7/29/2019 Amanda Knox - Back on trial

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38 NEWS The Edmonton SunnWednesday, March 27, 2013

IN MINUTES News and events visually

Nov. 2: British student MeredithKercher's body is found with a slashed

throat, in the apartment she sharedwith Knox in Perugia, Italy. Prosecu-tors alleged Kercher was the victim ofa drug-fueled sex game gone awry.Nov. 6: Knox is arrested with then-boyfriend Raaele Sollecito, and DiyaPatrick Lumumba, the Congoleseowner of pub where Knox occasionallyworked. Knox and Sollecito deniedwrongdoing; they said they werent inthe apartment that night, but hadsmoked marijuana and their memo-ries were clouded.Nov. 20: Lumumba, implicated by

Knox, is released from jail for lack ofevidence.Dec. 6: A fourth suspect in themurder, Ivory Coast national RudyHermann Guede, is extradited fromGermany, where he was arrested, andjailed upon arrival in Italy.Oct. 28: Guede is sentenced to 30years in prison (cut to 16 years onappeal in 2009).Jan. 16: Trial of Knox and Sollecitobegins.June 12: Knox takes stand; oers alibi,

says police beat her into making falsestatement.Dec. 5: Knox is sentenced to 26 yearsin prison, Sollecito to 25 years afterthey are found guilty of murder.Lawyers say they will appeal.Nov. 8: Knox ordered to stand trial onslander charges for claiming policebeating.Nov. 24: Appeals trial for Knox andSollecito opens in Perugia.June 29: An independent forensicreport finds much of the DNA

evidence used to convict Knox andSollecito is unreliable.July 25: Experts tell an appeal hearingthe knife thought to have been usedto kill Kercher carried no trace ofblood but may have been contami-nated with other DNA traces.Oct. 3: After four years in prison, Knoxand Sollecito are found not guilty ofmurder.The court upholds a convictionagainst Knox for slander, after falselyaccusing Lumumba of the murders.

Shes sentenced to three years inprison, which has been served.

Knox returned home toSeattle, Wash., in late 2011.She enrolled at theUniversity of Washington increative writing. Hermemoir book Waiting to BeHeard will be released inApril, in a deal reportedly

worth $4 million.

Back on trial

Amanda KnoxItalys top court has ordered a retrial of American

Amanda Knox and former boyfriend RaaeleSollecito for the murder of British student MeredithKercher, reopening a case that prompted harsh

criticism of the Italian justice system.Kerchers half-naked body, with more than 40

wounds and a deep gash in her throat, was found inthe apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia,

where both were studying during a year abroad in2007.

Knox and Sollecito, who claimed innocence,were found guilty in 2009 but were later acquitted.

Unlike in the United States, the Italian justicesystem does not contain so-called double

jeopardy provisions that prevent a defendantbeing tried twice for the same oence.

Knox released a statement describing the courtsdecision as painful and said the prosecutions

theory had repeatedly been revealed asunfounded and unfair.Knox is free to decide whether to return to Italy

but the Italian government could request extradi-tion if she is found guilty of the murder and herconviction is backed by the Court of Cassation.

If Knox is convicted of murder in the new trial,her lawyers would able to appeal again.

The people

The trial

After the trial

2007

2008

2009

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The next trial

March 26: Italy's Supreme courthas ordered Knox and Sollecito to standtrial again for the Kercher murder,overturning their acquittals. The decisionwas not based on the presumed guilt orinnocence of Knox or Sollecito, but wasintended to hinge solely on whether the

appeal trial had been properly conducted.

2013

SUSAN BATSFORD, GRAPHICS EDITOR, TWITTER @SBATS1/QMI AGENCY

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Sources: Reuters; Graphic News