Evidence did not stand up, says court that cleared ‘killer’ Knox

Those shortcomings included no murder weapon, faulty DNA, an inaccurate time for the killing, and insufficient proof that Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were at the place where the crime occurred.

The Perugia appellate court was giving its reasoning behind its October ruling that reversed the lower court’s convictions.

Ms Kercher was found dead in a pool of blood on her bedroom floor in Perugia, Italy, on November 2, 2007. Knox and Sollecito, who had just begun dating at the time of the murder, were arrested several days later, then convicted in what prosecutors’ portrayed as a drug-fuelled sexual assault.

They were sentenced to 26 years and 25 years, respectively. Both have since been freed.

Yesterday the court cited, among the other failed elements of the prosecutors’ case, DNA evidence which was undermined during a re-examination in the appeals trial, and the failure to conclusively identify the murder weapon.

The appellate court even contradicted the lower court’s time of death, saying that it happened at around 10.15pm and not after 11pm. The court said not only had the “building blocks” used to construct the case failed, but that the material necessary to construct the case was missing.

The only elements of the prosecution case that were proven, the appeals court said, were the charge of slander against Knox, who was convicted of falsely accusing a bar owner for Kercher’s murder, and the fact that the Knox and Sollecito alibis did not match.

The disparity “is very different” from the prosecutors’ claim of false alibis, the court said.

They added that the proven elements combined are not enough to support convictions against Knox and Sollecito.

After her conviction was thrown out, Knox, 24, went home to Seattle. She was credited with time served for the conviction of slander for accusing bar owner Diya “Patrick” Lumumba of the murder.

Prosecutors contended a kitchen knife found at Sollecito’s house was the weapon because it matched wounds on Ms Kercher’s body and carried traces of her DNA on the blade.

It was claimed Knox’s DNA was also on the handle.

However, the court-ordered review discredited the DNA evidence, saying there were glaring errors in evidence-collecting and that below-standard testing and possible contamination raised doubts over the DNA traces on the blade and on Kercher’s bra clasp.

In addition, the defence cast doubt on the knife, questioning why Knox and Sollecito would return it to Sollecito’s home if it had been used in the murder.

A third defendant in the case, Rudy Hermann Guede of the Ivory Coast, was convicted in a separate trial of sexually assaulting and stabbing Ms Kercher. His 16-year prison sentence was upheld by Italy’s highest court in 2010.