ROME, Sept. 8 (UPI) — Italy’s highest appeals court said law enforcement mishandled the investigation into the 2007 killing of British student Meredith Kercher for which her American roommate, Amanda Knox, was acquitted.
Knox and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were acquitted of the murder on March 28 after the two were convicted, acquitted, then convicted again.
Knox and Sollecito both said they were alone together on the night of Kercher’s death, smoking pot and having sex. Knox and Sollecito served a total of four years in prison throughout their trials.
The report issued by the appeals court explaining its decision to acquit the two for a second time said police and prosecutors displayed “stunning weakness” and “no shortage of glaring errors” in the investigation of the case. For instance, no biological evidence from Knox or Sollecito was found at the site of Kercher’s death.
The court thinks this alone should have excluded the two suspects from the case, because the third person arrested, Rudy Guede, left “copious” biological traces at the scene. The court adds that the media frenzy surrounding the defendants negatively impacted the investigation and made it “spasmodic.”
Guede is serving a 16-year prison sentence.
On her website, Knox said she was “deeply grateful” for the court’s decision.
“I will now begin the rest of my life with one of my goals being to help others who have been wrongfully accused,” Knox wrote.
Sollecito told an Italian news agency that he was the victim of a gross “miscarriage of justice” that is now the subject of a claim for wrongful imprisonment.
