ITALY: Amanda Knox makes her second court appearance this week as forensics experts face cross-examination in the latest Meredith Kercher murder appeal hearing
Record ID:
640861
ITALY: Amanda Knox makes her second court appearance this week as forensics experts face cross-examination in the latest Meredith Kercher murder appeal hearing
- Title: ITALY: Amanda Knox makes her second court appearance this week as forensics experts face cross-examination in the latest Meredith Kercher murder appeal hearing
- Date: 31st July 2011
- Summary: PERUGIA, ITALY (JULY 30, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF COURT INTERIOR OF COURT ROOM AMANDA KNOX'S MOTHER EDDA MELLAS SPEAKING TO REPORTERS RAFFAELE SOLLECITO'S LAWYER LUCA MAORI IN COURT VARIOUS OF KNOX AND SOLLECITO FAMILY MEMBERS IN COURT FRANCESCO SOLLECITO, FATHER OF RAFFAELE SOLLECITO, IN COURT GENERAL ATTORNEY OF PERUGIA TRIBUNAL, GIANCARLO COSTAIOLA, ENTERING COURT ROOM, FOLLOWED BY FORENSICS EXPERTS CARLA VECCHIOTTI AND STEFANO CONTI GENERAL ATTORNEY OF PERUGIA TRIBUNAL, GIANCARLO COSTAIOLA PUBLIC PROSECUTOR GIULIANO MIGNINI VARIOUS OF RAFFAELE SOLLECITO IN COURT ROOM VARIOUS OF AMANDA KNOX BEING ESCORTED INTO COURT ROOM EDDA MELLAS IN COURT VARIOUS OF RAFFAELE SOLLECITO IN COURT VARIOUS OF FAMILIES AND OFFICIALS SEATED IN COURT ROOM EDDA MELLAS IN COURT VARIOUS OF KNOX IN COURT MEDIA GATHERED IN COURT ROOM COURT OFFICIALS ARRIVING IN COURT ROOM JUDGE CLAUDIO PRATILLO HELLMANN ARRIVING IN COURT MEDIA OUTSIDE COURT ROOM
- Embargoed: 15th August 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Italy, Italy
- Country: Italy
- Reuters ID: LVACEX8UX4D6EJN9F9HQX723QWWC
- Story Text: American Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito on Saturday (July 30) made their second appearance in a Perugia court this week in their appeal against their sentences for the murder of a British student in 2007.
Independent forensics experts are to be cross-examined by the prosecution and defence teams at Saturday's hearing.
Earlier in the week, the experts took the stand to attack key pieces of evidence used to convict Knox and Sollecito of the murder of Meredith Kercher in the university town.
The two court-appointed experts, Carla Vecchiotti and Stefano Conti, told an appeal hearing that the knife thought to have been used to kill 21-year-old Kercher carried no trace of blood but may have been contaminated with other DNA traces.
Presenting the findings from a report released last month, they said police had used the same gloves to take different pieces of evidence during their initial examination of the house that Knox and Kercher shared.
Kercher was found half naked in November 2007 lying in a pool of blood with her throat cut.
Knox, 24, her former Italian boyfriend Sollecito and Ivorian Rudy Guede were convicted and jailed in 2009 for the murder after what judges concluded was a frenzied sex game that spiralled out of control.
The report by Vecchiotti and Conti confirmed police conclusions that Knox's DNA was found on the handle of a knife they identified as the murder weapon but said that the material found on the blade was starch, rather than blood.
The two independent experts had been commissioned by the appeal court to go over the forensic evidence in the case which has attracted huge media interest and severe criticism of police methods from the defence team.
They made a scathing attack on the original investigation, saying that proper decontamination procedures had not been followed, there was insufficient documentation of the amount of DNA evidence collected and inadequate "real time" analysis. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None