Update | Amanda Knox ‘frightened’ as murder conviction reinstated
US student, who served four years for the murder of Briton Kercher before release on appeal, sentenced to 28 years and six months
More than two years after Amanda Knox returned to the US apparently home free, an Italian court on Thursday reinstated her murder conviction in the stabbing of her roommate and increased her sentence to 28½ years in prison, raising the spectre of a long extradition fight.
Knox, 26, received word in her hometown of Seattle. The former American exchange student said she was “frightened and saddened by the unjust verdict” and blamed “overzealous and intransigent prosecution,” “narrow-minded investigation” and coercive interrogation techniques.
“This has gotten out of hand,” Knox said in a statement. “Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system.”
This has gotten out of hand. Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system
Lawyers for Knox and her 29-year-old ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who was also found guilty, vowed to appeal to Italy’s highest court, a process that will take at least a year and drag out a seesaw legal battle that has fascinated court-watchers on both sides of the Atlantic and led to lurid tabloid headlines about “Foxy Knoxy” and her sex life.
