Murder of Meredith Kercher "forgotten" in Knox trial, sister says (VIDEO)

GlobalPost

The murder of Meredith Kercher has been “completely forgotten” in the four years since she met her violent death in Italy, overshadowed by appeals for her convicted killers, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, according to Kercher's sister.

Stephanie Kercher, 21, told Italian TV that the media had ignored Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, who roomed with Knox, when the two were exchange students in Perugia, Italy, the BBC reports.

Knox, 24, and her one-time boyfriend Sollecito, 26, were jailed in 2009 for the drug-fueled sex murder of Meredith Kercher in 2007. 

According to the prosecution case, Kercher's throat was slit during a satanic sex game involving Knox, her boyfriend of a few days, Sollecito, and a drifter they barely knew called Rudy Guede.

Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito to 25, but both deny wrongdoing and have appealed the verdict. Knox is expected to address the court next week.

And as the Telegraph reports:

The world divides between those who believe Knox was an innocent abroad, ensnared by a dysfunctional legal system, and those who concur with the prosecution's description of her as a callous and depraved killer.

The Kercher family, who believe Knox to be guilty, is in Italy ahead of an appeal verdict against Knox's and Sollecito's convictions. 

"There's not much of Meredith in the media," Kercher told Porta a Porta, according to the BBC. "There aren't photos of her in the media. The focus has completely moved away from Meredith to Amanda and Raffaele. And Meredith was so lovely — an intelligent, kind, caring person. I'm scared of forgetting what she looked like."

Prosecutor Giancarlo Costagliola concurred, saying that an "obsessive media campaign" had made "everyone feel like the parents" of Knox and Sollecito, The Sun reports.

Costagliola told the appeal court jury in Perugia, Italy: "As you make your decision, I wish that you jurors feel a little bit like the parents of Meredith Kercher, a serious, studious girl whose life was taken by these two kids from good families."

Prosecutors demanded on Friday that an Italian court throw out the appeal by Knox.

NBC cites fellow prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, as urging the jury to forget the pressure of an international press he said was overwhelmingly in favor of the defendants:

Mignini showed graphic photos from the murder, and said he will never forget seeing Kercher's eyes wide open as he went to inspect the crime scene. As if to emphasize the contrast, he also showed the court a photo of the two defendants kissing in the immediate aftermath of the killing outside the house that was being inspected by police. The move led Knox's lawyer to object.

According to NBC, Costagliola on Friday summed up what he called clues that pointed to the defendants' guilt:

bloody footprints found in the house that are compatible with those of the defendants, cell phone activity and witness testimony that appear to contradict the defendant's alibi that they spent the night at Sollecito's house and stayed there until about 10 a.m. the day after the murder, a staged burglary at the house of the murder aimed at sidetracking the investigation.

Meanwhile, the Telegraph quotes Knox's stepfather, Chris Mellas, as likening Knox's incarceration to "a very, very long and very annoying European vacation with tragic events."

Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, has said it was hard for her "as she has to listen to people saying horrible and untrue things" about Knox.

She was interviewed this week by Anderson Cooper.

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