Amanda Knox talks with her lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova upon arrival for an appeal hearing at the Perugia court, central Italy, Monday, Oct. 3, 2011. A tearful Amanda Knox has told an appeals court in Italy that accusations that she killed her British roommate are unfair and groundless. Knox fought back tears as she addressed the court Monday, minutes before the jury went into deliberations to decide whether to uphold her murder conviction. A verdict is expected later in the day. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)PERUGIA, Italy – Amanda Knox tearfully told an Italian appeals court Monday she did not kill her British roommate, pleading for the court to free her so she can return to the United States after four years behind bars. Moments later, the court began deliberations.
Knox frequently paused for breath and fought back tears as she spoke in Italian to the eight members of the jury in a packed courtroom, but managed to maintain her composure during the 10-minute address.
“I’ve lost a friend in the worst, most brutal, most inexplicable way possible,” she said of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old Briton who shared an apartment with Knox when they were both students in Perugia. “I’m paying with my life for things that I didn’t do.”
Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito, Knox’s former boyfriend from Italy, were convicted in 2009 of sexually assaulting and murdering Kercher, who was stabbed to death in her bedroom. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, Sollecito to 25. They both deny wrongdoing.
“I never hurt anyone, never in my life,” Sollecito said Monday in his own speech to the jury.