Amanda Knox Visited in Prison by Family
Updated 3:00 p.m. Eastern time
Amanda Knox sought comfort from visiting family members Saturday on her first day in prison since being convicted of murdering her British roommate.
The family of victim Meredith Kercher said the verdict brought a measure of justice. However, they said, it was not a time to celebrate.
Knox, a college student from Seattle, was tired and upset following , according to family members and a lawyer who saw her.
"Amanda like the rest is extremely disappointed, upset about the decision," Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, said after the visit to the prison just outside Perugia. "We told her that she's gonna get out of here. It's gonna take a little longer."
CBS News legal analyst Lisa Bloom said that the tabloid accounts of the case in Europe may have prejudiced the jurors, who in Italy are not instructed to avoid media accounts of the case before them.
"The tabloid accounts throughout Europe were consistently negative against Amanda Knox, although there were some articles that were more fair," Bloom said on CBS' "The Early Show" Saturday. "Even worse from our American point of view, the jurors actually were able to give interviews during the trial. Two of them told press reporters that they thought Amanda Knox was guilty before all the evidence was in."
Knox and Kercher's families came to this central Italian town for the verdict, which was announced at around midnight after 13 hours of deliberations. The court also convicted Knox's co-defendant and former boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, and gave him a 25-year jail term for the murder.
Knox and Sollecito are appealing the verdicts.
"She couldn't sleep all night," said lawyer Luciano Ghirga, who spent an hour with Knox at her jail just outside Perugia on Saturday morning. "She's worried for her parents, too, but she is keeping the faith needed for the next steps."
Ghirga said Knox was kept under strict surveillance. He denied reports that she had been put under suicide watch, which is the standard practice in such cases.
Kercher, 21, was Knox's roommate while they studied in Perugia.
Kercher's family said Saturday they were pleased with Knox's murder conviction but said there was no sense of celebration.
The victim's relatives made their first comments since a jury in Perugia, Italy, announced early Saturday that they had convicted Knox and sentenced her to 26 years in prison for the 2007 murder.
"Ultimately we are pleased with the decision, pleased that we've got a decision, but it's not a time for celebration," Lyle Kercher, the victim's brother, said.
Kercher's sister, Stephanie, said the verdict "does bring a little bit of justice, for us and for her." But she added: "Life will never be the same without Mez."
Kercher, 21, was Knox's roommate while they studied in Perugia.
Her body was found in a pool of blood with her throat slit on Nov. 2, 2007, at the apartment they shared. Prosecutors said the Leeds University student was murdered the previous night.
After a year-long trial and some 13 hours of deliberations, the jury read out the verdict in a packed courtroom shortly after midnight.
Just before the verdict, Knox and her family had managed to exchange glances, but no words.
"Tears were already coming down her eyes," said her sister, Deana Knox, outside the courtroom. "She was already scared. And I didn't get to see her face after that."
The presiding judge read out the verdict in somber tones, never looking up at the accused or their families gathered in the courtroom," reported CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey.
The sentence handed down was less than the maximum demanded by the prosecution, but no less stunning to their families.
Knox could be heard sobbing and saying, "No, no," as she was led away.
Knox and Sollecito were also ordered to pay nearly $7.5 million compensation to the Kerchers.
Minutes later, the 22-year-old from Seattle was put in a police van with sirens blaring and driven back to her jail just outside Perugia.
Related stories:
Amanda Knox Found Guilty of Murder
Photo Essay: Verdict In Italy
Case Timeline
Amanda Knox: I am Not a Killer
Knox's Lawyer Cries in Court
Amanda Knox Defense: "Clear This Girl"
Defense Lawyer Calls Knox "Naive"
48 Hours Exclusive: Knox Statement
48 Hours: American Girl, Italian Nightmare
She spent her first night in jail as a convicted woman under suicide watch, the ANSA news agency and other reports said. Sollecito, also kept under suicide watch - which is common in such cases - received the visit of one of his lawyers, ANSA said.
In Italy verdicts can be appealed by both sides. The prosecutors said they were satisfied with the ruling and would not seek to appeal, even though the court did not grant their request for life imprisonment. Prosecutor Manuela Comodi said that the verdict "recognizes the defendants are guilty of all the crimes they had been charged with."
Both the Knox family and lawyers for Sollecito have announced an appeal.
When it was over, the Knox family had to fight their way out of court.
Her father, Curt Knox, barely managed to contain his anger: "She had nothing to do with it," he said. "This was a failure of the system, flat failure," he said. "And the people of this community and literally the people of Italy had a system fail on them."
When asked if he would fight on for his daughter, he replied, with tears in his eyes: "Hell, yes."
