Lawyers for Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, the US woman and the Italian man convicted of the murder of Meredith Kercher, could fight for five more years to try to clear them.They believe an appeal based on “the lack of a plausible motive” and other weaknesses in the prosecution case will lead to an acquittal.
After nearly 14 hours of deliberation at the end of an 11-month trial, the two judges and six local jurors announced after midnight on Saturday morning that Knox, 22, and Sollecito, 25, her former Italian boyfriend, were guilty of murder and sexual assault.
Knox, who had shared a hillside cottage near the university for foreigners in Perugia with Ms Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was given 26 years in jail and Sollecito 25 years. The jury stopped short of the life sentences the prosecution had demanded, a move the defence believes reflects doubts over elements in the prosecution.
The first of two appeals will be held in Perugia, probably next autumn. If it fails, a second appeal will be made to the Court of Cassation (Supreme Court) in Rome. The process could take five years, lawyers said. “We have lost a battle but not the war,” said Luca Maori, one of the lawyers for Sollecito. “For the serious crimes they are claimed to have committed you either sentence them to life or you acquit them. There is no middle way.”
Luciano Ghirga, Knox’s lawyer, who held her as she collapsed sobbing when the sentence was read out, said that it was a compromise. Mr Ghirga said that, if the jury had been certain of the proof and motive, “they would have given them life”.
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Giulia Bongiorno, a senior lawyer and parliamentary deputy who defended Sollecito, also said that the decision was contradictory. Asked if he would fight on Knox’s father, Curt Knox, replied: “Hell, yes.”
Francesco Maresca, the lawyer for the Kercher family, said that the judge and jury had, in effect, accepted the prosecution case, which included the allegation that Knox, with the help of a compliant Sollecito, had murdered her British flatmate out of “hatred and revenge”.
Ms Kercher’s mother, Arline, said the family also believed the defendants were guilty, adding: “You have to go with the evidence.”
Giancarlo Massei, the judge, has 90 days in which to make public the reasoning behind the sentence, after which the first appeal can be lodged.
A third defendant, Rudy Guede, 22, an Ivory Coast immigrant and drifter, is appealing against a 30-year sentence for the crime. He admitted he was at the house on the night of the murder, and his DNA was found on Ms Kercher’s body. He claims he did not kill her, and that he saw Sollecito and Knox fleeing. The defence says Guede acted alone.
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Mr Ghirga said that Knox had not slept after her return to the women’s wing of the modern prison complex at Capanne just outside the medieval hilltop town of Perugia. She was depressed and disappointed.
On being led from the court crying, she was heard shouting “No, no, no.” In prison she said repeatedly: “Why didn’t they believe me? Why? I would never have killed Meredith, she was my friend.”
Sollecito did not react when the sentence was read out, and was said by Mr Maori to have “lost all sense of time and space”. He had asked the prison authorities to provide psychological support. Both Sollecito and Knox have been placed under 24-hour suicide watch.
Much of the DNA evidence was challenged as unreliable, and the prosecution case rested heavily on Knox’s bizarre and unfeeling behaviour after the murder, her tendency to change her story, and her sexual promiscuity and drug-taking.
The prosecution portrayed her as a manipulative and unscrupulous she-devil, an image her family and defence argued was character assassination at odds with the reality of a “girl next door” American college student.
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In the US, however, the 22-year-old college student from Seattle is regarded widely as a victim of anti-Americanism and an ancient, corrupt legal system. Senator Maria Cantwell, from Knox’s home state of Washington, said: “I am saddened by the verdict and I have serious questions about the Italian justice system and whether anti-Americanism tainted this trial.”
Senator Cantwell added that the prosecution did not present enough evidence for an impartial jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Knox was guilty. Jurors were allowed to view negative news coverage about Knox.
Other flaws in the justice system on display included the alleged treatment of Knox after her arrest and negligent handling of evidence by investigators, he said.
Most offensive to many US observers was the way in which Knox’s drug use and sexual history became a part of the trial. But one commentator said: “What about the true victim, Meredith Kercher? Slam that cell shut and let’s move on. They got the guilty ones, too bad the sentence is short, Meredith will never get to live.”
As for intervention from the Obama Administration, such a prospect seems unlikely. Asked for her opinion on the verdict, Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, said she was too busy dealing with the Afghanistan war.