>> to tell you the truth, so what is this letter? two things have been said that really is a liar and cannot be relied on. you can't convict a person that lies. a person got involved in things that wasn't involved. but that is the end. apart from what was said it serves no purpose. you have told him off on several occasions. don't talk of the homicide. okay, i won't talk about this homicide. and then not have the proper friend and let what she say -- from a liar that has been recognized as such and what he cannot get involved in the culpability of all this. a person who tries to make him get involved in the evaluation of responsibility says, aye, that is the most disturbing. i have decided to do it, and i don't know how my letter arrive ed. look at the hearing in june when he goes to the prosecution. it can be read as a trophy because this is the letter of a liar. amaretto is a wonderful color. the lawyer said -- they say, you know, okay, i've already been convicted, so convict me, and that's what happens. we have talked about the two events two offenses. we have talked about important facts. this they say you can do whatever, but we talk about the commentary, the two offenses being commented on, and i think the exten yating circumstances -- the one that has been linked to this process, because otherwise this wouldn't have been judged. it hasn't been evidence -- it hasn't been proven is what links it to the process of simulation best. they haven't been able to -- to link them to the offense, so, please, we have requested to be considered as the commentary, and i'd like to re-enter this claim, this -- there are two different offenses. so we would like to highlight that. and my -- what has brought the conviction charges because what has been thrust upon sollecito is not compatible with the way the hands got cut. we say that at testify hearing in this trial. 9-centimeter, that is compatible. we say that there's a third knife with more structures, chl is two or three centimeters long, and we've been giving the situation with the situation of the homicide. the knife is given to the prosecutors. the defense say, okay, that may be, but we say that the weapon is not that big knife that has been shown. there is more injury and we say that there was a smaller knife that went in and then came out. yeah, and they say, yeah, yeah, it could be, it could be. so what i say is that there is the third knife. not the other one but a third one. so having analyzed the knives of raphael sollecito, if you look at the evidence, if you look at all the examination of all of the evidence, all of this, to see how that supports our thesis. so my final consideration is not the day of judgment. they will have to make divine judgment. we'll have to put the newspapers aside. we cannot pay attention to what is said in the newspapers. they have come down with their reas reason. we say that they don't have any reason to kill her. they were friends of meredith. there's no motive. the newspapers say, oh, they killed her for nothing. it's not true, but can't you realize that obviously they see the consequences. of course, they can see the consequence. in america. can't you realize it's like a fight against the press. that she's escaping. she's a free girl. she's not escaping anything. she's someone who's returning home. you'll have to look at that, gentlemen. and they say that, you know, she got herself with lawyers. it really upsets me to hear things like that. but she has been able to say how can they say there's problems with the lawyers? how can they say that? how? today everything will be over. you know, i think, you know, everything in front of the media and everything. but the day of judgment -- the day of the judgment, i consider myself a serious lawyer within the constitutional -- and they say, you know, we'll have to confer the color of people with white people and i think they're innocent, in a process you have it perfectly, you know, with a 2001 reform. you have to consider the circumstances of this process. yes, it's impossible to hear the legal basis to reach to these conclusions. but, again, we have always been against the evidence, but it's been a just process. the role of the reasonable doubt, the evidence, the rule for it, it's something that has to be applied. so in the judgment it has said that they have been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, but you have to reexamine the nature of those -- of that evidence. you've seen the results. you have applied the rules in your decision, so we are expecting a fair judgment today. if it stays within this and everyone will recognize that not only the lawyer but everybody el else, and then you will reach to a judge, a fair judgment. so we are asking to give freedom to amanda knox. thank you. once the defendants read their statements -- >> the closing defense arguments from lucia know ghirga, the defense lawyer for amanda knox in perugia. you're looking at live pictures inside the court as ghirga says amanda had no motive to kill meredith. they were friends, he said. very animated from the defense lawyer and his final rebuttal. what we're going to hear now is what the world has been waiting for. we're going to hear a plea of intense from raphael sollecito and then that's expected to be followed by a plea of innocence from amanda knox. let's listen in. >> translator: sorry. i'm aed by nervous obviously. it's quite a critical time for me. perhaps i'll have some water. i would like to look at my no s notes. what i would like to say is nothing compared to everything i would like to say, but i would like to try to