PERUGIA, Italy, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- A lawyer for U.S. student Amanda Knox, appealing a murder conviction for her roommate's death in Italy, said Thursday she has been "crucified" in the media.
Carlo Dalla Vedova argued Knox was innocent and pleaded for her acquittal and release in an Italian appeals court, Seattlepi.com reported.
"Amanda Knox is a different girl now because of this tragic trial that has forced her to spend more than 1,000 days in jail," Dalla Vedova said. "She was impaled and crucified in the public square and subject to the most sinister speculation."
Dalla Vedova said the defense team found "comfort" after DNA evidence key to the original conviction was recently found to be unsound, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
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He said much of the evidence in the case was based on speculation.
Perugian lawyer Luciano Ghirga focused on what he called errors and lies on the stand by forensic police biologist Patrizia Stefanoni.
Defense lawyers have said there was "no trace" of Knox or her former Italian boyfriend in the room where Knox's British roommate, Meredith Kercher, was murdered.
Knox, a 24-year-old Seattle woman, and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, have appealed their respective 26- and 25-year prison sentences in the death of Kercher, who was found partially nude with her throat slashed in 2007.
Knox and Kercher, a student at Leeds University in England, were both spending a year in Perugia. Prosecutors say Knox, Sollecito and Rudy Guede, an immigrant from Ivory Coast, killed Kercher during a drug-fueled sex-game, while lawyers for Knox and Sollecito suggest Guede was the sole killer.
Guede, 24, tried separately, has exhausted appeals and is serving 16 years in jail.
Rebuttals in the appeals court case are scheduled for Friday, and Knox and Sollecito are to give their final statements Monday before the jury begins deliberating on a verdict, Seattlepi.com said.
