Speaker 1: I thought of one journal.
Speaker 2: Pretty young in Catosms, not Dica.
Speaker 3: On November two, two thousand and seven, police in Perusia
Speaker 3: receive a phone call there's been a break in. When
Speaker 3: police arrive, they discover a young woman has been stabbed
Speaker 3: to death. She's Meredith Kircher, a British student, a girl
Speaker 3: with everything to live for. For seven years, her American flatmate,
Speaker 3: Amanda Knox, was the center of a media and judicial storm,
Speaker 3: accused of Meredith's murder. In twenty fifteen, the murder convictions
Speaker 3: of Amanda Knox and Rafael Solechito were overturned once and
Speaker 3: for all.
Speaker 4: It's she deserved so much in this I I'm the
Speaker 4: lucky one.
Speaker 3: The family of Meredith Kirture feels let down by the
Speaker 3: Italian judiciary for the contradictory verdicts it has produced over
Speaker 3: nearly eight years. Meredith Kircher grew up in Croydon, South London.
Speaker 3: In August two thousand and seven, a new university year
Speaker 3: is about to start. Meredith, now twenty one, prepares to
Speaker 3: leave for the ancient and peaceful hilltop city of Perugia, Italy.
Speaker 5: He was very excited about coming to Italy, looking forward
Speaker 5: to learning more about Italian culture, seeing the city of Perugia,
Speaker 5: and making new friends, and she really thought to come here.
Speaker 5: She really wanted to be here.
Speaker 3: Mez, as everyone calls her, is studying European politics and
Speaker 3: Italian at Leeds. Now she has an exchange year in Italy,
Speaker 3: a country she's been in love with since a school trip.
Speaker 3: But saying goodbye to her sister, Stephanie isn't easy.
Speaker 5: We were just talking on the sofa and having a
Speaker 5: little cudog goodbye, and then I just remember her suddenly
Speaker 5: crying and saying that she was going to be sad
Speaker 5: to go, but she was excited to come. And I
Speaker 5: remember being quite taken aback, thought, don't make me sad.
Speaker 5: I'll miss you, but you're going to have fun.
Speaker 3: She leaves on September the first, and quickly afterwards moves
Speaker 3: into the upstairs flat of this cottage with three housemates,
Speaker 3: two young Italian trainee lawyers and a student on exchange
Speaker 3: from the United States, twenty year old Amanda Knox. Amanda
Speaker 3: has traveled almost six thousand miles from Seattle on the
Speaker 3: Northwest coast to study Italian in Perusia, Photogenic outgoing and
Speaker 3: describing herself as quirky Amanda Knox loves the Beatles and
Speaker 3: Harry Potter. She's been studying at university and has worked
Speaker 3: three jobs to pay for her Italian adventure. She is
Speaker 3: very different from the quiet and studious Meredith. While housemates,
Speaker 3: there is said to be tension over Amanda's supposedly casual
Speaker 3: attitude to sex, money, and housework. Within weeks, Amanda Knox
Speaker 3: lands a job in proof, working as a waitress at
Speaker 3: La Chique, a pub owned by a popular musician from
Speaker 3: the Congo, Patrick Lumumbambracio.
Speaker 6: She gave me the impression of a good person. If
Speaker 6: she wasn't a good person, she wouldn't have worked here.
Speaker 6: That doesn't mean that her relationship with clients pleased me,
Speaker 6: because she often talked to the clients and I had
Speaker 6: to tell her to get back to work.
Speaker 3: On October the twenty fifth, Amanda and Meredith go to
Speaker 3: a classical music concert together, where Amanda meets Italian student
Speaker 3: Rafaele Solechito. He looks like her favorite Harry Potter, and
Speaker 3: the two begin a whirlwind romance. Described by friends as
Speaker 3: intelligent and sensitive, the handsome Rafaele has come to Perusia
Speaker 3: to study information technology. A week later, October thirty first,
Speaker 3: it is Halloween, and in Perusia, like every other university town,
Speaker 3: it's party time. It is one of Meredith's favorite nights out,
Speaker 3: and she is dressed as a vampire. These will turn
Speaker 3: out to be among the last photographs of her alive, happy,
Speaker 3: full of life, and completely at home with her new friends.
Speaker 3: What Happens on the night of November first, two thousand
Speaker 3: and seven has been the subject of three trials, three appeals,
Speaker 3: and three Supreme Court rulings. The story has more twists
Speaker 3: and turns than the medieval streets of Perusia itself. The
Speaker 3: story starts at nine o'clock in the morning on the
Speaker 3: second of November, when a local woman finds two mobile
Speaker 3: phones in her garden. She takes them to the Postal police,
Speaker 3: which handles crimes involving communication devices. They quickly discover one
Speaker 3: of the phones is registered to Via de la Pergola seven,
Speaker 3: a small cottage just five hundred meters away. When police
Speaker 3: arrive here, they see two students in the driveway, Amanda
Speaker 3: Knox and Rafaele Solechito. They tell the police the front
Speaker 3: door is open and one room has been ransacked. Police
Speaker 3: go into the house. One bedroom's a mess, Clothes are
Speaker 3: all over the floor and a large rock is lying
Speaker 3: near the window. Shortly after the postal police arrive around
Speaker 3: twelve fifty one, Rafaele Solechito calls the elite police force,
Speaker 3: the Carabinieri. He doesn't mention that the postal police are
Speaker 3: already there and says nothing's been stolen, details prosecutors would
Speaker 3: later claim are significant Producer. Meanwhile, Amanda says she's worried
Speaker 3: about her friend Meredith, her doors locked, she's not answering
Speaker 3: the phone. When the door is broken down, they discover
Speaker 3: a beige duvet on the floor. Beneath it the battered
Speaker 3: and bloody body of Meredith Kercher. Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini arrives
Speaker 3: just after two pm. He finds Meredith is partially naked,
Speaker 3: her brass being cut off and her t shirt rolled
Speaker 3: up above her breasts. It looks like a sexual assault.
