Meredith Kercher, the British woman who Amanda Knox is accused of murdering, was killed by more then one person in what appeared to be the result of "an erotic group game that span completely out of control," Italy's highest court said Tuesday.
The Italian Supreme Court released a 74-page document Tuesday in which it explained its reasoning for overturning the acquittals and ordering a retrial for American college student Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.
The couple is accused of murdering Kercher, who Knox roomed with while studying abroad in Perugia, Italy, in 2007. Knox, now 25, was sentenced to 26 years following her initial conviction. Sollecito was sentenced to 25 years. Rudy Guede, an Ivory Coast drifter, was also convicted in the murder and is serving a 16-year prison term.
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Then, in 2011, an Italian appeals court threw out Knox and Sollecito's convictions and harshly criticized the prosecution's handling of evidence. The pair was free after serving four years in an Italian prison.
In March, Italy's Court of Cassation overturned Knox and Sollecito's acquittals and
ordered a new trial to begin within the next year in Florence. Knox, who has resumed her studies at Washington University in her hometown of Seattle, is not expected to travel to Italy for the proceedings.
In the collection documents, Italy's Supreme Court accuses the judges in the appeals case of underestimating the evidence against Knox and Sollecito, claiming that the acquittal contained "shortcomings, contradictions, and inconsistencies."
The panel seemed to support the prosecution's original theory that Kercher, Knox, Sollecito, and Guede were involved in a violent, drug-fueled sex game that spiraled out of control and ended with Kercher's fatal stabbing.
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Sollecito's attorney has refuted these claims.
"If there was an erotic game, most certainly Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox were not part of it," Sollecito's lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno said, according to Italian news agency Ansa.
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