PERUGIA, Italy, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- American Amanda Knox, appealing her conviction of a British student's death in Italy, is a person with a "double soul," a lawyer said.
"Who is Amanda Knox?" asked Carlo Pacelli, who represents the man Knox accuses of the killing. "Is she the mild, sweet young woman with no makeup you see before you today? Or is she, in fact, the one I have described and who emerges from the court papers on the basis of eyewitness portraits, given over to lust, narcotic substances and the consumption of alcohol?"
Pacelli represents Congolese bartender Patrick Lumumba.
The lawyer told a court in Perugia, Italy, Knox has a "double soul" and can be compassionate or diabolical, Britain's Guardian reported Monday.
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Knox, 25, of Seattle, and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, appealed their respective 26- and 25-year prison sentences in the death of Knox's British roommate Meredith Kercher, who was found partially nude with her throat slashed in 2007. A man from the Ivory Coast was convicted separately.
Knox named Lumumba as the killer in a statement made to police before Kercher's body was found. She subsequently withdrew that statement. However, Lumumba has attached himself to the case, which is permissible under Italian law.
Outside of the courtroom, Lumumba said, "I ask for justice, not vendetta," ABC News reported on "Good Morning America."
"She is a great actress. ... I know her better than most," Lumumba said. "I don't know if she was the assassin but she lied because she needed time."
Attorneys representing Knox and Sollecito will make their summations later this week, followed by rebuttals, ABC News said.
Knox and Sollecito also have a chance to make statements before six jurors and two judges begin deliberations. The prosecution needs a majority jury vote to keep Knox and Sollecito in prison. An evenly divided vote means the two would be released.
