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Analysis Of The Meredith Kercher Trial

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On November 2, 2007, Meredith Kercher was found in her bedroom in Perugia, Italy, brutally stabbed and naked from the waist down. The 22 year-old was studying abroad in Perugia and lived with Amanda Knox, and two other roommates. Knox claimed that she was at her boyfriend’s, Raffaele Sollecito, home, and there until 10:30 am, around the time of the murder. No murder weapon was found at the crime scene, but there was a knife found at Sollecito’s house with Knox’s DNA, but it was never declared the murder weapon. Blood covered clothing that seemed to have been pulled off Kercher, a bra clasp with DNA of Kercher and Sollecito, and fingerprints, some with and without blood, were also admitted as evidence in the trial. DNA of another man was found …show more content…

When the police first arrived at the crime scene, they weren’t wearing the proper attire for collecting evidence. They were also moving around items, which ultimately contaminates a crime scene since it is no longer in its original state.(Professor Dena Weiss) Instead of moving around objects in a crime scene, and not wearing proper clothing, forensic scientists should document all changes that they make and pay extra attention to what they are wearing and touching while in a crime scene. Additionally, sketches, pictures, and notes help give other a better understanding of what a crime scene looked like originally, so before moving any items in the scene, those steps should’ve have been done. It is not said whether or not sketches or pictures were taken, or if there was a chain of custody established, however doing so allows for more accurate results of a crime scene …show more content…

Establishing a chain of custody would have resolved this issue because they would have accounted for where it has been and who’s possession it was in, so any inconsistencies could be traced. ( Richard Saferstein) Also, the statement that Knox made when she was first arrested, was forced by rude and threatening police officers, was permissible in court, however it should’ve been thrown out since it was confessed under false pretenses. Another major problem with this case was the contaminated crime scene, if a crime scene was tampered with, it should be thoroughly investigated to see what was moved or what is missing. It was also known that a forensics analyst did not take the body temperature of Meredith Kercher, so they were not able to determine her precise time of death which might have exonerated Knox. Additionally, the clasp from Kercher's bra may have been contaminated because it was not collected as evidence until nearly six weeks after the killing, however during the trial they didn’t take the possibility into account. There were many issues with this case that could be solved by: wearing appropriate clothing while investigating a crime scene, not touching the crime scene until pictures and sketches have been documented, taking a body temperature in order to determine the time of death,

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On November 2, 2007, the body of British college student, Meredith Kercher, was found in the Italian villa she shared with American college student, Amanda Knox. Kercher’s throat had been slashed and her body was only partially clothed. In the months that followed, Amanda Knox, her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and a drifter, Rudy Guede, will all have been suspects in the murder of Meredith Kercher.

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A knife, the so called murder weapon did have limited amounts of DNA from both Knox and the victim , but was found to not be compatible with the wounds on the body and contained no trace of blood. A bra clasp belonging to the bra cut off of the victim during the murder had such trace amounts of Sollecito’s DNA that it could only be tested once. It wasn’t until a week after the crime that the clasp was even found, by that time there had been so much activity at the crime scene cross contamination is a great possibility. Prosecutors also claim that a bloody footprint on a bathroom rug belonged to Sollecito, again it was so distorted it could not be confirmed to be a definite match. A majority of attention in the courtroom was place on the inappropriate, risqué, flirtatious behavior between Knox and Sollecito after the murder and at the time of questioning.

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When taken in for questioning Sollecito alibied Knox for the night before Kercher’s body was found but later changed his story, stating that he had not known Knox’s whereabouts between 9PM and 1AM of the same night. Knox and Sollecito’s altered their recollections of the night in question several times and but both stories varied greatly. Soon after Knox and Sollecito’s arrest, Guede’s bloody fingerprint was found at the scene of Kercher’s murder. He was convicted of her murder and sentenced to sixteen years in prison .There was also physical evidence linking Sollecito to Kercher’s murder, “This included DNA, said to be Sollecito’s, that was discovered on Kercher’s bra clasp and DNA allegedly belonging to both Knox and Kercher found on a knife in Sollecito’s kitchen” (Lenth,

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On November 2, Meredith Kercher, a British study abroad student, was murdered brutally, her throat slashed under a ‘blood-soaked duvet cover” at Perguia in her shared cottage. Amanda Knox from Seattle, Washington, Kercher’s twenty-year old roommate was identified as a suspect. In 2009 the Italian court found Knox, her boyfriend Rafael Sollecito and Rudy Guede guilty of Kercher’s murder (Mirabella, 2014). Rudy Guede, a drifter, was the primary offender and led to the reversal of Knox and Sollecito’s prosecution which turned to favour Amanda and Soillecito. Rudy 's DNA was found in Kercher 's purse, sweatshirt and also touch DNA in her body.

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