Amanda Knox to learn fate today as Kercher family seeks justice

Almost four years after her imprisonment for the murder of Leeds University student Meredith Kercher, Amanda Knox will learn today whether she will walk free.

Following an 11-month appeal against her conviction and 26-year prison sentence, the young American is counting down the final hours before an Italian court in Perugia determines her fate.

Prosecutors have fought a desperate battle to keep her behind bars for the killing they claim marked the gruesome finale to an extreme sex game forced on Miss Kercher.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Knox, 24, claims she had nothing to do with the violent death of the young woman she shared a house with while both were studying in Italy.

But others are adamant she is lying and played a leading role in the crime, accompanied by her well-to-do Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and small-time drug dealer Rudy Guede.

The proceedings have brought a series of attacks on Knox’s character, as defence and prosecution lawyers went into battle.

Religion, sex and race have been woven into the courtroom showdowns of recent days, with the kind of imagery and rhetoric unfamiliar in British courts deployed against Knox.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The spectre of the “Madonna/whore” caricature has been raised – there has even been a reference to the animated 1980s’ film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and the defendant known simply to many observers as “Foxy Knoxy” has also been compared with a witch.

Carlo Pacelli, who represents Diya “Patrick” Lumumba – a barman Knox falsely accused of the murder early on, she says, under pressure from the police – asked the court last week: “Who is Amanda Knox? Is she the mild-looking, fresh-faced person you see here, or the one devoted to lust, drugs and alcohol that emerges from the court documents?”

At the time of the stabbing, “she was an explosive mix of drugs, sex and alcohol”.

Sollecito’s lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, hit back by insisting Knox was no femme fatale but, rather, a loving young woman rather like the cartoon character Jessica Rabbit.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, the man behind the sex game theory, meanwhile appeared to dangle the race card before the jury.

Guede was described in his closing speech as a “poor black man” while white, middle class Knox and Sollecito were said to be “of good families”.

The Kercher family feels the true victim, Meredith, has been all but eclipsed by the relentless focus on photogenic Knox.

In a recent interview on Italian television, her sister Stephanie said: “In these four years, Meredith has been completely forgotten. But we need to find justice for her.”

Related topics: