Amanda Knox

AC360°

Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state, is speaking out against the Amanda Knox verdict. She talks to Anderson about the case tonight. Take a look at the letters she has sent Sec. of State Hillary Clinton.

Barbie Latza Nadeau
The Daily Beast

Is the real Amanda Knox the sex-obsessed, cold-blooded murderer that the prosecution depicted? Or worse?

Amanda Knox should be finishing college and polishing her résumé for her first job. She should be buying Christmas presents for her friends. She should be falling in love. But so should Meredith Kercher, the British woman Knox was just convicted of killing. Knox, who was sentenced to 26 years in prison for sexual assault, murder, staging a crime scene, and criminal defamation, will one day walk out of prison. She will likely be out in time to marry and have children, should she chose to. Kercher has been wiped from existence.

 Knox is a convicted murderess but she is not necessarily an assassin. She is a 22-year-old woman who followed a dream to study in Perugia, but instead found herself in an unthinkable situation that led her to Capanne Prison just outside of town. She has a recognizable face, but she is no longer the young woman from the pictures taken on November 2, 2007, snuggling outside the crime scene with her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who was also convicted for Kercher’s murder. Back then, Knox seemed naïve and carefree. Now she is withered. The lines in her face are deep with concern.

Read More...

Amanda Knox looks on during a session of her trial last week at the courthouse in Perugia, Italy.

Richard Allen Greene and Paula Newton
CNN

Amanda Knox is in an Italian jail, sentenced to spend the next 26 years there for the 2007 slaying of her roommate Meredith Kercher while the two were exchange students in Italy.

But despite a trial lasting nearly a year, many questions about the case remain unanswered.

Reporters who have covered the crime and its aftermath for years left Perugia after the verdict Saturday saying they felt they knew no more about what happened in Knox and Kercher's house on November 1, 2007, than they did when Kercher's partially naked body was found the next morning.

The verdicts against Knox, an American, and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito came early Saturday, delivered in a vaulted brick courtroom two levels below ground in this Italian university town. Sollecito was sentenced to 25 years in prison. A third suspect, Rudy Guede, was convicted earlier and sentenced to 30 years.

Keep Reading...

____________________________________________________________________

Valerie and Michael Miller were found dead inside their Webster Plantation home, investigators said.

Gabriel Falcon
AC360° Writer

The couple slain in a small Maine town may have been killed because of the husband’s illicit drug and cash transactions, a family member of one of the victims told CNN. “Trust, me I got first hand knowledge of that,” said Rebecca Bickford, a cousin of Valerie Miller, who with her husband, Michael Miller, were found dead in their home in Webster Plantation, a community of a roughly 80 people.

Bickford said Mr. Miller sold drugs from his mobile house. “The number one thing would have to be pain killers,” Bickford said. “My cousin, Valerie, wasn’t into the whole business aspect. She was into the liking the money and material things. She disagreed with it, him being into that business, because it’s really dangerous, especially up in that area.”

Bickford also said Mr. Miller operated as an informal pawn broker and moneylender. “”He was into having his own pawn shop, buying cigarettes from a different state and selling them,” she said. According to Bickford, Mr. Miller would loan cash at a 50 percent interest rate, plus collateral.

Keep reading

Editor's Note: We take a look tonight at the case of Maurice Clemmons and the legal provision called Interstate Compact Supervision that allows offenders across state lines amidst pending charges.We'll have more tonight at 10 p.m. ET.

Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision

Amanda Knox is comforted by her lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova during her trial on December 3, 2009 at the courthouse in Perugia.

Richard Allen Greene and Hada Messia
CNN

An Italian jury has begun deliberations in the murder trial of American student Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

"We'll know today," Chris Mellas, Knox's stepfather told CNN in court. "All we can do is hope for the best."

On Thursday Knox took the stand for a third time, telling jurors in her Italian murder trial she is not a "killer" who stabbed her former roommate.

Knox and Sollecito are charged with murder and sexual violence in the November 2007 stabbing death of Meredith Kercher. Knox and Kercher, a British exchange student, were roommates. A third suspect was found guilty in a separate trial and is appealing.

Keep Reading...

AC360°

Amanda Knox's high-profile case is coming to an end. After two years in prison, her verdict is expected to be delivered this Friday. If  found guilty, she could spent the next thirty years behind bars. Her defense in the trial for the gory 2007 sex-murder of her British housemate Meredith Kercher rejected the charges that she and former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecitothe killed Kercher in a drug-fuelled sexual misadventure.

