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Italy’s Supreme Court’s decision to retry Amanda Knox for the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher sparks a heated legal debate that raises questions of double jeopardy.

The U.S. constitution bans double jeopardy, or being tried twice for the same crime; however, the Italian courts have no such law, meaning that they will use the same evidence to try Amanda Knox for the 2007 murder.

According to legal experts, Italy’s Supreme Court decision could throw both countries into uncharted territory, as it is highly unlikely the U.S. will extradite Amanda Knox to face trial.

Amanda Knox’s Italian lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said it was unlikely that his client does not intend to return to Italy to face trial, which would likely take place this year or next. However, Amanda Knox can be tried in absentia.

“Amanda does not intend to come back for the retrial,” he said.

“Her home is in Seattle and she doesn’t need to be here.”

Carlo Dalla Vedova added that the decision to order a new trial was shocking.

“She thought that the nightmare was over,” he said on the steps of the courthouse.

“But she’s ready to fight.”

When the Italian courts reach a final decision they can also ask for her extradition, the lawyer told Reuters. At that point, the U.S. Department of State would have to weigh in on the request and make its own decision. The state department would then turn to the U.S. Attorney’s Office to seek the Seattle resident’s extradition.

Regardless of the outcome, the new trial will prove to be an expensive and emotionally-charged spectacle.

After the court’s decision, Amanda Knox struck back: “No matter what happens, my family and I will face this continuing legal battle as we always have, confident in the truth and with our heads held high in the face of wrongful accusations and unreasonable adversity,” she said in a statement.

Amanda Knox has largely avoided the public eye since returning to Seattle, Washington, and has been spotted around the town running errands and resuming her studies.

Her memoir, Waiting to be Heard, is due out in April.

Amanda Knox’s memoir, Waiting to be Heard, is due out in April 2013

Amanda Knox’s memoir, Waiting to be Heard, is due out in April 2013

Meredith Kercher, 21, a Leeds University student, was found semi-naked with her throat cut in the bedroom of the house she shared with Amanda Knox, in Perugia in November 2007.

The first trial caused a stir as both Amanda Knox and her then boyfriend Raffaele Sollicito were acquitted of Meredith Kercher’s murder, and a polarizing divide in national thought. Americans largely understood the two to be innocent, while the British believed them to be getting away with murder.

The initial trial also put Amanda Knox’s character in the forefront as prosecutors painted the American student as a sexual deviant who experimented with marijuana.

But in 2011, the evidence was re-visited and much of it was found to be “contaminated”.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito spoke on the phone soon after Italy’s Supreme Court’s decision of retrial.

Raffaele Sollecito’s current girlfriend Annie Achille said: “They will see what can be done.”

Annie Achille added that Raffaele Sollecito, who turned 29 yesterday, is “destroyed” and not talking to anyone.

Meredith Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Italy as an exchange student from Leeds University.

She was found dead in 2007, in the cottage she shared with Amanda Knox in Perugia.

Her throat had been slit and her semi-naked body had been covered with a duvet. After a lengthy trial in Perugia, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of the murder in December 2009 and sentenced to 26 and 25 years respectively.

Two years later, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were freed after an appeal court found that the case had been botched and DNA evidence contaminated.

A third suspect, Rudy Guede, whose DNA and bloody footprints were found all over the crime scene, is serving a 16-year prison sentence, reduced from 30 years on appeal.

Meredith Kercher’s family welcomed the Italian court’s judgment. Her sister Stephanie said: “We are never going to be happy about any outcome because we have still lost Meredith but we obviously support the decision and hope to get answers from it.

“There are still so many unanswered questions. All we have ever wanted to do is do what we can for Meredith and to find out the truth of what happened that night.”

Amanda Knox had rejoiced after her conviction was sensationally overturned in 2011.

She fled Italy within hours, returning home to the US, where she quickly embraced life as a free woman.

Amanda Knox now shares a flat with boyfriend James Terrano, a classical guitarist, and is studying at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she can be near her parents and three sisters.

She is preparing for the publication next month of a memoir for which she has been paid a reported $3.8 million.

