Amanda Knox personal photos
Italy's highest criminal court on March 26, 2013 overturned Amanda Knox's acquittal in the slaying of her British roommate and ordered a new trial. The Court of Cassation ruled that an appeals court in Florence must re-hear the case against the American student and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, for the murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher. Kercher's body was found in November 2007 in her bedroom of the house she shared with Knox and others in Perugia, an Italian university town where the two women were exchange students. Her throat had been slashed. Prosecutors alleged Kercher was the victim of a drug-fueled sex game gone awry. Knox and Sollecito denied wrongdoing and said they weren't even in the apartment that night, although they acknowledged they had smoked marijuana and their memories were clouded. An Ivory Coast man, Rudy Guede, was convicted of the slaying in a separate proceeding and is serving a 16-year sentence. Knox and Sollecito were also initially convicted of the murder and given long prison sentences, but were then acquitted on appeal and released in 2011. The high court's ruling on March 26, 2013 overturned the appeals court acquittals. It is unclear what would happen if Knox, now 25, is convicted in a new appeals trial.
Author: Edecio Martinez
Credit: Personal Photo
