Murder of Meredith Kercher

Amanda Marie Knox (born 9 July 1987, Seattle, Washington) was a 20-year-old University of Washington language student who shared a flat with Kercher. She was in Perugia attending the University for Foreigners for one year, studying Italian, German and creative writing. Knox met her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito at a classical music concert held on 25 October 2007, which she attended with Kercher at the University for Foreigners. When Kercher left at the intermission, Sollecito met Knox.The murder of Meredith Kercher occurred in Perugia, Italy, on 1 November 2007. Kercher, aged 21 at the time of her death, was a British university exchange student from Coulsdon, South London. She shared an upstairs flat with three other young women. She was sexually assaulted and stabbed, and property belonging to her was stolen.
Rudy Guede, a resident of Perugia, was convicted on 28 October 2008 of the sexual assault and murder of Kercher. His fast-track conviction was upheld, and he is now serving a reduced sentence of 16 years. Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian student, and Amanda Knox, an American student and a flatmate of Kercher, were convicted of sexual assault and murder in a separate trial on 4 December 2009. They were given sentences of 25 and 26 years respectively. Knox and Sollecito have appealed. Their appeal commenced in December 2010 and is scheduled to end in late 2011.
The trials have been the subject of news reports around the world, particularly in Italy, Britain and the United States. The coverage has been criticised for being tabloid in nature rather than presenting the evidence accurately and dispassionately.
Reactions to the case are polarized between the view that Knox and Sollecito are innocent victims of a miscarriage of justice and the view that they were directly involved in Kercher's murder and convicted fairly. The conviction of Rudy Guede has not generated similar controversy.Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher, known to her friends as "Mez", was born on 28 December 1985[notes 1] in Southwark, London, England, and lived in Coulsdon, South London. She had two older brothers and an older sister. Her father is a freelance journalist, and her mother is a housewife who was born in India.
Kercher attended the Old Palace School in Croydon and then she took a degree in European Studies at the University of Leeds. At the time of her murder, she was studying for one year at the University of Perugia as part of the ERASMUS student exchange programme. On the evening of 1 November 2007, All Saints Day and a national holiday in Italy, the upstairs flat in which Kercher lived was unoccupied. One of her Italian flatmates had left town and Knox was at Sollecito's flat. The four Italian men who shared the downstairs flat had also left town.
Knox was expecting to work at Le Chic pub that night, but at 8:18 pm her employer, Patrick Lumumba, sent her a text message stating that she was not required due to slow business. She responded by text at 8:35 pm. When a friend arrived at Sollecito's flat around 8:40 pm, Knox answered the door.
That evening, Kercher dined with three other English women at one of their homes and watched a DVD of the film The Notebook. Kercher said that she felt tired and that she wanted to retire early for the night. She borrowed a history book, and left to walk home with one of her friends, Sophie. Parting company with Sophie at about 8:55 pm, she walked the remaining 500 yards (460 m) to her flat alone. According to early investigations and post-mortem examination, Kercher died in the flat between 9 and 11 pm, later revised to between 9 pm and 4 am.