Here is a photo gallery overview of the Knox case.

This file picture taken on September 16, 2008 at a court hearing in Perugia shows Amanda Knox being escorted by police. The first audience of Amanda Knox' trial, took place on January 16, 2009 in Perugia. Amanda Knox, from Seattle, Washington, has been held awaiting trial since a few days after British exchange student Meredith Kercher, aged 22, was found dead semi-nude in her bedroom with her throat slit on November 2, 2007.

One of the three suspects in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, Rudy Guede, 21, from the Ivory Coast (C), of the United States, leaves at a court hearing in Perugia on September 27, 2008.
He was found guilty and is currently serving a 30 year prison sentence.

The third suspect in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, Knox's former boyfriend, leaves a court hearing in Perugia on September 27, 2008.

British student Meredith Kercher.

The lawyer of the family of slain British student Meredith Kercher, Francesco Maresca, leaves the courthouse in the central Italian city of Perugia on October 28, 2008.

Amanda Knox testifies at the sitting of the Meredith Kercher murder trial at the Perugia courthouse on June 13, 2009 in Perugia, Italy.

Curt Knox (L) and Edda Mellas, the parents of US student Amanda Knox speak to journalists prior to the trial session of their daughter Amanda on November 28, 2009 at Perugia's courthouse.

Amanda Knox is comforted by her lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova during her trial on December 3, 2009 at the courthouse in Perugia. American Amanda Knox asked a jury not to put the 'killer's mask' on her as she and her boyfriend made emotional final appeals denying the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

According to her parents, Amanda was an easy child to raise. She, amongst other things, excelled at soccer, where she inherited the nick name "Foxy Knoxy". The name was later used by the prosecutor and taken out of context.

A knife found in Raffaele Sollecito's house which has the DNA of Amanda Knox on the handle and victim Meredith Kerecher on the blade, is suggested by the prosecutor to be the murder weapon. But the defense argues that the knife does not match the shape and size of wounds on Kercher's body or an outline of the knife left on the bed.

____________________________________________________________________

Gabriel Falcon
AC360° Writer

One of the smallest communities in the nation has been jolted by a double homicide, police in Maine said.

The victims, a husband and wife, were found dead in their mobile home over the weekend, Stephen McCausland, Public Information Officer for the Maine State Police told CNN. The couple lived in Webster Plantation, a town with a population of less than 100 people. “Basically two roads,” said McCausland. “Frankly, before Sunday, I’ve never heard of it. It’s that remote and that small.”

The slain couple has been identified as Michael and Valerie Miller, both 48. Their bodies were found in their home early Saturday afternoon, authorities said. Initially, investigators believed they might have succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning. However, the results of autopsy reports confirmed that they were the victims of homicide.

Investigators would not reveal the exact cause of death. “We’re releasing very few details about this case,” McCausland said.

McCausland did say that detectives are looking for a woman who was seen leaving the couple’s home on the day they were found dead. He described her as middle aged with a ponytail and wearing glasses. “We would like to find her and interview her, so far we have appealed to the public for help, so far we’ve had half a dozen calls.”

Webster Plantation is located in the center of Maine. According to the police, this is the first murders in the community in at least 2 decades.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Maine State Police at 207-866-2122.

____________________________________________________________________

Gabriel Falcon
AC360° Writer

A California couple took their young children along on an early morning armed robbery spree that ended after a high speed chase, police said today. The suspects allegedly staged three Sunday hold-ups within minutes of one another while their 5-year-old and 1-year-old daughters were in the getaway car.

“You can’t make this stuff up,” Detective Andrew Purdy of the Los Angeles Police said. “You just really can’t.”

William Farag and Nadia Redoble, both 28, have been charged with three counts of robbery. Detective Purdy said the suspects, who reside in Van Nuys, could face additional charges for two robberies that occurred last week. Investigators will also ask the district attorney to consider charging them with child endangering and felony evading.

Detectives allege the couple began their November 30 crime wave at a Rite Aid pharmacy in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles. According to police the suspects tried to hold up the business at 2:45 a.m. At 3:00 a.m., they allegedly attempted to rob a CVS pharmacy in Encino. Moments later, they are accused of targeting an IHOP restaurant, also in Encino.

“The wife would stay in the car with the two kids and the husband went into the business armed with a revolver and wearing a mask and demanding money,” Purdy told CNN. In a media release, the LAPD allege Farag pointed a handgun at two co-workers. Purdy said Farag obtained about $500 in cash.

Keep reading