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Video: Amanda Knox closing arguments set to begin

Rudy Guede, Amanda Knox, and Raffaele Sollecito
Rudy Guede, Amanda Knox, and Raffaele Sollecito
Photo credit: 
Associated Press photo

The trail of Amanda Knox has concluded and closing arguments will be heard. Amanda Knox, 22 is accused of killing her roommate, Meredith Kercher two years ago in Italy.

Amanda Knox’s parents, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas are going to Italy to hear closing arguments in their daughter’s trial. They have described her as a completely non-violent person who would never do this. Knox lived in Seattle, Washington and loved to play soccer.

Prosecutors have described Amanda Knox as an American who was angry with her British roommate, Meredith Kercher. Prosecutors said that Knox directed her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and a friend, Rudy Guede to hold Kercher down as Knox slashed her throat.

Knox stated that on November 2, 2007 that she and her boyfriend at the time were smoking marijuana and had sex at his home the night Meredith Kercher was killed. They came back to her home the next morning, found the front door open, and found a few drops of blood on the floor, but no one was in the home. Knox called her mother even though it was 4:00 am in Seattle because she knew something was wrong. Sollecito was in the home and he called his sister who was a police officer, and they were both told to call the police.

Knox spoke very little Italian, but was able to understand a few words. It was later when police officer kicked down the door to Kercher’s room, that they began to scream, “a foot, a foot” because that is what they saw when they entered the room. When they discovered Kercher’s body, Knox called her mother again hysterical, and was concerned that there was a killer in their home.

According to Amanda, during the interrogation the Italian police yelled and screamed at her to the point where she was so stressed out, and that with the language translation problems, she confessed. Afterwards, she thought they would be able clear it up, but they haven’t.

Rudy Guede, a friend of the roommates was arrested in Germany later. The police monitored a call of his to a friend on Skype and said that he had been at the Kercher’s house, but he never mentioned Amanda Knox. It was only after he was in jail, that he said it was Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Sollecito who did it.

Amanda Knox and Sollecito Raffaele have been in jail for over two years.

According to an interactive evidence log with photos on the CNN website, the evidence is confusing. And it appears that almost everyone who has been accused or was accused of murdering Meredith Kercher has lied in one way or another. And probably most important, it appears that the crime scene and evidence wasn’t protected by Italian police, or even properly investigated. To see the interactive evidence, click here.

Sources: CNN and Associated Press

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Marci Stone has a master's degree in education, 20 years of experience in adult education and lives in Salt Lake City. She has a general interest in just about everything, and enjoys reporting the news. Contact Marci at marcistone@gmail.com.

Comments

  • Harry Rag 2 years ago

    For anyone who is interested in the facts behind the media spin, and who cares to learn more about the victim of this terrible murder - Meredith Kercher - there is an excellent discussion board

    Perugia Murder File

    as well as an interesting blog

    True Justice For Meredith Kercher

    These online resources are not for profit. Anyone can read and/or participate and people from around the world do. They have followed this case since November 2007, and are in no way related to Amanda Knox. Nor are they her friends.

  • anonymous 2 years ago

    Can someone explain to me how it's possible that Amanda and Raffale left absolutely NO DNA in Meredith's room. According to the prosecutor, they cleaned up their own DNA and managed to leave only Rudy's DNA behind. The only thing they found was Raff's DNA on was the bra clasp - the one that sat on the floor for 6 weeks before they found it AND it was moved around several times before they picked it up and finally examined it. Something is amiss in the Perugia trial.

  • anonymous 2 years ago

    Mignini's fantasy is ridiculous. It seems like his stereotypes of American and British girls are the source of his theory - the British girl as prissy student, and the American girl as drug addict nymphomaniac with violent tendencies. I just hope the jury is above being swept away by the Mignini's opera.

  • GG 2 years ago

    well, anonymous, Raffaele DID leave DNA in the victim's bedroom - on her bra clasp

  • GG 2 years ago

    oh, anonymous, the crime scene was SEALED by police for the 45 days between the first & second sweeps of the cottage - and, FYI: DNA is used to ID people after more than 45 YEARS

  • Rarry Hag 2 years ago

    How did the bra strap move across the floor in a sealed crime scene?

