U.S. student Amanda Knox, appealing a murder conviction for her roommate's death in Italy, was a woman in love, not a she-devil as claimed, an attorney said.
During his summation before a judge and jury sitting in Perugia, Italy, one defense attorney said Knox "can be seen as a man-eater. But in fact she was a faithful woman in love," the British newspaper The Guardian reported Tuesday.
Defense lawyers also said there was "no trace" of Knox or her former Italian boyfriend in the room where Knox's British roommate, Meredith Kercher, was murdered.
The 25-year-old Seattle woman and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, appealed their respective 26- and 25-year prison sentences in the death of Kercher, who was found partially nude with her throat slashed in 2007.
A man from Ivory Coast was convicted separately.
The attorney representing a man Knox initially accused in the crime Monday characterized the U.S. exchange student as alternately an angel or a devil, depending on the situation.
Giulia Bongiorno, representing Sollecito, said Tuesday despite a lower court's decision that Sollecito and Knox killed Kercher during a drug-fueled sex game with a third man "in the room of the crime, there are no traces of either Amanda or Raffaele. This is the absolute truth."
Because of the experts' report and testimony in the appeal, Bongiorno said, "Nothing connects Raffaele Sollecito to this crime."