keith miller, nbc news, perugia. >> when we come back, son of sam, 35 years later. a look back at a serial killer': reign of terror. cc1: >>> police in norway revealed today that the man who confessed to killing 77 people told them he had more targets in mind, including the royal palace in oslo. authorities say anders breivik showed no emotion when they told him how many people he'd killed. >>> meantime, this weekend marks the 35th anniversary of the cc1: start of another infamous murder spree that took place in this country. it was the work of a serial killer known as the son of sam. for more than a year, his random string of killings and shootings virtually paralyzed the new yor: city area with fear. >> it was the mad man with the .44. a psychopath whose cryptic letters gave him a thrill and a name. the son of sam. between 1976 and 1977, he turned the streets of new york into his hunting ground. this week marks the 35th anniversary of his murder spree. the terror began in the early morning hours of july 29th, 1976. 18-year-old donna laurea who lived in this bronx

nbc's keith miller is outside the courthouse in perugia, italy. d morning. >> reporter: good morning, lester. well, it's crunch time for amanda knox in her appeal of the murder conviction. the defense team for knox in these next days of testimony are convinced their client will be set free. despite years in prison, amanda knox continues to appear as the all-american girl. the 24-year-old from seattle, washington, just celebrated her fourth birthday behind bars. with a cappuccino shared with fellow inmates. according to her mother, knox expects to spend her next birthday back home with friends and family. >> she's definitely more hopeful she will be spending christmases and everything from, you know, now on at home. >> reporter: on monday, the court will hear crucial the testimony from court-appointed forensic experts. in the absence of an eyewitness, and the defendants proclaiming their innocence, the prosecution relied on dna to win a conviction. this case has always been about the dna. but during this appeal process, it appears a flaw has emerged

keith miller has the latest. >> reporter: her mother was there to offer support in the final stages ofge started proceedings, reading a letter from the head of italy's police forensic team. defending the professionalism of his officers. in an earlier session, court-appointed forensic scientists testified they discovered more than 50 breaches of international forensic protocols in the dna used to convict knox and her former boyfriend. the two were convicted of murdering meredith kercher, an exchange student from england, based largely on dna gathered by police. by on scientific review, the alleged murder weapon was found not to contain dna material from the victim, as the prosecution contended. police forensic teams were accused of shoddy work, that resulted in what the experts called a bungled case. that testimony, according to a leading criminal attorney in rome appears to seriously undermine the prosecution's case. >> it is a tremendous, tremendous advantage and victory for the defense, for amanda knox, because for an appellate court to request a review of the evidence means that the

nbc's keith miller in italy with the latest. . >> reporter: good morning, alex. this is crunch time for amanda knox in the appeal of her murder convection and her defense team in these closing days of testimony are convinced they'll get their client to be set free. despite years in president, amanda knox continues to appear as at all-american girl. the 24-year-old from seattle, washington, just celebrated her fourth birthday behind bars with a cappuccino, shared with inmates. knox expects to spend her next birthday back home with friends and family. >> she's definitely more hopeful that she will be spending christmases and everything from, you know, now on at home. >> reporter: on monday the court will hear crucial testimony from court-appointed forensic experts. in the absence of an eyewitness, and the defendants proclaiming innocence, the prosecution relied on dna to went a conviction. this case has always been about the dna. but during the appeal process, it appears a flaw has emerged in the prosecution's case. in a written re

nbc's keith miller live again for us in italy. keith, can you put in perspective why today's hearing is so crucial for amanda knox? >> reporter: well, this is the first day after this basically bombshell from the court-appointed forensic expert saying that the dna used to convict knox and her former boyfriend is unreliable, so it was the prosecution's day to try to call back basically rebuke the testimony from the experts. they're not having a very good day of it. the judge, who appointed these experts to actually go over the evidence, has constantly said to them throughout the day, you know, limit your questions, hurry up, let's get going, we're done with this. it's a remarkable turn of events for knox and her defense team who all along had argued that the dna was not there to convict their client. in the absence of an eyewitness, in the absence of a confession from the woman who claims she is innocent, it really does come down to the dna, and specifically what is most alarming, certainly for the prosecution, is that their content

