The bloody corpse of Meredith Kercher, her throat slashed, was found on the morning of All Souls Day, 2007, in Perugia, Italy. After a trial that ended on Dec. 4, 2009, her roommate Amanda Knox and Knox's ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of Kercher's murder, in a case which had included lurid allegations in the media of sexual assault by the accused and a whole catalog of supposedly tell-tale DNA evidence on everything from bra straps to a knife. However, after a second trial revisited many of the allegations, an Italian jury overturned both Knox's and Sollecito's convictions on Oct. 3, 2011, setting them free almost immediately from prison terms of 26 years and 25 years respectively. Knox's eccentricities may have encouraged the media storm that made her the malignant temptress in a sexual saga set in Silvio Berlusconi's decadent bunga bunga Italy, but the case also highlighted troubling aspects of the Italian judicial system and a kind of pack journalism that tended to repeat rather than investigate. Its legacy is a kaleidoscope of guilt and innocence: In Kercher's homeland of Britian, Knox remains the villain. In the U.S., the American Knox is a young misadventurer finally safe at home. And in Italy, Knox is a fading tabloid headline, a bewitching riddle that the country no longer has time to try to figure out because it has so many other problems to deal with.
The Top 10 Everything of 2011
- Top 10 Albums
- Top 10 Animal Stories
- Top 10 Apologies
- Top 10 Business Blunders
- Top 10 Buzzwords
- Top 10 Comebacks
- Top 10 Consumer-Spending Trends
- Top 10 Crime Stories
- Top 10 Campaign-Debate Moments
- Top 10 Best Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Worst Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Feuds
- Top 10 Fiction Books
- Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
- Top 10 Food Trends
- Top 10 Gadgets
- Top 10 Green Trends
- Top 10 Marriage Stories
- Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
- Top 10 Memes
- Top 10 Movie Performances
- Top 10 Worst Movies
- Top 10 Best Movies
- Top 10 New Findings in Parenting
- Top 10 New Species
- Top 10 Nonfiction Books
- Top 10 Numbers
- Top 10 Oddball-News Stories
- Top 10 Overreported Stories
- Top 10 People Not Running for President
- Top 10 Plays and Musicals
- Top 10 Political Gaffes
- Top 10 Protest Signs
- Top 10 Quotes
- Top 10 Religion Stories
- Top 10 Ridiculously Obvious Study Findings
- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Smart-Phone Apps
- Top 10 Songs
- Top 10 Space Moments
- Top 10 Sports Moments
- Top 10 Toys
- Top 10 TV Ads
- Top 10 TV Episodes
- Top 10 TV Series
- Top 10 Best Tweets
- Top 10 Worst Tweets
- Top 10 U.S.-News Stories
- Top 10 Underreported Stories
- Top 10 Video Games
- Top 10 Creative Videos
- Top 10 Viral Videos
- Top 10 World-News Stories
- Top 10 Photos of the Year
In 54 wide-ranging lists, TIME surveys the highs and lows, the good and the bad, of the past 12 months