The Meredith Kercher murder is a very high profile murder case, and the one name associated with it is Amanda Knox. Although she was supposedly cleared of the charges, there is a retrial coming, with a final verdict expected in March. The biggest problem with the case is the contradicting evidence, as well as the media being free from bias.
Involved with the Meredith Kercher murder case was not only Amanda Knox, but Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede. Rudy was originally sentenced to 30 years in prison, and then it was reduced to 16. Guede had a reputation to the police for being a drug dealer. Amanda Knox had a history of substance abuse herself, but it is still unknown how much she was tied to Guede. Some have speculated that Rudy committed the murder of Kercher on his own, without any help from Knox or Sollecito.
Some say that much of the conviction of the Kercher case had a lot to do with the prosecutor Giuliano Mignini. According to the Venture Capital Post, Mignini doesn't have a lot of fans and once accused a secret group of a popular murder. There was no evidence to support this, and many have speculated whether or not Magnini should have been a part of the case against Amanda Knox.
About one year ago, on January 30th, 2014, Italy's Supreme Court ordered a retrial. Amanda Knox will be going into court once again, and the big question is whether or not she will be convicted or exonerated. According to the Inquistir, there is a petition going around to clear her name, and it originated via Ground Report, a pro-Knox platform.
The Inquistir also reports that many Americans believe that there isn't any evidence against Knox, but this differs greatly from those "across the pond". Amanda's family hired a PR firm to help mend Knox's public image, which some say has caused some polarization of opinions on Knox's trial. Moreover, the campaign may include smearing the reputation of Rudy Guede, making him out to be a homeless drug dealer, drifter, and career criminal from the Ivory Coast, when Guede had an apartment near Raffaele Sollecito and lived in the area most of his life.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Amanda Knox case, it is over 7 years old, it began when British exchange student Meredith Kercher was murdered in Italy. Amanda Knox, Merdith's roommate was accused of the murder after an investigator found evidence that implied Amanda had attempted to deliberately mislead the Italian police. Knox was soon found guilty and sentenced to 26 years, but she was freed in 2011 due to "material non-existence" of evidence and a "far from probably" motive.
Knox will face the murder trial again and will be receiving a final verdict. The greatest challenge is sifting through all the evidence once again, and ignoring that the murder of Meredith Kercher is part of the public consciousness now. It could be difficult for her to get a fair trial with the "across the pond" bad reputation, and recent comments by Sir Richard Branson about a Knox deserving a fair trial have sparked some controversy. We will have to wait until March to see how this resolves.