Speaker 7: When you start an investigation, you don't know what happens.
Speaker 7: You have to slowly reconstruct the situation.
Speaker 3: Forensics teams work inside and outside the cottage right away.
Speaker 3: They think it's a staged break in. Glass shards are
Speaker 3: on top rather than underneath the scattered clothes. The large
Speaker 3: rock seems too heavy to be thrown from the ground
Speaker 3: to the first floor window and too big to go
Speaker 3: through the small crack between the shutters. A handbag, jewelry case, camera,
Speaker 3: and laptop computer are lying in full view. There's a
Speaker 3: line of bloody shoeprints from Meredith's room to the front door,
Speaker 3: and in the bathroom a bloody, bare footprint is on
Speaker 3: the bath mat. Over four days, investigators collect more than
Speaker 3: four hundred items from the apartment, photographing and filming their work.
Speaker 3: Merediths bra has been sliced off, but when police bag
Speaker 3: it for evidence, they notice something is missing. Somehow, the
Speaker 3: investigators leave without it, a critical error that will haunt
Speaker 3: the prosecution case. The autopsy shows Meredith has been strangled
Speaker 3: and stabbed on two sides of the neck, possibly with
Speaker 3: two different knives. The second fatal stab severed her thyroid artery.
Speaker 3: There are forty wounds too many, police believe for one
Speaker 3: assailant to have inflicted alone. The prosecution's view of what happened,
Speaker 3: later disputed by the defense, is shown in this reconstruction.
Speaker 3: Meredith was trained in karate and must have encountered overwhelming force.
Speaker 8: A person contemp.
Speaker 9: One person couldn't all at the same time. Hold Meredith
Speaker 9: still and hold back her hands because there are very
Speaker 9: few defensive wounds, inflict those wounds with a smaller knife,
Speaker 9: and then give her the fatal blow with the larger knife.
Speaker 9: It is impossible. Not even Superman could do it and
Speaker 9: possibi Nike Superman.
Speaker 3: The behavior of Amanda Knox and her boyfriend attracts attention.
Speaker 3: Meredith's friends tell police that far from appearing distraught, Amanda
Speaker 3: and Raphaele have been seen laughing and joking. A vigil
Speaker 3: is held for Meredith, but Amanda and Raphaela don't attend.
Speaker 3: They go for dinner at a friend's instead, and the
Speaker 3: prosecutor recalls why he was concerned by Amanda's behavior.
Speaker 10: Guando when the girls were brought to see the knives
Speaker 10: that were in the kitchen, the.
Speaker 7: Reaction of Amanda, it was a reaction. She put her
Speaker 7: hands on her ears, as if she were trying to
Speaker 7: block out a terrible sound she was hearing in her ears.
Speaker 7: It was like she was having a nervous.
Speaker 10: Breakdown, probably own minto.
Speaker 3: And then there was this one of the defining images
Speaker 3: of the case, Amanda and Rafael kissing outside the cottage
Speaker 3: where Meredith was murdered. Her supporters say this was only natural.
Speaker 11: Did they comfort each other? We've seen that famous footage
Speaker 11: of the two of them together. They did. What's wrong
Speaker 11: with any of that? Nothing? It did appear to be
Speaker 11: wrong to some authorities.
Speaker 3: November fifth, four days after the murder, RAFAELI Sulechito is
Speaker 3: called in for questioning. Amanda goes with him, and once
Speaker 3: again her behavior seems odd. She does yoga and the
Speaker 3: splits in the waiting room. At this point, the couple's
Speaker 3: alibi appears to fall apart. Amanda had told police she'd
Speaker 3: spent the night of the murder at Rafael's apartment. They cooked,
Speaker 3: watched a film Made Love, smoked marijuana, and went to bed.
Speaker 3: But separately that our failest story begins to change. He's
Speaker 3: no longer sure if Amanda was with him all night.
Speaker 3: Amanda's called in for more questioning, as she is only
Speaker 3: a witness. At this stage, an interpreter is present, but
Speaker 3: she has no legal representation. What happens next is crucial
Speaker 3: and one of the most controversial twists in the story.
Speaker 3: Police ask Amanda Knox about text messages on her phone,
Speaker 3: in particular, a message from her boss, Patrick Lumumba.
Speaker 6: Don't come to work to night because there aren't enough clients.
Speaker 6: It's like Sunday I sent that message not to come
Speaker 6: for Bavin.
Speaker 3: Amanda had texted back, see you later, she says. She
Speaker 3: just meant to see you around. But police now want
Speaker 3: to know. Had Amanda arranged to meet Lumumba later that
Speaker 3: evening and taken him to her house at one forty
Speaker 3: five in the morning. Amanda breaks down.
Speaker 7: She says she had entered the house with him because
Speaker 7: he was attracted to Meredith and wanted to be with Meredith,
Speaker 7: and she stayed in the kitchen and heard Meredith screams,
Speaker 7: and he was the assassin. That's what she says.
Speaker 8: I'm in did he sip?
Speaker 3: Police believe Amanda Knox's story. They raid Patrick Lumumba's home
Speaker 3: and take him in Within hours, his photo flashes around
Speaker 3: the world as one of the murder suspects. But for
Speaker 3: the police, Amanda Knox has now gone from witness to suspect.