communicate everything that have been going through for this year, all my suffering over these years. but it's impossible to express it in the few minutes that my statement is going to be able to transmit. it's been so enormous, everything that has happened to me, that submission will never sum up everything. i would like to start by saying that i never in my life have hurt anybody. the charges against me, again, for all these years is so out of character that i've always thought that sooner or later the things will clear themselves up, that everything will become clearer. instead it didn't -- that didn't happen. i had to endure day by day. it's like living in a nightmare and where things, they don't come right. many years have gone by, and the prosecution has commented the boyfriend kills for no reason. this ex-boyfriend. but obviously they can do what they want. they are people that start taking things back, people that -- and many ways is it dark or they put a jacket or a hat or a stone or a knife. it's like -- it's game of words, but it's a bit of what's happened in this process. with all that, when a person has been condemned to life imprisonment or a death sentence, i would like, i don't think it's never been very clear, but i would like to transmit that every day in jail, at the end of the day it's already a death. it's always like that every single day. i've heard that people have been saying that i had her killed. it is not true. there are words that have been use used. that's what my lawyers have said to me. anybody can say whatever they want because words -- on the night, i can't remember the exact number, but there were like 30 policemen around us for ten hours, and the police interviews, the only wish is the wish and i talked for myself and amanda. to be able to get out of the police station as soon as possible and go home and find someone to help us because we were on our own that night, is and that's the truth of those statements, those interviews. they had even taken my shoes away on that night. there was this, and then, you know, the story about the weapon has already been discussed. then i would like to say that people have said that -- that's not true. i have no talk about it because i've already said and i repeat i've never met him. i have never heard his name before the trial. but he's not someone, an acquaintance, not -- to make you understand, i know you better in court. i know you because i've seen you 15, 20 times. but with him, i just pass him by at the trial from time to time and that's it. that's all i know of him. i've never met him before. and, you know, it's a bit silly having to repeat this, but that's exactly the truth. amanda and myself are in jail for over 1,4 hyund00 days. for this 1,400 days have been we have spent, 1,400 days in a space that's no bigger than 2.5 meters by three. i would like to make you understand that a romantic situation, even the tiniest things reach an enormous importance, like -- like a caress or a comforting word or a hi. those are signs of affection that in a way for a minute they help you forget a problemaway. they make you think that maybe the problems don't exist because they're insurmountable. because every day they seem truly insurmountable. know that to go forward for these years, our families have enormous sacrifices. if you think of amanda's family, they're here, who come from the other side of the world to be next to her, just to be with her. but my family, who have given me -- they've done everything. they've done enormous sacrifices to give me all the means so that i could confront this process and come out of this situation that, you know, from the beginning i thought it was going to be quickly solved. but it hasn't happened like that. raffaee sollecito has never been asked -- no one has asked me questions, i don't know why, but i was ready to talk in front of you, in front of the court to explain any doubt that nobody, not in this process or the previous one asked us, my examination. so i'm here in a way, really, to say what it is the facts, what i've gone through, and what i -- raffaele sollecito, since the first of november, because in summary that's what we are talking about. i was in a situation, a beautiful, i could say, idyllic from a certain point of view, because i was going to reach a very important step from it. in a few days i was going to present my thesis and i was getting ready, and during that period i met amanda knox, a very beautiful girl, shiny, happy, and very sweet. and with her it was like the first weekend that we were going to spend together. so i was extremely happy that weekend because, you know, perfectly were the facts. she had been give free time. my friend p had asked me to go with her to the bus station, and after that, she said she didn't need that favor anymore. so that evening we were free from any responsibility, and our only wish was to leave that evening with tenderness and hugs, nothing else than that. this -- you know, the description of the things we'd done on that evening, our feelings was just to be together. our wish was to be together. there's nothing else. but somehow this is a summary. we just wanted to be able to overcome this thing now. i don't have much to say at this very moment because anything else would be super flewous, but i would like to make a little homage if i'm allowed to. and this bracelet, it says "free amanda and raffaele. it's a bracelet i've never taken off since it was given to me. it's a bit yellow now, but it's not dirty. and i say now is that moment to take it off. and this brace let -- there are lots of