Amanda Knox: How DNA Convicted and Freed and Innocent Woman

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of murdering Meredith Kercher largely on the basis of two pieces of DNA evidence: a bra clasp recovered from the victim’s room, and a knife recovered from Mr. Sollecito’s apartment. Dr. Greg Hampikian was a defense consultant for Knox during the trial that convicted her, and the appeal that ultimately freed her. The key to her freedom was a reanalysis that concluded that the DNA evidence was unreliable. As part of the team, Hampikian analyzed the DNA and performed experiments to demonstrate the potential of low-level contamination. The talk will present the evidentiary elctropherograms, the experiments run in Hampikian’s laboratory, and contemporary news reports covering case.