Amanda Knox: "I will never go willingly back" to Italy
Amanda Knox is defiant she's not going back to prison.
"I will never go willingly back to the place where I... I'm gonna fight this until the very end," Knox said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Knox spoke out after an Italian court found her and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, guilty of murder for the second time in four years.
Knox learned the news while at home in Seattle, but Sollecito is still in Italy and was actually stopped by police late last night in a small town near the Slovenian border.
Amanda Knox vows to fight murder conviction, won't 'go willingly' to Italy
His attorney says he was not trying to flee but was driving to his girlfriend's hometown. Sollecito voluntarily turned over his passport.
The former couple was convicted in 2009 of killing Knox's British roommate, Meredith Kercher, in what prosecutors described as a sex game gone wrong. The case made headlines around the world as tabloids dubbed the American exchange student "foxy knoxy."
Knox spent four years in an Italian prison but was freed in 2011 after an appeals court overturned the guilty verdict citing a lack of evidence.
The reversal in 2011 was another stunning twist in the case and the world watched as Knox returned home to her family. That's where she says she watched her third trial unfold in disbelief.
"This really has hit me like a train," Knox says. "I did not expect this to happen. I really expected so much better from the Italian justice system. They found me innocent before. How can they say that it's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt?"
The guilty verdict is little consolation to Meredith Kercher's family. After nearly seven years of controversial evidence and testimony, they say they may never know the truth.
"Nothing will bring Meredith back and nothing will take away the horror of what happened to her," Lyle Kercher says. "The best we can hope for is to finally bring this case to a conclusion and then everybody can move on with their lives."
But with one more appeal to Italy's highest court, a final conclusion may still be years away, and Amanda Knox is vowing to continue the fight.
"There are people who know better than I do the way these systems work, and the way that there was this entirely preventable thing that happened that was the system and i really hope that people try to understand that like when you have overzealous prosecutors and when you have a biased interrogation - biased investigation and coercive interrogations like these happened and I'm not crazy," Knox says.
Outfront: Steve Moore is a former FBI special agent who wrote a book about the Knox case, and CNN legal analyst and former homicide prosecutor, Paul Callan.
Amanda Knox convicted of murder again
Amanda Knox found guilty ... again.
For the second time, an Italian court convicted the former American exchange student of murder.
Knox and her ex-boyfriend, Rafaelle So-lech-ito, were both found guilty of killing Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher, in 2009.
That verdict, was overturned on appeal in 2011 and Knox was set free.
Amanda Knox found guilty of murder again by Italian court
Knox watched this trial from her home in Seattle and released a statement saying:
"I am frightened and saddened by this unjust verdict. Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system. The evidence and accusatory theory do not justify a verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Rather, nothing has changed. There has always been a marked lack of evidence. My family and I have suffered greatly from this wrongful persecution."
Here's what we do know about the evidence. According the police:
- A knife found at Rafaelle Sollecito's apartment had both Amanda's and Meredith's DNA
- Meredith's bra clasp tested positive for Rafaelle's DNA
- Knox made a false confession.
- A bloody footprint in the bathroom prosecutors say belongs to Sollecito and a bloody shoe print found next to Kercher's body belonged to Sollecito.
- A homeless man claims he saw the couple near the house the night of the murder.
All of this evidence was challenged by the defense and an appeals court ruled in Knox's favor in 2011. Now she has been convicted again. A judge sentenced Knox to 28 and a half years in prison.
OutFront: Steve Moore, he's a former FBI special agent and wrote a book about this case. CNN legal analyst and former homicide prosecutor, Paul Callan.
Prosecutor wants 30 years for Amanda Knox
Amanda Knox should receive a 30-year sentence for the 2007 killing of British exchange student Meredith Kercher, an Italian prosecutor said at her retrial Tuesday.
Amanda Knox retrial: Prosecutor calls for 30-year sentence
Knox's original conviction was overturned in 2011 because of a "lack of evidence." But Italy's Supreme Court decided last year to retry the case because it claims the jury didn't consider all the evidence.
CNN Legal Analyst Paul Callan is OutFront.
Amanda Knox says she is not returning to Italy for murder retrial
Amanda Knox, accused of murdering her roommate while studying abroad - now faces retrial in Italy later this month.
Her acquittal was overturned by the Italian courts earlier this year.
Family: Amanda Knox won't return to Italy for new trial
Knox told NBC's Today Show that she has no plans to go back.
"I was already imprisoned as an innocent person in Italy, and I can't reconcile the choice to go back with that experience. It's not a possibility. I was imprisoned as an innocent person, and I just can't relive that," Knox said.
But she isn't the one who will decide if she goes back. The United States government will. Should it extradite her back to Italy?
CNN Legal Analyst Paul Callan is OutFront.
Italy high court says evidence could support sex game theory in Knox case
Was it a sex game gone horribly wrong? That's what Italy's supreme court wants to figure out.
The court explained its reasoning to retry Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend with the 2007 murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher.
Knox was acquitted by an appeals court in 2011, but Italy's high court overturned the ruling and says the jury didn't consider all the evidence, including the prosecution's initial theory that Kercher was killed during a twisted sex game. A new trial could start as early as this fall.
Outfront tonight: CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, Paul Callan.
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