emotions gathered in this bracelet. there is the wish of justice, the efforts, the way that we got to words toward light from this nocturnal. there's also the wish of freedom. and if you want, there's also a bit of affection and tenderness that amanda and i have shared for each other since the day we met. this bracelet, i want it to be a part of history and to the past, and i want it to represent in a way the past, and i want it that it is for me and amanda in the future with new hopes that i think we deserve, if i can give that to you. thank you. thank you for your attention. thank you. >> raffaele sollecito's plea of innocence for his conviction. you just heard from raffaele sollecito, the former boyfriend of amanda knox. we're outside of the courthouse in what is the closing day of this appeal. a jury of eight people, five women and three men, including two judges, listening to the closing day here. they will deliberate after this. let's listen in to amanda knox. >> translator: it can't be understood who i am. >> translator: you can remain seated if you want to. >> translator: i'm a bit nerv s nervous. >> translator: i am the same person i was four years ago, exactly the same person. the only thing that is didn't of me now from four years ago is my suffering. in four years i've lost my friends and the most terrible and unexplainable way. my trust and the authorities and the police has been damaged. i've had to face charges that were totally unfair and without any basis, and i'm paying with my life for something that i haven't done. four years ago i was younger, but i was also fundamentally younger because i had nothing in my life four years ago. four years ago i didn't know about tragedy. it was something that one watches on television. it had nothing to do with me. i never had to face so much fear, so much tragedy, so much suffering. i didn't know how to interpret this, how to face this. i didn't know how to be able to internalize it deeply, how i felt when i found out that meredith has been murdered. i couldn't believe it. how? how is it possible? then i was scared because a person who has been sharing my life, who had the bedroom next to mine has been murdered in our hou house, and if i had been there that evening, i would be dead as well, like she was. the only difference is that i wasn't there. i was at raffaele's. thank goodness he was there, not just because of that but also later because i had no one. he was everything to me at that moment. i phoned my family, yes, but at that very minute, at that time, i owe everything to him. the only thing i had was my upbringing. i had a sense of duty with the justice, with the authorities, and i trusted them because they were there to find out who was guilty and to protect us, and i trusted them blindly, totally, absolutely, and i put myself at their disposal, completely, and on the night of the 5th of november, i haven't just been arrest ed and manipulated. i am not what they say i am. perversity, violence. i respect life and people, and i haven't done the things that they are suggesting that i've done. i haven't murdered, i haven't raped, i haven't stolen. i wasn't there. i wasn't present in that crime. i did not know rudy. rudy, i remember that -- the police asked me to give a list of all the people that meredith and i had met in that period in perugia. and i mentioned the boy we had met at the downstairs flat, but i didn't even know his name, like so many people around, the faces. it's not someone with whom i hadny contact, so when they say, yes, they knew him, no. no, i have never done the things that they say i've done. they say that, you know, it just happens like that, it happens like that. i had a good relationship with all my flat mates. i wasn't very tidy, and i was a bit happy, but we had a very good relationship. we were all at the disposal, one of the other. i was sharing my life with meredith more than anything. we were friends. she would get worried for me when i was going to work. she was always kind to me. meredith has been murdered, and i always wanted justice for her. i'm not escaping the truth and i've never tried to escape the truth. i insist on the truth. i insist that after four desperate years, i insist my innocence -- our innocence because it is true and it's got to defend this and recognize. i want to go back home. i want to go back to my life. i don't want to be punished. to have my life, my future taken away from me for things that i haven't committed. because i am innocent. i am innocent. raffaele is innocent. and i miss our freedom because we have never done anything. i have highly respect for this court, for the care they have taken in this process, and i would like to thank you, and i would like for this reason justice. so now we will withdraw, but i would like to invite you to a reflection. it's not a football game. there is no room for gossip iin. we have to remember that a beautiful girl has died in a horrible way and that we are -- that the lives of two young people are also in place. so when we're reading that verdict, i want respect and silence. having said that >> translato, don't think it would be before 20. although it's difficult to think, we would like to thank the jury, and we're going to deliberate. can we leave things in this courtroom? yes, yes, thank you. >> reporter: what you've just heard is the trial judge in the conviction of murder by amanda knox and raffaele sollecito. let's tell you what was just said. let's start off with amanda knox. she said i am not who they say i am. i did not kill, i did not rape, i did not steal. i was not there. people