Amanda Knox’s appeal against her 26-year sentence for the murder of Meredith Kercher received a massive boost on Saturday when a judge granted her request for a comprehensive review of key DNA evidence that was used to convict her and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.
After two appeal hearings in Perugia, judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman said he was convinced that the complexity of the case merited a review of forensic tests in the name of “reasonable doubt”. Knox, 23, and Sollecito, 25, were convicted of killing Kercher, a British exchange student, in Perugia, in November 2007.
Hearing the news, Knox began to take deep breaths, her mother and stepfather both began to cry and Sollecito beamed broadly at his family.
“Amanda is stunned,” said her mother, Edda Mellas, after conferring with her daughter. “She is in shock but happy – this brings hope.”
Full story: Amanda Knox case: DNA evidence to be reviewed following appeal