20 From 20/20: Key Moments From the Amanda Knox Appeal
See highlights from Knox's appeal of her murder conviction.
Oct 1, 2011 — -- Though Amanda Knox's first murder trial concluded in 2009, the drama from the case was far from over. Below are 20 key moments from Knox's appeal of her conviction for the killing of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher.
1. In April 2010, prosecutors filed an appeal requesting a harsher sentence of life in prison for Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. Knox was initially given a 26-year-term while Sollecito received 25 years.
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2. Days later, Knox's lawyers filed a 200-page appeal of her murder conviction.
3. Before the appeal trial began, Kercher's father wrote an angry op-ed in the Britain's The Daily Mail newspaper, saying that while Amanda Knox has become a celebrity, his dead daughter had been labeled nothing more than a murder victim. "She has become 'Meredith Kercher, murder victim,' not Meredith Kercher, our lovely, intellectually curious daughter," he wrote.
4. Disputed DNA evidence was crucial to convicting Knox in 2009 but in December of the following year, a judge ordered an independent review of the evidence, prompting the Knox family to erupt in sobs of relief. The initial trial court had refused to allow an independent review.
5. Knox's defense team scored another victory when the judge announced that he would allow several witnesses that the defense hoped would refute testimony that placed Knox and Sollecito near the house on the night Kercher was killed.
6. In March, defense lawyers cast doubt on the testimony of one of the prosecution's key witnesses, Antonio Curatolo, a 53-year-old homeless man with a history of drug use and heroin dealing. Curatolo claimed during the murder trial he saw Knox and her then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, near Knox and Kercher's cottage the night of the murder. He said he thought it was Halloween because students were wearing costumes and buses were taking them to discos for Holloween. The murder occurred the night after Halloween, throwing his testimony into doubt.
7. In late May, 11 Italian legislators signed a petition calling for a review into whether the Knox criminal investigation was conducted properly.
8. Also in May, Knox gave a tearful statement in court. "I remember how I was young and how I did not understand anything and the most important thing is that I do not want to stay in prison unjustly for all my life," she said.
9. Rudy Guede, who has also been convicted of Kercher's murder, wrote a letter to his lawyer saying that Knox and Sollecito were present at the killing. After the letter was read in court in June, Knox testified that the only time she, Sollecito and Guede were together was in the courtroom.
10. In late June, a court-appointed panel of DNA experts concluded that key DNA evidence used to convict Knox and Sollecito may have been contaminated. What was identified as Kercher's DNA on the knife, they said, may have actually come from rye bread.
11. Some in the courtroom laughed as they watched video of police investigators breaking protocols for DNA collection as they handled DNA evidence. The video showed forensic police picking up Meredith Kercher's bra clasp, handing it to one another, placing it back on the floor, photographing it and then picking it up again.
12. On Sept. 7, Manuela Comodi, one of three prosecutors in the Knox case, conceded "a possibility" that Knox and Sollecito could win the appeal of their murder conviction. "I would find it very serious if they were set free," she told ABC News.
13. Earlier this month, Meredith Kercher's sister Stephanie pleaded with the Perugia court to consider "every single (piece) of evidence." "It is extremely difficult to understand how evidence gathered with care and presented as valid at the original trial now risks becoming irrelevant," she wrote in a letter.
14. Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini began his summation last week by almost immediately presenting the jury with a slideshow that included photos of Kercher's naked, slashed body and a close-up of her fatal neck wound. Several jurors looked away.
15. Mignini also said there had been "heavy interference" in the trial, a reference to the recent press coverage of the appeal, and urged the panel to proceed with their deliberations in a "rigorous way."
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