- Experts criticize the handling of key evidence in testimony this week
- Their testimony raises hopes among Knox's supporters that the appeal may succeed
- Meredith Kercher, 21, was found dead in the apartment she shared with Knox
- Knox, her then-boyfriend and another man were convicted and sentenced
Perugia, Italy (CNN) -- An Italian police forensic expert will give evidence Saturday as the appeal of American Amanda Knox against her murder conviction resumes in Italy.
Knox was convicted of killing her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, in the Italian city of Perugia.
Forensic expert Patrizia Stefanoni and her team examined DNA evidence during the original investigation in 2007.
Their work has been strongly contested by two court-appointed forensic experts, professors Carla Vecchiotti and Stefano Conti.
Is Amanda Knox closer to freedom?
Amanda Knox's appeal gets boostEarlier this week, the professors argued that two key pieces of evidence in the conviction of Knox and then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito should have been considered "inadmissible."
Stefanoni, the police expert, is expected to question Vecchiotti and Conti on how they reached their conclusions.
She is also expected to use video and computer presentations to illustrate her points as she defends her team's work on the case.
Supporters of Knox, who arrived in court Saturday in a pink sweater and her hair tied back in a ponytail, hope that her conviction may be overturned or her sentence reduced on appeal.
Knox, 24, was sentenced to 26 years in prison for the murder of Kercher, 21, who was found partially naked with her throat cut in her bedroom of the house the two shared in 2007.
Sollecito and Knox were convicted on two key pieces of evidence: a 30-centimeter (12-inch) kitchen knife and a clasp from Kercher's bloodied bra.
Authorities testified in the original trial that Kercher's DNA was found on the blade of the knife, Knox's DNA was on its handle, and DNA from Sollecito was on the bra clasp.
But in the pair's appeal in Perugia, Vecchiotti and Conti have been damning in their appraisal of the methods used by the police forensic teams.
Testifying before the court Monday, the experts said the clasp had been kept in such a poor way that it was covered in rust, and further testing was futile. They both stressed that they had worn masks, gloves, paper suits and used sterile knives and scissors during their retesting at Rome's La Sapinenza University.
With regard to the knife, Vecchiotti said their test results were negative for blood and that the amount of DNA said to have been Kercher's was so low, it could not be examined again with any conclusion.
The two said that, studying the original report, it was clear that "numerous people had been in and out of the crime scene" and that "objects had been moved," which again put all evidence at risk of contamination.
In a point-by-point deconstruction, the experts said that because of the errors made by police during the original investigation, the evidence against Knox and Sollecito should be considered "inadmissible."
Kercher, a University of Leeds student from Coulsdon, Surrey, was discovered with her throat slit in November 2007, in the hilltop town of Perugia, just two months after she arrived in Italy during her year abroad.
A third defendant, small-time drug dealer Rudy Guede, an immigrant from the Ivory Coast, was also jailed in connection with the brutal killing. He received a 30-year sentence for murder and sexual violence following a fast-track trial in October 2008. His sentence was later cut to 16 years.
Knox and Sollecito -- who is serving 25 years -- were found guilty in December 2009.
CNN's Hada Messia and Nick Pisa contributed to this report.
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/d32oxiq7HyE/index.html
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