Amanda Knox

Amanda Marie Knox (born July 9, 1987) is an American woman whose conviction and eventual acquittal, along with Raffaele Sollecito, of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher in Italy received widespread publicity. Rudy Guede, who denied involvement but had strong forensic evidence against him, had earlier given evidence implicating Knox and Sollecito at his separate trial for murdering Kercher, and received a reduced sentence. Knox maintained her innocence and there was criticism of the verdict because of what some experts considered an anomalous absence of forensic evidence that she had attacked Kercher in her bedroom along with Guede, as the prosecution alleged. Knox spent almost four years in prison in Italy before a second-level or appeal trial freed both her and Sollecito in October 2011. After Knox had returned to the US, the Italian Supreme Court ordered the appeal trial to be re-heard. Knox remained in the US. In January 2014, she was again found guilty, and sentenced to 28 years in prison. Both Knox and Sollecito remained free; in Italy a guilty verdict in a serious case is not regarded as a definitive conviction until the accused has exhausted the appeals process. On March 27, 2015, Italy's highest court, the Court of Cassation, again overturned the conviction, definitively ending the case