Foxy Knoxy Wins a Holiday Victory

Local convicted felon Amanda Knox, currently serving time in Italy for the murder and sexual assault of Meredith Kercher, won a small victory over the weekend when appeal Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman ordered a review of DNA evidence used at Knox’s trial. Two independent experts from Rome’s Sapienza University will make new analysis of DNA traces found on the murder weapon and the clasp of the victim’s bra.

If it’s not possible to analyze the DNA, then the investigators will review the analyses that were previously carried out to assess their reliability. Commentators have repeatedly criticized the initial analyses; the bra clasp was not retrieved until three months after the murder, and Knox’s defense team claimed that the evidence could have been contaminated.

The review will take at least thirty days, and will begin after the appeal trial’s next session, on January 15th. New witnesses are also being heard next month, to refute testimony from Antonio Curatolo, a homeless man who had previously testified that he saw Knox and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, near the two girls’ apartment house on the night of the murder. Knox’s appeal is expected to last well into the spring.