The sentences carry an automatic appeal, which should begin by next October. The Knoxes are hoping that pressure from their home state Senator, Maria Cantwell, might hurry that along.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors depicted Knox as a promiscuous and manipulative she-devil whose personality clashed with her roommate's. They say Knox had grown to hate Kercher.
"It appears clear to us that the attacks on Amanda's character in much of the media and by the prosecution had a significant impact on the judges and jurors and apparently overshadowed the lack of evidence in the prosecution's case against her," the Knox family said in a statement.
In Seattle, Madison Paxton, Knox's friend from the University of Washington, said: "They're convicting a made-up person ... "They they're convicting 'Foxy Knoxy.' That's not Amanda."
Prosecutors argued that on the night of the murder, Knox and Kercher started arguing, and that Knox joined Sollecito and Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede in brutally attacking and sexually assaulting the Briton under "the fumes of drugs and possibly alcohol."
Guede was convicted previously and sentenced to 30 years. He denies wrongdoing and is appealing.
Knox said Kercher was a friend whose slaying shocked and saddened her.
(Left: Amanda Knox's father Curt and her stepmother Cassandra enter the jail in the outskirts of Perugia, Italy, where Amanda is detained, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009.)
Defense lawyers maintained there was not enough evidence for a conviction and no clear motive. They disputed DNA traces that the prosecution linked to Knox and Sollecito as inconclusive, and in some cases said the evidence had been inadvertently contaminated.
Bloom said the strongest case made in the appeal will be on the evidence. "I think one of their strongest grounds on appeal is that the defense was not allowed to bring in DNA experts to counter the DNA experts that the prosecution has," she said.
The appeals process can take anywhere from one to three years, "almost the equivalent of a new trial," Bloom said.
The pair also was convicted of illegally carrying a weapon - the knife - and of staging a burglary at the house where the murder occurred by breaking a window, supposedly in an effort to sidetrack the investigation.
Knox also was convicted of defaming Congolese man, Patrick Diya Lumumba, whom she accused of the killing. Lumumba was jailed briefly but was later cleared. Knox said during the trial that police pressure led her to initially accuse an innocent man.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Amanda Knox sought comfort from visiting family members Saturday on her first day in prison since being convicted of murdering her British roommate.
The family of victim Meredith Kercher said the verdict brought a measure of justice. However, they said, it was not a time to celebrate.
Knox, a college student from Seattle, was tired and upset following , according to family members and a lawyer who saw her.
"Amanda like the rest is extremely disappointed, upset about the decision," Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, said after the visit to the prison just outside Perugia. "We told her that she's gonna get out of here. It's gonna take a little longer."
CBS News legal analyst Lisa Bloom said that the tabloid accounts of the case in Europe may have prejudiced the jurors, who in Italy are not instructed to avoid media accounts of the case before them.
"The tabloid accounts throughout Europe were consistently negative against Amanda Knox, although there were some articles that were more fair," Bloom said on CBS' "The Early Show" Saturday. "Even worse from our American point of view, the jurors actually were able to give interviews during the trial. Two of them told press reporters that they thought Amanda Knox was guilty before all the evidence was in."
Knox and Kercher's families came to this central Italian town for the verdict, which was announced at around midnight after 13 hours of deliberations. The court also convicted Knox's co-defendant and former boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, and gave him a 25-year jail term for the murder.
Knox and Sollecito are appealing the verdicts.
"She couldn't sleep all night," said lawyer Luciano Ghirga, who spent an hour with Knox at her jail just outside Perugia on Saturday morning. "She's worried for her parents, too, but she is keeping the faith needed for the next steps."
Ghirga said Knox was kept under strict surveillance. He denied reports that she had been put under suicide watch, which is the standard practice in such cases.
Kercher, 21, was Knox's roommate while they studied in Perugia.
Kercher's family said Saturday they were pleased with Knox's murder conviction but said there was no sense of celebration.
The victim's relatives made their first comments since a jury in Perugia, Italy, announced early Saturday that they had convicted Knox and sentenced her to 26 years in prison for the 2007 murder.
"Ultimately we are pleased with the decision, pleased that we've got a decision, but it's not a time for celebration," Lyle Kercher, the victim's brother, said.
Kercher's sister, Stephanie, said the verdict "does bring a little bit of justice, for us and for her." But she added: "Life will never be the same without Mez."
Kercher, 21, was Knox's roommate while they studied in Perugia.
Her body was found in a pool of blood with her throat slit on Nov. 2, 2007, at the apartment they shared. Prosecutors said the Leeds University student was murdered the previous night.
