Amanda Knox Guilty On All Charges Related To Housemate's Murder

Amanda Knox, the U.S. college student on trial in Italy for the murder of her housemate, was found guilty by a jury on all six counts for the death of British student Meredith Kercher.

Knox, 22, from Seattle, was sentenced to 26 years while her former boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, 25, was sentenced to 25 years by the court in Perugia, Italy.

The case has been controversial, with her supporters criticizing the evidence against her as extremely weak.

The verdict only seemed likely to intensify the controversy. Analysts on CNN discussing the verdict accused the Italian criminal-justice system of railroading her based on the evidence.

Prosecutors accused Knox, Sollecito and an Ivory Coast man, Rudy Guede, of killing Kercher because she refused to take part in a sex game.

As the web story that accompanied NPR's Sylvia Poggioli's Friday Morning Edition piece reported:

Ever since the body of British student Meredith Kercher was found naked and stabbed in November 2007, this medieval university town has become the scene of a media circus. Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were fingered by police almost immediately. The case has become an obsession for opinionated bloggers on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Italian media describe Knox as angel-faced. The prosecution claims she's a narcissistic she-devil capable of cold-hearted murder. Defense lawyers counter with a description of a naive, warm-hearted Seattle version of the French film character Amelie.

Kurt Knox says that after months of negative pounding by the prosecution, the defense's closing argument gave his daughter a strong psychological boost

.

"She's hanging in there," he says. "She is actually doing quite well. It is always nice to hear things about you that are real versus fantasy, so that makes you that much stronger as time passes."

 

Supporters of Knox assert that Guede alone was responsible for Kercher's murder.

Guede's DNA was found on the the dead woman's body. He was convicted in October 2008 of the murder and sentenced to 30 years but is appealing his conviction.