Testimony in Amanda Knox Trial Disputes Bloody Footprints

Testimony in Amanda Knox's murder trial today challenged prosecution arguments that bloody footprints at the crime scene belonged to Knox's co-defendant and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

U.S. murder suspect Amanda Knox arrives for a hearing in the murder trial for Meredith Kercher at...

U.S. murder suspect Amanda Knox arrives for a hearing in the murder trial for Meredith Kercher at Perugia's courthouse, Italy, Friday, Sept. 18, 2009. Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, her former boyfriend, are charged with murder in the 2007 slaying of British student Meredith Kercher, with whom Knox shared a rented flat in the Italian city of Perugia. Both deny wrongdoing.

(Stefano Medici/AP Photo)

Knox and Sollecito claim they are innocent of the crime and that they were together in Sollecito's apartment on the night that Knox's English roommate, Meredith Kercher, was killed. The prosecution's argument that the bloody footprints belongs to Sollecito threatens their defense by placing him at the murder scene.

Knox, 22, a Seattle student who was studying in Perugia, is accused, along with Sollecito, 25, of murdering Kercher, with whom she shared a cottage in this picturesque Italian hilltown. Kercher, 21, was found semi-naked with her throat slashed on Nov. 2, 2007.

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A third person, Rudy Guede, 22, was convicted in October 2008 and sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the murder. He admits to being at the scene of the crime, but says he did not kill Kercher, and has appealed his conviction.

Francesco Vinci, a coroner and forensic specialist for Sollecito, told the court in Perugia, Italy, that the foot prints in the blood did not come from Sollecito.

Vinci's testimony focused on two out of four bare footprints found on the scene of the murder: a bloody footprint found on the rug in the bathroom, and a luminol-enhanced print found in the hallway of the cottage where the girls lived.

During testimony in May, both of these prints were attributed to Sollecito by the prosecution.

Vinci said he analysed the features of Sollecito's feet. "You look for peculiarities in the print to distinguish one print from another," he told the court. Vinci noted that among the distinguishing features of Sollecito's right foot is that the second toe is a hammer toe, so it does not leave an imprint.