:00:22. > :00:26.TRANSLATED FROM ITALIAN: On November second 2007, police in Perugia
:00:27. > :00:31.receive a phone call. There's been a break-in. When police
:00:32. > :00:34.arrive, they discover a young woman has been stabbed to death. She's
:00:35. > :00:40.Meredith Kercher, a British student, a girl with everything to live for.
:00:41. > :00:42.REPORTER: Amanda! Amanda! For six years, her American
:00:43. > :00:46.flatmate, Amanda Knox, has been the centre of a media and judicial
:00:47. > :00:49.storm, one of three people accused of Meredith's murder. Tonight, the
:00:50. > :00:57.central evidence for and against Amanda Knox. And, for the first
:00:58. > :01:01.time, the audio recording of Amanda Knox's prison interrogation.
:01:02. > :01:04.HER VOICE BREAKS Convicted, jailed, acquitted and now found guilty once
:01:05. > :01:19.more. It's time, say the victim's family,
:01:20. > :01:23.for the case to be resolved. We all definitely want some form of
:01:24. > :01:28.closure, and then we can all start to remember just Meredith.
:01:29. > :01:48.I was imprisoned as an innocent person.
:01:49. > :01:54.Meredith Kercher grew up in Croydon, south London.
:01:55. > :01:57.In August 2007, a new university year is about to start. Meredith,
:01:58. > :01:59.now 21, prepares to leave for the ancient and beautiful hilltop city
:02:00. > :02:06.of Perugia, Italy. She was very excited about coming to
:02:07. > :02:09.Italy, looking forward to learning more about Italian culture, seeing
:02:10. > :02:13.the city of Perugia and making new friends. She really fought to come
:02:14. > :02:24.here. She really wanted to be here. Mez, as everyone calls her, is
:02:25. > :02:30.studying European politics and Italian at Leeds.
:02:31. > :02:37.Now she has an exchange year in Italy, a country she's been in love
:02:38. > :02:39.with since a school trip. But saying goodbye to her sister Stephanie
:02:40. > :02:47.isn't easy. We were just talking on the sofa and
:02:48. > :02:51.having a little cuddle goodbye, and then I just remember her suddenly
:02:52. > :02:56.crying and saying that she was going to be sad to go, but she was excited
:02:57. > :03:01.to come... And I remember being quite taken aback, and I thought,
:03:02. > :03:06."Don't make me sad. "I'll miss you but you'll go and have fun".
:03:07. > :03:11.She leaves on September first, and quickly afterwards moves into the
:03:12. > :03:14.upstairs flat of this cottage, with three housemates - two young Italian
:03:15. > :03:15.trainee lawyers and a student on exchange from the United States,
:03:16. > :03:28.20-year-old Amanda Knox. Amanda has travelled almost 6,000
:03:29. > :03:35.miles from Seattle on the Northwest coast to study Italian in Perugia.
:03:36. > :03:42.Photogenic, outgoing and describing herself as quirky, Amanda Knox loves
:03:43. > :03:45.the Beatles and Harry Potter. She's been studying at university and has
:03:46. > :03:50.worked three jobs to pay for her Italian adventure.
:03:51. > :03:56.She is very different from the quiet and studious Meredith. While
:03:57. > :03:59.housemates, there's said to be tension over Amanda's supposedly
:04:00. > :04:08.casual attitude to sex, money and housework.
:04:09. > :04:13.Within weeks, Amanda Knox lands a job in Perugia, working as a
:04:14. > :04:15.waitress at Le Chic, a pub owned by a popular musician from the Congo,
:04:16. > :04:28.Patrick Lumumba. TRANSLATION: She gave me the
:04:29. > :04:31.impression of a good person. If she wasn't a good person, she wouldn't
:04:32. > :04:35.have worked here. That doesn't mean that her relationship with clients
:04:36. > :04:37.pleased me, because she often talked to the clients and I had to tell her
:04:38. > :04:46.to get back to work. On October 25th, Amanda and Meredith
:04:47. > :04:52.go to a classic musical concert together, where Amanda meets Italian
:04:53. > :04:54.student Raffaele Sollecito. He looks like her favourite, Harry Potter,
:04:55. > :05:00.and the two begin a whirlwind romance. Described by friends as
:05:01. > :05:02.intelligent and sensitive, the handsome Raffaele has come to
:05:03. > :05:08.Perugia to study information technology.
:05:09. > :05:14.A week later - October 31st. It's Halloween, and in Perugia, like
:05:15. > :05:22.every other university town, it's party time. It's one of Meredith's
:05:23. > :05:28.favourite nights out and she's dressed as a vampire. These will
:05:29. > :05:32.turn out to be among the last photographs of her alive. Happy,
:05:33. > :05:39.full of life, and completely at home with her new friends.
:05:40. > :05:44.What happens on the night of November first 2007 has been the
:05:45. > :05:53.subject of two trials, three appeals and two supreme court judgments. The
:05:54. > :06:00.story has more twists and turns than the medieval streets of Perugia.
:06:01. > :06:05.Police in Italy are searching for the killer of a British exchange
:06:06. > :06:08.student who was found dead in her apartment in Perugia. Officers
:06:09. > :06:09.discovered the body of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher in her bedroom
:06:10. > :06:19.yesterday afternoon. The story starts at nine o'clock in
:06:20. > :06:23.the morning on second November, when a local woman finds two mobile
:06:24. > :06:25.phones in her garden. She takes them to the postal police, which handles
:06:26. > :06:30.crimes involving communication devices. They quickly discover one
:06:31. > :06:38.of the phones is registered to Via della Pergola seven, a small cottage
:06:39. > :06:44.just 500 metres away. When police arrive here, they see two students
:06:45. > :06:54.in the driveway. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito. They tell the
:06:55. > :06:59.police the front door is open... And one room has been ransacked.