ask who is amanda knox. i'm the same person who i was four years ago, but i have lost my friend, i have lost my faith in the italian police system and i am paying with my life for something i hadn't done. four years ago i didn't know why i was suffer egg. do remember they were convicted of killing amanda knox's roommate meredith kercher who died in the house back in 2007. we also heard amanda gaining influency -- talking in italian for 15 minutes or so. she started strongly, but the emotion almost overcame her. it's been an incredibly emotional day for amanda. before amanda, we heard from raffaele sollecito. he describes the night of the murder as a happy one, an idyllic one. he wasn't there at the house that night. he was about to send in his thesis. he just met amanda, a beautiful sunny girl. her employer had given her the time off so we could go away and spend the weekend together. in what was a highly charged speech bim him, he said he'd been wearing a bracelet for the last four years that said "free amanda and raffaele." he said he wanted to take it off. he said i think the time now has come to take it off. he -- almost nervously, his voice almost fading to inawe built. he said i hope this is part of history and that amanda and i have a future. you heard the employees of innocence from raffaele sollecito and amanda knox who was a student here in perugia in 2007 when her flat mate meredith kercher was murdered in her house. she was convicted along with her former boyfriend in 2007. today is their last day for the appeal. the head of the international bar association, we met in london. he's been listening in to the final closing arguments of the defense lawyer and the employees pleas of innocencelet let's join him now from london. mark, your thoughts. >> i think particularly compelling motive, presentations by both of them and i think they correctly kept the focus on the personal anguish that they've gone flew, respecting, of course -- respecting the process, but, again, focusing on what a dramatic time this has been for both of them. and you have to say that they believe in their innocence, and if they are innocent, then you can just imagine the drama that they've been through for the last four years. and so i thought it was -- i thought both of them under these extraordinary circumstances really presented a very compelling closing remarks, but i do believe it was actually amanda knox's attorney that focused the court on the crucial issue of the evidence. and in the end remarks, he said, this is an opportunity for the court to re-examine the evidence, to find that there is, in fact, doubt and reasonable doubt about the evidence that was presented at the trial level and the evidence that led to their convictions. and this to me is crucial because in the end this appeals court will have to justify its decision. it will have a written decision. so regardless of how emotional these closing arguments are by these two defendants. in the end this appeals court will have to make its decision based on the evidence that's been presented to them in this proceeding. that to me is absolutely crucial. >> reporter: yeah. lucciano ghirga reminding the jury it's beyond a reasonable doubt. they're asking for complete freedom for amanda. at that point raffaele sollecito rose to plead his innocence. i just want you to listen in to part of what amanda knox said just moments ago. have a listen to this. >> >> translator: i am the same person i was four years ago. exactly the same person. the only thing that separates me now from four years ago is my suffering. in four years i've lost my friends in the most terrible and unexplainable way. my trust and authorities and the police has been damaged. i had to face charges that were totally unfair without any basis. and i'm paying with my life for something that i haven't done. >> reporter: amanda knox speaking earlier. i'm outside the court here in perugia, the medieval city where amanda knox and raffaele sollecito are hoping they will get a quashed conviction of murder back in 2007 of meredith kercher. i want to stand away from the camera for a moment to give you a sense of what's happening outside the courtroom. it looks like there will be a press conference held momentarily. we just heard the pleas of amanda knox and raffaele sollecito. we're expecting adman's lawyer to come out side and give a press conference. we'll bring that to you as soon as it happens. the jury will begin to deliberate now. i don't know how long that's going to take. eight people, five women and three men, two of whom are judges, and that includes the presiding judge which is an important feature here in the italian justice system. mark, we know the judge is there to guide rather than to direct. this is the presiding judge, hellman. what would you expect to happen now? >> i would expect all eight, including two professional judges, to review the evidence that's been presented through this process. it will be crucial, as i've said earlier, that this court makes the decision based on the evidence. and so as -- again, as compelling as the closing arguments were of the two defendants, i think the two judges, and particularly the presiding judge, will make certain that they go through all of the evidence that's being -- that has been presented and to determine whether there is, again, sufficient reason to overturn the decision of the lower court of, of course, the jury can uphold the decision or can alter the sentence. those will be the three possible outcomes of their deliberations. but i believe the professional judges will make certain that the focus