the blood.

The DNA of Rudy Guede was matched at many locations in the bedroom. His DNA was matched on and inside Kercher's body, on her shirt, her bra (left side and severed bra clasp), on the zipper of her handbag (purse) and mixed with Kercher's blood spatter. His partial palm print in Kercher's blood was found on a pillow under the body, matched from the 27 October 2007 booking, when Guede had been fingerprinted and charged with carrying a concealed weapon (large kitchen knife) and the sto

About the Author

I am an expert from China Hardware Suppliers, usually analyzes all kind of industries situation, such as mesh car grills , thermos grill part.

Have you seen the batman movie or cartoons? ((read on))?

My dance troupe is doing a performance of Batman (which includes all of the movies, cartoons and comics) and tryouts are on November 14th and you have to have an idea of who you want to be. I have no idea what I should be. I have only been dancing for 2 years so I would need to have a small part. I want to be a villian though. Also I have to choreograph a solo. I have most dance moves but I need a song. The dance I choreographed is medium pace. Please give me some suggestions for a part I could play and a song that "represents" that character.
THX!!
-frankie

Batman, honestly.

The comic book store (part 2)