Prosecutors in Knox appeal defend DNA evidence

ITALIAN prosecutors yesterday asked an appeal court to sentence Amanda Knox to life for murdering her British roommate, Meredith Kercher.

Knox, 24, from Seattle, sat motionless as prosecutor Giancarlo Costagliola sought the same sentence for her co-defendant and former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito at the end of two days of closing arguments. Italian appeal courts can re-sentence those whose convictions they uphold.

A verdict could come as soon as defence teams and a lawyer for the victim’s family have their final chance to address the jury tomorrow.

Wrapping up the prosecution’s case in Knox’s appeal trial, Manuela Comodi defended DNA evidence used in the original prosecution.

Knox is serving 26 years after being found guilty of murdering Kercher during a drug-fuelled sex game.

The student’s body was found in 2007 in the apartment the two shared in Perugia, a university town in the Umbrian hills.

Much of the trial has focused on a review by forensic experts on behalf of the defence. This shed doubt on DNA evidence found on Kercher’s bra clasp and a knife identified as the murder weapon, boosting the American’s hopes of being freed. But prosecutors have argued there is more than enough damning evidence against Knox and blamed the media for portraying her as a victim of a defective justice system.

Comodi yesterday attacked the credibility of the review experts. She said they were unwilling to embrace new technologies and had little field experience. “Would you entrust the marriage of your only daughter to a cook who knew all the recipes by heart but has never cooked?” she asked the judges.

She then tried to tear the review apart, including its conclusion that traces of Sollecito’s DNA found on Kercher’s bra clasp could have been due to contamination.

If contamination had occurred, DNA belonging to others would also have been found on the clasp, she argued. A claim that Sollecito’s DNA could have been on the clasp because it was on Knox’s underwear that was washed together with Kercher’s bra seemed highly improbable since they were washed at a high temperature, she argued.

Pulling out a white bra from her bag, Comodi said Sollecito’s DNA got on the clasp when he pulled one end of Kercher’s bra strap and cut off the bra with his other hand.

She also attacked the review’s claim that traces of starch found on the knife suggested it had not been washed, which in turn meant it was not the murder weapon. Comodi, however, argued the knife was “spotlessly clean” and that the traces of starch stemmed not from cutting potatoes or bread but from talc in gloves used by police.