Raffaele Sollecito remained in Italy and is studying robotic surgery at the University of Verona. He has already released a book about his experience. In it he said that he and Amanda Knox were still in touch – he visited her earlier this year and they speak on Skype regularly.

His lawyer Giulia Bongiorno said: “We are still strong. This is not a sentence in itself: this is just an annulment.”

Amanda Knox’s appeal against her conviction for slander – for having falsely accused her boss Patrick Lumumba of the murder – was rejected. She has already served the three-year prison sentence for that conviction, but was ordered to pay Lumumba €4,000 ($5,100) in costs.

The retrial will be held in Florence, with different judges, to avoid accusations of prejudice against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.

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Amanda Knox has said she will fight to clear her name after Italy’s Supreme Court overturned her acquittal for killing Briton Meredith Kercher.

Amanda Knox and former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito face a new trial over the 2007 killing in Perugia.

They were freed on appeal in 2011 after four years in jail, but Italy’s Supreme Court re-opened the case on March 26, 2013.

Amanda Knox does not have to return from the US for the case, but if found guilty she could face extradition.

Raffaele Sollecito, 29, will not have to return to jail while the new appeals process goes ahead.

Both deny killing Meredith Kercher, 21, who was found stabbed to death in the flat she shared with Amanda Knox in Perugia in November 2007.

Amanda Knox has said she will fight to clear her name after Italy’s Supreme Court overturned her acquittal for killing Meredith Kercher

Amanda Knox has said she will fight to clear her name after Italy’s Supreme Court overturned her acquittal for killing Meredith Kercher

The case has drawn intense media interest in Italy, the UK and the US and put the Italian police and justice system under great scrutiny.

In a statement, Amanda Knox, now a 25-year-old student in Seattle, described the court decision to reopen the case as “painful news”.

“The prosecution’s theory of my involvement in Meredith’s murder has been repeatedly revealed to be completely unfounded and unfair,” she said.

“No matter what happens, my family and I will face this continuing legal battle as we always have, confident in the truth and with our heads held high in the face of wrongful accusations and unreasonable adversity,” Amanda Knox added.

Meredith Kercher’s family has welcomed the decision.

“Whilst we are not happy about going back to court, and it will not bring her back, we have to make sure we have done all we can for her,” Meredith Kercher’s older sister Stephanie said.

Kercher family lawyer Francesco Maresca said it was “an important day for the Italian legal system”.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were originally sentenced to 26 and 25 years in prison for murdering and sexually assaulting Meredith Kercher.

Meredith kercher, a Leeds University student, was found with more than 40 knife wounds on her body, including a deep gash to the throat.

Prosecutors believe she died in a brutal sex game that went wrong.

Another man – Rudy Guede from Ivory Coast – was convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to 16 years for the killing.

In 2011, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were acquitted on appeal, largely on the grounds that DNA evidence was flawed.

But that decision has now been overturned by the Supreme Court after prosecutors argued that it was “contradictory and illogical”.

The court has not yet given a full explanation for its ruling on the appeal, but will announce its reasons within 90 days.

The new trial will be held in Florence rather than Perugia, where the original trial and appeal took place, although the date has not yet been set.

After her release in 2011, Amanda Knox returned to the US.

Both she and Raffaele Sollecito – now a student in Verona – have written books about the case.

Rafafele Sollecito’s book was published last year.

Amanda Knox’s book – titled Waiting to be Heard – is due out on April 30, 2013.

Meredith Kercher case:

  • 1 November 2007: Meredith Kercher is killed at her apartment in Perugia, Italy. Police find her a day later.
  • 6  November 2007: Meredith Kercher’s US housemate Amanda Knox is arrested, along with Raffaele Sollecito and Congolese national Patrick Diya Lumumba.
  • 20 November 2007: Rudy Guede detained in Germany and extradited to Italy. Patrick Diya Lumumba released without charge
  • 28 October 2008: Rudy Guede sentenced to 16 years. A judge rules Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox will face a murder trial
  • 4 December 2009: Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito found guilty of murder and sexual violence, and jailed for 26 and 25 years
  • 3 October 2011: Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito acquitted
  • 26 March 2013: Re-run of appeals ordered. Acquittals overturned

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Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito face a retrial over the 2007 killing of Briton student Meredith Kercher, Italy’s highest court has ordered.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito spent four years in jail in Italy for murder but were freed on appeal in October 2011, largely on the grounds DNA evidence was flawed.