:07:00. > :07:06.Police go into the house. One bedroom's a mess. Clothes are all
:07:07. > :07:10.over the floor and a large rock is lying near the window. Shortly after
:07:11. > :07:18.the postal police arrive, at 12.51, Raffaele Sollecito calls the elite
:07:19. > :07:21.police force, the Carabinieri. He doesn't mention that the postal
:07:22. > :07:24.police are already there, and says nothing's been stolen - details
:07:25. > :07:56.prosecutors would later claim are significant.
:07:57. > :08:02.Meanwhile, Amanda says she's worried about her friend Meredith. Her
:08:03. > :08:11.door's locked, she's not answering her phone. When the door is broken
:08:12. > :08:13.down, they discover a beige duvet on the floor. Beneath it, the battered
:08:14. > :08:28.and bloody body of Meredith Kercher. Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini arrives
:08:29. > :08:32.just after 2pm. He finds Meredith is partially naked, her bra's been cut
:08:33. > :08:36.off and her T-shirt rolled up above her breasts. It looks like a sexual
:08:37. > :08:44.assault. TRANSLATION: When you start an
:08:45. > :08:50.investigation, you don't know what happened, you have to slowly
:08:51. > :08:53.reconstruct the situation. Forensics teams work inside and
:08:54. > :08:57.outside the cottage. Right away, they think it's a staged break-in.
:08:58. > :09:02.Glass shards are on top rather than underneath the scattered clothes.
:09:03. > :09:05.The large rock seems too heavy to be thrown from the ground to the first
:09:06. > :09:12.floor window and too big to go through the small crack between the
:09:13. > :09:20.shutters. A handbag, jewellery case, camera and laptop computer are lying
:09:21. > :09:25.in full view. There's a line of bloody shoe prints from Meredith's
:09:26. > :09:27.room to the front door. And in the bathroom, a bloody bare footprint is
:09:28. > :09:36.on the bath-mat. Over four days, investigators
:09:37. > :09:38.collect more than 400 items from the apartment, photographing and filming
:09:39. > :09:49.their work. When police bag Meredith's bra for
:09:50. > :10:12.evidence, they notice something is missing.
:10:13. > :10:17.Somehow, the investigators leave without the clasp - a critical error
:10:18. > :10:23.that will haunt the prosecution case.
:10:24. > :10:29.The autopsy shows Meredith has been strangled and stabbed on two sides
:10:30. > :10:39.of the neck, possibly with two different knives. The second fatal
:10:40. > :10:43.stab severed her thyroid artery. There are 40 wounds - too many,
:10:44. > :10:47.police believe, for one assailant to have inflicted alone. The
:10:48. > :10:53.prosecution's view of what happened, later disputed by the defence, is
:10:54. > :10:56.shown in this reconstruction. Meredith was trained in karate, and
:10:57. > :11:03.must have encountered overwhelming force.
:11:04. > :11:10.TRANSLATION: One person couldn't, all at the same time, hold Meredith
:11:11. > :11:14.still and hold back her hands - because there are very few defensive
:11:15. > :11:19.wounds - inflict those wounds with a smaller knife and then give her the
:11:20. > :11:22.fatal blow with the larger knife. It is impossible. Not even Superman
:11:23. > :11:34.could do it. The behaviour of Amanda Knox and her
:11:35. > :11:36.boyfriend attracts attention. Meredith's friends tell police that,
:11:37. > :11:43.far from appearing distraught, Amanda and Raffaele have been seen
:11:44. > :11:47.laughing and joking. A vigil is held for Meredith, but Amanda and
:11:48. > :11:54.Raffaele don't attend - they go for dinner at a friend's instead.
:11:55. > :12:04.And the prosecutor recalls why he was concerned by Amanda's behaviour.
:12:05. > :12:08.TRANSLATION: When the girls were brought to see the knives that were
:12:09. > :12:14.in the kitchen, the reaction of Amanda... It was a reaction... She
:12:15. > :12:18.put her hands on her ears, as if she were trying to block out a terrible
:12:19. > :12:20.sound she was hearing in her ears. It was like she was having a nervous
:12:21. > :12:31.breakdown. And then there was this, one of the
:12:32. > :12:34.defining images of the case, Amanda and Raffaele kissing outside the
:12:35. > :12:44.cottage where Meredith was murdered. Her supporters say this was only
:12:45. > :12:47.natural. Did they comfort each other? We've seen that famous
:12:48. > :12:52.footage of the two of them together. They did. What's wrong with any of
:12:53. > :12:58.that? Nothing. It did appear to be wrong to some authorities.
:12:59. > :13:02.November fifth. Four days after the murder. Raffaele Sollecito is called
:13:03. > :13:08.in for questioning. Amanda goes with him, and once again her behaviour
:13:09. > :13:13.seems odd. She does yoga and the splits in the waiting room. At this
:13:14. > :13:18.point, the couple's alibi appears to fall apart.
:13:19. > :13:24.Amanda had told police she'd spent the night of the murder at
:13:25. > :13:33.Raffaele's apartment. They cooked, watched a film, made love, smoked
:13:34. > :13:36.marijuana and went to bed. But separately, Raffaele's story begins
:13:37. > :13:41.to change. He's no longer sure if Amanda was with him all night.