keith miller is in perguia, italy, with the latest. >> they aimed to dismantle the forensic experts soalled it an attempted demolition but no denying that the dna evidence presented by the independent experts basically saying there is none was like sending a torpedo through the courtroom. the prosecution lashed out at the findings of an independent panel of forensic scientists who called the dna evidence used to convict knox unreliable. the judge read a letter from the head of italy's police forensic team defending the professionalisms of his officers. the findings of the court-appointed experts is major embarrassment to the major police who were accused of more than 50 breaches of forensic protocols. dna is that center of this case and was used to convict knox and her former boyfriend of murdering her roommate, meredith k kercher. the most damaging finding is the absense of dna on the alleged murder weapon, a kitchen knife, contended.secution cc1: that new finding, according to a leader criminal attorney in rome, appears to seriously undermine the prosecution's case. >> if i were revi

keith miller, nbc news, perugia. >>> in london, fans are creating a makeshift memorial to amy winehouse. a london paper quoted her mother as saying it was only a matter of time before winehouse died. the singer struggled with drug and alcohol abuse. meanwhile, winehouse's best known album has shot to the top of the charts in great britain. >>> when we come back here tonight, after days of brutal heat, could the weather finally be taking a turn? >>> it was a little cooler today, a little, along the east coast, but what a week it has been. the heat dome that enveloped much of the country grew out of the midwest and slowly moved east, breaking more than 800 temperature records along the way. we're joined now by the weather channel's stephanie moore. what's it look like in the days ahead, stephanie? >> looks like we're going to see that heat start to break a little bit, lester. in fact, we're already starting to see that happen across parts of the northeast. thank goodness, we'll take every break we can get. you know, in dallas-ft. worth, we have had some 23 straight days of 100 or better.

keith miller is live for us in italy. how did things go in court for knox?lthough the last session was the prosecution's attorney and they were trying to dismantle the evidence so much so that the local newspaper called it a demolition job. they mentioned that the new dna evidence that said there is no dna was like sending a torpedo through the courtroom. the prosecution lashed out at the panel of scientist who is called the dna used unreliable. the judge read a letter from the forensic team defending the professionalism of his officers. the findings is a major embarrassment to the national police. they were accused of more than 50 breeches. dna was used to convict knox and her former boyfriend of murdering her roommate. the most damaging finding is the absence of dna from the victim on the alleged murder weapon, a kitchen knife as the prosecution contending. the new finding according to a criminal attorney in rome appears to undermine the prosecution's case. >> if i were reviewing this from an american point of view, it looks like a slam dunk. >> the knox f

keith miller has more from peru ja. keith?as a chip into the prosecution case today and in the courtroom there was an audible gasp when they showed the videos of the slides of the police procedures at the scene of the crime, and the policemen kicking it across the floor and others picking up evidence with dirty gloves an none of them wearing hairnets which are protocols for the international gathering of crime evidence and some of it written by the united states department of justice. but the most crucial part of the testimony concerned the alleged murder weapon that was retrieved allegedly at knox's boyfriend. there was some protocol of the handle of the knife, but no dna material whatsoever on the blade. the prosecution introduced that as evidence in the first trial, and it weighed heavily on the jury when they convicted knox of murder. also crucial today was a bloody bra clasp that the police found at the scene of the crime, and they say there was dna there linking it to her former boyfriend and however the forensic expert