will be on the evidence that's been presented, the new evidence that's been presented through this entire appeals process. >> reporter: and, of course, mark, if the conviction for murder is overturned by this jury today, amanda knox will have to return to prison, which is about 40 minutes away from here. but that is simply to pick up her things, and she will be free to leave on a flight to seattle, if, indeed, this verdict is overturned on appeal, and that jury will begin deliberating on this appeal momentarily. i just want neal the cameraman to turn around so our viewers can get a sense of what's happening here. about two hours ago the streets of perugia were quite empty and this now is the picture in this medieval town as we await the press conference being held i'm told by the defense lawyer. we'll also hear from the presiding judge, of course. this isn't a press conference that was scheduled. we're as much in the dark. you have just heard from amanda knox and raffaele sollecito. let's listen in to what one of amanda knox's lawyers has to say. >> translator: and the judges have gone to deliver. it's impossible to predict the time that it's going to take or the outcome that the defense of raffaele sollecito has evidence, all the mistakes that -- made by the prosecution to say that raffaele was in that room. so they will have to decide if there is a huge mistake to attribute raffaele sollecito, those traces on the bra. we have evidence that is a mistake. the first thing we ask the judges is the very fact that if that mistake has been made even before that, we have always supported that traces couldn't be used because it was something left in the room for 46 days. so the only evidence against raffaele sollecito is evidence that has been taken after 46 daday s, and that has to be questioned. raffaele and amanda have made a statement that, i think, you know, condition has been evident, and raffaele has been taken, again, to jail. i hope this is the last time he has to go to jail. i can't say that sollecito is feeling very emotional at this time. he is strong. he says that -- he's saying that he's innocent. where that bracelet come from, that bracelet, i hear sollecito has is one he's been wearing all these years. i was always impressed because he always had that bracelet. between them, the prosecution said for them it was just a sexual relationship, that they only -- the only relationship between them was sexual. i thought that this bracelet showed that the relationship between them was a tender relationship, not a sexual one. i've got it in my bag. >> reporter: the oh lis tore for amanda knox is speaking outside the courtroom in perugia. the closing day of the appeal. amanda knox and raphaelly and sollecito. what you're hearing now is the two defendants leaving to be taken back to the prison which is about 40 minutes away. they've made impassioned pleas to the jury today, a jury of eight people, five women and three men including a judge here, judge hellman. we'll await to hear what the jury verdict will be. that could take some hours. an author joins me now. some thoughts really on what you've learned, candace, look at me, if you will, an extremely emotional day for everybody concerned. >> they seem more frail than the last time we heard from them after the conviction -- before the conviction. last time they both stood up and they seemed more self-confident but very passionate and very sad. they captured the people of the situation, i thought especially amanda did. she kept speaking of four years ago, she kept bringing us up to date. four years ago i was a college student. now i'm asking for justice. she ended on a high note. she said all i'm asking for is the truth, i'm asking for justice and she mentioned raffaele is innocent. both of them weave each other in their talk. when they mention each other's names, they both get emotional. >> reporter: amanda knox said this. i am not what they say say. i idea i not kill, i did not rape, i did not steal, i was not there. the jury now beginning their deliberations. stick with us here on cnn. we're live in perugia outside the courtroom as we learn more from that jury, of course. we'll bring it to you. let's take a very short break here on cn. back after this. >> i'm the same person as i was four years ago. the same person. the only thing that's different from now and four years ago is my suffering. >> reporter: you've been listening to amanda knox just moments ago, her plea of innocent in what is their appeal aagainst con vision. amanda knox and raffaele sollecito convicted in 2009 of the 2007 of amanda knox's roommate meredith kercher in this medieval town in perugia. you can see what we have here. it's a media scrum outside the courthouse. we've heard from amanda knox and raffaele sollecito, their police today. you also heard from a defense lawyer today, animated lawyer who says the standard has to be absolutely no reasonable doubt. he's telling the jury there's no evidence in this case. they must return a verdict which effectively on appeal, the ruling on the appeal which would effectively overturn this verdict. i'm becky allison here outside the courtroom in perugia. we're going to take a short break here on cnn. a lot more to await. the jury is deliberating now, eight. people, five women, three men, including two judges, the presiding judge, judge hellman will help this jury decide on which way they vote. if indeed the verdict of murder is overturned, well, amanda knox will be returned to prison but certainly to pick up her things and then she would be allowed to return to seattle. more after this.