Amanda Knox: Court Has Made 'Huge Mistake'

Perugia, Italy (CNN) -- Former American student Amanda Knox gave an emotional plea Saturday while appealing her conviction in the murder of her British roommate in Italy.

Knox spoke for about 15 minutes and broke down in tears. She said that she and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are innocent and unjustly accused.

"I've been condemned for the crime I did not commit," Knox said.

Knox also added that court has made "a huge mistake."

"I don't know how to face the time ahead," she said.

Knox was sentenced last year to 26 years in prison for the killing of Meredith Kercher at the villa they shared in Perugia, the central Italian town where both were students.

Kercher, 21, was found in November 2007, semi-naked with her throat slashed. Knox and Sollecito were both found guilty of the murder.

Sollecito is serving a 25-year sentence.

A third person, Rudy Guede, a drifter originally from the Ivory Coast, was tried separately and is serving a 16-year prison sentence.

Knox's appeal hearing started in November, but lasted only 15 minutes before the judge adjourned it until Saturday because one of the lawyers was not present.

Knox's family said in April that she is innocent and that no forensic evidence puts her at the crime scene.

"Meredith was Amanda's friend," the family said. "They liked each other and spent time together when not in school. Amanda would not hurt Meredith."

The family said the appeal would detail "a lot of conjecture in these motivations, a number of discrepancies as well as a number of inconsistencies and contradictions; as well as conclusions not supported by evidence."

Jurors said they believed Knox played a role in the killing but that the death was not premeditated, according to a report released in April by the judges in the case.

Knox Appears in Italian Court to Face Slander Charges

(CNN) -- American Amanda Knox, serving time in an Italian prison for the 2007 murder of her British roommate, appeared in court briefly Tuesday to face slander charges for saying that Italian police beat her during an interrogation, said her attorney, Luciano Ghirga.

Police in Perugia, Italy, have always denied beating Knox and filed the slander charges against her.

Knox, 22, of Seattle, Washington, was convicted in December of killing her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, in November 2007. Also convicted was Knox's ex-boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito. Knox was sentenced to 26 years and Sollecito to 25.

A third person, Rudy Guede, was tried separately and initially was sentenced to 30 years, but an appeals court later reduced that to 16 years.

Knox appeared briefly at a preliminary hearing on the slander charges. During her trial, she testified that Italian police gave her "cuffs," or small beatings, while interrogating her regarding Kercher's death. She said police used the threat of physical violence to intimidate and pressure her, which led her to falsely accuse Patrick Lumumba in Kercher's murder.

Lumumba was arrested as a result, but he was released shortly afterward once his alibi checked out. He sued Knox for defamation and won.

Knox's attorneys have challenged the judge in the slander case, since he was the same judge that ruled Knox and Sollecito would remain in custody pending trial in November 2007, Ghirga said Tuesday. An appeals court in Perugia is expected to decide on the recusal request June 17. The next court hearing in the slander case is set for October 1.

Knox "is holding strong," Ghirga said Tuesday, and is taking online Italian language courses from Seattle University.

Amanda Knox: Meredith Kercher Murder Trial in Italy was 'Correct'

NY Daily News: Amanda Knox, the 22-year-old American exchange student who was convicted of murdering her roommate, says her trial was "correct."

According to ABC News, Knox spoke to Italian Parliament member Walter Verini four days after a jury found her guilty on the weekend of killing Meredith Kercher on Nov. 1 2007.

Verini, who represents Umbria, the region where Knox is jailed, told ABC that Knox was polite and "apparently calm."

He found the Seattle native in a track suit, reading in her cell, when he visited the Capanne prison outside of Perugia.

Knox allegedly told Verini that her trial was "correct" and that she "still has faith in the Italian legal system," to whom her lawyers will appeal the ruling.

"I asked her if she had seen how her country had reacted to the verdict," Verini told ABC News. "She was evidently aware of everything that was happening, but did not say what effect she thought it would have on her legal situation."

After receiving a prison sentence of 26 years, Knox was moved to a cell she shares with a 53-year-old American named Laura, her mother, Edda Mellas, told ABC News.

