Story highlights
The united cry of innocence may be crumbling, as Raffaele Sollecito changes his tone
He finds Knox's behavior, the morning Meredith Kercher was found dead, odd
His lawyer advises that his case must be considered separately from hers
Sollecito still says the evidence exonerates them both
“We are innocent.” For six years, that has been the cry that has united Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend, as they have faced trials in the murder of Knox’s former roommate Meredith Kercher.
But that unity may be crumbling, as she and Raffaele Sollecito prepare to appeal their convictions before Italy’s Supreme Court next year.
Knox, who is living in the United States, appears to be sticking by the maxim.
Just over two weeks ago, she posted it in a photo to her Facebook page in Italian: “Siamo innocente.”
But Sollecito, who is still in Italy, no longer seems so adamant about it, as the prospect of a long prison term stares him in the face.
He was sentenced to 25, Knox to 28 years in prison.
Yes, but
Though he still says that the evidence exonerates them both, he is using more selective language.
“There is nothing against me and nothing very strong against Amanda,” Sollecito recently told CNN. “And in my case, I really did nothing wrong, and I don’t want to pay for someone else’s peculiar behavior.”
Knox’s behavior on the morning Kercher was found stabbed to death in the apartment she and Knox shared seems to be a new hitch for Sollecito.
That was early November 2007, and he and Knox had only been dating for a week.
Sollecito expanded on his doubts in a new interview with Italian television this week that aired in part on NBC.
Knox had spent the night with him but went back to her place to shower, he said. When she returned, she was “very agitated.”
She told him that it looked like someone had broken in and that there was blood in the bathroom, Sollecito said. But rather than call the police, she showered and returned to his place.
He finds it odd, he now says.
“Certainly I asked her questions,” he said. “Why did you take a shower? Why did she spend so much time there?”
He didn’t get any real answers from her, he said in the interview.
Lawyer’s advice
Sollecito’s apparent distancing from Knox echoes the position of his lawyer, John Kelly.
“It’s imperative that the Italian courts consider Raffaele’s case separate from Amanda’s case,” he said. “By necessity, he has to distance himself and his case from Amanda and her case.”
In a note on her Facebook page, Knox acknowledges Sollecito’s new stance and appears to back it up.
She said he’s a scapegoat.
“The only reason he has been dragged into this is because he happens to be my alibi,” she wrote.
Since Kercher’s death, Knox and Sollecito have gone through a legal odyssey that led to a conviction that was overturned, followed by a second conviction.
Another man, drifter and drug dealer Rudy Guede from the Ivory Coast is currently serving 16 years for Kercher’s murder. He was tried separately from Knox and Sollecito.
He admitted having sex with the young British woman but said someone else killed her while he was in the bathroom.
READ: Amanda Knox’s ex-boyfriend says he’ll face new ‘ordeal’