nbc's keith miller has the latest from italy. n what the argument is from the forensic experts? >> it was a remarkable day in court, contessa. we had two independent forensic experts taking the stand explaining of actually how the police, had sloppy police work. they showed slides and video of how they collected pieces of evidence. some that didn't have gloves. other gloves were dirty. one crucial bit of evidence it was a bloody bra clasp that was originally attributed to knox's former boyfriend. you could see in the video it being picked up, dropped on the floor, kicked across the room. it was not retrieved until weeks later. perhaps more important for the knox side sa that the alleged knife which is prosecution introduced in evidence at the beginning of the trial they were claiming that there was dna material from the victim on the blade and dna material from amanda knox on the handle. what these experts said today is there is a profile of knox on the handle. although this knife was discovered in her former boyfriend's apartment

nbc's keith miller is live in italy with more. today was the prosecution's day to try to refute the independent panel of forensic experts who delivered testimony that the dna evidence used to convict amanda knox is unreliable. knox appeared boy ant as she entered the court today. her mother was there to offer support in the final stages of the appeal. the judge started proceedings, reading a letter from the head of italy's police forensic team, defending the professionalism of his officers. in an earlier session, court appointed scientists testified they discovered more than 50 breeches of international forensic protocols in the dna used to convict knox and her former boyfriend. the two were convicted of murdering knox's roommate, meredi meredi meredi meredith kercher, an exchange student from england. on scientific review, the alleged murder weapon was found not to contain dna material from the victim, as the prosecution contended. police forensic teams were accused of shoddy work that resulted in what the experts called a bungle

keith miller in perguia, thank you so much. >>> a top adviser to president obama says al qaeda is atble stage right now and the u.s. has six months to deliver a knockout throw to the terror organization. those comments were made in a meeting in aspen, colorado. the u.s. needs to take advantage of al qaeda's disarray following the death of osama bin laden in may. joining me live, terrorism analyst evan coleman. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> these comments come following "the washington post's" report saying u.s. counterterrorism officials are convinced that al qaeda is on the brink of collapse. do you agree? >> we have to be very careful. al qaeda is under a tremendous amount of stress. a combination of efforts of strikes and special forces activities and diplomatic activities, we put a tremendous amount of pressure on these folks. we know this, from al qaeda's own mouth, senior leadership has said we're short of money, we need recruits. we don't have enough money to pay for the suicide bombings we carry out. they are under pressure and the death of bin laden emphasises tha

>> all right, keith miller this morning.anks. >>> coming up next, why would a mother drive drunk and high with her young children and nieces in the car? we're going to talk to her sister-in-law about the controversial new documentary on that deadly wrong-way crash. >>> but first, this is "today" on nbc. ♪ [ female announcer ] sweet honey taste. 80 calories per serving. 40% daily value of fiber. i'm here in the downtown area where the crowd is growing. [ female announcer ] watching calories at breakfast never tasted this sweet... i'll go get my bowl. [ female announcer ] ...or this huge. new fiber one 80 calories. yes, you can actually love breakfast. >>> just ahead, facing 40. what today's women are doing to take the sting out of turning the big 4-0. >>> the bride paralyzed after playfully pushed into the pool by one of her bridesmaids gets married. a big school year. your kids are going to climb rope. they're going to have a year long tug war with the ceiling. and by the time they get out of 8th grade, they're going to do i

>> keith miller, thank you very much. amanda knox' mother edda mellas is also in perugia. >> good morning, matt. >> you just left amanda. you just paid her a visit. talk to me about the time you spent together. >> well, it was our regular, you know, hour visit. we talked a lot about what happened in court today or yesterday and how she was feeling. and, you know, her first response was, well, i'm still in -- i'm still in here. however, she understands that yesterday was a really good day for her, a really positive day and finally, you know, independents are recognizing that everything we've said from the beginning is true. >> talk to me a little bit about that confidence because i know as a mother you want her to have that sense of hope, but you also have to guard against irrational hope because it would be a devastating fall if things don't go her way. >> right. that's exactly what happened in the first trial when there was really nothing there that connected her to the crime, but she was still found guilty. that's why h