Prosecutors in Perugia began their closing arguments in Amanda Knox’s appeal case, asking that the American student be given an increased sentence and serve life in prison.
Knox and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were both found guilty in the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher and are currently serving 26 and 25 year sentences, respectively.
Knox and Kercher were study abroad students and flatmates at the time of the murder. In the original trial, prosecutors claimed that Knox and Sollecito killed Kercher after a sex game gone wrong.
A third defendant, Rudy Guede, was convicted on the 28th of October 2008 of the sexual assault and murder of Kercher.
Knox and Sollecito were convicted of sexual assault and murder in a separate trial on the 4th of December 2009. The pair has always maintained their innocence and mounted an appeal in December 2010 asking for DNA evidence to be reviewed.
The defense presented an independent report that cast doubt on DNA evidence found on a knife and a bra clasp recovered from the murder scene. Forensic experts testified that Italian police had mishandled the evidence, processed it more than 6 weeks after the crime, and stored it improperly.
The prosecution insists that would be a "scientific falsification of reality" to deny the original evidence which found Kercher's and Knox's DNA on the knife used to kill the British student and Sollecito's DNA on the murdered girl’s bra strap.
Closing arguments will continue today, and a verdict is expected as early as the 3rd of October.
