The jury reportedly deliberated nearly fourteen hours, after an 11-month trial to convict the two. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, and Sollecito received 25 years. The jury did not, however, give them the recommended (by the prosecutor) life sentences. The defense believes this just reflects the doubts over the prosecutor's case.
Both are expected to appeal their convictions, and the estimated time to achieve that could be up to five years. The first of the two appeals will be held in Perugia, Italy, most likely next fall. If that appeal fails, the next step would be to appeal with the Court of Cassation, which is the Supreme Court, and is located in Rome. This is the process that could take years, up to five, as timing goes for cases such as these.
The two different images the media has put on Amanda Knox has been so confusing to the say the least. First, she has been made out to be this sex-crazed, hot-tempered, party animal. Then, she has also been portrayed as, and really "looks" as if she is a sweet, normal, young college student who was caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
There are so many things that don't look good for either of these young people. But, it does sound like most, if not all the evidence is circumstantial, except for the confession by Knox, which she claims was coerced. However, since the Italian government does not allow taped interrogations, there is no way to know whether the confession was coerced as Amanda claims.
Also, I have never heard or read anything about Raffaele's interrogation. It would be interesting to know whether their stories did match up in the beginning. It is just so hard to tell from the outside looking in whether these two are guilty or not. If they really are guilty of this, what a horrible shame that they only received 25 and 26 years. If they really are innocent, that kind of sentence would feel like an eternity. According to a news story I heard, Italy has a court of "reasonable doubt", which would appear to make a conviction harder, unless there was an enormous amount of evidence. So, who knows how hard this was for the jury without participating in it, or if they did follow instructions.
It also sounded like from a television report on the Today Show, that another person's DNA was actually found on the victim. He is a black man, that's all I remember, I don't recall his name. So if that kind of evidence was brought forth which resulted in a conviction for him (he was convicted earlier this year if I remember right), then why were we not hearing his name all over the media, like we heard Amanda's? It raises the obvious question, was the media so focused on Amanda Knox because she was the only one of the group accused who seemed NOT LIKELY to do something like this? Granted, that doesn't mean she didn't do this, and I wasn't on the jury, however, it makes you really think about whether the media focused so much on Amanda, that we couldn't see past her.
If Amanda and Raffaele are actually innocent of these crimes, I hope the true killer(s) come to justice soon. And regardless of who committed these crimes, the Kercher family lost a family member. I am sure this will be an emotional holiday season for their family, and my thoughts and prayers go out to them.
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