Amanda Knox
American student Amanda Knox said Thursday that she is
"frightened and saddened" after being re-convicted in the stabbing
death of her roommate when they were students in Italy in 2007.
A panel of judges and jurors set a sentence of 28 years and
six months for Knox, who returned to the United States after an earlier
conviction was reversed. They also convicted her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele
Sollecito, sentenced him to 25 years and banned him from traveling.
"I am frightened and saddened by this unjust
verdict," the 26-year-old said in a written statement from her home in
Seattle, where she returned after spending four years in prison.
"Having been found innocent before, I expected better
from the Italian justice system."
It's unclear what will happen to Knox, who is certain to
appeal — a process that could take a year or longer. Even if the high court
confirms the new conviction, Italy still would have to seek her extradition.
She has vowed not to return.
Sollecito's lawyers said they were stunned by the latest
twist in a whiplash-inducing case that has made headlines on both sides of the
Atlantic for six years.
"There isn't a shred of proof," attorney Luca
Maori said.
Knox and Sollecito were arrested after British student
Meredith Kercher was found dead in a pool of blood in their apartment in the
university town of Perugia, her half-naked body covered in up to 40 knife
wounds.
Prosecutors argued that Kercher was killed in a sex game,
and Knox and Sollecito were convicted and sentenced to 26 years.
Knox was also convicted of slander for falsely telling
police she heard a Congolese bar owner kill Kercher a claim that prosecutors
say is evidence of her guilt but that she says was made out of fear during a
high-pressure grilling.
In 2011, an appeals court reheard the case and acquitted
Knox and Sollecito after independent experts said crucial DNA evidence had been
contaminated by police.
But in March, Italy's highest court dismissed that acquittal
— slamming the lower court for "contradictions and inconsistencies"
in its decision — and ordered a new trial.
Although prosecutors claimed six years ago that Kercher was
killed because she balked at participating in a drug-fueled orgy, they changed
theories for the new trial and now say a simple argument sparked the violent
frenzy.
Knox and Sollecito say that only one person is responsible
for Kercher's death: small-time drug dealer Rudy Hermann Guede. The Ivory
Coast-born man is serving 16 years for the slaying, but a court found that he
did not commit the crime alone.
Kercher's siblings said before the verdict that they would
accept whatever the decision was.
"As we've always said, we wouldn't want the wrong
people put away and we certainly wouldn't want anyone who should be away out
there free," Stephanie Kercher told an Italian TV station.
Her brother Lyle added: "The most important thing is to
reach a final point in this case."
In her statement, Knox expressed "respect and
support" for the Kercher family but insisted she was the victim of
overzealous prosecution and character assassination.
"This has gotten out of hand," she said.
"Clearly a wrongful conviction is horrific for the
wrongfully accused, but it is also terribly bad for the victim, their surviving
family, and society."
Knox has said the prospect of another conviction haunted her
as she tried to rebuild her life in the U.S.
"I imagine it all the time because I have to think the
worst-case scenario,'' she told TODAY earlier this year.
"I have to prepare in my mind what that would be like.
I thought about what it would be like to live my entire life in prison and to
lose everything, to lose what I've been able to come back to and rebuild.
I
think about it all the time. It's so scary. Everything's at stake."
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