Speaker 3: If she's taken Lumumba to Meredith, she must have been
Speaker 3: at the.
Speaker 8: House lay a post.
Speaker 7: She put herself at the scene of the crime. She
Speaker 7: admitted to accompanying Lumumba as if she were an accomplice
Speaker 7: in his project. She was in the room next door
Speaker 7: when the crime happened, and her version this fact pushed
Speaker 7: the police to suspend the audition in order to protect
Speaker 7: her rights.
Speaker 10: Garancia suspend.
Speaker 3: November sixth, two thousand and seven, Amanda, k Oxandrafaeli so
Speaker 3: Lechito are arrested waiting to be taken to jail. Amando
Speaker 3: makes another attempt to tell police what happened with Lumumba
Speaker 3: by writing out an explanation in English. She tells the police,
Speaker 3: it's a present.
Speaker 1: In my mind. I saw Patrick in flashes of blurred images.
Speaker 1: I saw him near the basketball court. I saw him
Speaker 1: at my front door. I saw myself cowering in the
Speaker 1: kitchen with my hands over my ears because in my
Speaker 1: head I could hear Meredith screaming. But I have said
Speaker 1: this many times so as to make myself clear these
Speaker 1: things seem unreal to me, like a dream. I want
Speaker 1: to make it clear that I'm very doubtful of the
Speaker 1: verity of my statements because they were made under the
Speaker 1: pressure of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion.
Speaker 3: But despite her uncertainty, she doesn't retract her accusation. Lumumba
Speaker 3: remains in jail, pleading his innocence. In the city square,
Speaker 3: members of the African community protest his arrest.
Speaker 8: In why ju Tu Julie.
Speaker 12: Signed the black man is always the thief and the assassin.
Speaker 12: She wanted them to believe what she was saying. It
Speaker 12: was just because I was black. She was looking for
Speaker 12: someone in society who was credible.
Speaker 13: There was a moment when she should have actually retracted
Speaker 13: that story, at the moment when she should have said, no,
Speaker 13: this is the wrong thing to do. And he's grown
Speaker 13: it to jail for two weeks, just over two weeks
Speaker 13: for something he did not do, and he lost his livelihood.
Speaker 3: At this point, another African immigrant enters the story. Twenty
Speaker 3: year old Rudy gray Day from the Ivory Coast is
Speaker 3: living in Perusia. Detectives find his bloody thumbprint on a
Speaker 3: pillowcase that was underneath Meredith's dead body. Because he's an immigrant,
Speaker 3: they have his prints on file. Police raid his tiny
Speaker 3: bedsit apartment and test his toothbrush for DNA. It matches
Speaker 3: traces found on Meredith's brass trap on her body. And
Speaker 3: on the left sleeve of her pale blue sweatshirt. Rudy
Speaker 3: Guayde has fled the country. He's arrested in Germany. Perusia
Speaker 3: attorney Valter Biscotti volunteers to defend him.
Speaker 8: In Contra Costo Ragazzo.
Speaker 12: I met this young man in this prison in Schiffenstat, Germany,
Speaker 12: and he seemed to me like a guy who was scared,
Speaker 12: someone who was in the middle of a story that
Speaker 12: was bigger than him. He was surprised to see a
Speaker 12: lawyer who arrived from Italy for him.
Speaker 14: Onlui extradited back to Italy, Rudy Guayde confirms the police
Speaker 14: that he's lived.
Speaker 3: In the country since the age of five. A keen
Speaker 3: basketball player, he'd met Amanda and Meredith after shooting hoops
Speaker 3: with students who lived in the apartment below theirs. They
Speaker 3: partied and smoked dope together. Meanwhile, the case against Patrick Lumumba,
Speaker 3: as outlined by Amanda Knox collapses. A customer at the
Speaker 3: bar has given him an alibi and he freed. How
Speaker 3: did Amanda Knox come to mention Lumumba's name to police
Speaker 3: for the first time? We can hear an audio tape
Speaker 3: of her explanation to the prosecutor. A transcript of this
Speaker 3: was presented in court, but not the audio. Accompanied by
Speaker 3: three lawyers and an interpreter. On December seventeenth, two thousand
Speaker 3: and seven, knox Is asked why she told police Lumumba
Speaker 3: committed the crime.
Speaker 15: I was expressed.
Speaker 16: I was feared it was after a long hour, in the.
Speaker 15: Middle of the night, and would be innocent. They were
Speaker 15: telling me that I was killed.
Speaker 17: What did police tell you?
Speaker 15: The police are telling you that you know your house,
Speaker 15: he know view of the house, and before I said
Speaker 15: Hatrick's name, they were put and someone would shown me
Speaker 15: the message that I was seen on.
Speaker 8: The pal insist.
Speaker 15: I couldn't understand why they were telling me that I
Speaker 15: was lying.
Speaker 16: It needs that in that home that I had said
Speaker 16: Hadrick's name.
Speaker 15: I thought it could.
Speaker 18: Have been true.
Speaker 3: So what's the extent of the police evidence At this point,
Speaker 3: it includes the knife founder Raphael so Legito's apartment that
Speaker 3: they believed could be the murder weapon, but they need
Speaker 3: more so return to the crime scene. Forty six days
Speaker 3: after the murder. They found Meredith's bra clasp under a mat.
Speaker 3: Using rubber gloves, they pick it up and inspect it.
