Italy opens new slander trial against Amanda Knox. She was exonerated 9 years ago in friend's murder

FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — Amanda Knox was back on trial for slander Wednesday for wrongly accusing a Congolese man of murdering her roommate while the young women were exchange students in Italy. Knox herself was convicted of the slaying before being exonerated in a case that grabbed the global spotlight.

Knox was a 20-year-old student with rudimentary Italian who had recently arrived in Perugia, when she endured a long night of questioning in the murder of Meredith Kercher. She ended up accusing the owner of a bar where she worked part-time of killing the 21-year-old British student.

In 2016, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the interrogation violated her rights because she was questioned without a lawyer or official translator.

In November, Italy’s highest Cassation Court threw out the slander conviction — the only remaining guilty verdict against Knox after the same court definitively threw out convictions for Kercher’s murder against Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, nine years ago.

That conviction, which endured multiple trials and appeals, has remained a legal stain against her, especially in Italy, as she pursues a new life in the United States campaigning for judicial reform.

Another man was convicted in Kercher’s 2007 murder.

Knox, now 36, did not appear in Wednesday’s hearing in Florence, and is being tried in absentia. She remains in the United States, where she campaigns for social justice and has a variety of media projects including a podcast and a limited series on her case in development with Hulu.

Knox's accusation against bar owner Patrick Lumumba appeared in statements typed by police that she signed, but which have been ruled inadmissible in the new trial by Italy's highest court.

She recanted the accusation in a four-page handwritten note in English penned the following afternoon — the only evidence the court can rule on.

However, a lawyer for Lumumba, Carlo Pacelli, argued to readmit the disallowed documents as reference since Knox referred to them multiple times in her written statement. Lumumba, who is participating in the prosecution as permitted by Italian law, also did not attend the trial.

Court recessed after nearly four hours of arguments and will reconvene June 5 for rebuttals and a decision. The case is being heard by two professional judges and eight civilian jurors.

Despite Knox’s attempts at walking back the accusation, Lumumba was picked up for questioning and held for nearly two weeks.

The slander conviction carried a three-year sentence, which Knox served during nearly four years of detention until a Perugia appeals court found her and Sollecito not guilty. After six years of flip-flop verdicts, Knox was definitively exonerated by Italy’s highest court of the murder in 2015.

Kercher’s body was found with the throat slit on Nov. 2, 2007, in her locked bedroom in an apartment she shared with Knox and two other roommates.

Rudy Guede, whose DNA and footprints were found at the scene, was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He was released after serving 13 years, and is currently being investigated for allegedly physically and sexually assaulting a former girlfriend since being freed.

FILE- Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, left, a Congolese citizen who was originally jailed for the murder of Meredith Kercher, flanked by his lawyer Carlo Pacelli, arrives at the Italy's highest court building, in Rome, Friday, March 27, 2015. Amanda Knox faces yet another trial for slander against Lumumba in a case that could remove the last remaining guilty verdict against her nine years after Italy's highest court definitively threw out her conviction for the murder of her 21-year-old British roommate, Meredith Kercher. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca, File)

FILE - Amanda Knox, left, talks to reporters as her mother, Edda Mellas, right, looks on outside Mellas' home in Seattle, Friday, March 27, 2015. Amanda Knox faces yet another trial for slander in a case that could remove the last remaining guilty verdict against her nine years after Italy's highest court definitively threw out her conviction for the murder of her 21-year-old British roommate, Meredith Kercher. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, file)

FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2008 Amanda Knox, center, is escorted by Italian penitentiary police officers to Perugia's court. Amanda Knox faces yet another trial for slander in a case that could remove the last remaining guilty verdict against her nine years after Italy's highest court definitively threw out her conviction for the murder of her 21-year-old British roommate, Meredith Kercher. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito, File)

FILE- Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, left, a Congolese citizen who was originally jailed for the murder of Meredith Kercher, flanked by his lawyer Carlo Pacelli, arrives at the Italy's highest court building, in Rome, Friday, March 27, 2015. Amanda Knox faces yet another trial for slander against Lumumba in a case that could remove the last remaining guilty verdict against her eight years after Italy's highest court definitively threw out her conviction for the murder of her 21-year-old British roommate, Meredith Kercher. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca, File)

FILE - Amanda Knox, left, talks to reporters as her mother, Edda Mellas, right, looks on outside Mellas' home in Seattle, Friday, March 27, 2015. Amanda Knox faces yet another trial for slander in a case that could remove the last remaining guilty verdict against her eight years after Italy's highest court definitively threw out her conviction for the murder of her 21-year-old British roommate, Meredith Kercher. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, file)

FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2008 Amanda Knox, center, is escorted by Italian penitentiary police officers to Perugia's court. Amanda Knox faces yet another trial for slander in a case that could remove the last remaining guilty verdict against her eight years after Italy's highest court definitively threw out her conviction for the murder of her 21-year-old British roommate, Meredith Kercher. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito, File)

FILE - Amanda Knox speaks at a Criminal Justice Festival at the University of Modena, Italy, on June 15, 2019. A Florence appeals court on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, opens a new slander trial against Amanda Knox based on a 2016 European Court of Human Rights decision that her rights were violated during a long night of questioning into the murder of her British roommate without a lawyer and official translator. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)

Wall Street pointed toward gains early Friday ahead of a report on U.S. employment that is expected to show the economy remains strong despite a prolonged period of high interest rates.

Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.3% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7%.

Later Friday, the U.S. government will report on how many jobs employers added in April.

Economists expect it to show a slowdown in hiring from March. However, a report Thursday showed that fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected in the latest signal that the job market remains solid despite high interest rates.

The U.S. economy is in a tight spot, where the hope is that it remains strong enough to stay out of a recession but not so strong that it worsens the already stalled progress on inflation.

Stubbornly high readings on inflation this year pushed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to say on Wednesday that it will likely take “longer than previously expected” to get enough confidence about inflation to cut interest rates.

In equities trading early Friday, Apple rose 6% after the tech giant raised its dividend and announced a $110 billion share buyback, even as it posted the steepest quarterly decline in iPhone sales since the outset of the pandemic.

Expedia fell 12.2% after the online travel company beat Wall Street targets but lowered its full-year bookings guidance because its Vrbo rental unit has been slow to recover from its migration to Expedia's platform.

In Europe at midday, Germany's DAX gained 0.4%, while the CAC 40 in Paris and London's FTSE 100 each picked up 0.5%.

Markets in Tokyo and mainland China were closed for holidays.

The Japanese yen strengthened slightly against the U.S. dollar amid signs of heavy central bank intervention to tamp down the dollar’s advance.

The financial newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that estimates showed the government spending an estimated 8 trillion yen (about $50 billion) in reserves this week to try to keep the yen from slipping further against the dollar.

The weaker yen has helped boost prices for imported goods, a factor behind the Bank of Japan's recent decision to give up its negative interest rate policy and raise its benchmark rate to zero to 0.1% from a longstanding level of minus 0.1%. It might raise rates further, Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in a commentary, even if its target of 2% isn't met.

“Even though the economic case for preventing the yen from sliding is much weaker, the Ministry of Finance seems to have responded with an even more forceful round of foreign exchange interventions this week than it did two years ago," Thieliant said.

While a weak yen is a boon for Japanese companies that earn much of their revenues overseas, significant shifts in the foreign exchange market can play havoc with corporate planning and a sharply weaker yen also boosts costs for imports of oil and other vital commodities.

The dollar was trading at 153.18 yen early Friday, down from 153.65 late Thursday. The euro rose to $1.0748 from $1.0727.

In Asian trading, Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 1.5% to 18,475.92, tracking gains on Wall Street. News of fresh moves by Chinese leaders to energize the economy also helped drive buying of technology shares.

E-commerce giant Alibaba climbed 4.1% and rival JD.com was up 5.5%. Baidu advanced 4.4%.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6% to 7,629.00 and the Kospi in Seoul slipped 0.3% to 2,676.63. Taiwan's Taiex picked up 0.5%.

India's Sensex shed 0.9% to 73,952.37.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.9%, a day after swinging sharply when the Federal Reserve said it's likely delaying cuts to interest rates but not planning to hike them. That more than halved its losses for the week. The Dow advanced 0.9% and the Nasdaq composite jumped 1.5%.

In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 35 cents to $79.30 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost 5 cents on Thursday.

Brent crude, the international standard, added 43 cents to $84.10 per barrel.

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Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Currency traders pass by the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 3, 2024. Asian shares were mostly higher Friday ahead of a report on the U.S. jobs market, with several major markets including Tokyo and Shanghai closed for holidays. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 3, 2024. Asian shares were mostly higher Friday ahead of a report on the U.S. jobs market, with several major markets including Tokyo and Shanghai closed for holidays. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader smiles near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)