Italian prosecution says Amanda Knox should be tried again

A battery of lawyers argued before Italy's supreme court today that an appeals court was wrong to overturn Amanda Knox's murder conviction and set her free.

Knox, who remained home in Seattle, was "anxious" about the hearing which could reject the prosecution's argument and end the six year ordeal, or order a new trial. When the ruling comes down, Knox will be notified by her lawyers.

Knox, now 25, spent four years in an Italian prison for the 2007 murder of her English roommate Meredith Kercher. She was freed in 2011 when she and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito had their convictions overturned.

Prosecutors in Knox's supreme court hearing today argued that the judges who set Knox free had "lost their direction." They argued that "some elements were not taken into account," insinuating that the appeal decision to acquit was wrong because not all evidence was considered.

Prosecutors argued that the independent review of key DNA during the appeal ? which blasted the prosecution's case and proved a turning point for Knox -- "was used like a final word" and covered up all other evidence.

Each party is permitted 20 minutes to speak, but the prosecutor went on for an hour. After 35 minutes, the judge chided him and asked him to "hurry up."

The prosecutor's arguments were supported by a lawyer representing the Kercher family and a lawyer for Patrick Lumumba, Knox's former boss who has sued her for defamation. They all argued that Knox and Sollecito were wrongfully set free and should be tried again for murder.

Knox has been free at home in Seattle since 2011 when an Italian appeals court threw out her murder conviction.

Despite the ruling, prosecutors and Kercher's family want to see Knox and Sollecito back in prison.

"We feel that Amanda and Raffaele are guilty and were in the room with Rudy Guede," Francesco Maresca, lawyer for the Kercher family, said as he entered the Corte di Cassazione, Italy's supreme court, in Rome today.

Guede, an Ivory Coast drifter, has also been convicted in the 2007 murder and is serving a 16 year prison term.

The Amanda Knox Story

Knox, a student at the University of Washington, was attentive to today's hearing. Luciano Ghirga, a member of Knox's legal team, said he heard from his client on Sunday.

"She is anxious. She is following the process very closely," Ghirga said.

When asked if she would return to Italy, Ghirga said only, "She can come back anytime she wishes."

FULL COVERAGE: The Amanda Knox Trial

The Amanda Knox case captivated audiences in Italy, Britain and the U.S. She spent four years in a prison outside Perugia and was sentenced to 26 years following her initial conviction. But in 2011 and appeals court threw out the conviction and harshly criticized the prosecution's handling of evidence.

Knox is also appealing her conviction for slandering Perugia police because she testified that during her all-night interrogation a female police officer twice cuffed her in the back of the head, that the officers did not allow her to speak to a lawyer, yelled at her and didn't allow her to use a bathroom.

Knox was Kercher's roommate in Perugia when Kercher's throat was slashed and she was sexually assaulted. Prosecutors claimed that Knox, Sollecito and Guede killed her in a sex game gone bad. They claimed to have found Sollecito's DNA on Kercher's bra clasp cut off the bra and a speck of DNA from Kercher and Knox on a knife in Sollecito's kitchen.

An independent panel of forensics experts concluded that the bra clasp had been left on Kercher's bedroom floor for nearly a month after the murder, had been mishandled and likely contaminated. The speck on the knife was so minute it could not be retested and could have come from another substance.

If the supreme court rules today that Knox should not have been exonerated, a new trial would be ordered in a lower court. Knox would not be required to return to Italy for the proceedings.

If that lower court trial convicted her again, the verdict would again be appealed to the Supreme Court. Only if the Supreme Court upholds the lower court's guilty verdict could extradition proceedings begin to return Knox to Italy, although experts do not believe such an effort would be successful.

Since her 2011 release from prison, Knox has resumed her life in Seattle, taking classes and spending time with her family and boyfriend, James Terrano.

Her memoir,"Waiting to Be Heard," published by HarperCollins, will be released April 30. She reportedly received an advance of $4 million for the book.

Knox's first interview since she was freed will air during a primetime special on Tuesday, April 30 at 10 p.m., ET on the ABC Television Network.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/amanda-knox-tried-again-murder-152205177.html

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