American college student, Amanda Knox, has been found guilty of defamation, but acquitted of all other charges in the sexual assault and murder appeal case against her in Perugia, Italy. CNN news just announced that the appeals hearing is over and she will . The new independent study that the defense had done for DNA has said that there is no evidence that Knox and Sollecito were in that room when Kercher was killed. Earlier this week, Amanda had a chance to speak for herself and she showed a lot of emotions and stressed that she was innocent of this crime. The same acquittal was given to Sollecito as well. Amanda has been found quilty of the defamation of a man whom she said was in the room at the time of the murder in her original statements.
Amanda was found guilty of sexually assaulting and murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher in December 2009 and was sentenced to 26 years in prison. Amanda has maintained her innocence during the time that she has been imprisoned. Amanda’s boyfriend , Raffaelo Sollecito was also found guilty on these charges and sentenced to 25 years. Another man, Rudy Guede, was convicted of the same crimes in Oct. 2008 and was given a reduced sentence of 16 years.
Amanda has said that she was first questioned in Italian, which she had only studied for a few months and was slapped, deprived of food and water, and threatened into making a partial confession. She was not allowed to have an attorney present and in the United States, that alone would have been enough to have her case thrown out of an American court. The legal system is very different in Italy.
Amanda was in Perugia to study Italian, German, and creative writing at the University of foreigners for a year where she met Meredith and Raffaelo. She never imagined that those studies would land her in an Italian court room appealing a murder charge . The past two years have been hard on both Knox and her parents. Since December 2010, Amanda has been dealing with filing and preparing for this appeal case. Her parents feel that this has taken a toll on Amanda and they have spent millions on her case.
An appeal in Italy is not like an appeal case in the United States. An appeal in Italy consists of a jury and the decision of being found guilty or not guilty does not have to be unanimous, only a majority vote. There were many different things that could have happened during this appeal, but thankfully, Amanda will now be freed to return to her home in the United States. Amanda was seen visibly shaken but relieved as the sentence was read. As she was led out of the courtroom, you could see the relief on her face, but also hear her crying. Her mother looked extremely relieved when the sentence was read as well. This is what they had certainly hoped for the decision to be.