|
 Kercher, 21, was found stabbed to death in her bedroom in the
apartment she shared with Knox in the Umbrian city of Perugia in
2007, where the two were students.
Investigators quickly pointed to Knox and Sollecito as suspects,
building a narrative that the two killed Kercher in a sex game gone
awry. Both were convicted in an initial trial and spent four years
in prison.
They were cleared on appeal, but Italy's highest court last year
quashed that verdict due to "inconsistencies" and ordered a repeat
of the appeal trial.
Prosecutors have asked for 26 years in prison for both Knox and
Sollecito for the murder. A verdict is expected on Thursday night.
The case has played out through the media as much as through the
courts, propelling Knox and Sollecito to something approaching
celebrity status in their home countries. Armies of bloggers battle
over disputed evidence about the case online.
Supporters of Knox in the United States have done much to transform
an initial public image of her as a sex-obsessed party girl, which
critics say prevented a fair trial, to one portraying her as a
victim of a faulty justice system.
Knox has lived in her U.S. home city of Seattle since her 2011
release and has not returned to Italy to hear the verdict, saying
she will remain a "fugitive" if found guilty.
But Sollecito, dressed in a smart coat with sunglasses despite the
pouring rain, attended with his family.
INNOCENT
In final statements to the panel of two judges and eight jurors,
defense lawyers asked them to disregard DNA traces that originally
helped convict the two, saying errors by investigators meant they
could not be relied upon.
Traces of DNA on a knife found in Sollecito's apartment and on
Kercher's bra clasp, as well as footprints from the crime scene,
have been pored over in the latest trial.
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Knox's lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova raised his voice in anger as he
urged the judges not to feel they had to protect the reputation of
the Italian justice system, following allegations from the United
States that a flawed system led to Knox being wrongfully dragged
into the case as a suspect.
"Judges, we cannot send two innocent people to jail to ... protect
the dignity of anyone we heard in this process," Dalla Vedova said.
"What about the dignity of the accused, who spent four years in
jail? The dignity of the family? The victim?"
He dismissed Knox's initial testimony to police, in which she
falsely implicated Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba in the crime
and described hearing Kercher scream, as the result of police
manipulation, confusion and her lack of Italian language skills.
The prosecution maintains her initial testimony proves she had
knowledge of the crime, and has asked for an additional four years
of jail for Knox for a standing slander conviction for implicating
Lumumba.
Lawyers for Sollecito and Knox argue that only one person is guilty
of the murder: Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede, who is serving a 16-year
sentence for sexually assaulting and stabbing Kercher. His trial
found that he did not act alone because of the number and variety of
Kercher's more than 40 wounds.
The court has the power to detain Sollecito immediately if he is
judged a flight risk, but Knox would need to be extradited to serve
any sentence.
(Additional reporting by Antonio Denti;
editing by Andrew Heavens)
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