This is an accepted version of this page Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher (28 December 1985 – 1 November 2007) was a British student on exchange from the University of Leeds who was murdered at the age of 21 in Perugia, Italy.

The subsequent prosecutions of Knox and Sollecito received international publicity, with forensic experts and jurists taking a critical view of the evidence supporting the initial guilty verdicts.

She was enthusiastic about the language and culture of Italy, and after a school exchange trip, she returned at age 15 to spend her summer vacation with a family in Sessa Aurunca.

Working as a barmaid, tour guide, and in promotions to support herself, she made a cameo appearance in the music video for Kristian Leontiou's song "Some Say" in 2004.

On 25 October they attended a classical music concert, where Knox met Raffaele Sollecito, a 23-year-old computer science student,[12] at the University of Perugia.

[22] Lalli's autopsy report was reviewed by three pathologists from Perugia's forensic-science institute, who interpreted the injuries, including some to the genital region, as indicating an attempt to immobilize Kercher during sexual violence.

[25] Five years after the murder, the city of Perugia and its University for Foreigners, in co-operation with the Italian embassy in London, instituted a scholarship fund to honour the memory of Meredith Kercher.

A guilty verdict is not regarded as a definitive conviction until the accused has exhausted the appeals process, regardless of the number of times the defendant has been put on trial.

[32] A verdict can be overturned by the Italian supreme court, the Corte di Cassazione (cassation is the annulment of a judicial decision), which considers written briefs.

If the Corte di Cassazione overturns a verdict, it explains which legal principles were violated by the lower court, which in turn must abide by the ruling when retrying the case.

Rudy drifted and was fed, clothed, and housed by an informal group of well-meaning households, until, when aged 17, he was adopted by a wealthy Perugian family.

[38][40][41] Guede said that he had met two of the Italian men of the Via della Pergola 7 house while spending evenings at the basketball court in the Piazza Grimana.

[42][35] Guede allegedly committed break-ins, including one of a lawyer's office through a second-floor window, and another during which he burgled a flat and brandished a pocket knife when confronted by its inhabitants.

After his fingerprints were found at the crime scene, along with DNA traces,[35] Guede was extradited from Germany; he had said on the internet that he knew he was a suspect and wanted to clear his name.

Two neighbours of Guede's, foreign female students who were with him at a nightclub on that evening, told police the only girl they saw him talking to had long, blonde hair.

Guede claimed he heard Kercher scream while he was in the bathroom, and that upon emerging, he saw a "shadowy figure" holding a knife and standing over her as she lay bleeding on the floor.

[65][66] Francesco Maresca, the lawyer representing the Kercher family, stated to La Stampa that, although it was "normal" for prison sentences to be reduced, a "moral reflection" should be exercised to assess if "such a low [effective] sentence could be sufficient for a murder of this kind," adding that this would be another development he'd need to "explain to the Kercher family.

"[64] In December 2023, a woman[n 1] who had been his girlfriend filed a complaint for physical abuse to the Rome police and a 500-metre restraining order was issued to Guede and he was placed under a set of various obligations.

[67] In February 2024, a Roman court ruled that Guede would spend the next twelve months under a "special surveillance" regime for having allegedly abused his former girlfriend.

In outlining the case for colleagues hours after the discovery of the body, Perugia Reparto volanti (Mobile Squad) Detective Superintendent Monica Napoleoni told them that the murderer was definitely not a burglar and that apparent signs of a break-in were staged as a deliberate deception.

[75][76][77][78] Knox also said that she had spent the night of 1 November with Sollecito at his flat,[79] smoking marijuana and watching the French film Amélie and having sex.

However, Napoleoni's immediate superior, Chief Superintendent Marco Chiacchiera, thought arrests would be premature and advocated close surveillance of the suspects as the best way to further the investigation.

[85] Shortly before her trial, she began legal action against Fiorenza Sarzanini, the author of a best-selling book about her, which had been published in Italy.

[89] In the United States, a pretrial publicity campaign supported Knox and attacked Italian investigators, but her lawyer thought it was counterproductive.

According to the prosecution, Knox had attacked Kercher in her bedroom, repeatedly banged her head against a wall, forcefully held her face, and tried to strangle her.

[99][100] Although the review confirmed the DNA fragments on the bra clasp included some from Sollecito, an expert testified that the context strongly suggested contamination.

[105] The conviction of Knox on a charge of slander of Patrick Lumumba was upheld, and the original one-year sentence was increased to three years and eleven days' imprisonment.

Describing the police interviews of Knox as of "obsessive duration", the judges said that the statements she made incriminating herself and Lumumba during interrogation were evidence of her confusion while under "great psychological pressure".

The only new evidence came from the court-ordered analysis of a previously unexamined sample of the blade of Sollecito's kitchen knife,[clarification needed] which the prosecution had alleged was the murder weapon.

[121][123] After this verdict was announced, Knox, who had been in the United States continuously since 2011, said in a statement: "The knowledge of my innocence has given me strength in the darkest times of this ordeal.