:13:42. > :13:46.Amanda's called in for more questioning. As she is only a
:13:47. > :13:51.witness at this stage, an interpreter is present but she has
:13:52. > :13:55.no legal representation. What happens next is crucial, and one of
:13:56. > :14:02.the most controversial twists in the story. Police ask Amanda Knox about
:14:03. > :14:09.text messages on her phone. In particular, a message from her boss,
:14:10. > :14:16.Patrick Lumumba. TRANSLATION: "Don't come to work
:14:17. > :14:21.tonight". I sent that message. It's, like, Sunday. "Don't come to work".
:14:22. > :14:26.I sent that message. Amanda had texted back, "See you
:14:27. > :14:30.later". She says she just meant, "See you around", but police now
:14:31. > :14:37.want to know... Had Amanda arranged to meet Lumumba later that evening
:14:38. > :14:45.and taken him to her house? At 1.45 in the morning, Amanda breaks down.
:14:46. > :14:50.TRANSLATION: She says she had entered the house with him because
:14:51. > :14:54.he was attracted to Meredith and wanted to be with Meredith, and she
:14:55. > :14:56.stayed in the kitchen and heard Meredith's screams, and HE was the
:14:57. > :15:05.assassin. That's what she said. Police believe Amanda Knox's story.
:15:06. > :15:09.They raid Patrick Lumumba's home and take him in. Within hours, his photo
:15:10. > :15:15.flashes around the world as one of the murder suspects.
:15:16. > :15:25.But for the police, Amanda Knox has now gone from witness to suspect. If
:15:26. > :15:29.she's taken Lumumba to Meredith, she must have been at the house.
:15:30. > :15:36.TRANSLATION: She put herself at the scene of the crime. She admitted to
:15:37. > :15:40.accompanying Lumumba as if she were an accomplice in his project. She
:15:41. > :15:45.was in the room next door when the crime happened, in her version. This
:15:46. > :15:47.fact pushed the police to suspend the audition in order to protect her
:15:48. > :16:06.rights. November sixth 2007. Amanda Knox and
:16:07. > :16:09.Raffaele Sollecito are arrested. Waiting to be taken to jail, Amanda
:16:10. > :16:12.makes another attempt to tell police what happened with Lumumba by
:16:13. > :16:25.writing out an explanation in English. "In my mind, I saw Patrick
:16:26. > :16:35.in flashes of blurred images. "I saw him near the basketball court. I saw
:16:36. > :16:38.him at my front door. "I saw myself cowering in the kitchen with my
:16:39. > :16:41.hands over my ears because, in my head, I could hear Meredith
:16:42. > :16:45.screaming. "But I have said this many times, so as to make myself
:16:46. > :16:50.clear - "these things seem unreal to me, like a dream. "I want to make it
:16:51. > :16:53.clear that I am very doubtful of the verity of my statements Because they
:16:54. > :16:54.were made under the pressure of stress, shock and extreme
:16:55. > :17:03.exhaustion". But, despite her uncertainty, she
:17:04. > :17:11.doesn't retract her accusation. Lumumba remains in jail, pleading
:17:12. > :17:12.his innocence. In the city square, members of the African community
:17:13. > :17:26.protest against his arrest. TRANSLATION: The black man is always
:17:27. > :17:31.the thief and the assassin. She wanted them to believe what she was
:17:32. > :17:39.saying. It was just because I was black.
:17:40. > :17:45.At this point, another African immigrant enters the story.
:17:46. > :17:50.20-year-old Rudy Guede, from the Ivory Coast, is living in Perugia.
:17:51. > :17:55.Detectives find his bloody thumbprint on a pillowcase that was
:17:56. > :17:57.underneath Meredith's dead body. Because he's an immigrant, they have
:17:58. > :18:09.his prints on file. Police raid his tiny bedsit
:18:10. > :18:13.apartment and test his toothbrush for DNA. It matches traces found on
:18:14. > :18:19.Meredith's bra strap, on her body and on the left sleeve of her
:18:20. > :18:22.pale-blue sweatshirt. Rudy Guede has fled the country. He's arrested in
:18:23. > :18:26.Germany. Perugia attorney Valter Biscotti
:18:27. > :18:37.volunteers to defend him. TRANSLATION: I met this young man in
:18:38. > :18:41.this prison in Schiffenstadt, Germany, and he seemed to me like a
:18:42. > :18:46.guy who was scared, someone who was in the middle of a story that was
:18:47. > :18:47.bigger than him. He was surprised to see a lawyer who arrived from Italy
:18:48. > :18:57.for him. Extradited back to Italy, Rudy Guede
:18:58. > :19:03.confirms to police that he's lived in the country since the age of
:19:04. > :19:06.five. A keen basketball player, he'd met Amanda and Meredith after
:19:07. > :19:11.shooting hoops with students who lived in the apartment below theirs.
:19:12. > :19:17.They partied and smoked dope together. Meanwhile, the case
:19:18. > :19:23.against Patrick Lumumba, as outlined by Amanda Knox, collapses. A
:19:24. > :19:29.customer at the bar has given him an alibi and he's freed. How did Amanda
:19:30. > :19:33.Knox come to mention Lumumba's name to police?
