Amanda Knox Appeals Trial Resumes With Testimony From Inmates

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  • Amanda Knox
    (Photo: Reuters / Giampiero Sposito)
    Amanda Knox (R), the U.S. student convicted of killing her British flatmate in Italy three years ago, speaks to her lawyer Carlo Della Vedova in the courtroom before a trial session in Perugia May 21, 2011.
By Simon Saavedra , Christian Post Correspondent
June 18, 2011|6:25 pm

A trial in Italy with Amanda Knox appealing against her conviction for sexually assaulting and murdering her then 21-year-old British roommate Meredith Kercher, resumed on Saturday.

Several convicted inmates took the stand, claiming to possess “evidence” proving Knox's innocence; evidence that still remains unverified and put in high doubt for their inconsistencies.

Knox along with her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and a third party, Rudy Hermann Guede, were all convicted for murder and sentenced to 26, 25, and 30 years respectively, although Guede's was later reduced to 16.

One of the convicts testifying Saturday, Mario Alessi, who has been serving prison for brutally beating a 18-month baby to death with a shovel, testified that Guede, the first convicted among the three, had been confessing to him in conversations that Knox and Sollecito were innocent. According to the convict, Guede said he and another friend were visiting Kercher to have sex with her. When Kercher had refused, a fight broke out and in the end Guede's friend had slit her throat.

Another inmate, Luciano Aviello, alleged that his brother had murdered Kercher while trying to break in to steal a painting stored in the cottage.

The credibility of both convicts was then contested by the prosecuting team who wasted no time to cross examine and show that criminals possessing such history were not the ones to be trusted.

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Although denying involvement in the killing, Guede is so far the individual most relevantly linked to the murder among the three tried due to positive forensics tests of DNA found on and in Kercher's body matching his own as well as matching finger and foot prints at the crime scene. The reason his sentence was reduced to 16 years was for being the only individual out of the three to say sorry to Kercher's family for failing to rescue her.

As for Knox, there has been no forensic evidence, except for a knife containing both Knox's and Kercher's DNA found in Sollecito's flat, indicating that she was present in the bedroom Kercher was killed on Nov. 1, 2007.

Knox's defense team dismissed the knife as valid evidence saying that Knox had used knives to cook in Sollecito's apartment.

Knox is a college student from Seattle, Wash., who was studying abroad in Perugia, Italy, when her roommate was murdered. She has denied any wrongdoing.

“I don’t want to spend my whole life in prison as an innocent,” Knox said in May.

DNA tests are being carried out once again on judge orders. According to CBSnews.com, Kurt Knox, Amanda's father, doesn’t believe new witnesses testifying in favor of his daughter are important to the case. Rather, “it's more wrapped around … the DNA evidence that's going to be brought to the trial on the 30th of June.”

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