In Rome an independent expert panel appointed by the court found that the DNA forensic evidence convicting Amanda Knox and her then boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was contaminated.
Recent breakthroughs in the DNA evidence that closed the case on the Amanda Knox murder trial in Italy has the Knox defense team and family confident she will be released and home by Christmas. The lack of motive and witnesses make this case highly reliant on the forensic evidence collected by Italian officials. Now that the evidence has been found unreliable the previous verdict will most likely be overturned.
The media frenzy that ensued after the murder of Meredith Kercher in 2007 subsided once the three main suspects, Amanda Knox, Raffele Sollecito and Rudy Guede were all found guilty and convicted of killing the English student. Since their conviction, Sollecito and Knox have both filed appeals claiming their innocence.
The murder that happened in Perugia while Knox and Kercher were studying abroad and sharing a flat with three other girls has made a serious turn. Knox and Sollecito have finally caught a crucial victory in their mission to prove their innocence.
The initial DNA testing of this evidence has been found by an independent panel to be below international standards. The independent panel comprised of two professors from Rome created a report that will undoubtedly cause the Perugia Italian Court to throw out the evidence.
The report finds that evidence was improperly collected and documented, and that some pieces of evidence had no traces of real DNA from either of the two defendants. A translation of the report from the expert panel states:
The murder weapon found to have contaminated DNA evidence
Knife, more:
- There was no blood on the knife.
- and 4 Accepted scientific procedures for collecting and analyzing the knife specimen were not followed.
- The experts do not agree with the prosecution witnesses’ interpretations of the results since the profile was unreliable.
- Contamination cannot be ruled out
Bra clasp:
Partially unrecognizable because of corrosion
- There is no evidence of flaking cells, no cytology
- The interpretation of the DNA profile was erroneous
- The Y (sex) chromosome was misinterpreted
- Methods did not follow international procedures of inspection and international protocols for collecting and sampling of the exhibit.
- Contamination cannot be excluded.
FIND 165B (HOOKS FOR BRA)
With regard to the 65B Rep. (bra hooks) believe that
are not reliable technical assessments carried out for the following reasons:
- there is no evidence scientifically conclusive Presumed
flaking cells on the specimen; - There was an erroneous interpretation of the electrophoretic pattern of Autosomal STRs;
- there was a misinterpretation of its electrophoretic pattern
the Y chromosome; - were not followed international procedures of inspection and
international protocols for collecting and sampling of the exhibit; - can not be excluded that the results obtained may result from phenomena contammazione of environmental and / or contammazione occurred in any phase of the repertoire and / or manipulation of that finding.
Hopefully this new DNA report from the independent panel will lead to a quick release of both Knox and Sollecito. Guede stands by his testimony and will continue to serve his 16 year sentence.