:19:34. > :19:40.For the first time, we can hear an audio tape of her explanation to the
:19:41. > :19:41.prosecutor. A transcript of this was presented in court, but not the
:19:42. > :19:48.audio. Accompanied by three lawyers and an
:19:49. > :19:50.interpreter, on December 17th 2007, Knox is asked why she told police
:19:51. > :21:00.Lumumba committed the crime. So what's the extent of the police
:21:01. > :21:03.evidence at this point? It includes a knife found at Raffaele
:21:04. > :21:10.Sollecito's apartment they believe could be the murder weapon. But they
:21:11. > :21:14.need more, so return to the crime scene. 46 days after the murder,
:21:15. > :21:22.they find Meredith's bra clasp under a mat. Using rubber gloves, they
:21:23. > :21:27.pick it up and inspect it. It will become the most controversial piece
:21:28. > :21:30.of evidence in the investigation. The defence will claim the delay in
:21:31. > :21:36.collecting it could have resulted in contamination. Investigators also,
:21:37. > :21:43.for the first time, use luminol, a chemical that highlights invisible
:21:44. > :21:49.blood stains. Three clear footprints appear in the hallway, plus other
:21:50. > :21:50.small bloodstains. More new evidence, but it will be
:21:51. > :22:03.controversial. In Seattle, the campaign to prove
:22:04. > :22:06.Amanda is innocent is under way. Her family turn to a crisis
:22:07. > :22:13.communications firm and a group called Friends of Amanda Knox. It
:22:14. > :22:16.was just this kind of small group of people that were called "the
:22:17. > :22:20.Americans" in our offence. I think there was one quote that the
:22:21. > :22:24.Americans would send in the marines to get Amanda Knox.
:22:25. > :22:27.The campaign helps recast Amanda as a victim, a young American girl
:22:28. > :22:37.being railroaded into an injustice far away from home. I love Italy.
:22:38. > :22:41.I've been to Italy. And I have great respect for their courts. I do think
:22:42. > :22:44.we have a rogue prosecutor. In Italy, if you speak against the
:22:45. > :22:47.prosecution, you can be prosecuted, so nobody can speak. And it's a
:22:48. > :22:51.perfect storm of a potentially very unfair prosecution. The prosecutor
:22:52. > :22:54.denies this accusation and believes he personally has become the focus
:22:55. > :23:00.for criticism of the prosecution case.
:23:01. > :23:02.TRANSLATION: I don't know why, but I was the lightning rod in this case.
:23:03. > :23:11.It was a personal attack. Amanda Knox's DNA has been found
:23:12. > :23:17.mixed together with Meredith Kercher's in five blood stains in
:23:18. > :23:20.the flat. Plus, tests show the bare footprints match the size and shape
:23:21. > :23:26.of Amanda's and her boyfriend's feet. And the kitchen knife from
:23:27. > :23:28.Raffaele's apartment shows Amanda's DNA on the handle and a tiny trace
:23:29. > :23:45.of Meredith's DNA on the blade. The clock spins forward almost one
:23:46. > :23:48.year, to September 2008. Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy
:23:49. > :23:55.Guede appear before a judge in Perugia. With so much publicity now
:23:56. > :24:01.surrounding Knox, Guede opts to be tried quickly and separately.
:24:02. > :24:07.TRANSLATION: I was convinced that if he had been tried with the others,
:24:08. > :24:09.that with all the international media clamour and the international
:24:10. > :24:11.pressure there would have been surrounding this trial, they would
:24:12. > :24:27.have dumped all the blame on Rudy. The prosecution's case is a tabloid
:24:28. > :24:30.editor's dream. They say Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy
:24:31. > :24:36.Guede killed Meredith Kercher in a sex game gone wrong. Guede denies
:24:37. > :24:46.this and pleads not guilty. His defence is that he wasn't in the
:24:47. > :24:56.room when Meredith was murdered, he was in the bathroom. Meredith had
:24:57. > :24:59.invited him over, he said. When he got there, Meredith was furious
:25:00. > :25:04.because money was missing and she was blaming Amanda. He says he
:25:05. > :25:11.comforted Meredith, and things got physical, but they didn't have full
:25:12. > :25:13.sex. He went to the toilet, then says he heard Amanda enter the
:25:14. > :25:22.apartment. TRANSLATION: He heard Amanda's voice
:25:23. > :25:26.as she came in. He was in the bathroom or just about to go into
:25:27. > :25:30.the bathroom, and then he really did put on his headphones and listen to
:25:31. > :25:32.music, rap I think, at full volume, and then heard a scream. He came out
:25:33. > :25:45.and came up against a male figure. Rudy Guede says this man lunged at
:25:46. > :25:48.him with a knife, cutting his hand. He claims the attacker then yelled
:25:49. > :25:54."Black man found, black man condemned," and ran away. Guede
:25:55. > :25:59.found Meredith bleeding in the other room. He tried to stem the blood
:26:00. > :26:04.with towels, and left a bloody thumbprint on the pillowcase. But
:26:05. > :26:10.the bleeding didn't stop, and Guede says he panicked.
:26:11. > :26:18.He tried to help her. He took her in his arms and should have called
:26:19. > :26:25.help, but he was scared and ran away, and he feels guilty for this.
:26:26. > :26:30.Rudy Guede is found guilty of Meredith's murder and sentenced to
:26:31. > :26:37.30 years. The judge's verdict says Rudy Guede did not act alone. He's
:26:38. > :26:40.led away to prison. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito will now stand
:26:41. > :26:51.trial for the murder and sexual assault of Meredith Kercher.
:26:52. > :27:08.The world's media is focused on Amanda Knox. Her face fills the
:27:09. > :27:15.front pages. Could this attractive, bubbly, all-American girl be capable
:27:16. > :27:18.of murder? As they did at Rudy Guede's trial, the prosecution again
:27:19. > :27:28.suggests the murder was the result of a sex game gone wrong. Again,
:27:29. > :27:33.this is strongly denied. Amanda and Raffaele claim they weren't in the
:27:34. > :27:36.house that night. To support their case, the prosecution produces
:27:37. > :27:43.evidence they claim places the couple at the scene of the murder.
