As Amanda Knox waits to hear her fate, see photos of the trial’s major players, including victim Meredith Kercher, defendant Rafaelle Sollecito, and Knox’s parents. By Barbie Latza Nadeau.
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Amanda Knox came to Perugia in October 2007 to spend a semester abroad studying languages and learning about Italian culture. She was arrested for the murder of her roommate in November 2007, and officially charged nearly a year later. In December 2009, she was convicted and sentenced to 26 years in prison.
Meredith Kercher was a 21-year-old British Erasmus student studying in Perugia when she was brutally murdered in her apartment in Perugia on Nov. 1, 2007. She was found on the floor of her locked bedroom semi-nude, with three stab wounds to her neck. Rudy Guede, Amanda Knox, and Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of her murder. Guede is currently serving 16 years, Knox, 26, and Sollecito, 25.
Raffaele Sollecito was an IT student in Perugia when he met Knox, who would be his first serious girlfriend. He was arrested in November 2007 after his alibi fell apart during an investigation into the crime. He was charged with murder in October 2008 and convicted in December 2009.
Rudy Guede is a legal immigrant from Ivory Coast who had abandoned studies to take on odd jobs in the area. He had committed a string of petty crimes in Italy before being arrested in Germany, where he fled after Kercher's murder. He opted for a fast-track plea-bargain trial in 2008, and was convicted of murder and sentenced in 2008.
Edda Mellas and Curt Knox divorced when Amanda was just 2 years old but have shown a united front in support of their daughter's return to freedom. Mellas is a math teacher and Curt Knox works as a financial director of the Seattle Opera. They, along with Mellas's husband, Chris, and other family members, have rotated their time in Perugia to be with Amanda.
Patrick Lumumba is the Congolese bar owner whom Amanda Knox accused of Meredith Kercher's murder during an interrogation in November 2007. He was arrested and spent two weeks in jail before authorities freed him after finding no trace of him in the murder room. He had an airtight alibi. He has been awarded €8,000 ($10,700) by the state for false imprisonment.
Giulia Bongiorno is a star attorney in Italy currently leading the defense team for Rafaelle Sollecito. She also is a prominent member of Parliament and president of the Parliamentary Judiciary Committee. She made her name on the legal team that freed former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti of mafia charges in 1993.
During closing arguments in support of Amanda Knox, defense lawyers said she is not a sexual vixen, as she had been described, but instead more like Jessica Rabbit, who was "not bad, I'm just drawn that way."
