Closing Statements Made in Amanda Knox Trial
COOPER: In "Crime & Punishment," Amanda Knox on trial for murder in Italy. The young American woman may know her fate as early as tomorrow. There may be a verdict. She's accused of a brutal crime: cutting the throat of her roommate in a sexually charged attack. For months, the jury was given two very different portraits of the defendant. Is -- is she a killer, however, or the victim of anti-American sentiment? Erica Hill reports.</s>HILL (voice-over): All eyes on Amanda Knox today as she entered the courtroom to declare her innocence one last time. Speaking in Italian, the 22-year-old American told jurors she's not what the media has dubbed her, the devil with an angel's face. "I fear to lose myself, to have the mask of assassin forced upon me," Knox said. "I fear to be defined by someone I am not." Earlier, her Italian ex-boyfriend also addressed the court, asking for his life back and saying he hopes the real killer confesses. Their testimony on the eve of jury deliberations, marking perhaps the most dramatic moment in this yearlong trial. It is a sensational case. And it's no mystery why.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do not think we'd be here today if this young woman, Amanda Knox, was not American, was not young, was not pretty.</s>AMANDA KNOX, MURDER SUSPECT: Are you taking movies right now?</s>HILL: Knox, a foreign exchange student from Washington state, and her former lover are accused of killing her roommate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, in 2007. Prosecutors say the British woman was the victim of a sadistic sex game, with Knox taunting her, and her ex- boyfriend and another man, Rudy Guede, sexually assaulting her. While the victim was being held down, the prosecution contends Knox cut her neck with a kitchen knife. Prosecutors say Knox hated Kercher and admitted to being in the flat when the murder took place. Knox says Kercher was her friend and she was not there when the young woman was killed.</s>KNOX: They called me a stupid liar.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (speaking Italian)</s>KNOX: And they said that I was trying to protect someone.</s>HILL: The third suspect, Guede, was tried separately, convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing. Prosecutors say there is a mountain of evidence against Knox, including a knife they say was the murder weapon and has Knox's DNA on it. Her defense attorneys have tried to tear holes into the case, arguing the evidence has been tainted and contaminated by shoddy police work. Knox's parents believe authorities made their daughter a scapegoat and are confident the jury agrees.</s>CURT KNOX, AMANDA KNOX'S FATHER: She knows she had nothing to do with this. And, you know, they just can't put an innocent person behind bars.</s>EDDA MELLAS, AMANDA KNOX'S MOTHER: There's no way that, with no evidence, they could convict her of a crime she didn't commit.</s>HILL: If convicted, Knox could spend the rest of her life in prison. And her fate could be decided within days.</s>KNOX: We have to try to do our best to put on a face that it is going to work out.</s>MELLAS: And we keep telling her that it's taking way longer than we ever expected. But she will get out of there. And she's innocent. And they're not going to put an innocent 20-year-old in jail for 30 years. It's just not going to happen.</s>HILL: Erica Hill, CNN, New York.</s>COOPER: Well, let's see what happens tomorrow. Let's dig deeper in the case. Joining us from Los Angeles, legal analyst Lisa Bloom. In Washington, Douglas Preston, a journalist and author of the book "The Monster of Florence". And on the phone from Perugia, Italy, Barbie Latza Nadeau, who's covering the Knox trial for "Newsweek" as well as the Daily Beast. Douglas, you think Amanda Knox has been railroaded. You've been very critical of the prosecution in Italy. In fact, the prosecutor, I think, gas threatened to arrest you for interfering in the case if you return to Italy. How are you so sure that Amanda Knox had nothing to do with this murder?</s>DOUGLAS PRESTON, JOURNALIST/AUTHOR: Well, when you examine the evidence, and there is a mountain of evidence out there, you see that it's all bogus. I'm not saying some of the evidence is bogus or there's a misinterpretation of it. This evidence is manufactured. It's bogus. The science used for those DNA studies is completely pseudo science. It verges on fraudulence. There's no evidence that she was involved in this crime.</s>COOPER: Barbie, I know you disagree. You say the trial was justified. At the very least there was enough evidence to prosecute Amanda Knox, correct?