Amanda Knox family to appeal 'ludicrous' verdict | Crime

The family of Amanda Knox has asked lawyers to begin their appeal of the former West Seattle student's murder conviction in Italy after reviewing the court's motivation for the guilty verdict.

The Italian judges who convicted Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito in December issued the reasons behind the ruling this week in a 427-page document that Amanda's family said "doesn't make any sense."

The judges wrote that they found no planning or animosity toward the victim, British student Meredith Kercher. They saw the killing as a result of accidental circumstances in what had started as a sexual assault by another man, Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivorian also convicted for the 2007 murder.

Knox's family said in a statement Thursday night that "there is a lot of conjecture in these motivations," and that "there is a substantial basis for the appeal."

Amanda Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, said their attorneys will be going through the judge's conclusion "line by line, and anything that is disputable will be disputed."

Amanda Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison for the murder, and Sollecito was sentence to 25 years.

In an interview with KOMO News' Kathi Goertzen, Mellas called the judges' theories about the crime "ludicrous."

"The document, you know, talks about what a good student and person both Amanda and Raffaele are, how they had no prior histories, and then they happened to be walking that day, hook up with a guy they didn't know - who was kind of a drifter - and commit this crime," said Amanda's mother, Edda Mellas.

"I mean, it's just really ludicrous. It doesn't make any sense."

Amanda's father, Curt Knox, added: "They say there is no premeditation, but yet they found her guilty of carrying a knife from Raffaele's house to her house, and then back to Raffaele's house. So there is just a perfect example of inconsistency in this motivation."

"I don't know how they came up with (the theory), but there's no evidence to support it," he added.

Mellas said the judges' theories contradict the theories of the prosecutor, and that there is no evidence to support either scenario.

"During the trial you know we dealt with what they were calling the fantasies of the prosecutor - he was making up all kinds of stories," Mellas said. "And now we have different stories that don't have any evidence to back them up."

All of which sets the stage for an appeal, Knox's parents said.

"Right now the attorneys are going through (the judge's conclusion) with a fine-toothed comb. The information that we have now is very encouraging because of all the inconsistencies, the conjectures, that are built into this," Curt Knox said.

"It is almost overwhelming - the amount of stuff that is there that can be argued for an appeal," Mellas said. "That's what's so encouraging to us. There's so much that's unsupported or ... they say one thing at one point in time, and then they counter it with something totally different at another point in time."

"The lawyers said they will go through it line by line, and anything that is disputable will be disputed," she said.

Added Curt Knox: "In the long run, the truth will come out - Amanda had nothing to do with this."

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.