14 DAY TRIAL // In yet another very surprising twist in the 2007 murder trial that alleges Amanda Knox and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito killed roommate Meredith Kercher, both Knox and Sollecito have been found guilty of murder and sentenced to 28 and 25 years behind bars, respectively.
The two spent 4 years in jail in Italy after Kercher’s death, during the trial. They were acquitted, and Knox came back to the US in the hope that she might pick up where she’d left off before the tragedy but, last March, it was announced that the Supreme Court would reopen the case because old evidence had been misused in the initial trial.
Knox refused to attend the trial, and watched the ruling and the sentence on live television, from her home in Seattle, Good Morning America reports. To her surprise, she was pronounced guilty and sentenced to 28 years and 8 months behind bars.
Sollecito was also found guilty and was sentenced for his involvement in the murder to 25 years behind bars. He wasn’t in Italy for the retrial either.
As far as Knox is concerned, she’s determined to appeal the verdict but, in the eventuality it won’t bring a different outcome, she’s holding out hope that the US won’t extradite her.
“I am frightened and saddened by this unjust verdict. Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system. My family and I have suffered greatly from this wrongful persecution,” she says in a statement.
Moreover, the verdict won’t bring any peace whatsoever to Meredith’s family, Knox believes.
“This has gotten out of hand,” she says, blaming the outcome of the retrial on “overzealous and intransigent prosecution, prejudiced and narrow-minded investigation, unwillingness to admit mistake, reliance on unreliable testimony and evidence, character assassination, inconsistent and unfounded accusatory theory.”
GMA notes that, right before the verdict was announced, Knox said in a separate statement that she would fight tooth and nail not to be sent to Italy to serve the time, because she did not do the crime so the imprisonment would be wrong.
“I'm definitely not going back to Italy willingly. They'll have to catch me and pull me back kicking and screaming into a prison that I don't deserve to be in. I will fight for my innocence,” she said.