:27:44. > :27:49.First, there's the DNA found in the bathroom. The prosecution says it
:27:50. > :27:52.shows the mixed blood of Amanda Knox and Meredith Kercher in the bidet
:27:53. > :28:00.drain, the sink drain and on a cotton bud box. There is also a
:28:01. > :28:05.large drop of Amanda's blood on the bathroom tap. According to the
:28:06. > :28:08.prosecutor, this shows Amanda and Meredith were bleeding at the same
:28:09. > :28:15.time, strong evidence there was a fight.
:28:16. > :28:19.TRANSLATION: The principal evidence was mixed blood traces from which
:28:20. > :28:23.were extracted mixed DNA of Amanda and Meredith. The only explanation
:28:24. > :28:28.for that mix is that Amanda was bleeding and touched objects that
:28:29. > :28:42.were covered in Meredith's blood. There's no other explanation.
:28:43. > :28:46.But Amanda's lawyers say this proves nothing - two young students living
:28:47. > :28:52.together means it's perfectly normal to find mixed blood and DNA in the
:28:53. > :28:59.bathroom. They say it's possible Amanda's DNA isn't from her blood at
:29:00. > :29:00.all but from her saliva. Sarah Gino is the forensic biologist on Amanda
:29:01. > :29:14.Knox's defence team. TRANSLATION: In the case, the test
:29:15. > :29:18.was done for blood. But was the test done for saliva? No. So we can't
:29:19. > :29:22.know if inside that mixed trace there was blood because it had been
:29:23. > :29:25.demonstrated, or just saliva. Or maybe there was blood from both of
:29:26. > :29:29.them, but what does that mean? Maybe someone had a bloody nose one time
:29:30. > :29:31.and then, at a another moment, someone cut their finger and put it
:29:32. > :29:38.down, and their blood got mixed. Then there was the kitchen knife
:29:39. > :29:42.found in Raffaele's Sollecito's flat. This, say the prosecutors, is
:29:43. > :29:47.the murder weapon, which has been cleaned. But they have found DNA of
:29:48. > :29:54.Amanda Knox on the handle and a minuscule amount of Meredith
:29:55. > :29:58.Kercher's DNA on the blade. But the words "too low" are written on the
:29:59. > :30:01.DNA reports for the knife. The test should never have been carried out,
:30:02. > :30:07.say the defence, there's not enough reliable DNA. When questioned by
:30:08. > :30:13.journalists, the prosecution stands by its forensic evidence.
:30:14. > :30:21.TRANSLATION: It is not too little. The genetic profile is low, but it
:30:22. > :30:25.is absolutely reliable. In fact, we were able to get it, which means
:30:26. > :30:28.there is no uncertainty about the attribution of that profile to the
:30:29. > :30:32.victim. More DNA evidence is presented, this
:30:33. > :30:37.time on Meredith's bra clasp. Police says Raffaele Sollecito's DNA is on
:30:38. > :30:42.one of the hooks. This is the only evidence placing him in her bedroom.
:30:43. > :30:49.There is no DNA evidence that puts Amanda in the room.
:30:50. > :30:53.David Balding, a DNA statistician at University College London, is
:30:54. > :30:59.recognised as one of the world's leading analysts. In 2012, he is
:31:00. > :31:02.asked by the Italian Forensic Association to study Meredith
:31:03. > :31:10.Kercher's bra clasp and to give an independent view on whether
:31:11. > :31:16.Sollecito's DNA is present. His findings are not part of the court
:31:17. > :31:20.case. When you just look at the evidence
:31:21. > :31:23.by eye, you can see very strongly all of Raffaele Sollecito's DNA
:31:24. > :31:27.types are there and that can't be explained by any kind of
:31:28. > :31:30.environmental contamination. I calculate how likely is the evidence
:31:31. > :31:33.under the prosecution assertion that DNA is there from Raffaele Sollecito
:31:34. > :31:40.and again how likely it is without him being present. And the former is
:31:41. > :31:45.much greater than the latter, so that's when I say that's extremely
:31:46. > :31:47.strong evidence. But forensic experts representing
:31:48. > :31:49.the defence remain adamant that the bra clasp had been contaminated and
:31:50. > :31:59.is unreliable. TRANSLATION: As far as the bra clasp
:32:00. > :32:02.is concerned, what happened? This bra clasp was collected 46 days
:32:03. > :32:07.after the first crime scene inspection, and a mixture of
:32:08. > :32:10.biological material was found. There was a profile attributable to the
:32:11. > :32:15.victim, which is normal, and other material that was attributable to
:32:16. > :32:16.Raffaele Sollecito. There were other traces, but they were not attributed
:32:17. > :32:25.to anyone. The defence also uses the crime
:32:26. > :32:32.scene video to question the DNA evidence presented by the
:32:33. > :32:38.prosecution. I have looked at the crime scene... The videos. Bloody
:32:39. > :32:42.shoe prints, cleaned up. Cleaned up, not saved. A bra strap collected
:32:43. > :32:44.weeks and weeks and weeks after the initial collection, that now
:32:45. > :32:53.supposedly connects Amanda, Raffaele and Meredith.
:32:54. > :32:57.But the prosecution keeps producing evidence they say connects Amanda
:32:58. > :33:03.Knox and Raffaele Sollecito to the crime scene.
