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Knox retrial verdict:6 things to know
1/30/2014 8:39:00 AM
- Knox and Raffaele Sollecito await another verdict in the Meredith Kercher murder case
- Kercher was found stabbed in 2007 in a villa she rented with Knox in Perugia, Italy
- Knox and Sollecito's 2009 murder convictions were overturned on appeal in 2011
- An expert tells CNN that it is unlikely the U.S. would allow Knox to be extradited to Italy
(CNN) -- U.S. student Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito are waiting -- once again -- for a verdict from an Italian court in the murder case of British student Meredith Kercher.
Why are Knox and Sollecito back on trial?
In 2009, they were convicted of killing Kercher, 21, who was found stabbed in November 2007 in the villa that she and Knox rented in the central Italian university town of Perugia.
Prosecutors say she was held down and stabbed after she rejected attempts by Knox, Sollecito and another man, Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede, to involve her in a sex game. Guede is the only person still in jail for the murder, and many aspects still remain unexplained.
The convictions of Knox, from Seattle, and Sollecito were overturned in 2011 for "lack of evidence." But Italy's Supreme Court decided in March 2013 to retry the case, saying the jury that acquitted them didn't consider all the evidence and discrepancies in testimony needed to be answered.
What is different about this trial?
Despite the ruling of the Supreme Court, there is little difference in the evidence or details of the case, and it is unclear how presiding judge Alessandra Nencini will rule Thursday.
The retrial in Florence has renewed questions about the effectiveness of Italy's justice system, given doubts about the handling of the investigation and key pieces of evidence. When Knox was first convicted of murder, there was outcry in the U.S. that she was wrongfully convicted, based on shoddy evidence. When she was acquitted, there was nearly as much of an outcry in Italy that the courts had succumbed to American pressure.
Have the defendants attended the retrial?
The retrial began on September 30 without either of them in court. Sollecito was in the Dominican Republic at the start of the retrial but returned to Italy. He took the stand in November, defending himself.
"I would like to make you understand that these charges against me are absurd," he said. "There was not a basis to charge me, to put me in jail. ... I don't wish anybody on Earth to go through what I went through."
He said that evidence against him -- including a knife that was a key part of the prosecution's case -- was "an illusion."
Knox returned to Seattle after her 2011 acquittal and has been living there since. She says she is afraid to return to Italy, where she spent four years behind bars.
She again maintained her innocence in a written statement to the Florence court. "I must repeat to you. I'm innocent. I did not rape, I did not steal ... I did not kill Meredith," Knox said a lengthy e-mail, written in Italian, which was presented to the court by her lawyer.
What will happen to Knox if she is convicted?
Whatever is decided Thursday may not mean the case is closed. Either side can appeal a verdict they are unhappy with, under Italy's three-strike trial system. This could also mean the case would continue with no immediate outcome.
Even if Knox is convicted this time around, it is unlikely she will ever return to Italy. One legal expert told CNN that since U.S. law dictates that a person cannot be tried twice on the same charge, she will not be extradited. "Under U.S. law, she was once put in jeopardy and later acquitted," said Sean Casey, a former prosecutor who is now a partner at Kobre & Kim in New York. "Under the treaty, extradition should not be granted."
Speaking before the retrial, Casey added that the many flaws in the original verdict would also give Knox protection.
There is a valid extradition agreement between the two nations, but the U.S. has not set much of a precedence in returning suspects for such matters. Italians point to a number of high-profile cases over the years in which they say American suspects have been accused of wrongdoing and criminal acts, but have been let off lightly.
In 1998, an American military jet clipped a ski lift cable, sending a gondola of 20 passengers to their deaths in the Italian Dolomite Mountains.
Italian prosecutors wanted the crew of the jet tried in Italy, but an Italian court ruled they should face courts-martial in the U.S., in accordance with NATO treaties. The aircraft's pilot and navigator were found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter, even though the military admitted the plane had been flying lower and faster than authorized.
When it emerged that a video that captured the accident from inside the plane had been destroyed, they were dismissed from the Marine Corps. Italians were outraged, referring to the incident as the "massacre of Cermis."
In another incident that raised tensions, Egyptian cleric Abu Omar was seized off the streets of Milan in 2003 and smuggled to Egypt, where he says he was tortured and released four years later.
Although Italy did not request the extradition of any of the suspects, 22 CIA agents were convicted in absentia of the kidnapping and sentenced to prison time for their role in the abduction, but none ever served time in Italy.
What will happen to Sollecito if he is found guilty a second time around?
Because Sollecito is an Italian citizen, he will not have to face extradition if reconvicted. Police can simply pick him up and put him in jail.
What has been the reaction of Kercher's family?
A lawyer for the Kercher family said the victim's brother and sister, Lyle and Stephanie, would attend court to hear the decision.
The case has dragged on for six years, frustrating attempts by Kercher's family to discover the truth about her death. Three trials have done little to clear up mysteries about the details of the murder.
"No one remembers Meredith, while the two defendants write books, speak to the media and earn money," family lawyer Francesco Maresca told the court in closing remarks last month.
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