Speaker 3: It will become the most controversial piece of evidence in
Speaker 3: the investigation. The defense will claim the delay in collecting
Speaker 3: it could have resulted in contamination. Investigators also, for the
Speaker 3: first time use luminol to look for invisible bloodstains. Three
Speaker 3: clear footprints appere plus other small bloodstains more new evidence,
Speaker 3: but it will be controversial. In Seattle, the campaign to
Speaker 3: prove Amanda as innocent is underway. Her family turned to
Speaker 3: a crisis communications firm and a group called Friends of Amanda.
Speaker 11: It was just this kind of small group of people
Speaker 11: that were called the America. Hence and our offense. I
Speaker 11: think there was one quote that the Americans would send
Speaker 11: in the Marines to get Amanda Knox. I love Italy
Speaker 11: and in Italy, and I have great respect for the courts.
Speaker 11: I do think we have a read prosecutor in Italy.
Speaker 11: If you speak against the prosecution, you can be prosecuted.
Speaker 11: So nobody can speak, and it's a perfect storm of
Speaker 11: a potentially very unfair prosecution.
Speaker 3: Amanda Knox's DNA has been found mixed together with Meredith
Speaker 3: Kerchers in five bloodstains in the flat. Plus tests show
Speaker 3: the bare footprints made in blood match the size and
Speaker 3: shape of Amanda's and her boy friend's feet, and the
Speaker 3: kitchen knife from Rafaele's apartment shows Amanda's DNA on the
Speaker 3: handle and a tiny trace of Meredith's DNA on the blade.
Speaker 3: The clock spins forward almost one year to September two
Speaker 3: thousand and eight. Amanda Knox, Rafaele Solechito, and Rudy Gwyde
Speaker 3: appear before a judge in Perusia. With so much publicity
Speaker 3: now surrounding, Knox, Gwyde opts to be tried quickly and separately.
Speaker 19: Misono Conveno I was convinced that if he had been
Speaker 19: tried with the others, that with all the international media
Speaker 19: clamor and the international pressure there would have been surrounding
Speaker 19: this trial, they would have dumped all the blame.
Speaker 8: On Rudy Arebroscaricato.
Speaker 13: So you have to see the role that money plays
Speaker 13: it being a USA or even here in your situation
Speaker 13: as a citizen or as a person as a suspect, right,
Speaker 13: you're not the just A system is not fair no
Speaker 13: matter where you are, because money's going to play a role.
Speaker 3: The prosecution's case is a tabloid editor's dream, they say,
Speaker 3: Amanda Knox, Raphael Solegito, and Rudy Grayday killed Meredith Kercher
Speaker 3: in a sex game gone wrong. Gray Day denies this
Speaker 3: and pleads not guilty. His defense is that he wasn't
Speaker 3: in the room when Meredith was murdered. He was in
Speaker 3: the bathroom. Meredith had invited him over. He said when
Speaker 3: he got there, Meredith was furious because money was missing
Speaker 3: and she was blaming Amanda. He says he comforted Meredith
Speaker 3: and things got physical, but they didn't have full sex.
Speaker 3: He went to the toilet, then says he heard Amanda
Speaker 3: enter the apartment.
Speaker 8: Luisa sin tito lace Lamanda.
Speaker 12: He heard Amanda's voice as she came in. He was
Speaker 12: in the bathroom or just about to go into the bathroom,
Speaker 12: and then he really did put on his headphone and
Speaker 12: listened to music rap I think at full volume, and
Speaker 12: then heard a scream. He came out and came up
Speaker 12: against a male figure.
Speaker 8: I encorachat in Cristo Corridor.
Speaker 3: Rudy Guayde says this man lunged at him with a knife,
Speaker 3: cutting his hand. The attacker then yelled black man. Found
Speaker 3: black man condemned and ran away. Gwyde found Meredith bleeding
Speaker 3: in the other room. He tried to stem the blood
Speaker 3: flow with towels and left a bloody thumbprint on the pillowcase,
Speaker 3: but reading didn't stop, and Gueyde says he panicked.
Speaker 8: Luja.
Speaker 12: He tried to help her, He took her in his
Speaker 12: arms and should have called for help, but he was
Speaker 12: scared and ran away, and he feels guilty for.
Speaker 8: This, Queen de Luis perquesto.
Speaker 3: Rudy Guayde is found guilty of Meredith's murder and sentenced
Speaker 3: to thirty years. The judge's verdict says Rudy Guayde did
Speaker 3: not act alone. He's led away to prison. Amanda Knox
Speaker 3: and Raphael Solechito will now stand trial for the murder
Speaker 3: and sexual assault of Meredith Kircher. January the sixteenth, two
Speaker 3: thousand and nine, the trial begins. The world's me is
Speaker 3: focused on Amanda Knox. Her face fills the front pages.
Speaker 3: Could this attractive, bubbly All American girl be capable of murder?
Speaker 3: As they did at Rudy Grayday's trial. The prosecution again
Speaker 3: suggests the murder was the result of a sex game
Speaker 3: gone wrong. Again, this is strongly denied. Amanda and Raphael
Speaker 3: claim they weren't in the house that night. To support
Speaker 3: their case, the prosecution produces evidence they claim places the
Speaker 3: couple at the scene of the murder. First, there's the
Speaker 3: DNA found in the bathroom. The prosecution says it shows
Speaker 3: the mixed blood of Amanda Knox and Meredith Kercher in
Speaker 3: the b day rain, the sink drain, and on a
Speaker 3: cotton bad box. There is also a large drop of
Speaker 3: Amanda's blood on the bathroom tap. According to the prosecutor,
Speaker 3: this shows Amanda and Meredith were bleeding at the same time.
Speaker 3: Strong evidence there was a fight.
Speaker 20: Libroi.
Speaker 18: Principalis son no tragedy sangue misto.