:33:04. > :33:07.TRANSLATION: Amanda's footprints, which were revealed by the luminol,
:33:08. > :33:09.showed DNA attributed to Meredith, which means Amanda was walking in
:33:10. > :33:20.bare feet covered in blood. They argue this is proof the couple
:33:21. > :33:22.came back during the night to clean up and stage the break-in, leaving
:33:23. > :33:30.bloodstained footprints in the bathroom and corridor. The defence
:33:31. > :33:35.says there is no proof the prints actually were bloodstains. The
:33:36. > :33:39.luminol may have revealed another substance such as bleach. The
:33:40. > :33:43.prosecution also presents evidence to challenge the couple's story of
:33:44. > :33:50.what they did that night and the next morning. They show Raffaele's
:33:51. > :33:57.cellphone was turned on at 6.02am, despite the couple's claim they
:33:58. > :34:00.slept until ten. Then there's the telephone call to the Carabinieri,
:34:01. > :34:08.when Sollecito knew nothing had been stolen, and failed to mention the
:34:09. > :34:11.postal police were at the scene. They also question Raffaele
:34:12. > :34:12.Sollecito's changing alibi and prison eyewitnesses who contradict
:34:13. > :34:23.Knox and Sollecito's stories. In court, the prosecution accuses
:34:24. > :34:29.Amanda Knox of being the leader of a sexual attack on Meredith. They say
:34:30. > :34:35.this was payback for Meredith's disapproval of Amanda's lifestyle.
:34:36. > :34:42.TRANSLATION: The erotic game was always part of the case. I think
:34:43. > :34:43.that night, Amanda wanted to make Meredith pay for judging her, which
:34:44. > :34:59.she found offensive. A girl from Seattle that worked
:35:00. > :35:02.three jobs to get to Italy to study abroad, an honour student from
:35:03. > :35:04.Seattle Prep, doesn't overnight, in my experience, turn into a depraved
:35:05. > :35:15.murderess. Overnight. The court's claims make difficult
:35:16. > :35:22.hearing for the Knox family. Obviously, listening to those types
:35:23. > :35:25.of things were horrible. It was an all-out attack on her character by
:35:26. > :35:30.individuals that have no idea who she truly is as a person. One of the
:35:31. > :35:33.things that we have tried to do this entire time is obviously support
:35:34. > :35:38.Amanda by always having somebody over here, somebody to visit her and
:35:39. > :35:53.stuff like that. And we have to stay strong in order for her to stay
:35:54. > :35:56.strong. Amanda Knox spends two days on the stand telling her version of
:35:57. > :35:59.the story. Millions worldwide watch her explanation of why she put the
:36:00. > :36:03.pub owner Patrick Lumumba in the frame.
:36:04. > :36:09.They told me that I was trying to protect someone...
:36:10. > :36:14.INTERPRETER TRANSLATES INTO ITALIAN ..but I wasn't trying to protect
:36:15. > :36:20.anyone. They continued to put so much
:36:21. > :36:28.emphasis... ..on this message that I had received from Patrick... ..and
:36:29. > :36:37.so I almost was convinced that I had met him.
:36:38. > :36:42.Her case is this. She was at Raffaele's house when the murder
:36:43. > :36:49.happened, watching a movie and reading her e-mails. She can't prove
:36:50. > :36:57.it because two of their three computers were damaged when police
:36:58. > :36:59.tried to search the hard-drives. Throughout the year-long trial,
:37:00. > :37:07.Meredith's family fly in from London to testify and witness the key
:37:08. > :37:09.hearings. They try to keep the focus on Meredith and their quest for
:37:10. > :37:23.justice. Third December 2009. The eve of the
:37:24. > :37:28.verdict. Amanda's family arrives to hear her plea for freedom. She knows
:37:29. > :37:32.that she's innocent and has had nothing to do with this and we're
:37:33. > :37:34.just very hopeful that the court will see and be able to see that in
:37:35. > :37:39.the evidence that's been presented. Amanda is now almost fluent in
:37:40. > :38:19.Italian. 323 days since the trial started.
:38:20. > :38:33.The verdict is broadcast around the world.
:38:34. > :38:40.Guilty of murder. 25 years for Raffaele Sollecito and 26 for Amanda
:38:41. > :38:46.Knox, the extra year for slandering Patrick Lumumba.
:38:47. > :38:52.The Kerchers' Italian lawyer is satisfied.
:38:53. > :38:56.TRANSLATION: The failed alibis, the behaviour of Sollecito and Knox,
:38:57. > :39:05.Knox's statements, the slander of Patrick Lumumba. These are all
:39:06. > :39:16.elements that, once put together, allowed the determination of guilt.
:39:17. > :39:27.But Knox's family are angry. They keep tight-lipped as they leave the
:39:28. > :39:34.courtroom. Push back, push back. Chris, Chris, stop it.
:39:35. > :39:40.And when they return to Seattle, they immediately start preparing her
:39:41. > :39:46.appeal. There's not one piece of physical evidence to link this girl
:39:47. > :39:49.to this crime. They draft legal, forensic, media and political
:39:50. > :39:56.support from the US and Italy to strengthen the defence team. It
:39:57. > :40:13.takes a year to get to the appeal. By now, Knox and Sollecito have been
:40:14. > :40:15.in jail for three years. This time, there's a new judge and a new
:40:16. > :40:27.prosecutor, Giancarlo Costagliola. TRANSLATION: Despite the fact that
:40:28. > :40:30.there had already been a conviction, the deputy judge said at the
:40:31. > :40:32.beginning of the hearing that the only thing that was certain was that
:40:33. > :40:43.a girl was dead. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito's
:40:44. > :40:51.defence teams decide to focus on Rudy Guede. They call prison
:40:52. > :40:53.inmates, convicted criminals, to testify that Guede has confessed to
:40:54. > :41:10.them in prison. June 27th 2011. Rudy Guede takes the
:41:11. > :41:16.stand. By now, after an appeal, his sentence has been cut from 30 to 16
:41:17. > :41:19.years. He denies he made a jailhouse confession and is asked about a
:41:20. > :41:20.letter he has written claiming Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito
:41:21. > :42:02.killed Meredith. The key focus of the appeal is on
:42:03. > :42:07.the DNA - Knox and Kercher's DNA on the knife, Sollecito's on the bra
:42:08. > :42:13.clasp. Is it enough to place the defendants at the crime scene or
:42:14. > :42:16.not? The court appoints independent experts Carla Vecchiotti and Stefano
:42:17. > :42:24.Conti from the University of Sapienza, Rome, to review the
:42:25. > :42:29.science. Their report is scathing about prosecution forensic methods.
