Decision Nears in Slain British Coed Case
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Prosecutors rejected claims Monday that police contaminated evidence used for its case requesting an American woman and her former Italian boyfriend stand trial for killing a British student.
The prosecution closed its arguments Monday at the courthouse in Perugia, central Italy, and a judge is expected to rule Tuesday whether Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito will go on trial for the killing.
Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old student from Leeds University in England, was found dead in her bedroom Nov. 2 from a stab wound to the neck. Prosecutors say she was killed while an unwilling participant of a sex game.
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They also asked that a third suspect, Rudy Hermann Guede of Ivory Coast, be sentenced to life. Guede is undergoing a fast-track trial at his request. All suspects deny wrongdoing.
Prosecutors claim that key evidence linking Sollecito to the death is from his DNA found on the victim's bra.
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But Sollecito's defense says that multiple DNA traces were found on the bra — not just from one person — suggesting the evidence was inadvertently contaminated by police.
"This is not a genetic trace belonging to one single person but it's a mix, a combination resulting from contamination, obviously involuntary, and therefore should not be admitted as evidence in court," one of Sollecito's lawyers, Giulia Bongiorno, said. She cited an examination by a defense team expert.
Prosecutor Manuela Comodi said Monday that "we gave a substantially different interpretation on the same elements" than the defense, including the bra.