The Perugia Court of Appeals in Italy acquitted Amanda Knox and her co-defendan,t Rafaelle Solicit,o of the murder of her former roommate, Meredith Kercher. The prosecution stated they will appeal the verdict to the highest criminal court in Italy, the Court of Cassation. Meanwhile, Knox plans on returning home to Seattle, Washington with her family on Tuesday. The court had two options to acquit: that either there was not evidence to convict her or that she did not commit the crime at all. They chose the latter option. However, they did uphold the conviction on slander against a bar owner whom she had accused of murdering Kercher. The 3-year prison sentence for the slander charge was considered served, as Knox has been imprisoned for four years since the accusation that she murdered her former roommate.
I wonder how much of the original conviction was due to the general prejudice against Americans, and the U.S. in general. I think I'm going to have to research this case to find out what evidence the court based the original guilty verdict on and more about the Italian legal system. My internal sense of justice is outraged when I hear about this kind of situation, but I realize it happens a lot in the U.S. too. And short of some absolute truth-telling device, we never actually know if the defendant is innocent or guilty in the end.
I need to research this more. I have only been fed information on this case through the media, so again I wonder as well how much of the first conviction was because Amanda Know is a American citizen or if there is truth laying in the verdict of the conviction.
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