:42:30. > :42:36.They cite US manuals and standards, highlighting errors made when the
:42:37. > :42:40.evidence was collected. They do find a new trace of DNA on the knife from
:42:41. > :42:48.Sollecito's kitchen that hasn't been tested. However, they argue, it's
:42:49. > :42:51.too small to be of use. This report helps the judge focus his decision
:42:52. > :42:59.on whether there is reasonable doubt about the DNA samples. For
:43:00. > :43:05.Meredith's mother and the rest of her family, the hearings are
:43:06. > :43:08.agonising. Everything that Meredith must've felt that night, everything
:43:09. > :43:17.she went through, the fear and the terror, and not knowing why... And
:43:18. > :43:30.she didn't deserve that. No-one deserves that.
:43:31. > :43:33.Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito await their fate for the second
:43:34. > :43:59.time. Not guilty. She will be freed, she
:44:00. > :44:02.will be going back to Seattle, Washington, at the end of her
:44:03. > :44:05.four-year ordeal. There's sufficient reasonable doubt for Amanda Knox and
:44:06. > :44:12.Raffaele Sollecito to be released immediately.
:44:13. > :44:21.I'm Deanna Knox, Amanda Knox's sister, and I have a few words on
:44:22. > :44:26.behalf of our family. We are thankful that Amanda's nightmare is
:44:27. > :44:28.over. She has suffered for four years for a crime that she did not
:44:29. > :44:35.commit. TRANSLATION: It is evident that
:44:36. > :44:40.Raffaele had nothing to do with the murder of that poor girl, Meredith
:44:41. > :44:43.Kercher, who remains in our heart. Some in the gathering crowd becoming
:44:44. > :44:47.increasingly agitated about the verdicts.
:44:48. > :44:53.TRANSLATION: There were people out on the stairs in front of the
:44:54. > :44:59.courthouse, and for a long time they yelled, "Shame on you!"
:45:00. > :45:04.SHOUTING A dark sedan ferries Amanda Knox away to a safe house deep in
:45:05. > :45:06.the Italian countryside for an emotional reunion with relatives
:45:07. > :45:22.after almost four years in jail... ..while Meredith's family is left
:45:23. > :45:27.stunned and pained by the acquittal. Meredith has been almost forgotten
:45:28. > :45:31.in all of it. The media photos aren't really of her. There is not a
:45:32. > :45:34.lot about what actually happened in the beginning, so it's very
:45:35. > :45:44.difficult to keep her memory alive in all of this.
:45:45. > :45:50.CHEERING AND APPLAUSE. The media's photos will be of Amanda
:45:51. > :45:58.Knox arriving home at Seattle Airport. I'm really overwhelmed
:45:59. > :46:01.right now. I was looking down from the aeroplane and it seemed like
:46:02. > :46:05.everything wasn't real. Erm... What's important for me to say is
:46:06. > :46:11.just thank you to everyone who has believed in me... Who has defended
:46:12. > :46:20.me, who has supported my family. Um...
:46:21. > :46:24.Amanda finds a home in Seattle's International District and returns
:46:25. > :46:31.to the University of Washington to study creative writing. She starts
:46:32. > :46:34.writing a book about her experience, reportedly receiving a ?4 million
:46:35. > :46:52.advance, although claims that all of the money goes on legal expenses. --
:46:53. > :46:56.a $4 million advance. Back in Italy, Rudy Guede is still
:46:57. > :47:00.in prison, where he's been beaten up by inmates. He's begun studying to
:47:01. > :47:04.build himself a future and will soon be eligible for parole. His lawyer
:47:05. > :47:08.claims that Rudy Guede has been made a scapegoat.
:47:09. > :47:15.TRANSLATION: I am convinced Rudy is innocent. Rudy was lynched by the
:47:16. > :47:21.media. He was the weakest link. He was the weak one who had to pay for
:47:22. > :47:26.them all. In the sentence, it says he is not the actual murderer. It
:47:27. > :47:30.says he didn't handle the knife, or anything, but because the judge
:47:31. > :47:37.found he took part in the group violence, he is guilty.
:47:38. > :47:42.For a while, this seems like the end of the story, but fate, or the
:47:43. > :47:50.Italian justice system, has another twist in store. Now it's the turn of
:47:51. > :47:53.the prosecution to appeal, and on 26th March 2013, Italy's highest
:47:54. > :47:55.court, known as the Court of Cassation, orders a new trial,
:47:56. > :48:08.overturning Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito's acquittals. They say the
:48:09. > :48:12.first appeal did not debate many of the 10,000 pages from the first
:48:13. > :48:18.trial, focusing too much on the DNA evidence.
:48:19. > :48:29.TRANSLATION: The Court of Cessation was very, very harsh. It commented
:48:30. > :48:33.on the lack of logic, the lack of coordination in the reasoning. It
:48:34. > :48:50.was severe, almost devastating, for the judges.
