Amanda Knox Secures DNA Review on Critical Evidence

Amanda Knox may be one step closer to freedom after an Italian judge ruled Saturday that controversial DNA evidence warranted a comprehensive review. The Guardian reported that Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman appointed independent experts to review two critical pieces of evidence that were used to link Knox to the killing of Meredith Kercher, a kitchen knife and a bra clasp. Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of murdering Kercher last Dec.

The court's ruling permits new DNA tests to be conducted, or if that should prove impossible, expert evaluation of the reliability of the original DNA tests.

In addition to obtaining the crucial DNA review, Knox's attorneys have been granted the right to call new witnesses to challenge earlier testimony placing Knox Sollecito near the crime scene. A homeless man who testified that he saw them near the home where Kercher died now says he was mistaken about the date, Knox's defense says.

The Knox case has generated international controversy, pitting a prosecutor known for tossing around allegations of satanism against an uninhibited American college student whose sexuality became an issue in the trial. The prosecution conducted by Giuliani Mignani contended that Knox, Sollecito, and another man, Rudy Guede, killed Kercher as part of a sexual encounter gone wrong. Guede has previously been convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison. His sentence was affirmed Saturday, exhausting his last appeal.

With the physical evidence linking Knox to the crime particularly weak, the DNA ruling could well be the key that sets Knox free. The clasp from Kercher's bra that allegedly contained Knox's DNA was not found until 49 days after the murder. Investigators had moved the bra clasp, potentially contaminating it. Whether Knox's DNA is found to be on the clasp or not on review, she has a secondary avenue to challenge it based on contamination-either at the crime scene or when it was later tested in a lab that failed to adhere to international standards.

The only other physical evidence containing Knox's DNA is a kitchen knife found in Sollecito's kitchen during the investigation. The prosecution contended it was the murder weapon. The prosecution said that both Kercher's and Knox's DNA was found on the knife, but the defense contended that the DNA traces were inconclusive and possibly contaminated.

The contamination claims are significantly based on Italy's outmoded laboratories for analyzing DNA and their failure to abide by international standards governing the handling of evidence. The laboratories allow disparate pieces of evidence to be tested and stored in a single location, creating possible cross-contamination issues.

While Knox was tearful, "a happy mess," after the ruling according to her stepfather, Mignani told the press after the hearing that the imposition of the definitive sentence on Guede could upend Knox's chance for a reversal. Guede's sentence refers to involvement in the crime by Knox and Sollecito. Mignani said it would be unusual for a court to contradict the findings in a definitive sentence.