Amanda Knox found guilty of murder by Italian court... AGAIN

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Florence, Italy (CNN) -- An Italian appeals court convicted former exchange student Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito on murder charges Thursday night.

Prosecutors said the couple had killed Meredith Kercher in November 2007. They were convicted two years later of murder, but those charges were overturned on appeal in 2011.

A judge said Thursday that Knox, also convicted of slander, was sentenced in absentia to 28 1/2 years in prison. Sollecito's sentence was 25 years.

Knox, who was at home in Seattle, Washington, said her conviction would bring no consolation to the Kercher family.
"I am frightened and saddened by this unjust verdict," she said in written remarks. "Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system. The evidence and accusatory theory do not justify a verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. ...There has always been a marked lack of evidence."

She called the legal proceedings a travesty.

"This has gotten out of hand. Most troubling is that it was entirely preventable," she said. "I beseech those with the knowledge and authority to address and remediate the problems that worked to pervert the course of justice and waste the valuable resources of the system."

Knox also said that Kercher's family had suffered greatly.

"Their grief over Meredith's terrible murder will follow them forever. They deserve respect and support."

What comes next

Presiding Judge Alessandro Nencini has 90 days to write his arguments behind the jury's ruling. Once that is out, lawyers have 90 days to appeal.

Knox's attorney, Ted Simon, said there will certainly be an appeal and cautioned that extradition shouldn't yet be a part of the conversation surrounding the case.

"It's really not in play right now, because first of all, she has another appeal to the Supreme Court of Italy," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper 360. "In Italy, under their system, you're still actually presumed innocent until that third, final stage."

Simon said that if extradition does become an issue, Knox has "very substantial defenses" that can be used.

"But I think we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves," he told CNN. "The bottom line is, there is no evidence. There was no evidence, and there never will be any evidence, and that's why this is such a gross miscarriage of justice."
Legal analysts debated whether the U.S. would send Knox back to Italy if Rome requests extradition.
It is unlikely that Knox will return to Italy to serve additional prison time because U.S. law dictates that a person cannot be tried twice on the same charge, a legal expert told CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/30/world/europe/italy-amanda-knox-retrial/

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