Amanda Knox's retrial began Monday in Florence, Italy over the 2007 killing of her British roommate Meredith Kercher while they were on their study abroad program together, CNN reported. The 26-year-old who, along with her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, had been acquitted of murder in 2011. She expressed great uneasiness in interviews about returning to a country where she had spent four years in jail. Knox was not present as the retrial began on Monday.
Knox had been convicted in 2009 of murdering 21-year-old Kercher, a British exchange student who was found stabbed to death in November 2007 in a villa the two shared. But her conviction was overturned in 2011 because of a 'lack of evidence.' Yet, Italy's Supreme Court decided last year to retry the case, citing that all of the evidence was not considered, as well as discrepancies in testimony, news reports said.
"I'm afraid to go back there. I don't want to go back to prison," Knox said on CNN in May. "No one has ever claimed that I was ever taking part in deviant sexual activity. None of my roommates, none of my friends, none of the people who knew me there. This is simply coming out of the prosecution. I was not strapping on leather and bearing a whip. I have never done that. I have never taken part in an orgy. Ever."
The Italian Supreme Court's decision to send the case back to the appeal court for retrial "may be interpreted by the American authorities as double jeopardy -- twice tried for the same fact or the same case," said law lecturer Ricardo Montana. "In Italy it's not like this, because this is still the same trial." Knox will be ordered to return to Italy if the court conviction, and if she refuses Italy may request her extradition from the U.S.
In April, Knox released her memoir "Waiting to Be Heard," which discusses her side of the story. Knox recently told news agencies that she would like to visit Kercher's grave, according to CNN