After a year-long trial and some 13 hours of deliberations, the jury read out the verdict in a packed courtroom shortly after midnight.
Just before the verdict, Knox and her family had managed to exchange glances, but no words.
"Tears were already coming down her eyes," said her sister, Deana Knox, outside the courtroom. "She was already scared. And I didn't get to see her face after that."
The presiding judge read out the verdict in somber tones, never looking up at the accused or their families gathered in the courtroom," reported CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey.
The sentence handed down was less than the maximum demanded by the prosecution, but no less stunning to their families.
Knox could be heard sobbing and saying, "No, no," as she was led away.
Knox and Sollecito were also ordered to pay nearly $7.5 million compensation to the Kerchers.
Minutes later, the 22-year-old from Seattle was put in a police van with sirens blaring and driven back to her jail just outside Perugia.
Related stories:
Amanda Knox Found Guilty of Murder
Photo Essay: Verdict In Italy
Case Timeline
Amanda Knox: I am Not a Killer
Knox's Lawyer Cries in Court
Amanda Knox Defense: "Clear This Girl"
Defense Lawyer Calls Knox "Naive"
48 Hours Exclusive: Knox Statement
48 Hours: American Girl, Italian Nightmare
She spent her first night in jail as a convicted woman under suicide watch, the ANSA news agency and other reports said. Sollecito, also kept under suicide watch - which is common in such cases - received the visit of one of his lawyers, ANSA said.
In Italy verdicts can be appealed by both sides. The prosecutors said they were satisfied with the ruling and would not seek to appeal, even though the court did not grant their request for life imprisonment. Prosecutor Manuela Comodi said that the verdict "recognizes the defendants are guilty of all the crimes they had been charged with."
Both the Knox family and lawyers for Sollecito have announced an appeal.
When it was over, the Knox family had to fight their way out of court.
Her father, Curt Knox, barely managed to contain his anger: "She had nothing to do with it," he said. "This was a failure of the system, flat failure," he said. "And the people of this community and literally the people of Italy had a system fail on them."
When asked if he would fight on for his daughter, he replied, with tears in his eyes: "Hell, yes."
The sentences carry an automatic appeal, which should begin by next October. The Knoxes are hoping that pressure from their home state Senator, Maria Cantwell, might hurry that along.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors depicted Knox as a promiscuous and manipulative she-devil whose personality clashed with her roommate's. They say Knox had grown to hate Kercher.
"It appears clear to us that the attacks on Amanda's character in much of the media and by the prosecution had a significant impact on the judges and jurors and apparently overshadowed the lack of evidence in the prosecution's case against her," the Knox family said in a statement.
In Seattle, Madison Paxton, Knox's friend from the University of Washington, said: "They're convicting a made-up person ... "They they're convicting 'Foxy Knoxy.' That's not Amanda."
Prosecutors argued that on the night of the murder, Knox and Kercher started arguing, and that Knox joined Sollecito and Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede in brutally attacking and sexually assaulting the Briton under "the fumes of drugs and possibly alcohol."
Guede was convicted previously and sentenced to 30 years. He denies wrongdoing and is appealing.
(AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)
(Left: Amanda Knox's father Curt and her stepmother Cassandra enter the jail in the outskirts of Perugia, Italy, where Amanda is detained, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009.)
Defense lawyers maintained there was not enough evidence for a conviction and no clear motive. They disputed DNA traces that the prosecution linked to Knox and Sollecito as inconclusive, and in some cases said the evidence had been inadvertently contaminated.
Bloom said the strongest case made in the appeal will be on the evidence. "I think one of their strongest grounds on appeal is that the defense was not allowed to bring in DNA experts to counter the DNA experts that the prosecution has," she said.
The appeals process can take anywhere from one to three years, "almost the equivalent of a new trial," Bloom said.
The pair also was convicted of illegally carrying a weapon - the knife - and of staging a burglary at the house where the murder occurred by breaking a window, supposedly in an effort to sidetrack the investigation.
Knox also was convicted of defaming Congolese man, Patrick Diya Lumumba, whom she accused of the killing. Lumumba was jailed briefly but was later cleared. Knox said during the trial that police pressure led her to initially accuse an innocent man.
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Visitors evacuate after suicide at Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral
- Boat hijack stokes tension between N. Korea, China
- N. Korea sends top envoy to China as tensions mount
- Egypt troops in Sinai sweep mistakenly hit funeral
- 12 years post-Taliban, Afghan women's rights under fire
- China probes rice tainted with cancer-causing cadmium
- Egypt TV: 7 security personnel kidnapped in Sinai freed
- Hezbollah suffers heavy losses fighting inside Syria
Actually unlike hypocrites, my words and actions are consequent, I now live in Bali.