  • sarah 2 years ago

    I am honestly indifferent to the verdict but after I have read all of the evidence I am led to believe that Amanda and Raf are INNOCENT. My reasoning: 1) The man who's sexual dna was found in the victim's body was already convicted--hello! This guy wasn't a known "activity partner" of Aman and Raf's so I think it's ridiculous that they would spontaneously decide to commit a sexual murder together. 2) If Amanda had any knowledge that Mer was raped and murdered by Rudy, she would have pointed to him to begin with, instead of randomly targeting her employer. That way she could have bargained to testify against Rudy. 3) If Aman and Raf had been involved in the murder, they, LIKE RUDY would have kept away...Rudy FLED to Germany. But they stuck around the murder scene and were there 12+ hours after the murder. Don't seem guilty to me--seems like they were concerned and clueless. 4) Aman admits to showering in the cottage when she didn't have to. Various calls to friends and law.

  • JTL 2 years ago

    Sarah, for almost 2 years after the Nov. 2007 murder, Amanda denied ever having met Rudy Guede. But in June, 2009, Amanda was forced to admit, on the stand, that she had not only met Rudy, but partied with him on several occasions, as part of a small group from the cottage (Rudy was a pal of Amanda's downstairs housemates). Rudy confessed to those housemates that he was attracted to Amanda. She had power over him. She used him. And she used Raffaele, her knife-collecting 'boyfriend' of 6 days. Amanda is the nexus that connects Rudy & Raffaele (erstwhile strangers) to the victim. All 3 were initially slow to accuse one another back in 2007 because, at that time, the game was: I won't pin it on you, if you don't pin it on me. They didn't start to implicate one another until the forensic evidence FORCED them to.

  • Effervescent Elephant 2 years ago

    Sarah, your reasoning is faulty .

    1/ The ONLY reason Guede ALREADY was convicted was because he OPTED for an ABREVIATED PROCESS.
    If he had not done that, then he would have been in court at the same time as Sollecito and your Amanda Knox.
    Guede's DNA found on Meredith Kercher has no separate significance to the events, it does not mean that he is solo in this, not in light of the DNA belonging to Knox being retrieved ion the handle of one of the knives used to attack Meredith Kercher.
    It was retrieved in Sollecito's home. He had never taken that knife to the house where Knox was staying along with Meredith Kercher, if he had then he would have said so. Instead he made a tale up about having cooked in his own home and Meredith was pricked by him in her hand, Sollecito said, Meredith said, Oh it is okay. But Knox revealed that Meredith Kercher had never eaten at Sollecito's house.
    The knife had Meredith's DNA on it only because it was used to kill her.

  • Effervescent Elephant 2 years ago

    Sarah your reasoning is based on ignorance of fact.
    If Amanda had any knowledge that Meredith was raped and murdered by Rudy, she would not have pointed to him to begin with, she did not randomly target her employer. She falsely accused him of rape and murder to get the police off her back.
    She did not want Guede to be caught at all, any one of them being caught would have endangered all 3 of them. The only reason they cannot accuse one another outright is because all 3 were involved. Guede opting for an abbreviated hearing meant that he could allow the other to maneuver themselves into their own positions that they would not be able to reverse, that is why now though accusing them, is telling lies because to tell the truth means he must reveal how he was an accomplice, never alone. She could never have bargained to testify against Rudy Guede because that is a USA and UK system in Italy the law is defendants must be tried for the crimes they commit, no less, justice not for sale.

  • Effervescent Elephant 2 years ago

    Sarah,

    It seems clear you have not spent much time thinking these things through.

    How in the world would Knox and Sollecito have fled without then immediately incriminating themselves?

    No, the reason they did not flee was because they thought they would get away with it and they knew that fleeing would show that they really were guilty.

