What’s the case of the murder of Meredith Kercher

The murder of Meredith Kercher, also known as the crime of Perugia, is a case of black crime that took place in Perugia (Italy) on the evening of 1 November 2007 .

Meredith Kercher, English student in Italy as part of the Erasmus project at the University of Perugia, was found devoid of life with her throat cut in her bedroom, at the interior of the house he shared with other students.

The cause of death was a hemorrhage following a wound in the neck caused by a sharp object used as a weapon.

For the murder, the Ivorian citizen Rudy Guede was condemned as a result of an abbreviated procedure.

The Italian criminal trial provides in fact the abbreviated rite as an alternative to the process c.d. dibattimentale.

This is a process where the decision is taken on the basis of the elements collected during the preliminary investigations without the possibility of giving rise to the collection of further evidence for discharge, but which provides for the reduction of a one-third sentence.

In the first instance, as competitors in the murder, the American Amanda Knox and the Italian Raffaele Sollecito were convicted in 2009 by the Court of Assise of Perugia.

The defendants of the crime were later acquitted and released by the Court of Assise in 2011 for not having committed the fact (relative to the murder), while for Amanda Knox was confirmed the sentence of three years for slander against Patrick Lumumba (she is accused of murder and a result extraneous to the facts).

Surveys were revealed that excluded the certainty of the presence on the crime scene of the two defendants.

On March 26, 2013, the Court of Cassation upheld the appeal of the General Prosecutor’s Office in Perugia, annulling the appeal ruling and postponing the documents to the Court of Assise of Appello of Florence.

For the Prosecutor General of Perugia, the sentence of acquittal was “to be removed” because it was undermined by “many omissions“, “errors” and, therefore, by “inconsistency of motivations“.

On January 30, 2014, the Court of Assise of Appello of Florence ratifies the guilt of the accused again by condemning Amanda Knox to 28 years and 6 months of imprisonment and Raffaele Sollecito to 25 years imprisonment and applying to the latter the precautionary measure of the ban of expatriation with withdrawal of the passport.

On March 27, 2015, the Supreme Court of Cassation annulled the condemnations to Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox, without acquittal  for not having committed the fact, stating the lack of certain evidence and the presence of numerous errors in investigations, and thus ending the judicial case.

The judge noted in particular the absence of traces of the two defendants in the murder room, also affirming Knox’s presence in the house at the time of the crime (which she later denied), but decreeing her non-punishment as conniving of Guede, because does not take part in the homicidal and in-demand action.

For this last reason he was acquitted of the crime of slander against the police.

The case is also remembered at international level for the great media coverage in the Anglo-Saxon world (in particular for the nationality of Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox).