Did Amanda Knox Deserve To Be Found Not Guilty Of Murder? See The Evidence That Couldn't Convict Her
March 31 2015, Updated 3:16 p.m. ET
Did Amanda Knox deserve to go free for the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher? Click through RadarOnline.com's gallery to see the evidence and how her defense team explained why it wasn't enough to convict her.
The Evidence That Convicted Amanda Knox
As RardarOnline.com reported, Professor Peter Gill, a renowned lecturer of Forensic Genetics at Oslo University in Norway, pointed out problems with the DNA evidence collected after the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student who was found dead with her throat slashed in the Perugia, Italy, home she shared with Amanda Knox.
The Evidence That Convicted Amanda Knox
"There are some worrying features in this particular case, maybe because the individuals live in the apartment and their DNA will be everywhere. That's the issue in this case, there's no dispute that they were in the apartment, but for legitimate reasons," Professor Gill explained. But police say they found the Harry Potter book at the crime scene and Amanda never mentioned bringing it home.
The Evidence That Convicted Amanda Knox
"There are some worrying features in this particular case, maybe because the individuals live in the apartment and their DNA will be everywhere. That's the issue in this case, there's no dispute that they were in the apartment, but for legitimate reasons," Professor Gill explained. But police say they found the Harry Potter book at the crime scene and Amanda never mentioned bringing it home.
The Evidence That Convicted Amanda Knox
"There are some worrying features in this particular case, maybe because the individuals live in the apartment and their DNA will be everywhere. That's the issue in this case, there's no dispute that they were in the apartment, but for legitimate reasons," Professor Gill explained. But police say they found the Harry Potter book at the crime scene and Amanda never mentioned bringing it home.
The Evidence That Convicted Amanda Knox
"There are some worrying features in this particular case, maybe because the individuals live in the apartment and their DNA will be everywhere. That's the issue in this case, there's no dispute that they were in the apartment, but for legitimate reasons," Professor Gill explained. But police say they found the Harry Potter book at the crime scene and Amanda never mentioned bringing it home.
Knox and her former boyfriend were convicted of murdering Kercher in the Perugia apartment Knox shared with the victim. The case was based on miniscule amounts of DNA that were recovered from a kitchen knife Sollecito had in his home, as well as on a bra clasp, which investigators did not remove from the crime scene until 46 days after their initial search of the crime scene.
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Both 30-year-old Sollecito and Knox, 27, served four years behind bars but were set free of murdering Kercher (pictured here) when a judge found them not guilty on appeal in 2011. However, the former couple's guilty verdicts were reinstated in the beginning of 2014. While Sollecito fought the conviction in his home country of Italy, Knox remained in Seattle.
Rudy Guede, an Ivory Coast-born man, is serving 16 years behind bars for the murder after his DNA was found all over the crime scene.
Professor Gill went as far as blasting large portions of the prosecutors' DNA evidence as "fanciful" and "incredulous". He even called the microscopic bits of DNA on the knife a "red herring" that had nothing to do with whether or not Knox killed Kercher.
"For the record, it's extremely concerning for the bra clasp not to be collected until 46 days after the stabbing and it's my understanding that it was then in a different position. And my other concern is that they didn't change their gloves in between handling evidential items," said Professor Gill of the evidence largely used to convict Knox and Sollecito the first time. "The evidence is weak. What I'm saying is there are possibilities of transfers, of contamination, which has to be seriously considered."
"It's known that Sollecito had used the door handle to get into the apartment. But, if investigators had touched the door handle, then the bra clasp, they'd be transferring his DNA, unless you were very, very careful," said Professor Gill.
Lawyers for the now-30-year-old Sollecito wrote in recent legal documents that it's "implausible to believe that the American Knox could have taken part in such a heinous crime." Instead, they claimed, "in these proceedings Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito have been considered, wrongly, as an inseparable entity. This distorted image has certainly impaired the proceedings from the first trial."
"Raffaele Sollecito was not linked to Amanda Knox from long, deep emotional bonds that could have caused him to give his full and unconditional adhesion to a criminal act desired by others," stated the documents, which also tackled the DNA evidence in the case.
Knox and Sollecito were recently found not guilty of the crime in their final appeal. The latest decision from the highest Italian court finally puts the case to rest for good.
"Meredith was my friend and she deserved so much in this life. I am the lucky one," Knox, who wrote a bestselling book about her ordeal, recently insisted.