Speaker 9: The principal evidence was mixed blood traces from which were
Speaker 9: extracted mixed DNA of Amanda.
Speaker 8: Media equista mistura.
Speaker 9: The only explanation for that mix is that Amanda was
Speaker 9: bleeding and touched objects that were covered in Meredith's blood.
Speaker 9: There's no other explanation.
Speaker 8: Alternativa.
Speaker 3: But Amanda's lawyers say this proves nothing. Two young students
Speaker 3: living together means it's perfectly normal to find mixed blood
Speaker 3: and DNA in the bathroom. They say it's possible Amanda's
Speaker 3: DNA isn't from her blood at all, but from her saliva.
Speaker 3: Sarah Gino is the forensic biologist on Amanda Knox's defense team.
Speaker 2: Somewhere in this case the test was done for blood,
Speaker 2: but was the test done for saliva? So we can't
Speaker 2: know if inside that mixed trace there was blood because
Speaker 2: it had been demonstrated, or just saliva. Or maybe there
Speaker 2: was blood from.
Speaker 3: Both of them.
Speaker 21: But what does that mean.
Speaker 2: Maybe someone had a bloody nose one time, and then
Speaker 2: at another moment someone cut their finger and put it
Speaker 2: down and their blood got mixed.
Speaker 3: Then there was the kitchen knife found in a Rafaele
Speaker 3: Solechito's flat. This, say the prosecutors, is the murder weapon,
Speaker 3: which has been cleaned. But they have found DNA of
Speaker 3: Amanda Knox on the handle and a minuscule amount of
Speaker 3: Meredith Kercher's DNA on the blade. But the words too
Speaker 3: low are written on the DNA reports for the knife.
Speaker 3: The test should never have been carried out, say defense.
Speaker 3: There's no not enough reliable DNA. When questioned by journalists,
Speaker 3: the prosecution stands by its forensic evidence.
Speaker 9: It is not too little. The genetic profile is low,
Speaker 9: but it is absolutely reliable. In fact, we were able
Speaker 9: to get it, which means there is no uncertainty about
Speaker 9: the attribution of that profile to the victim.
Speaker 3: More DNA evidence is presented, this time on Meredith's bra clasp.
Speaker 3: Police say Raphaels so Legito's DNA is on one of
Speaker 3: the hooks. This is the only evidence placing him in
Speaker 3: her bedroom. There is no DNA evidence that puts Amanda
Speaker 3: in the room. David Balding, a DNA statistician at University
Speaker 3: College London, is recognized as one of the world's leading analysts.
Speaker 3: In twenty twelve, he is asked by the Italian Forerecis
Speaker 3: Sick Association to study Meredith Kirch's bra clasp and to
Speaker 3: give an independent view on whether Solechito's DNA is present.
Speaker 3: His findings are not part of the court case.
Speaker 22: When you just look at the evidence by I you
Speaker 22: can see very strongly all of Raphael's DNA types are
Speaker 22: there and that can't be explained by any kind of
Speaker 22: just environmental contamination. And I calculate how likely is the
Speaker 22: evidence under the prosecution assertion that that DNA is there
Speaker 22: from Raphael Solegito, and again how likely it is without
Speaker 22: him being present, and that the former is much greater
Speaker 22: than the latter, So that's when I say that's extremely
Speaker 22: strong evidence.
Speaker 3: But forensic experts representing the defense remain adamant that the
Speaker 3: bra clasp had been contaminated and is unreliable.
Speaker 2: As far as the bra clasp is concerned. What happened
Speaker 2: This bra class was collected forty six days after the
Speaker 2: first crime scene inspection, and a mixture of biological material
Speaker 2: was found. There was a profile tributable to the victim,
Speaker 2: which is normal, and other material that was attributable to
Speaker 2: Raphael is soleo. There were other traces, but they were
Speaker 2: not attributed to anyone.
Speaker 22: But of course the history of that bra clasp is
Speaker 22: a bit unusual because it lay in the room for
Speaker 22: many days without being collected, and so people are worried
Speaker 22: about the possibility of contamination arising from that. I can't
Speaker 22: say anything directly because I wasn't there and I don't
Speaker 22: know the circumstances about the risk of contamination. But what
Speaker 22: I can say is that contamination of DNA from passers
Speaker 22: by is not an issue that I've taken that into
Speaker 22: account in the chance of it matching Solectito's DNA is
Speaker 22: extremely unlikely.
Speaker 3: The defense also uses the crime scene video to question
Speaker 3: the DNA evidence presented by the prosecution.
Speaker 11: I have it at the crime scene. The videos bloody
Speaker 11: shoe prints, cleaned up, cleaned up, not saved a prastrap
Speaker 11: un collected weeks and weeks and weeks after the initial
Speaker 11: collection that now supposedly connects Amanda Rafaeli in Meredith.
Speaker 3: But the prosecution keeps producing evidence they say connects Amanda
Speaker 3: Knox and Raphael so Legito to the crime scene in Fronte.
Speaker 9: Is as that Amanda's footprints, which were revealed by the lumino,
Speaker 9: showed DNA attributed to Meredith, which means Amanda was walking
Speaker 9: in bare feet covered in blood Sparkisan.
Speaker 3: They argue this is proof the couple came back during
Speaker 3: the night to clean up and stage the break in,
Speaker 3: leaving bloodstained footprints in the bathroom and corridor. The defense
Speaker 3: says there is no proof the prints actually were bloodstains.
Speaker 3: The luminol may have revealed another substance, such as bleach.
Speaker 3: The prosecution also presents evidence to challenge the couple's story
Speaker 3: of what they did that night and the next morning.