    Knox lived in the house, she could hardly disappear and nobody notice, Guede, did not live in the house, and would not necessarily be missed, but, he knew the police had his DNA and fingerprints. They were in no way clueless, on the contrary they were clued up, just as they'd been 'tooled up' the night before.

    They told Guede they'd clean up after he told them the police had his DNA and fingerprints, and that's why they left as much of him around as they could.
    Or, they didn't know the police had Guede's details and thought the police would go after someone they'd never trace. Leaving all 3 safe. That's why they left Guede's clues.

  • Effervescent Elephant 2 years ago

    So you see Sarah either way, like playing a board-game, the same result was achieved, namely, they avoided telling on one another immediately because to do that would have meant that the person being accused would obviously retaliate if the result had been that the one who got told-on, seemed to be about to take all of the blame, that is why not one of them was stupid enough to try that.

    If it had not been this way I cannot see Amanda Knox waiting two seconds to accuse Sollecito or Guede or even both.

    I also see Sollecito capable of the same because they are selfish individuals who not only are capable of murder but of destroying their own families, even if said families are willing victims and gluttons for punishment and also people willing to be accomplices in that they too are willing and able to tell lies if it may get their blood-ones released.

  • jacqueline 2 years ago

    Amanda and her wimp boyfriend are as guilty as Rudy. These three all know what went down that night.

  • James 2 years ago

    The answer is simple gice all three of them Knox,Guede and Sollecito a series of unannounced polygraph tests...the results together with DNA evidence should tell exactly which one of them (or all three) murdered poor Meredith the night in question

  • Allergic 4; AK, RS, RG 2 years ago

    That priest Knox sees had better make sure he is never left alone with her, because if she runs out of ammo and ideas, she'll be saying he grabbed her and took her up the wrong-un, when doing her yoga cartwheels.

  • Jennifer 2 years ago

    I wonder how Jesus will feel looking out from his father's house, seeing Knox trying to pretend to the priest that she belongs as a child of light in that kingdom, instead of in the dark hell fires as a keen emissary of the devil, King Satan, Knox is just unbelievable, with her fake praying mantis hands.

    Puke
    Knoxious; I have done your deeds for you oh Mr Satan, I have tried to worm my way into the house of that enemy of yours Mr Jesus, you know the kind guy, the one with the father who loves unconditionally, I think that priest believed me, I asked him about redemption, he told me, he doesn't know because he is of the earth but his father is of the universe, but that if you are telling lies it might be better for your soul to give it up and tell the truth, and get your soul back, but I sold my soul to you Mr Devil so screw him eh, screw them all, I'm the boss, everyone will do exactly as I say, or I'll kill them.

  • Belinda 2 years ago

    There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Amanda Knox was the instigator of sexual assault and the person who stabbed Meredith Kercher.

    Anyone who is not pay by Amanda's cheerleading team can see that and the cheerleading team as well. However when there is money involved, that changes the equation.

  • Impartial 2 years ago

    Seems the usual Amanda haters are out in force today, albeit using different names. Every piece of evidence being put forward by the prosecution is under dispute. There is no way that proof of guilt has been demonstrated, with the jealousy/theft/sex game motive far fetched and unbelievable to anyone not blinded by an inhumane hatred for Amanda. Rudy did it alone. End of story.

  • Harriet Ragu 2 years ago

    Effervescent Elephant, since you have examined the case so thoroughly, I have a question for you. If the suspects have such brilliant criminal minds, why did they leave the shiny, clean murder weapon there on top of all the other knives in Raffaele’s kitchen drawer for the four days between the murder and their arrests? Wouldn’t it have made more sense for them to use that time to hide or destroy the knife? Or at least cook with it?

    The detective who found the knife testified that “...He opened the drawer and saw [a] ‘very shiny and clean’ knife lying on top of the silverware tray...‘It was the first knife I saw,’ he said. When pressed on cross-examination, he said his ‘investigative intuition’ led him to believe it was the murder weapon because it was compatible with the wound as it had been described to him... There were smaller and bigger knives in the drawer, but no others were taken into evidence from the kitchen, he said...”

