Italy court to decide whether Amanda Knox should be tried again for murder

 

In the six years since Seattle student Amanda Knox was tried for murder in Italy, she was convicted, spent four years in jail, and was finally acquitted. In a new twist, prosecutors are asking the court to try the case again. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

 

By Michelle Kosinski, NBC News

ROME -- Italy's highest court was set to decide whether to overturn the acquittal of American student Amanda Knox in the murder of her roommate.
Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were both convicted and then acquitted of Meredith Kercher's 2007 murder in Perugia, Italy, where they were students.
Knox spent four years in prison after being found guilty.
Small-time drug dealer Rudy Hermann Guede, an acquaintance of Knox's, was also convicted and was jailed for 16 years.
Prosecutors argued that Knox and Sollecito killed Kercher after a drug-fueled sexual assault.

Slideshow: A murder in Italy

Oli Scarff / Getty Images

The long legal saga of Amanda Knox, an American student accused of the violent death of her roommate, British student Meredith Kercher, has made headlines around the world since it began in Perugia, Italy, in late 2007.

If judges reject the prosecutors' argument that the acquittal should be thrown out and a new trial ordered, Knox's acquittal will be final.
"The only way the evidence could be characterized was absent, non-existent, inconclusive and unreliable," said Theodore Simon, Knox's defense attorney.
The scant DNA evidence initially linking Knox and Sollecito the murder was later found to have likely been contaminated. Defense attorneys argued that Guede was the sole killer and that the acquittal was justified.
Since her release from prison in 2011, Knox has resumed her studies in Seattle.
Knox and Sollecito did not appear in court Monday.
Italy's supreme court, which originally was expected to make a decision on Monday, has postponed their ruling until Tuesday.
Related:
Amanda Knox leaves prison after murder conviction overturned
Knox heads home from Italy; prosecutor to appeal verdict