Hi fellow forumites... I have spent the last few days studying the story of the recent acquittal, by an appeal court in Perugia, Italy, of Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, who had previously been sentenced to life imprisonment for the horrific 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher. There now remains only one man, Rudy Guede, in prison for this crime, even although he has personally placed both Knox and Sollecito at the scene, and even although the Supreme court in Rome, when sentencing Guede, stated unambiguously that he could not have committed the murder alone. The list of incriminating evidence against both Knox and Sollecito is indeed a long one, but, even although the prosecution may appeal this latest verdict in the hope of having it overturned, it appears that there is very little chance of the USA ever agreeing to extradite Knox back to Italy, even if she is once again found guilty in her absence. I am curious as to whether any WF members have strong feelings one way or the other on this perplexing case...?
Hi, I've seen only a few news snippets about it, and from them can'twork out whether she and her boyfriend were involved or not. If they were then they should have stayed locked up. If they weren't then I suppose they've been wrongfully imprisoned. Either way, under most western law they can't be retried - its the double jeopardy rule (there was a movie based on it), which essentially says that you can't be tried twice for the same crime. Its meant to be a defence for individuals where the prosecution loses the case and then keeps trying again and again etc. People could be innocent and spend their entire lives in court or jail otherwise. There are limited exceptions - and mostly they come down to the person being let off having done something very wrong, evidence tampering etc to get let off. Unfortunately I have no knowledge of Italian law so can't be certain these principles apply. Cheers.
