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이탈리아 유학 중에 집단 섹스를 거부한 룸메이트를 살해한 혐의로 4년간 복역 후 지난 2011년 무죄 평결을 받고 풀려났던 미국 여대생 아만다 녹스(27)가 목요일(현지시간) 이탈리아에서 열린 항소심에서 다시 유죄 평결을 받았다.
AP통신 등 주요 외신에 따르면, 이탈리아 플로렌스 항소법원은 녹스의 살인 혐의에 대해 징역 28년 6개월을 선고했다고 보도했다.
시애틀에서 이번 판결을 지켜본 녹스와 변호인단은 즉각 부당한 판결이라고 밝히고 놀랍고 슬픈 일이라는 반응을 보였다. 이들은 즉각 이탈리아 상급법원에 항소 하겠다고 밝혔다.이번 사건은 미녀 대학생과 살인, 집단섹스, 미스터리, 마약, 국경을 넘나든 법정 싸움 등 온갖 극적 요소가 결합해 전 세계의 관심을 모았다.
특히 서방언론 취재진은 플로랜스 법원 앞에 수백명이 운집해 헤드라인 뉴스로 앞다퉈 보도했다. 또 이번 사건은 ‘섹스 스릴러’의 결정체로 TV시리즈와 영화, 책으로 제작될 예정이었다.
사건은 2007년 11월로 거슬러 올라간다. 미국 시애틀 워싱턴 대학에서 유학 온 녹스와 컴퓨터를 전공한 애인 솔레시토는 같은 집에서 살던 영국인 여대생 메러디스 커처(당시 21세)를 살해한 혐의로 사건 발생 5일 만에 체포됐다.
검찰은 녹스가 커처에게 자신의 애인 솔레시토와 마약거래상 루디 구데(당시 20세)와 함께 집단 섹스를 할 것을 요구했다 거부당하자 격렬한 싸움 끝에 커처를 칼로 40차례 찔러 살해했다고 결론 내렸다.
당시 솔레시토와 구데는 녹스가 잔인하게 칼을 휘두르는 동안 커처가 반항하지 못하게 붙들고 있었고 숨져가는 와중에 성폭행까지 한 혐의를 받았다. 커처의 시신은 녹스와 함께 쓰던 방의 침대 밑에서 반나체 상태로 발견됐다.
하지만 녹스와 솔레시토는 줄곧 범행 사실을 부인해 왔다. 녹스는 이날 공판에서도 “나는 살해 현장에 없었고 최악의, 가장 잔인한 상황에서, 가장 이해할 수 없는 방식으로 친구를 잃었다”며 “내가 저지르지 않은 일 때문에 인생을 망쳤다”고 눈물로 호소했다. 솔레시토 역시 “살아오면서 어느 누구에게도 해를 끼친 적이 없다”고 무죄를 주장했다.
녹스는 이날 2011년 2차 공판에서 무죄 평결을 받자 오열하며 쓰러졌다. 지난 2009년 1심에서 녹스는 징역 26년형, 솔레시토는 25년형, 구데는 30년형을 각각 선고 받았다.
하지만 이후 구데는 단독살인 혐의를 부인하고 녹스와 솔레시토가 가담한 성폭행 시도 과정에서 커처가 살해됐다고 주장해 16년형으로 감형됐다. 지난번 무죄 평결에 결정적 역할을 한 것은 DNA 증거 불충분이었다.
배심원들은 DNA 증거의 진실성을 놓고 11시간 동안 숙의한 끝에 2009년 유죄 평결을 뒤집었다.
이탈리아 검찰에 따르면 녹스가 항상 술을 마셨고 마리화나를 피웠으며 낯선 남자와 성관계를 즐기는 ‘방탕하고 냉혹한 악녀’였다고 강조했다. 또 녹스가 살인자로 지목한 루뭄바의 변호인은 “녹스가 언론을 이용할 줄 아는 천사와 악마의 두 얼굴을 가진 영혼”이라고 비난하기도 했다.
(khnews@heraldcorp.com)
<관련 영문 기사>
Amanda Knox's murder conviction upheld on appeal court
More than two years after Amanda Knox returned home to the U.S. a free woman, an Italian court Thursday reinstated her murder conviction in the stabbing of her roommate and increased her sentence to 28½ years in prison, raising the specter of a long, drawn-out extradition fight.
Knox, 26, received word of the verdict in her hometown of Seattle. The former American exchange student called it unjust and said she was “frightened and saddened.”
“This has gotten out of hand,” Knox said in a statement. “Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system.”
Lawyers for Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who was also found guilty, vowed to appeal to Italy’s highest court, a process that will take at least another year and drag out a seesaw legal battle that has fascinated court-watchers on both sides of the Atlantic.
After nearly 12 hours of deliberations Thursday, the appeals court in Florence reinstated the guilty verdicts first handed down against Knox and Sollecito in 2009 for the slaying of British exchange student Meredith Kercher.
Those verdicts had been overturned in a second trial that ended in an acquittal in 2011, and Knox was released from prison after four years behind bars, returning to the United States. But Italy’s highest court ordered a third trial.
The Florence court increased Knox’s sentence from the original 26 years and handed Sollecito 25 years.
Kercher, 21, was found dead Nov. 2, 2007, in a pool of blood in the bedroom of the apartment she and Knox shared in the central Italian city of Perugia, where both were studying. Her throat had been slit and she was sexually assaulted.
Knox and Sollecito denied any involvement in the killing, insisting they were at Sollecito’s apartment that night, smoking marijuana, watching a movie and making love.
Prosecutors originally argued that Kercher was killed in a drug-fueled sex game gone awry — an accusation that gave the case a lurid cast that fascinated the European tabloids.
