Is Amanda Knox Guilty? Page #5

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This report helps the judge

focus his decision on

whether there is reasonable

doubt about the DNA samples.

For Meredith's mother

and the rest of her family,

the hearings are agonising.

Everything that Meredith must've

felt that night,

everything she went through,

the fear and the terror,

and not knowing why...

And she didn't deserve that.

No-one deserves that.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito

await their fate

for the second time.

Not guilty.

She will be freed,

she will be going back to

Seattle, Washington, at the end

of her four-year ordeal.

There's sufficient reasonable

doubt for Amanda Knox

and Raffaele Sollecito to be

released immediately.

I'm Deanna Knox, Amanda Knox's

sister,

and I have a few words

on behalf of our family.

We are thankful that Amanda's

nightmare is over.

She has suffered for four years for

a crime that she did not commit.

TRANSLATED:
It is evident that

Raffaele had nothing to do

with the murder of that poor girl,

Meredith Kercher,

who remains in our heart.

Some in the gathering crowd

becoming increasingly

agitated about the verdicts.

TRANSLATED:
There were people

out on the stairs

in front of the courthouse,

and for a long time they yelled,

"Shame on you!"

SHOUTING:

A dark sedan ferries Amanda Knox

away to a safe house

deep in the Italian countryside

for an emotional reunion

with relatives

after almost four years in jail...

..while Meredith's family is left

stunned and pained by the acquittal.

Meredith has been almost

forgotten in all of it.

The media photos aren't really

of her.

There is not a lot about what

actually happened in the beginning,

so it's very difficult to keep her

memory alive in all of this.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The media's photos will be of

Amanda Knox arriving home

at Seattle Airport.

I'm really overwhelmed right now.

I was looking down from the aeroplane

and it seemed like everything

wasn't real. Erm...

What's important for me to say is

just thank you to everyone who has

believed in me...

who has defended me,

who has supported my family.

Um...

Amanda finds a home in Seattle's

International District and returns

to the University of Washington

to study creative writing.

She starts writing a book

about her experience,

reportedly receiving

a 4 million advance,

although claims that all

of the money goes on legal expenses.

Back in Italy, Rudy Guede

is still in prison,

where he's been beaten

up by inmates.

He's begun studying

to build himself a future

and will soon be eligible

for parole.

His lawyer claims that Rudy Guede

has been made a scapegoat.

TRANSLATED:
I am convinced

Rudy is innocent.

Rudy was lynched by the media.

He was the weakest link.

He was the weak one who had

to pay for them all.

In the sentence, it says he is not

the actual murderer.

It says he didn't handle the knife,

or anything,

but because the judge found

he took part in the group violence,

he is guilty.

For a while, this seems

like the end of the story,

but fate, or the Italian justice

system, has another twist in store.

Now it's the turn of the prosecution

to appeal,

and on 26th March 2013,

Italy's highest court, known

as the Court of Cassation,

orders a new trial,

overturning Amanda Knox and Raffaele

Sollecito's acquittals.

They say the first appeal did not

debate many of the 10,000 pages

from the first trial, focusing

too much on the DNA evidence.

TRANSLATED:
The Court of Cessation

was very, very harsh.

It commented on the lack of logic,

the lack of coordination

in the reasoning. It was severe,

almost devastating, for the judges.

September 30th 2013,

the second appeal begins.

This time,

the drama switches to the birthplace

of the Renaissance - Florence.

Amanda Knox isn't in the courtroom.

She refuses to travel from America,

and defends her decision

on television.

I look at it as an admission

of innocence, to be quite honest,

because, I mean, besides the fact

that there are

so many factors that are not allowing

me to go back, financial ones,

ones where I'm going to school,

ones where I want the court to

proceed without distraction, it's...

I was imprisoned as an innocent

person, and that...

It's common sense not to go back.

Only Raffaele Sollecito

is present in court.

He makes a plea to the judge

and jury.

Unlike in the appeals court, this

judge orders a police forensics lab

in Rome to test the new trace

of DNA found on the kitchen knife.

It's a minuscule amount from

where the blade meets the handle.

The new test finds that

the DNA matches Amanda Knox.

Prosecutors say it further proves

her involvement in the murder,

but the defence says the most likely

explanation is that Amanda

used the knife when staying

at Raffaele's apartment.

Six years and two months

after Meredith Kercher's murder,

the second appeal of Amanda Knox

and Raffaele Sollecito

is coming to a close,

the judgment watched by the world.

Sollecito doesn't wait to hear

the verdict, speeding off in a taxi.

Amanda Knox stays

in the United States,

plagued by the same fears

she shared on television.

I thought about what it would be like

to live my entire life in prison,

and to lose everything, to lose what

I've been able to come back to

and rebuild. I think about it

all the time. And it's so scary.

Everything's at stake.

Shortly after 9.30pm local time,

after deliberating

for more than 12 hours,

the judge and jury enter the hall.

Within the past hour, an Italian

court of appeal has reinstated

the convictions of the American

citizen Amanda Knox and her former

Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito

for the murder of...

This time, an even longer sentence.

28 years and six months

for Amanda Knox,

25 years for Raffaele Sollecito.

The lawyers give their verdict.

TRANSLATED:
This trial has been

media driven.

Everything has been amplified.

These kids were taken to prison

four days after the body was found.

They were the first suspects.

And they never lost that image.

TRANSLATED:
If it was

a media-driven trial,

it's not due to the Kercher family,

who have been absolutely silent.

So, if we are talking

about a media circus,

we need to look at the behaviour

of the suspects and their followers.

In court, the victim of

Amanda Knox's original slander,

Patrick Lumumba, is relieved.

He's been awarded

40,000 euros' compensation.

Raffaele Sollecito has disappeared.

But the next day, police find him

near the Austrian border.

His lawyers say he wasn't trying

to flee the country.

He's expected to remain free

until his final appeal.

Back in Florence, Meredith's sister

and brother face the media

and are asked if they think

Amanda Knox should be

extradited from America to Italy.

If somebody's found guilty

and convicted of a murder,

if an extradition law

exists between those two countries,

then I don't see why they wouldn't.

I imagine it would set a

difficult precedent if a country

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