Prosecutors appealed and the Court of Cassation overturned the acquittals.

Ivory Coast national Rudy Guede was convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to 16 years.

He was found guilty of sexually assaulting and stabbing Meredith Kercher. Rudy Guede admitted being at the house on the night of the killing in November 2007, but denies murder.

Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito face a retrial over the 2007 killing of Briton student Meredith Kercher, Italy's highest court has ordered

Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito face a retrial over the 2007 killing of Briton student Meredith Kercher, Italy’s highest court has ordered

Meredith Kercher, from Coulsdon, south London, had been on a year abroad from Leeds University when she was found semi-naked in her bedroom and with her throat cut in the cottage she shared with Amanda Knox.

Prosecutors believed Meredith Kercher was killed in a brutal sex game that went wrong.

Addressing the court on Monday, they urged the judges to “make sure the final curtain does not drop on this shocking and dire crime”.

Amanda Knox’s Italian lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, said on Monday her client was “very anxious” about the latest hearing.

Amanda Knox lives in Seattle and a retrial is likely to take place in absentia, as the US is unlikely to extradite her, analysts say.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were originally sentenced to 26 and 25 years in prison for killing and sexually assaulting Meredith Kercher.

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Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito are waiting to find out if their acquittal for the murder of Meredith Kercher will be overturned by Italy’s highest court.

Italy’s Supreme Court judges will rule on Monday on whether there should be a retrial regarding the death of Meredith Kercher or if the case against them should be closed completely.

In 2011 Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were cleared of the 2007 murder on appeal after they had initially been found guilty and sentenced to 26 and 25 years respectively.

British student Meredith Kercher, 21, was found semi naked and with her throat cut in her bedroom in the house she shared with American Amanda Knox in the picturesque Italian hill top town of Perugia.

The case made headlines around the world amid allegations of sex games, drugs and jealousy during their first trial in 2009.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty but were cleared two years later after a fresh hearing uncovered a bungled police investigation.
Defence lawyers and experts revealed how evidence had been contaminated or poorly handled by forensic teams and that the conviction should be considered unsafe.

They were immediately freed with Amanda Knox returning to her home in Seattle while Raffaele Sollecito went back to Bisceglie on the southern Italian coast near Bari.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are waiting to find out if their acquittal for the murder of Meredith Kercher will be overturned by Italy's highest court

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are waiting to find out if their acquittal for the murder of Meredith Kercher will be overturned by Italy’s highest court

Prosecutors in Perugia appealed the decision on behalf of Meredith Kercher’s family and will find out on Monday if they have been successful.

They want the acquittal to be quashed and for a new trial to be held in neighboring Tuscany.

Neither are expected to attend the hearing which will be held behind closed doors in Rome.

The case will decided purely on paperwork and legal documents with no new witnesses giving evidence.

Luciano Ghirga, Amanda Knox’s lawyer, said: “She is very anxious about the hearing but she is waiting for it knowing full well that the outcome is very important.”

Since returning to Seattle in the US, Amanda Knox has kept a low profile although she is due to given an interview to ABC television on April 30 to coincide with the release of a book about her four years in an Italian jail.

Raffaele Sollecito has also written a book and has already given an interview on Italian TV about the case where he said he and Amanda Knox were no longer lovers but they were still in touch – he visited her earlier this year and they speak on Skype regularly.

He is now studying in Verona and they have always insisted they are innocent of Leeds University student Meredith Kercher’s murder – she had only been in Italy for two months before she was killed having arrived from Coulsdon for a year long course as part of her degree.

During the investigation and trial much was made of Amanda Knox’s character with prosecutors saying she was highly sexual and had manipulated Raffaele Sollecito but her lawyers dismissed the theory.

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