</s>BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, JOURNALIST (via phone): Yes. No, I think there is definitely enough evidence to prosecute her. You know, the question really is, Rudy Guede is a man who's already been convicted of this crime. His conviction is based on the same scientific evidence tested in the same laboratories that Amanda Knox's evidence is being tested in. It sort of works for me today but doesn't work for Amanda Knox. And you have to judge it all basically on the same -- on the same scale. And because the trial -- trialing go on because there is a reason to believe that she may have been involved. And I think we have to wait and see tomorrow if that evidence is sound enough to convict her or if it's not.</s>COOPER: Lisa, do you bring the prosecution's story that some sort of sex games led to this killing? Does this add up?</s>LISA BLOOM, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, they were never clear as to what these supposed sex games were until the very end of this trial. When now they come up with this whole theory of sexual taunting. There's no evidence to support that. Nobody ever said in this drill that Amanda actually did that. And when you talk about taunting, you're talking about something there's no DNA evidence, of course, to support. Look, here's how I approach this case. The prosecution's theory is preposterous. It's that this young college girl participated or even was the ringleader in the rape and murder of her peer. That's extremely unusual for a young female to do. But it's possible. So let's look at the physical evidence. There's very little physical evidence to connect Amanda Knox to this crime. There's no evidence connecting her to the crime scene itself. There is her DNA on the knife, which the prosecution experts said -- couldn't even say for certainty that that was the murder weapon. And there is her DNA in the house, because she was house mates and lived there. But the whole theory doesn't make a lot of sense to me. There isn't sufficient DNA where there would be in this brutal kind of crime.</s>COOPER: So...</s>BLOOM: And the bottom line for me is what do you think: this unknown intruder came in, raped and murdered her, and he's already been convicted for it? Or this young girl was the ringleader? It just doesn't hold a lot of water to me.</s>COOPER: So Barbie, what do you -- what evidence do you point to as being legitimate, that at least would bring it to trial?</s>NADEAU: Well, I think primarily the fact that she originally confessed to being at the crime seen and she accused another man of the crime. I think that alone justifies the trial. I think, you know, that Rudy Guede was convicted not as a lone assailant but as one of three people who committed the crime. I think a lot of people don't understand that. If Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are found not guilty, then Rudy Guede will almost automatically win his appeal. Because his conviction is based on a three-person crime. It's a very complicated case. You know, I think -- you know, the jury's got a really tough job ahead of them tomorrow. And it's going to be really difficult for them. And I think it's going to be difficult for the family of the victim, Meredith Kercher, all of this. It's a complicated case in a complicated legal system.</s>COOPER: Doug, it's interesting. I mean, the way she's being portrayed in Italy in the press and among people. I mean, is she being viewed as a spoiled, man-hungry American with no remorse who literally did cartwheels during her interrogation? What does this trial reveal about who she really is? Or has it revealed anything about who she really is?</s>PRESTON: In the absence of any real evidence, the prosecution's been coming up with all these stories about how she's a strange person. And it's all just -- just fantasy. I mean, the chief prosecutor in this case, Giuliano Mignini, when I was a journalist working in Italy, called me in for an interrogation. And he accused me of being an accessory to murder. He accused me of being involved in satanic rights and a sect. And he charged me with perjury and obstruction of justice. And suggested I leave the country. It was absolutely fantastical. I've never been through an experience like that. And I think the same thing happened to Amanda Knox, only she was interrogated for 14 hours.</s>COOPER: Do you think she's going to be found guilty tomorrow?</s>PRESTON: I believe she will be. Although I thought her lawyers did a splendid job over the last few days of completely devastating the prosecution's case.</s>COOPER: OK, very brief, Barbie, do you think she's going to be found guilty tomorrow?</s>NADEAU: I think really it's a draw at this point. I think it could go either way, absolutely.</s>COOPER: Lisa?</s>BLOOM: For the sake of justice, I hope that she is.</s>COOPER: Lisa Bloom, Barbie Latza Nadeau, Douglas Preston, I appreciate you all being here. Thank you very much. Coming up, are your kids sexting, sharing explicit photos? It's more common than a lot of folks think. The surprising new research ahead. And hand washing horrors. My personal account of one washing gone wrong. It's our "Shot of the Day." It's what happened on "Regis."