On Novem­ber 2, 2007, Mered­ith Kercher, a British stu­dent from the Uni­ver­sity of Leeds study­ing abroad in Peru­gia, Italy, was found stabbed to death in a shared apart­ment.  For two years, the pros­e­cu­tion has been try­ing to tie two other stu­dents — Amanda Knox from Seat­tle, Wash­ing­ton, and Raf­faele Sol­lecito from Giov­inazzo, Bari, Italy — to the mur­der.  Rudy Guede, 20, from the Ivory Coast,  was arrested after flee­ing to Ger­many and has been found guilty in the mur­der of Kercher.

The trial for Knox and Sol­lecito started on 16 Jan­u­ary 2009.  Rudy Guede, who was a close friend of Knox and Sol­lecito, declined to tes­tify in the trial.   Knox tes­ti­fied for the first time in June, say­ing that she was inno­cent and was at Sollecito’s flat on the night of the mur­der.  For a more exten­sive his­tory on the trial, see this Wikipedia arti­cle.

Accord­ing to the pros­e­cu­tion, Knox and Sollecito’s modus operandi was a sex game turned deadly.  Accord­ing to Speigel Online, Kercher was upset that Knox had brought home the two men — Guede and Sol­lecito — some­thing Knox had appar­ently done before.  An argu­ment broke out between the two women over the dif­fer­ences in lifestyle.  (Kercher is described as an “inno­cent angel”, one that wasn’t prone to bring home strange men and be promiscuous).

This is how the prosecutor’s ani­mated film depicts the mur­der: Kercher falls to the floor and the three oth­ers begin to undress her. Kercher strug­gles, Sol­lecito pulls out his pock­etknife and Knox gets a knife from the kitchen. Guede tries to rape Kercher, Sol­lecito injures her and Knox finally kills her by slit­ting her throat. The three flee the apart­ment. Later, Knox and Sol­lecito return to clum­sily stage a bur­glary and wipe away their fingerprints.

The indict­ment against the two is based on cir­cum­stan­tial evi­dence and very lit­tle, if any, wit­ness tes­ti­mony.  The defense is argu­ing that there is no clear proof, no con­fes­sion, and no motive.  The ver­dict is sup­posed to be announced at the end of this week.