:48:51. > :48:59.September 30th 2013, the second appeal begins. This time, the drama
:49:00. > :49:09.switches to the birthplace of the Renaissance - Florence. Amanda Knox
:49:10. > :49:11.isn't in the courtroom. She refuses to travel from America, and defends
:49:12. > :49:20.her decision on television. I look at it as an admission of
:49:21. > :49:23.innocence, to be quite honest, because, I mean, besides the fact
:49:24. > :49:27.that there are so many factors that are not allowing me to go back,
:49:28. > :49:30.financial ones, ones where I'm going to school, ones where I want the
:49:31. > :49:37.court to proceed without distraction, it's... I was
:49:38. > :49:43.imprisoned as an innocent person, and that... It's common sense not to
:49:44. > :49:51.go back. Only Raffaele Sollecito is present
:49:52. > :50:09.in court. He makes a plea to the judge and jury.
:50:10. > :50:15.Unlike in the appeals court, this judge orders a police forensics lab
:50:16. > :50:21.in Rome to test the new trace of DNA found on the kitchen knife. It's a
:50:22. > :50:26.minuscule amount from where the blade meets the handle. The new test
:50:27. > :50:32.finds that the DNA matches Amanda Knox. Prosecutors say it further
:50:33. > :50:35.proves her involvement in the murder, but the defence says the
:50:36. > :50:36.most likely explanation is that Amanda used the knife when staying
:50:37. > :50:54.at Raffaele's apartment. Six years and two months after
:50:55. > :50:57.Meredith Kercher's murder, the second appeal of Amanda Knox and
:50:58. > :51:06.Raffaele Sollecito is coming to a close, the judgment watched by the
:51:07. > :51:08.world. Sollecito doesn't wait to hear the verdict, speeding off in a
:51:09. > :51:17.taxi. Amanda Knox stays in the United
:51:18. > :51:24.States, plagued by the same fears she shared on television. I thought
:51:25. > :51:27.about what it would be like to live my entire life in prison, and to
:51:28. > :51:33.lose everything, to lose what I've been able to come back to and
:51:34. > :51:39.rebuild. I think about it all the time. And it's so scary.
:51:40. > :51:42.Everything's at stake. Shortly after 9.30pm local time, after
:51:43. > :52:07.deliberating for more than 12 hours, the judge and jury enter the hall.
:52:08. > :52:12.Within the past hour, an Italian Court of Appeal has reinstated the
:52:13. > :52:15.convictions of the American citizen Amanda Knox and her former Italian
:52:16. > :52:20.boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of...
:52:21. > :52:23.This time, an even longer sentence. 28 years and six months for Amanda
:52:24. > :52:31.Knox, 25 years for Raffaele Sollecito. The lawyers give their
:52:32. > :52:35.verdict. TRANSLATION: This trial has been
:52:36. > :52:38.media driven. Everything has been amplified. These kids were taken to
:52:39. > :52:45.prison four days after the body was found. They were the first suspects.
:52:46. > :52:48.And they never lost that image. TRANSLATION: If it was a
:52:49. > :52:52.media-driven trial, it's not due to the Kercher family, who have been
:52:53. > :52:56.absolutely silent. So, if we are talking about a media circus, we
:52:57. > :53:01.need to look at the behaviour of the suspects and their followers.
:53:02. > :53:07.In court, the victim of Amanda Knox's original slander, Patrick
:53:08. > :53:23.Lumumba, is relieved. He's been awarded 40,000 euros' compensation.
:53:24. > :53:30.Raffaele Sollecito has disappeared. But the next day, police find him
:53:31. > :53:35.near the Austrian border. His lawyers say he wasn't trying to flee
:53:36. > :53:45.the country. He's expected to remain free until his final appeal.
:53:46. > :53:50.Back in Florence, Meredith's sister and brother face the media and are
:53:51. > :53:56.asked if they think Amanda Knox should be extradited from America to
:53:57. > :53:59.Italy. If somebody's found guilty and
:54:00. > :54:02.convicted of a murder, if an extradition law exists between those
:54:03. > :54:09.two countries, then I don't see why they wouldn't. I imagine it would
:54:10. > :54:12.set a difficult precedent if a country such as the US didn't choose
:54:13. > :54:15.to go along with laws that they themselves uphold when extraditing
:54:16. > :54:20.convicted criminals from other countries. It probably leaves them
:54:21. > :54:30.in a strange position not to. Knox and Sollecito will appeal one
:54:31. > :54:31.last time. Then, if the verdict is upheld, Italy will decide whether to
:54:32. > :54:42.request Amanda Knox's extradition. It's not the end of it. It's another
:54:43. > :54:46.chapter, moving things forward. Anybody losing anyone close to them
:54:47. > :54:52.is hard. Losing somebody so young and the way that we did is,
:54:53. > :54:57.obviously, 100 times worse. And then on top of that, to have all the
:54:58. > :55:01.media attention that has gone on for so long just makes it very, very
:55:02. > :55:05.difficult to cope with. Even if the guilty verdicts are
:55:06. > :55:11.upheld on appeal, Amanda Knox has vowed to keep fighting to clear her
:55:12. > :55:14.name. After her conviction, she releases a written statement saying
:55:15. > :55:17.she is frightened and saddened by this unjust verdict, followed by
:55:18. > :55:27.this photograph which reads, "We are innocent".
:55:28. > :55:33.I think we all definitely want some form of closure, even just having it
:55:34. > :55:36.almost at an end of the Italian justice system, and knowing that
:55:37. > :55:39.that's the final decision, and then we can all start to remember just
:55:40. > :55:54.Meredith, rather than focusing on who did it or what happened.
:55:55. > :56:03.Six years have passed since the death of Meredith Kercher.
:56:04. > :56:10.So, are Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito guilty?
:56:11. > :56:17.On January 30th 2014, the Italian justice system said yes. But with
:56:18. > :56:21.another appeal in the pipeline, the hard reality for Meredith's family
:56:22. > :56:26.is that their ordeal is still not over.