Yes, our justice system is not good enough, as evidenced by the hundreds being freed because the judge "sold" them to a private prison, among other miscarriages.
I don't drink, but only a few California wines are up to international standard.
The government? that is too long a response, let's just say Iraq and Afghanistan, collapsing economy, and leave it at that.
And yes, Americans are hypocritical.
I dare you to prove me wrong.
--------------------------------------------
I have known many EU folk that are JUST as hypocritical as Americans. I had a French dude just the other day telling me to go shoot some more Indians. Would be like me reminding him of the Guillotine and viva la revolution. I guarantee that Americans do not corner the market on hypocrisy but again that is a matter of opinion. Funny how your story has changed... From Detriot to make a point and now you are from Bali.
Liking wine is a function of taste. Many people worldwide like American wine and some have won awards in Europe. I guarantee not all European wines are great either.
Liking our justice system is also subjective. For instance in Italy Jury's are not sequestered and allow their jurors to be bombarded by public opinions like this and vital criminal cases do not have to be unanimous, just a majority. I bet they have a lot of innocent people in jail there. American justice seems to have an advantage there.
As far as the Govt. I agree about Iraq. But isnt Democracy grand? We can change it. Some of us are working toward that end. We are just coming off a really bad decade. It happens. Italy has had a few.
You are uppity. Now get back on your high horse and ride off into the sunset.
What a load of bollocks. She accused him after an hour and 45 minutes of questioning - she wasn't even a suspect then! Amanda Knox is a liar and a head case. She changed her story over and over again. Anyone that says there wasn't enough evidence to convict her should do a bit more research instead of reading the totally biased opinion of cnn and cbs. It's glaringly obvious she's guilty - and it's based on facts.
I think it's important to remember the real tragedy here - Meredithy Kercher. It seems she's somehow been lost to you people. RIP.
The thought in several stages:
1- Never go to a foreign country and screw around. Where's is it. Bermuda, where they have a prison full of foreigners who were caught with drugs. 18 years in prison. No parole. Other areas of the world don't screw around.
2- White girls do commit murder.
3- Blond girls do commit murder.
4- Cute girls do commit murder.
Let's take Tiger Wood's wife. Damn, back to Tiger. She bonk, bonk, bonked him over the head with a golf club. White, blond and cute. End of story.
Please use better judgment when choosing which photos to air out of respect for the deceased victim & especially her family. The public, on a "need to know" basis, does NOT need to see photos of the victim's foot.
Mainstream journalism continues to sink to new lows. It is hard to distinguish network news from tabloid exploitation. When are you going to stop, do some soul searching & reverse course?
1. The boyfriend REFUSED to corroborate the entirety of the Knox alibi stating that Amanda was NOT actually with him the entire night and he was not making love or reading but watching a movie (what they did or did not do that night kept changing--but only after the bleach was brought up did both then say they WERE at Amanda's apt cooking fish on the night of the murder)
2. Surveillance shows Guede and Amanda washing clothes a few days after the murder (while Amanda's boss was jailed on murder charges) whose clothes? Amandas? Nope--they were washing Meridiths clothes for some reason--bleach was also used to clean Meridith's room so throughly that only 1 print of the dead girl was found in her own room. WOW. But the killers did not understand that Luminol is a flourescent which can show traces of blood under black light--whose blood? Why--Meridith's blood--in whose room--her own and leading outside her door...in whose print size? Knox's.
Then there is the infamous showering of Amanda while she observed blood on doors and sinks (10 inch blood streak on the door) yet did not call the police until about 5 hours later after someone else already did so and a roommate had called her. Explain that--all of it--especially the MANY MANY lies of Sollecito and Knox--also explain how or why Knox later stated in a journal that she thinks her boyfriend may have killed her roommate and framed her and why he says the same kind of stuff about her---classic alright--her lies got her.
Hung by her own petard.
1 She is female.
2 young
3 An American
I have no pity for Miss Knox. I am American. My now dead kin did come from Iraland and or England.. I feel for the UK family..They need our thoughts more so. What about them. It been the American girl this/that..America is a mess up nation..Miss Knox got 26 years..Let her serve that time. Her family need to allow her to serve it. All I have heard is a pity trip for Miss Knox..Get over it. Miss Knox is alive..The lady from the UK is not.It must have been hard for them more so..May she RIP. I am poorly schooled. A poster states people in Europe read..Dear I read. I am legally blind.. In WA state she may have gotten life..
I am glad it was heard in the nation it was. People from Europe have a right to their say.