    (Citation: Seattle P-I, 2/28/2009)

  • Harriet Ragu 2 years ago

    Another interesting question is why Raffaele’s possessions were confiscated from his flat after he was imprisoned, rather than before. Maybe it was because in the week after the murder, the police believed they already had the murder weapon.
    On Nov. 9th, 2007, Judge Claudia Matteini wrote, “[Meredith] was then threatened with a knife, the knife which Sollecito generally carried with him and which was used to strike Meredith in the neck.” On November 10th, a headline from thetimesonline read, “Boyfriend’s flick knife was used to kill Meredith Kercher.”
    A week later, though, on November 16th, the story changed. Now, “Traces of DNA from Meredith’s blood identified on knife found at suspect’s flat.” An excerpt from the Times article read: “Detectives had said that a flick knife that Mr. Sollecito carried around with him was ‘compatible’ with the weapon used to slash the British student’s throat, but that that knife had yielded no DNA.”
    Oops. Now what?

  • Eddervescent Elephant 2 years ago

    For one thing Ragu,

    I doubt that it is worth spending my time arguing with you, your name is derived from Mr Harry Rag, why use a bastardization of Mr Harry's name?

    Answer is, I know that you are online, endlessly speaking in an aggressive tone, belittling and chiding people and forever repeating non-starter points that you are not even truly prepared to accept any other opinion on, other than the one you've Pavlov Dogged yourself into believing, like the lies on the FOA strange-lost-souls website, one full of misleading propaganda.

    Let me cancel out your pseudo logica fantastica, propelled, by nationalistic, patriotic sentiments based on consciously chosen ignorance, such as 'I like acting the fool'.

    Your ideas are irrelevant, & cancel out by forensic evidence, and Sollecito's lies. He pricked Meredith in the hand. Meredith had never been in his home. The knife he admitted had never left his home. He started speculating Knox gave it to her killer pals. But he was with Knox

  • Effervescent Elephant 2 years ago

    Obviously as a case progresses by way of thorough investigation and clues are brought out and followed up on, an interpretation changes, until the alibi-wheels that can never fit together clash. Teeth break off, they are shaped differently and are of different dimensions, Sollecito and Knox's stories clashing show what is obvious when; Sollecito says he was at home on his computer all night but no sign can be seen that the computer was used at all.

    Knox says suddenly; Oh I was away after all. Then she was suddenly back at his place all night after all. Then suddenly he can't remember, according to him she was not definitely with him.

    Yet they were both found outside the murder scene when Meredith's body was laid out in a pool of her blood - on the coolmaking ceramic tiles - not even yet completely cold, there they were stood out in the freezing cold hours after Knox had supposedly discovered the front door wide open, blood about the place yet still making no call to the cops.

  • Harriet Ragu 2 years ago

    Yikes, Effervescent Elephant, take your meds. This isn't Creative Writing 101 -- you're supposed to be thinking analytically, not "artistically."

    So I take it you prefer not to answer my questions about the knife?

    (How do you explain why the murder suspects left the shiny, clean murder weapon there on top of all the other knives in Raffaele’s kitchen drawer for the four days between the murder and their arrests? Wouldn’t it have made more sense for them to use that time to hide or destroy the knife? Or at least cook with it?)

    As to your point: "Obviously as a case progresses by way of thorough investigation and clues are brought out and followed up on, an interpretation changes..."

    True, but usually the police aren't allowed to imprison the suspects BEFORE they have any evidence.

    My ideas may be irrelevant to you and the other haters, but they are certainly not irrelevant to providing Amanda with a strong defense. Or do you also hate the idea of a fair trial?

  • Tim 2 years ago

    I can wait for the verdict.
    I bet the she is found guilty and it will be unanimous.

  • Effervescent Elephant 2 years ago

    O but but dear not friend,

    they the police had enough already, to have to keep these potty people locked up.