American commentators criticized the verdict, suggesting that the court was subject to anti-Americanism and the tabloid coverage of the trial.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state, released a statement implying that the jury was negatively influenced by the Italian media and by anti-Americanism. She said she would bring her concerns about the Italian justice system to Secretary of State Clinton. For her part, Clinton said she had not gone over the Knox case but would meet with anyone who had concerns about it.

But Knox's lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, has rejected claims that his client's trial in Perugia was tainted in an way.

"Amanda's rights were respected during the trial," he told ABC News. "She had a fair trial."

Ghirga, however, did bring up the fact that Knox's rights were not respected when she was questioned without a lawyer in the investigation following Kercher's death.

"We made that point very strongly in the trial," he said.

Kercher, 21, was found on Nov. 2, 2007, with her throat slit in the apartment she shared with Knox. Knox; her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and Ivory Coast citizen Rudy Hermann Guede (in a separate trial) were convicted of sexually assaulting and killing Kercher.

Sollecito was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and both he and Knox were ordered to pay 1 million euros to each of the victim's parents and 800,000 to each of her Kercher's three siblings.

Both parties plan to appeal in a process set to begin March 5.



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Amanda Knox Says Police Officer Slapped Her

PERUGIA, Italy (CNN) -- American student Amanda Knox, accused of killing her housemate two years ago, testified in her murder trial Saturday that she was intimidated by Italian police during questioning.

Knox, 21, is charged in the death of British student Meredith Kercher, who was her housemate in Perugia, a university town north of Rome.

Kercher, 20, died in what prosecutors say was a "drug-fueled sex game" after suffering a sexual assault. She was found half-naked, with a stab wound to her neck, in her bed November 2, 2007.

Saturday was the second day of testimony for Knox, who is from Seattle, Washington.

The public prosecutor, her defense lawyer, the attorney for her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and the judge asked her about what happened the night of Kercher's death and the following day.

Both Knox and Sollecito, 25, are charged with murder and sexual assault.

Knox tried to explain Saturday why she gave conflicting answers to police when they interrogated her on November 6. She said it was a combination of police pressure, their suggestions, and her confused and frightened state of mind.

"When I would say that I was with Raffaele, they would say, 'You are a liar,' and they repeated this," she said, testifying in fluent Italian.

"You will go to prison for 30 years. ... You must remember," Knox recalled the police as saying.

Knox said the police were standing behind her and officers were going in and out of the interrogation room. A policewoman next to her was constantly pressing her to give them a name, and an interpreter on her right said people under trauma tend to forget things, she said.

"I was confused. ... I had so much fear," Knox said. She testified that she thought, "Hell, perhaps they're right and I have forgotten."

Knox repeated Saturday that police slapped her on the back of her head while questioning her. As she spoke, she hit her head a few times with her right hand and gestured broadly.

Knox testified Friday that she was not at the women's villa the night Kercher died, which authorities believe was the evening of November 1. She said she was at Sollecito's house.

Knox testified Friday that the couple had dinner, watched a movie, smoked marijuana, had sex and went to bed on the night of November 1. She said she returned to her and Kercher's villa the next morning to take a shower.

That's when she said she noticed "strange things" such as the front door being left open, dried blood in the bathroom sink and on a bath mat, feces in the toilet, and the door to Kercher's room locked.

When Knox returned to Sollecito's house, she said, he suggested they call police in case the house had been burglarized. Police then found Kercher's body.

All cameras were barred from the courtroom Saturday because the public prosecutor said he wanted to avoid "sensationalism." Cameras were allowed at the beginning of the session Friday but then ordered out.

Knox's father, Curt, defended his daughter Saturday.

"What we've seen over the past five months is a character assassination, and now, hopefully .... a different point of view of who she is is coming out," he told reporters.

People are beginning to see that "she is not this dark angel she's been portrayed as," he added.

"Amanda did a great job" on the stand, Curt Knox said. "She was very articulate in her answers. She answered all of the questions truthfully. She was not quivering in her voice. She was looking the judge in the eyes."

Her attorney, Carlo della Vedova, described his client as "very confident."

"She has repeated exactly what happened that night, on the fifth and sixth, when she was arrested. She gave all the information that was requested" during her testimony, he said.

The trial is to resume next Friday, but Knox isn't expected to testify again.

A third person, Ivory Coast native Rudy Hermann Guede, was convicted of murder in a fast-track trial in October and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing the verdict.

Watch Knox take the stand »
Watch Knox in court »