Follow the latest as a Florence court prepares to give its verdict on the re-trial of Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito over the murder of British student Meredith Kercher
live stream from court room
Appeal court finds Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito guilty
21.02 The jury has upheld the court’s original conviction and found Knox guilty of murdering the British exchange student Meredith Kercher. The court sentences Knox to 28.6 years and Sollecito to 25 years. Neither of the two are in court – Knox is back in Seattle and Sollecito is elsewhere in Florence.
20.59 Knox and Sollecito both found guilty
20.25 It’s now 11 hours since the jury, six lay people guided by two judges, began deliberations. In the meantime the press has been sitting in court looking at the inscription on the wall that reads La legge e eguale per tutti or The law is the same for everyone.
20.15 Spectators and journalists in the court have been forbidden from clapping or shouting when the verdict comes in and uniformed Italian carabinieri are in the court room to enforce it. Riot police are outside.
20.05 Naomi O’Leary of Reuters tweets this pictures of Meredith Kercher’s siblings, Lyle and Stephanie, arriving in court for the verdict.
Timeline
Nov. 2, 2007: Body of Kercher, 21, is found in Perugia apartment. Investigators say she was killed the night before.
Nov. 6, 2007: Knox is arrested with then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, Congolese owner of pub where Knox occasionally worked.
Nov. 20, 2007: Lumumba, implicated by Knox statements to police, is released from jail for lack of evidence.
Dec. 6, 2007: Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede is extradited from Germany, where he was arrested, and jailed upon arrival in Italy.
Dec. 14, 2007: Kercher is laid to rest after London funeral.
Oct. 28, 2008: Judge indicts Knox and Sollecito on murder and sexual assault charges. Guede, who was granted a fast-track trial, is convicted of murder and sexual assault and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Jan. 16, 2009: Trial of Knox and Sollecito opens in Perugia.
June 12, 2009: Knox takes stand; tells court she was shocked by Kercher’s death, offers alibi, says police beat her into making false statement.
Dec. 4, 2009: Court finds Knox guilty of murder and sexual assault; sentences her to 26 years in prison. Sollecito is convicted of same charges and sentenced to 25 years.
Dec. 22, 2009: Appeals court upholds Guede conviction and cuts sentence to 16 years.
Nov. 8, 2010: Judge orders Knox to stand trial on slander charges for claiming police beating.
Nov. 24, 2010: Appeals trial for Knox and Sollecito opens in Perugia.
Dec. 16, 2010: Italy’s highest criminal court upholds Guede’s conviction and 16-year prison sentence.
June 29, 2011: Independent forensic report ordered by the appeals court finds much of the DNA evidence used to convict Knox and Sollecito is unreliable.
Oct 3, 2011: Knox and Sollecito cleared of murder of Meredith Kercher. Knox told to pay 22,000 Euros in compensation to Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, a barman she falsely accused of the murder.
September 15, 2012: Sollecito reveals in new book how his memory was “poor” on the night in question, and questions whether Knox knew more about the murder than she revealed.
November 28, 2012: Knox releases title and cover of upcoming memoir: Waiting to Be Heard (above). It is due to come out in April. The book deal is reportedly worth $4 million.
Mar 26, 2013: Italy’s Supreme court orders Knox and Sollecito stand trial again for the Kercher murder, overturning their acquittals.