Speaker 3: They show Raphaele's cell phone was turned on at six
Speaker 3: o two a m despite their claim they slept until ten.
Speaker 3: Then there was the telephone call to the Carabinieri when
Speaker 3: Solechito knew nothing had been stolen and failed to mention
Speaker 3: the postal police were at the scene. They also question
Speaker 3: Raphaele Solechito's changing alibi and present eye witnesses who contradict
Speaker 3: Knox and Solechito's stories. In court, the prosecution accuses Amanda
Speaker 3: Knox of being the leader of a sexual attack on Meredith.
Speaker 3: They say this was payback for Meredith's disapproval of Amanda's lifestyle.
Speaker 8: Discourse of the Jo.
Speaker 7: Eurotic game was always part of the kick. I think
Speaker 7: that night Amanda wanted to make Meredith pay for judging her,
Speaker 7: which she found offensive.
Speaker 10: A ju girl from Seattle to work three jobs to
Speaker 10: get to Italy to study abroad.
Speaker 11: An honor student from Seattle Prep doesn't overnight, in my experience,
Speaker 11: turn in to a to pray murderous overnight.
Speaker 3: The court's claims make difficult hearing for the Knox.
Speaker 20: Family, obviously listening to those types of things where you
Speaker 20: know it's horrible and I mean it was all out
Speaker 20: attack on her character by individuals that have no idea
Speaker 20: who she truly is as a person. One of the
Speaker 20: things that we have tried to do this entire time
Speaker 20: is obviously support Amanda by always having somebody over here,
Speaker 20: somebody to visit her and stuff like that, and we
Speaker 20: have to stay strong in order for her to stay strong.
Speaker 3: June the twelfth, two thousand and nine, Amanda Knock spends
Speaker 3: two days on the stand to tell her version of
Speaker 3: the story. Millions worldwide watch her explanation of why she
Speaker 3: put the pub owner Patrick Lumumba in the frame.
Speaker 21: They told me that I was trying to protect someone,
Speaker 21: but I wasn't trying to protect anyone manasau, And they
Speaker 21: continued to put so much emphasis on this message that
Speaker 21: I had received from pass Patrick and so green I
Speaker 21: almost was your quiet that I had been.
Speaker 3: Her case is this She was at Raphael's house when
Speaker 3: the murder happened, watching a movie and reading her emails.
Speaker 3: They stopped watching the film at nine point thirty. She
Speaker 3: can't prove it because two of their three computers were
Speaker 3: damaged when police tried to search the hard drives. Throughout
Speaker 3: the year long trial, Meredith's family fly in from London
Speaker 3: to testify and witness the key hearings. They try to
Speaker 3: keep the focus on Meredith and their quest for justice.
Speaker 3: The third of December two thousand and nine, the eve
Speaker 3: of the verdict, Amanda's family arrives to hear her plea
Speaker 3: for freedom.
Speaker 20: She knows that she's innocent and has had nothing to
Speaker 20: do with this, and we're just very hopeful that the
Speaker 20: court will see and be able to see that in
Speaker 20: the evidence that's been presented.
Speaker 3: Amanda is now almost fluent in Italian.
Speaker 23: Sono calma questi journey your scrito son forstesa e choi
Speaker 23: pa o paura diaveri onnamasc at the assassina.
Speaker 3: For the fourth of December two thousand and nine, three
Speaker 3: hundred and twenty three days since the trial started. The
Speaker 3: verdict is broadcast around the world.
Speaker 24: Here anothers Amanda Mario.
Speaker 3: Scrit guilty of murder, twenty five years for Raphael Soleo
Speaker 3: and twenty six for Amanda Knox, the extra year for
Speaker 3: slandering Patrick Lumumba. The Kirchi's Italian lawyer is satisfied.
Speaker 10: Yali bi falliti incomport.
Speaker 6: The failed alibis. The behavior of Solectito and Knox's state
Speaker 6: leads the slander of Patrick Lumumba. These are all elements that,
Speaker 6: once put together, allowed the determination.
Speaker 10: Of guilt aquesti una di cacci.
Speaker 3: But Knox's family keeps tight lipped as they leave the courtroom,
Speaker 3: pushing it back. When they returned to Seattle, they immediately
Speaker 3: start preparing her appeal.
Speaker 11: There's not one piece of physical evidence to link this
Speaker 11: girl to this crime.
Speaker 3: They draft legal, forensic, and political consultants from the US
Speaker 3: and Italy to strengthen the defense team. It takes a
Speaker 3: year to get to the appeal November twenty fourth, twenty ten.
Speaker 3: By now, Knox and so Legito have been in jail
Speaker 3: for three years. This time there is a new judge
Speaker 3: and a new prosecutor, Giancarlo Costaola.
Speaker 12: Despite the fact that there had already been a conviction,
Speaker 12: the deputy judge said at the beginning of the hearing
Speaker 12: that the only thing that was certain was that a
Speaker 12: girl was dead.
Speaker 17: Aira Amanda Knox and Rafael Solegito's defense teams decide to
Speaker 17: focus on.
Speaker 3: Rudy Gwayday they call prison inmates convicted criminals to testify
Speaker 3: that Guide has confessed to them in prison. June twenty seventh,
Speaker 3: two thousand and eleven. Rudy Guayde takes the stand.
Speaker 25: By.
Speaker 3: Now after an appeal, his sentence has been cut from
Speaker 3: thirty to sixteen years. He denies he made a jail
Speaker 3: house confession and disasked about a letter he has written
Speaker 3: claiming Amanda Knox and Rafaeli Solegito killed Meredith. The key
Speaker 3: focus of the appeal is on the DNA knocks and
Speaker 3: Kircher's DNA on the knife, so Legito's on the bra clasp.
