Knox says police coerced her during questioning

American college student Amanda Knox, 21, testified Friday at her murder trial in Perugia, Italy.

I'm going to say she did it.

What exactly was her role? I don't know, but she did something, though she didn't slice her roommate's throat.

What was her motive? I don't know, but she was involved...somehow.

The story as per AP:

American student Amanda Knox, accused of killing her housemate two years ago, testified in her murder trial Saturday that she was intimidated by Italian police during questioning.

The 21-year-old from Seattle is charged in the death of British student Meredith Kercher, who was her housemate in Perugia, a university town north of Rome.

Kercher, 20, died in what prosecutors say was a "drug-fueled sex game" after suffering a sexual assault. She was found half-naked with a stab wound to her neck on November 2, 2007.

Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, are charged with murder and sexual assault.

Knox tried to explain Saturday why she gave conflicting answers to police when they interrogated her on Nov 6. She said it was a combination of police pressure, their suggestions, and her confused and frightened state of mind.

"When I would say that I was with Raffaele, they would say, 'You are a liar,' and they repeated this," she said, testifying in fluent Italian.

"You will go to prison for 30 years. ... You must remember," Knox recalled the police as saying.

Knox said the police were standing behind her and officers were going in and out of the interrogation room. A policewoman next to her was constantly pressing her to give them a name, and an interpreter on her right said people under trauma tend to forget things, she said.

"I was confused. ... I had so much fear," Knox said. She testified that she thought, "Hell, perhaps they're right and I have forgotten."

Knox repeated Saturday that police slapped her on the back of her head while questioning her. As she spoke, she hit her head a few times with her right hand and gestured broadly.

Knox testified Friday that she was not at the women's villa the night Kercher died, which authorities believe was the evening of Nov 1. She said she was at Sollecito's house.

She said the couple had dinner, watched a movie, smoked marijuana, had sex and went to bed on the night that night, and that she returned to the villa the next morning to take a shower.

That's when she said she noticed "strange things" such as the front door being left open, dried blood in the bathroom sink and on a bath mat, feces in the toilet, and the door to Kercher's room locked. (So, the murderer took a dump and forgot to flush the toilet? Or was the victim assaulted as the was defecating? Either way...eew.)

When Knox returned to Sollecito's house, she said, he suggested they call police in case the house had been burglarized. Police then found Kercher's body.

All cameras were barred from the courtroom Saturday because the public prosecutor said he wanted to avoid "sensationalism." Cameras were allowed at the beginning of the session Friday.

Knox's father, Curt, defended his daughter Saturday.

"What we've seen over the past five months is a character assassination, and now, hopefully .... a different point of view of who she is is coming out," he told reporters. "People are beginning to see that "she is not this dark angel she's been portrayed as," he added.

He said she did a great job on the stand. "She was very articulate in her answers. She answered all of the questions truthfully. She was not quivering in her voice. She was looking the judge in the eyes."

Earlier this week, he told 20/20 that the family has already spent close to "seven figures" to help defend Knox. From what he said, I understood that the two parents alternate weeks in Italy to visit their daughter in prison, where she has been for 18 months.

Her attorney, Carlo della Vedova, described his client as "very confident."

"She has repeated exactly what happened that night, on the fifth and sixth, when she was arrested. She gave all the information that was requested" during her testimony, he said.

The trial is to resume next Friday, but Knox isn't expected to testify again.

A third person, Ivory Coast native Rudy Hermann Guede, was convicted of murder in a fast-track trial in October and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing the verdict.

If I remember correctly, he--allegedly--was brought in by Knox and her boyfriend to have an orgy with the Kercher. If he got convicted, chances are she will too. If that's the case, I hope she's guilty because, otherwise, it would suck ass to be sentenced to do time in some Italian prison in the middle of nowhere and away from her family for something she didn't do.

Sources: The Associated Press
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