Amanda Knox arrives at the court during her appeal trial session in Perugia, Italy, on Sep. 30, 2011.
The second appeal trial of Amanda Knox, an American accused of murdering her British roommate in Italy in 2007, opened Monday, but Knox was absent from the proceedings.
Italy’s highest court ordered a new trial for Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, after they were acquitted on appeal for the alleged murder of Meredith Kercher, in a case that transfixed both Italy and the United States. Knox served three years of her original 26-year sentence after her initial conviction in a first trial before leaving Italy in 2011 a free woman.
Knox’s lawyers argued that this may turn into an “infinite trial,” since the charge of murder has no statute of limitations in Italy. The prosecution is advancing the theory that Kercher died after a sex-fueled game went horribly wrong. Knox, now 26 and the author of a new book, has not returned from the United States to Italy for the trial, as is permitted by Italian law.
[AP]