Speaker 3: Is it enough to place the defendants at the crime
Speaker 3: scene or not. The Quarter appoints independent experts Carla Vecchiotti
Speaker 3: and Stefanoconti from the University of Sapienza Rome to review
Speaker 3: the science. Their report is scathing about prosecution forensic methods.
Speaker 3: They cite US manuals and standards, highlighting errors made when
Speaker 3: the evidence was collected. They do find a new trace
Speaker 3: of DNA on the knife from Solechito's kitchen that hasn't
Speaker 3: been tested. However, they argue it's too small to be
Speaker 3: of use. This report helps the judge focus his decision
Speaker 3: on whether there is reasonable doubt about the DNA samples.
Speaker 3: For Meredith's mother and the rest of her family, the
Speaker 3: hearings are agonizing.
Speaker 25: That Meredith must have felt that night everything she went through,
Speaker 25: the fear and they tear out and not knowing as one,
Speaker 25: and she didn't deserve that.
Speaker 17: They won't deserves that.
Speaker 3: October third, twenty eleven, Amanda Knox and RAFAELI Solechito await
Speaker 3: their fate for the second time.
Speaker 23: I saw.
Speaker 8: A non away commission fantom.
Speaker 3: I'm not guilty. There is sufficient doubt for Amanda Knox
Speaker 3: and Raphael so Legito to be released immediately.
Speaker 26: I'm Danna and Ox, Amanda oxes sis sir, and I
Speaker 26: said a few words on behalf of our family. We're
Speaker 26: thankful that Amanda's nightmare is over. She suffered for four
Speaker 26: years for a crime that she did not commit.
Speaker 7: That Rafael had nothing to do with the murder of
Speaker 7: that poor girl, Meredith Catcher, who remains.
Speaker 6: In our hearts.
Speaker 3: Some in the gathering crowd become increasingly agitated about the verdict.
Speaker 12: There were people out on the stairs in front of
Speaker 12: the courthouse and for a long time they yelled, shame on.
Speaker 3: You, the dark Sedan fairies. Amanda knocks away to a
Speaker 3: safe house deep in the Italian countryside for an emotional
Speaker 3: reunion with relatives after almost four years in jail, while
Speaker 3: Meredith's family is left stunned and pained by the acquittal.
Speaker 25: Been almost forgotten any one of it. The media photon
Speaker 25: can't readied her. There's not a lot about what actually
Speaker 25: happened in the game, so it's very difficult to try
Speaker 25: to keep her memory alive.
Speaker 3: In days, the media's photos will be of Amanda Knox
Speaker 3: arriving home at Seattle Airport.
Speaker 27: I'm really overwhelmed right now. I was looking down from
Speaker 27: the airplane and it seemed like everything wasn't real. What's
Speaker 27: important for me to say is just thank you to
Speaker 27: everyone who's believed in me, who's defended me, who's supported
Speaker 27: my family.
Speaker 3: Amanda finds a home in Seattle's International District and returns
Speaker 3: to the University of Washington to study creative writing. She
Speaker 3: starts writing a book about her experience, reportedly receiving a
Speaker 3: four million dollar advance, although claims that all of the
Speaker 3: money goes on legal expenses. Back in Italy, Rudy Guide
Speaker 3: is still in prison, where he has been beaten up
Speaker 3: by inmates. He has begun studying to build himself a future,
Speaker 3: and will soon be eligible for parole. For a while
Speaker 3: this seems like the end of the story, but fate
Speaker 3: or the Italian justice system has another couple of twists
Speaker 3: in stall. Now it's the turn of the prosecution to appeal,
Speaker 3: and on the twenty sixth of March two thousand thirteen,
Speaker 3: Italy's highest court, known as the Court of Cassation, orders
Speaker 3: a new trial, overturning Amanda Knox and Raphael so Legito's acquittals.
Speaker 3: They say the first appeal did not debate many of
Speaker 3: the ten thousand pages from the first trial, focusing too
Speaker 3: much on the DNA evidence. September thirtieth, twenty thirteen, the
Speaker 3: second appeal begins. This time the drama switches to the
Speaker 3: birthplace of the Renaissance, Florence. Amanda Knox isn't in the courtroom.
Speaker 3: She refuses to travel from America and defends her decision
Speaker 3: on television. Only Raphael so Lechito is present in court.
Speaker 3: He makes a plea to the judge and jury.
Speaker 24: Your riquiedo meante the potter guardare re altaenda and the
Speaker 24: considera el grossos baloo facto.
Speaker 3: Unlike in the appeals court, this judge orders a police
Speaker 3: forensics lab in Rome to test the new trace of
Speaker 3: DNA found on the kitchen knife. It's a minuscule amount
Speaker 3: from where the blade meets the handle. The new test
Speaker 3: finds that the DNA matches Amanda Knox. Prosecutors say it
Speaker 3: further proves her involvement in the murder, but the defense
Speaker 3: says the most likely explanation is that Amanda use the
Speaker 3: knife when staying at Raphael's apartment. The thirtieth of January
Speaker 3: twenty fourteen, six years and two months after Meredith Kircher's murder,
Speaker 3: the second appeal of Amanda Knox and Raphael as so
Speaker 3: Legito is coming to a close. The judgment watched by
Speaker 3: the world, so Lechito doesn't wait to hear the verdict,
Speaker 3: speeding off in a taxi. Amanda Knox stays in the
Speaker 3: Uniti States, plagued by the same fear she shared on television.
