Italian Jury Finds US Student Guilty of Murder, Gives Her 26-Year Sentence
American student Amanda Knox has been found guilty of murdering her British roommate after a 10-month trial in Perugia, Italy.
Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollcito, was given 25 years in the stabbing death of British exchange student Meredith Kercher, CNN reported. They were both also ordered to pay $7.4 million to the family of the victims; Knox was additionally ordered to pay $60,000 to Patrick Diya Lumumba, who Knox had implicated in Kercher’s murder. Knox and Sollcito both plan to appeal their verdicts.
Under Italian law, the six jurors and two judges deliberate together to reach the verdict.
A third suspect, Rudy Hermann Guede of Ivory Coast, was convicted in October 2008, the Seattle Times reported at the time. Guede was given a 30-year sentence. Knox and Sollecito have been jailed for the past two years, CNN reports.
Knox’s lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, teared up in court Wednesday during his four-hour closing argument.
“Amanda is asking to have her life back,” Ghirga pleaded to the jury. “Give Amanda her life back by clearing her of all charges.”
