[/caption]Ernest Dempsey - American exchange student Amanda Knox has been acquitted of murder charges in Perugia, Italy, today, ending the four-year-long ordeal that kept circling in news in three countries all along.
24-year-old Knox had been in prison in Italy along with former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the past 4 years, both of them charged with the brutal murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher. The British student was found bled to death after she was sexually assaulted and stabbed repeatedly, in November 2007, in her flat which Kercher shared with Knox. In December 2009, Knox and Sollecito were convicted with Kercher’s murder, thus initiating the riveting trial that would last four years.
When Knox was announced acquitted of the murder charges in a Perugia court, she almost collapsed, with tears of relief on her face, as reported by ABC News. While Kercher's mother sat still in the courtroom after the verdict, the Knox family was elated. They came out to noise of greetings, mixed with a few voices of condemnation, in the street. Amanda Knox’s younger sister and mother both cried inside the court.
Earlier, Knox’s lawyer told the court that Knox had been "crucified" by the media throughout her trial years with seven books and a movie already produced on her case. The claim of the prosecution to have found Knox’s DNA on the murder weapon, a knife, was countered by the expert opinion that the collection, sorting, and analysis of the DNA was substandard and that it came from bread. The other piece of evidence speaking against Sollecito, i.e. his DNA on Kercher’s bra, was also dismissed by the experts as improperly handled and probably contaminated piece of evidence. Sollecito was also quitted of the murder along with Knox.
NWCN notes that Amanda Knox’s acquittal was made possible by the DNA analysis work initiated by Professor Greg Hampikian of Boise State University. By showing that DNA can undergo “casual transfer” on objects like the knife used in Kercher’s murder, Professor Hampikian’s team showed Knox could be innocent despite the presence of her DNA on the murder weapon.
Having been acquitted of her conviction of murder, which would otherwise have her imprisoned for 26 years, an emotionally overwhelmed Amanda Knox is ready to fly back to her home in Seattle, US, where her friends wept in joy over her release, reports The Telegraph.
With three young people, at the peak of their youth, involved in this real-life mystery, the most interesting and legally important aspect of the tragedy was the manner in which forensic evidence was countered by a more detailed analysis of the DNA remains on the weapon. Historically, this legal trial will be remembered for the “microscopically narrow” escape of a young woman and man from serving lifetime in prison. What does remain is the mystery of who killed Meredith Kercher.
