Amanda Knox is in Washington state, but an appeals court in Italy kicked off its second appeals trial in her absence, accusing her once again of assisting in the murder of her British roommate when she attended school in the university town of Perugia.
The appeals trial comes by way of order of Italy’s highest court. The Court of Cassation said Ms. Knox’s previous acquittal was filled with “deficiencies, contradictions and illogical conclusions,” The Associated Press reported.
Ms. Knox was sharing an apartment with 21-year-old Meredith Kercher in 2007. Ms. Kercher was brutally murdered, and Ms. Knox and her ex-Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were accused of the crime and initially found guilty.
An appeals court later acquitted them both — and Ms. Knox, in the process, served four of her 26 years of sentence jail time. She was freed in 2011 and left Italy, and is now a student at a Seattle college.
The appellate court in Florence is set to give forensic evidence another look, to see if Ms. Knox and her ex-boyfriend did in fact help kill Ms. Kercher. Ms. Knox is not obligated to return to the country, and she said to various media outlets that she would not attend the trial.
Rudy Guede was convicted in Ms. Kercher’s death and sent to jail for 16 years. But the court, during his sentencing, ruled that he did not act alone.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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