    And again dear Not friend;

    it is for people like your not dear self that I have to spell things out graphically, in terms of blood pools and icy ceramic tiles (you, I guess, think of the murder as a tidy affair, after all, Mademoiselle Knox did Meredith's washing for her, even though Meredith was already dead, lying on aforementioned cold tiles with duvet over her, was Knox thinking to keep a corpse warm?) because there's no way any of this touches or touched you, that much is most blatantly obvious.

    Murder is not a joke, and falsely accusing people of murder as Knox did, is vicious. What's worse is when trapped by her actions, what did she do? Yep went on to accuse even more people, directly and indirectly with a little help from her friends, well, people on her bandwagon hoping to dig up a dime for themselves.

    Point is they thought they would not be suspects.

  • Effervescent Elephant 2 years ago

    Dear Not Friend,

    You mention, yet again, this slogan used by you and your FOA club, the word 'haters', I mean, you're using it slogan-wise, yet it seems to me, that the hate is something that is owned by Knox and Sollecito in this case and then too by the people using false information, propaganda and media mayhem as a way to undermine the case through attempts at discrediting the professionals badged up and authorized with the bringing to justice of those seen as more than just suspects those who have been accused and tried in court.

    You speak of haters slogan-like, but okay then, I must say, I do not like Knox and if you think that there are no reasons to feel this way, then I grant you, you are entitled to your opinion, be it, blind, and led by the blind and all are led over the cliff's edge like that, so, I do not give a flying toss what you think to do by trying to belittle those who have well-founded criticisms on just about everything to do with Knox and Sollecito.

  • Effervescent Elephant 2 years ago

    There are many reasons a killer would not get rid of weapon.
    In this case, their arrogance was the cause of them keeping it.
    Their arrogance is attached to their over-inflated sense of self-importance and misdirected self-image. Mr Sollecito has shown, at least when he was still talking (and even now, in his sideways attempts at feigning innocence using obscure newspapers to do it) that he was a cut above everyone else. He imagined that he was far cleverer than others. Where his arrogance truly shone through was in his contempt of other people, including people in positions of authority. In fact it was not about any of these people but about his own depressive mental condition, that's why he put others down, in a similarly smirking fashion to the one Knox employed. This is why he got involved, all because of him already having a seriously dysfunctional disposition, he attached to Knox's leg like a dig might to a bone. He was on a downer.
    Sollecito is about to crack.

  • Effervescent Elephant 2 years ago

    Sollecito studied computers, etc, but not forensic science. He thought that cleaning the solid knife would be enough. He imagined it would not absorb. He imagined clothing and more absorbs, but not knives.
    Let me tell you, he can still continue to collect knives, but they are the various plastic ones given to convicts in jail so they do not kill reach other or themselves.
    Now if you did manage to kill someone with one of those then no amount of washing would get the blood off, because the plastic is perishable, it gets scratches in it. Who could have known, (among the many voices he hears in his head) that metal is perishable?
    Well, Mr Sollecito was too big 4 his own boots. The knife had damage to it an in that damage the DNA was found.

    Seeing as how the knife had never officially been to the murder scene and Meredith Kercher had never been at Sollecito's place then Meredi'ths DNA on it is a certain clue, and it won't come unstuck, no matter much you shout.

  • Felicia 2 years ago

    Incredible, Knox with her immediate written denials,when words go against her.

    Watching her type of reaction, just reminds me and makes me think too, about how she is unable to take criticism at all, and it has everything to do with the way she is and has been held up on a pedestal, at home, all of her life, simply, she is not permitted to do anything wrong, people have been telling her she does everything right, that's why she can't handle being told off or criticized when she does do things wrong,.

    And now, they have taken it to extremes.

    It is just so easy to imagine how - in what was for her a safe setting, one not under supervision like it is in court, such as at the murder scene, where her reactions were just the same as she behaves and reacts in court but then multiplied by 1000 and uncontrolled - she went into a murderous angry frenzy.

  • Tina 2 years ago

    The comments make for good reading.

    One person mentions that some hate Amanda Knox.

    I do not hate Amanda Knox, I do want justice, in other words I would like to see the guilty persons punished and that means 30 years prison for Amanda Knox.

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