ITALY: Murder victim forgotten at Amanda Knox trial, family says

Oct. 3, 2011 8:33 AM PT

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REPORTING FROM LONDON -- The family of Meredith Kercher said Monday they wanted to be sure that the memory of the young murder victim was not forgotten in the media circus surrounding the appeals trial of convicted killer Amanda Knox.

“Meredith has been hugely forgotten in all of this,” Stephanie Kercher told reporters in the Italian town of Perugia. “It’s very difficult to ... keep her memory alive in all of this.”

Photos: The Amanda Knox appeal

Kercher said her sister, who was 21 when she was slain in November 2007, “didn’t deserve” such a terrible death. The British exchange student was found with her throat slashed and with about 40 wounds on her body.

“What everyone needs to remember is ... the brutality of what actually happened that night and everything that Meredith must’ve felt that night, everything she must’ve went through -– the fear and the terror and not knowing why. She didn’t deserve that,” Kercher said. “She’d been here two months, and she loved this place. It’s a beautiful city.”

Stephanie Kercher, her brother Lyle and their mother, Arline, spoke hours before a verdict was expected to be announced in an appeal lodged by Knox, who is from Seattle, and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, who were convicted of Meredith’s murder in 2009. Knox, 24, and Kercher were exchange students in Perugia and shared an apartment.

Earlier Monday, Knox made an emotional plea for her freedom, declaring in court that she was completely innocent in the killing of her roommate in what authorities say was a sex game gone wrong.

Knox told jurors that she was not the violent, promiscuous killer portrayed by the prosecution and that her trust in the Italian police had been betrayed.

“I was manipulated. I am not what they say,” she said. “I have not killed; I have not raped. ... I wasn’t present at the crime.”

Stephanie Kercher said Knox was entitled to appeal and that she hoped jurors would make a decision based on the information presented on them and not on the media hype.

“That’s how the Italian justice system works,” Kercher said. “Everyone is entitled to their fair trial.”

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-- Henry Chu

World Now

Henry Chu

Henry Chu first joined the Los Angeles Times in 1990 and worked primarily out of the San Fernando Valley office before moving to the foreign staff in 1998. He served as bureau chief in Beijing from 1998 to 2003, Rio de Janeiro from 2004 to 2005, New Delhi from 2006 to 2008 and London from 2009 to 2014. He was a 2014-15 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. From 2016-19 he was international editor at Variety magazine. A graduate of Harvard University, Chu returned to The Times in March 2020 as deputy news editor based in London. He left in 2024.