But at the third trial, prosecutors argued instead that the violence stemmed from arguments between roommates Knox and Kercher about cleanliness and was triggered by a toilet left unflushed by the third defendant in the case, Rudy Guede.
Guede, who is from the Ivory Coast, was convicted in a separate trial and is serving a 16-year sentence for the murder.
Legal experts have said it is unlikely that Italy would request Knox’s extradition before the verdict is final.
If the conviction is upheld, a lengthy extradition process will probably ensue, with the U.S. State Department ultimately deciding whether to turn Knox back over to Italian authorities to serve her sentence. Her lawyers are likely to argue that she is the victim of double jeopardy, because she was retried after an acquittal.
“Many Americans are quite astonished by the ups and downs in this case,” said Mary Fan, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at the University of Washington Law School in Seattle.
But Fan said U.S. courts have previously held that being acquitted and then convicted of a crime in another country is not a legal bar to extradition.
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Knox’s home state of Washington, said she was “very concerned and disappointed” by the verdict and confident the appeal would re-examine the decision.
“It is very troubling that Amanda and her family have had to endure this process for so many years,” she said in a statement. “I will continue to closely monitor this case as it moves forward through the Italian legal system.”
Sollecito’s lawyers said they were stunned by the conviction. “There isn’t a shred of proof,” attorney Luca Maori said.
Kercher’s brother and sister were in the courtroom for the verdict and said the outcome was the best they could have hoped for.
“It’s hard to feel anything at the moment because we know it will go to a further appeal,” said her brother, Lyle Kercher. “No matter what the verdict was, it never was going to be a case of celebrating anything.”
In his closing arguments, Knox’s lawyer, Dalla Vedova, had told the court he was “serene” about the verdict because he believed the only conclusion from the files was “the innocence of Amanda Knox.”
The first trial court found Knox and Sollecito guilty of murder and sexual assault based on evidence that include DNA and confused alibis. But the DNA evidence was later deemed unreliable by new experts.
(khnews@heraldcorp.com)
Amanda Knox's murder conviction upheld on appeal court
More than two years after Amanda Knox returned home to the U.S. a free woman, an Italian court Thursday reinstated her murder conviction in the stabbing of her roommate and increased her sentence to 28½ years in prison, raising the specter of a long, drawn-out extradition fight.
Knox, 26, received word of the verdict in her hometown of Seattle. The former American exchange student called it unjust and said she was “frightened and saddened.”
“This has gotten out of hand,” Knox said in a statement. “Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system.”
Lawyers for Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who was also found guilty, vowed to appeal to Italy’s highest court, a process that will take at least another year and drag out a seesaw legal battle that has fascinated court-watchers on both sides of the Atlantic.
After nearly 12 hours of deliberations Thursday, the appeals court in Florence reinstated the guilty verdicts first handed down against Knox and Sollecito in 2009 for the slaying of British exchange student Meredith Kercher.
Those verdicts had been overturned in a second trial that ended in an acquittal in 2011, and Knox was released from prison after four years behind bars, returning to the United States. But Italy’s highest court ordered a third trial.
The Florence court increased Knox’s sentence from the original 26 years and handed Sollecito 25 years.
Kercher, 21, was found dead Nov. 2, 2007, in a pool of blood in the bedroom of the apartment she and Knox shared in the central Italian city of Perugia, where both were studying. Her throat had been slit and she was sexually assaulted.
Knox and Sollecito denied any involvement in the killing, insisting they were at Sollecito’s apartment that night, smoking marijuana, watching a movie and making love.
Prosecutors originally argued that Kercher was killed in a drug-fueled sex game gone awry — an accusation that gave the case a lurid cast that fascinated the European tabloids.
But at the third trial, prosecutors argued instead that the violence stemmed from arguments between roommates Knox and Kercher about cleanliness and was triggered by a toilet left unflushed by the third defendant in the case, Rudy Guede.
Guede, who is from the Ivory Coast, was convicted in a separate trial and is serving a 16-year sentence for the murder.
Legal experts have said it is unlikely that Italy would request Knox’s extradition before the verdict is final.
If the conviction is upheld, a lengthy extradition process will probably ensue, with the U.S. State Department ultimately deciding whether to turn Knox back over to Italian authorities to serve her sentence. Her lawyers are likely to argue that she is the victim of double jeopardy, because she was retried after an acquittal.
“Many Americans are quite astonished by the ups and downs in this case,” said Mary Fan, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at the University of Washington Law School in Seattle.
But Fan said U.S. courts have previously held that being acquitted and then convicted of a crime in another country is not a legal bar to extradition.
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Knox’s home state of Washington, said she was “very concerned and disappointed” by the verdict and confident the appeal would re-examine the decision.
“It is very troubling that Amanda and her family have had to endure this process for so many years,” she said in a statement. “I will continue to closely monitor this case as it moves forward through the Italian legal system.”
Sollecito’s lawyers said they were stunned by the conviction. “There isn’t a shred of proof,” attorney Luca Maori said.
Kercher’s brother and sister were in the courtroom for the verdict and said the outcome was the best they could have hoped for.
“It’s hard to feel anything at the moment because we know it will go to a further appeal,” said her brother, Lyle Kercher. “No matter what the verdict was, it never was going to be a case of celebrating anything.”
In his closing arguments, Knox’s lawyer, Dalla Vedova, had told the court he was “serene” about the verdict because he believed the only conclusion from the files was “the innocence of Amanda Knox.”
The first trial court found Knox and Sollecito guilty of murder and sexual assault based on evidence that include DNA and confused alibis. But the DNA evidence was later deemed unreliable by new experts.
(khnews@heraldcorp.com)
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