Italian Court Explains Knox and Sollecito Acquittal

| Mon, 12/19/2011 - 02:19

Months after being set free, the Italian court that overturned the murder convictions of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito has released the report supporting the new verdict.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito both served nearly four years for the murder of Meredith Kercher. After a lengthy appeal process, the two young people were released after defense attorneys argued there was a lack of evidence linking either to the crime.

The 144-page report details why the court believes the British student was killed by a "lone assassin".

The Italian judges found that the original verdict:
"Was not corroborated by any objective element of evidence and in itself was not, in fact probable: the sudden choice of two young people, good and open to other people, to do evil for evil's sake, just like that, without another reason. It is not, therefore, sufficient that the probability of the prosecutors' hypothesis is greater than the hypothesis of the defense, not even when they are notably greater in number, but it is necessary that every explanation that differs from the prosecutors' hypothesis is, according to the criteria of reasonability, not at all plausible".

The release of Knox and Sollecito has been difficult for the Kercher family. The family lawyer commented that the report only serves to "increase the bitterness" the Kercher family feels towards the exonerated duo.