Knox ‘impaled’ and ‘crucified’ to justify her imprisonment

AMERICAN student Amanda Knox was a naive young woman publicly “crucified” and “impaled” to justify wrongly imprisoning her for murder, her lawyer has told an Italian court.

Knox is appealing a 2009 verdict that found her guilty of murdering her British roommate Meredith Kercher during a drug-fuelled sex game that went wrong. Kercher’s half-naked body was found in 2007 in a bloody pool in the apartment the two shared.

The Seattle student was sentenced to 26 years behind bars, and prosecutors want the term increased to life. Her Italian boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, and an Ivorian drifter were also jailed over the murder. But much of the focus has been on Knox who, prosecutors allege, led the sexual assault and held the knife that slit Kercher’s throat.