Amanda Knox Hit With $12M Civil Suit

PERUGIA, Italy, Nov. 27, 2009— -- In civil procedures today, the lawyer representing the family of strangling victim Meredith Kercher requested the equivalent of about $36 million in damages from the three people who are accused of killing her, including U.S. exchange student Amanda Knox.

In asking for what he called "symbolic" damages, the lawyer, Francesco Maresca, told the court here that he believed the case against the two young people was "crystal clear" and enough for the jury and judges to find them guilty.

"There is no room for other solutions," Maresca said.

Italian prosecutors maintain that Knox, 22, sexually molested and killed Kercher, her former roommate, in November 2007, with the help of Raffaele Sollecito, 25, Knox's one-time boyfriend, and Rudy Guede, a young drifter from the Ivory Coast.

They described Knox last week as angry and resentful, and the mastermind of a punitive sex game that ended with Kercher's death.

Guede, 22, was convicted to 30 years in prison for his role in the killing in a separate trial last year, and the judge awarded the equivalent of about $12 million in damages, a third of today's request.

All three of the accused have said they are innocent.

A civil trial in Italy occurs at the same time as the criminal trial. If the jurors and the judge find Knox guilty and award the damages requested today, she will be ordered to pay $12 million to the Kercher family. The sum would be divided among the parents and Kercher's three siblings.

Sollecito would also be liable for $12 million.

After summing up the main evidence discussed in the course of the trial, Maresca said Kercher's family was asking the court for "justice and truth" in the death of their loved one.

"The Bible says that the judge is a minister of God, and inflicts a just punishment on those who do evil ... those who causes suffering must be made to suffer by having their freedom taken," Maresca said.