Speaker 3: Shortly after nine thirty pm local time, after deliberating for
Speaker 3: more than twelve hours, the judge and jury enter the hall.
Speaker 18: No whether is the perodifidants into finale Juntra Knox Amanda
Speaker 18: Marie so Licia that have failing the de terminal pina
Speaker 18: in Frita NOx Amanda Marie Complici Laminin an event tald
Speaker 18: To Mississidri Cluzione can film an investor in punata sentence,
Speaker 18: this time.
Speaker 3: An even longer sentence, twenty eight years and six months
Speaker 3: for Amanda Knox, twenty five years for Raphael es Legito.
Speaker 3: The lawyers give their verdict.
Speaker 23: Media.
Speaker 3: This trial has been media driven. Everything has been amplified.
Speaker 3: These kids were taken to prison four days after the
Speaker 3: body was found. They were the first suspects and never
Speaker 3: lost that image. She sis A Cadillaci.
Speaker 28: Imagine say starting if it was a media driven trial,
Speaker 28: it's not due to the kersher family, who had been
Speaker 28: absolutely silent. So if we're talking about a media circus,
Speaker 28: we need to look at the behavior of the suspects
Speaker 28: and their follow in Tudaja.
Speaker 3: In court, the victim of Amanda Knox's original slander, Patrick Lumumba,
Speaker 3: is relieved. He's been awarded forty thousand euros compensation El.
Speaker 8: La vita Gambiato Molto.
Speaker 6: Life has changed a lot, but when you have obtained
Speaker 6: justice like this evening, you feel more encouraged to start
Speaker 6: all over again.
Speaker 3: Rafael Solechito has disappeared, but the next day police find
Speaker 3: him two hundred and fifty miles away at a hotel
Speaker 3: near the Austrian border, they confiscate his passport. His lawyers
Speaker 3: say he wasn't trying to flee the country. He remained
Speaker 3: free until his final appeal.
Speaker 29: Anybody losing anyone close to them is hard, losing somebody
Speaker 29: so young, and the way that we did is obviously
Speaker 29: one hundred times worse. And then on top of that,
Speaker 29: to have all the media attention that has gone on
Speaker 29: for so long just makes it very, very.
Speaker 6: Difficult to cope with.
Speaker 5: I think we all definitely want some form of closure,
Speaker 5: even just having it almost at an end of the
Speaker 5: Italian justice system and knowing that that's the final decision,
Speaker 5: and then we can all start to remember just Meredith,
Speaker 5: rather than focusing on who did it or what happened.
Speaker 3: The day of the final appeal came yet another year later,
Speaker 3: on the twenty fifth of March twenty fifteen, seven and
Speaker 3: a half years from when Meredith was brutally murdered in
Speaker 3: the hillside cottage in Perusia, Italy's Supreme Court of Causation
Speaker 3: was called upon to decide whether or not to uphold
Speaker 3: the guilty verdict, with no cameras allowed in Court. The
Speaker 3: media camped out on the stairs of the imposing palace
Speaker 3: of the Supreme Court, interviewing lawyers as they came and went.
Speaker 3: Amanda Knox's lawyers argued her Florence conviction was a grave
Speaker 3: judicial error, while Raphaelees Solegito's lawyers likened him to Forest Gump.
Speaker 3: Those familiar with the story of Forest Gump, No, he
Speaker 3: is an innocent to whom gigantic crazy things happened. After
Speaker 3: a day and a half of final arguments, the panel
Speaker 3: of five judges retired to deliberate. Journalists and legal observers
Speaker 3: reflected on the possible outcomes. Amanda Knox and her family
Speaker 3: awaited the decision in Seattle, while Raffaele Solechito went back
Speaker 3: home to Badi. After ten hours of deliberation, shortly before
Speaker 3: eleven pm, the final verdict was pronounced. The guilty verdict
Speaker 3: was sensationally overturned. Amanda Knox and rafaelis Leo were cleared
Speaker 3: of all charges except for Amanda slander of Patrick Lumumba.
Speaker 27: I'm incredibly grateful for what has happened, for the justice
Speaker 27: I received.
Speaker 3: We must no longer suggest any possible involvement of Rafael.
Speaker 19: Enough enough enough.
Speaker 3: Francesco Maresca, the Kircher's lawyer, was stunned as.
Speaker 6: Well la Parola. The final word came with Friday's verdict,
Speaker 6: but declared the innocence of the two accused, although it
Speaker 6: did refer to the second clause of Article five three zero,
Speaker 6: which relates to insufficient.
Speaker 19: Evidence nicen.
Speaker 6: Non solo.
Speaker 16: Markiplication anita of mons.
Speaker 6: So that they were acquitted without a retrial.
Speaker 3: So this is where it ends, Queen that Meredith's memory
Speaker 3: has touched many over the years, has been some solace
Speaker 3: to her family.
Speaker 5: Uno Meredith is remembered, but as Lao said, is actually
Speaker 5: almost there the horrific circumstances that have been forgotten of
Speaker 5: how she was actually taken from us.
Speaker 3: Seven and a half years have passed since the death
Speaker 3: of Meredith Kircher. Amanda Knox and Rafaelis so Legito have
Speaker 3: been found not guilty of her murder, for which Rudy
Speaker 3: Gwydey alone is in jail. The very same court of
Speaker 3: Cassation ruled he did not act alone. No attempt is
Speaker 3: being made to find other culprits, leaving many unanswered questions
Speaker 3: for the kirch Of family, who may never know what
Speaker 3: happened to Meredith that tragic night of the first of
Speaker 3: November two thousand and seven.
Speaker 24: The NA