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Italian prosecutor: DNA trace on murder weapons was not contaminated and belongs to Kercher

Associated Press
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FILE - In this Friday Nov. 2, 2007 file photo Amanda Marie Knox, left, and Raffaele Sollecito, stand outside the rented house where 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher was found dead Friday, in Perugia, Italy. The state's prosecutor is arguing his case that an appeals court should reinstate the guilty verdict against U.S. exchange student Amanda Knox for the grisly 2007 murder of her roommate. Prosecutor Alessandro Crini said Monday that Italy's highest court had "razed to the ground" the Perugia appellate court's 2011 decision to throw out the guilty verdicts, freeing Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito. (AP Photo/Stefano Medici) (The Associated Press)

In this picture taken with a mobile phone, US student Amanda Knox's Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, right, stands up with his lawyer Giulia Bongiorno, left, and his father Francesco during of a hearing in Sollecito and Knox's trial at an appeals court in Florence, Italy, Monday, Nov. 25, 2013. The state's prosecutor is arguing his case that an appeals court should reinstate the guilty verdict against U.S. exchange student Amanda Knox for the grisly 2007 murder of her roommate. Prosecutor Alessandro Crini said Monday that Italy's highest court had "razed to the ground" the Perugia appellate court's 2011 decision to throw out the guilty verdicts, freeing Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito.(AP Photo/Riccardo Sanesi, Lapresse) ITALY OUT (The Associated Press)

The prosecutor arguing U.S. student Amanda Knox's guilt in the 2007 murder of her British roommate says a DNA sample on the blade of the presumed murder weapon was clean and corresponds to the victim.

Prosecutor Alessandro Crini, in his second day of closing Tuesday, sought to dismantle genetic evidence cited by a Perugia appeals court when it overturned the guilty verdicts against Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito.

At the appeals level, the genetic trace attributed to Kercher in the first trial was deemed by new experts to be unreliable.

But Crini said the trace "has a clean genetic profile" and corresponds to the victim, Meredith Kercher.

Italy's highest court annulled the acquittals and ordered a second appeals court to re-evaluate the evidence, blasting the appellate ruling.