Amanda Knox Takes Stand Again, Says She Was Shocked by Friend's Death

PERUGIA, Italy, June 13, 2009— -- On the day she was supposed to have graduated from the University of Washington, accused murderer Amanda Knox took the stand for a second day today as the prosecution grilled her about the night of her police interrogation.

Knox testified that she was shocked by the death of the woman she considered a friend and again blamed harsh police tactics as the reason she gave statements to the police that she now says were false.

Tensions rose in the courtroom as lead prosecutor Guiliano Mignini accused Knox of evading his questions and the judge had to chide her to respond.

Knox, a 21-year-old American exchange student from Seattle on trial in Perugia, Italy, for the murder of her roommate, testified Friday that because she was stoned on the night her roommate died she was confused about what happened that night, a confusion that later muddled her original statements to Italian detectives.

She told the court that she spent the night of the murder at her former boyfriend's home, Raffaele Sollecito who is also on trial for murder, smoking marijuana and having sex.

Knox said on the stand today that she was hit and bullied as police tried to force her into implicating herself in the murder of Meredith Kercher.

"I was very, very scared," Knox testified, "because they were treating me so badly and I didn't understand why."

But when the prosecution grilled Knox on who hit her, she said she couldn't remember -- just that it was a policewoman with long, brown hair.

When Mignini asked Knox why she would sign a statement that wasn't true, she answered that "they kept saying I was either a stupid liar or I forgot.

"I was so scared and so upset at that point," she said. "I thought, 'Gosh, maybe they're right, maybe I did forget.'"

Today's testimony, which she gave in English initially before switching to Italian, came after Knox spent nearly seven hours on the stand Friday.

Her father, Curt Knox, said he was very proud of his daughter.

"We were able to go behind the wall, I call it, and actually hug her and tell her that she did really good," he said. "I mean, she was very articulate. She answered all the questions. I think she cleared up a number of things."

Curt Knox said his daughter's testimony Friday that she had smoked pot and had sex with her boyfriend before going to sleep was not surprising.

"There are many kids that experiment with drugs. She is not a user," he said. "I can tell you one thing that she has learned from this -- that she will never touch anything like that again."

Knox's mother will testify next week. Then the defense is expected to start attacking the prosecution's forensic evidence from the crime scene.

Knox Tells Her Side of the Story

Knox took the stand Friday for the first time in the case. Both Knox and Sollecito , 25, are accused of murder and sexual violence in the death of British student Meredith Kercher, who was 21 when she died Nov. 1, 2007.

A third person, Rudy Guede, has already been convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the murder. An appeal of that conviction is scheduled for November.

"On Nov. 1, I told Raffaele that I wanted to watch a movie, so we went to his place," Knox told the court Friday, speaking alternately in Italian and English. The two had dinner and then went upstairs to Sollecito's bedroom, she said.

"I sat on the bed, he sat at his desk. He prepared the joint and then we smoked it together," she said. "First we made love, then we fell asleep."