knox rarely smiles now, raffaele sollecito has shaved his head.n three years. knox's family says the couple, who had met just eight days before the murder, haven't communicated since their arrests. before the judge enters, knox smiles to raffaele. "are you okay?" it is a tender moment in what would be a strange hearing. this morning amanda knox's attorneys are to cross-examine an old witness. he is the homeless man who lived in this park and originally told the court he saw amanda and raffaele near the crime scene the night of the murder, before testimony begins cameras are ushered out of the court, and police bring in a star prosecution witness that the jury would find laughable. the homeless heroin addict could no longer remember the exact night he saw the couple. he was confused. it could have been hallowe'en, actually the night before the murder. and then the star witness dropped a bombshell. admitting he was under investigation by mignini's office for heroin dealing at the exact moment he became one of mignini's star witnesses. in our intervi

first, a knife found at the apartment of raffaele sollecito, knox's then boyfriend, also on trial. the prosecution claimed it was the murder weapon, saying the knife had knox's dna on the handle and kercher's dna on the blade. second, kercher's'sra clasp, found in the bedroom where she was murdered, had sollecito's dna on it. according to prosecutors, it was enough to convict them. knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and sollecito to 25. after the verdict knox's family, stunned and angry, fought their way through a mob of press and local perugians. >> how do you think this whole experience has changed your daughter? >> she was 20 when she walked in here. she was naive, happy, lovely. she's way more cautious. she had to xwroe up, you know, really fast. >> learn some life lessons. >> huge lessons. >> reporter: this week knox was back in court for her appeal, looking fragile and pale. prison life has clearly taken its toll. but then an astonishing revelation. two italian independent experts, assigned by the court to review that dna evidence -- >> [ speaking foreign language ]. >>

in the absence of an eyewitness and the defendants, amanda knox and raffaele sollecito. during this appeal, it appears a flaw may have emerged in the prosecution's case. in a written report to the court, the independent forensic scientists say that dna evidence failed to conform to international standards. the experts will testify to the dna material found on the knife allegedly used to murder knox's roommate, meredith kercher, an exchange student from england, was insufficient to reach a verdict of guilty. >> the truth is now finally coming out. i think it takes some pressure off of all of us. and so i think maybe we're all -- i think amanda put it well. we're all just breathing a little easier. >> reporter: and another key piece of evidence. dna allegedly matching knox's former boyfriend found on a bloody bra clasp is reportedly too contaminated to evaluate. the 24-year-old from seattle, washington, just celebrated her fourth birthday behind bars. with a cappacino shared with fellow inmates. >> she's definitely more hopeful she will be spending christmases and everythi

raffaele sollecito's dna was found on the bra clasp.the early stages, the defense is alleging, is that the police came in and used dirty gloves and passed it on to other dirty gloves and contaminated the bra, in essence. they also say that it took six weeks for them to even find it. it could be contaminated and, therefore, not permissable as evidence. the second thing is the knife that is alleged to have killed meredith kercher. amanda knox's dna has been found on the handle of that knife and blood was found on the blade of that knife. what the defense is arguing is that the blood was so teeny tiny, it was so small that there weren't even enough cells to do a proper dna test to definitively identify it as the victim's. amanda knox and her family are really hoping that independent dna and forensic expert says, you know what? this is not going to be admissible. technically, they handled the dna incorrectly. therefore, it may not stand in court. they are keeping their fingers crossed that this flies. and this is the only window of possibil

evidence in question is on the victim's bra clasp said to contain dna of knox's former boyfriend, raffaele sollecitoto's apartment. last month the independent experts who pored over the dna evidence since february filed their 144-page review. their findings seem to support knox's defense, that dna traces on the evidence were too minuscule to be retested and that proper police procedures were not followed. the report also stated "it cannot be ruled out that the result obtained may stem from contamination." for amanda and her mother, edda mellas, it was a huge victory. >> i was able to speak to the priest in jail who was there when she heard the news. he said you could see the light in her eyes, and she could finally breathe for the first time in over three years. >> reporter: also key to the defense is the fact that there is no dna at all of knox in the bloody bedroom where her roommate was found murdered. nowhere in meredith's room where the murder took place and where meredith's body was found is there a single fingerprint from amanda? >> huh-uh. >> reporter: a single piece of dna from amanda. >> h

he's a roche, a known drug dealer, a bad actor, and he had no connection to amanda for raffaele sollecitoduring this appeal they'll have to prove to the judge that indeed the evidence that they were convicted on the first time around, these independent analysis of this dna has to be brought into the courtroom on all of this. how do you think all of this is going to work out? amanda knox according to these reports is very hopeful, the most hopeful she's ever been that they are going to be free. >> the original trial they didn't allow any independent analysis of the forensic evidence to occur. now in america both the defense and the prosecution are required by law, or allowed by law to have independent analysis of all scientific evidence. but in italy only the prosecutors were allowed to analyze this evidence and only their chosen labs did the work, and those labs turned in the results that the prosecution wanted. this is very common in italy. there is a lot of corruption in this sort of thing in italy, where whoever is paying your bill, well you're going to find the evidence that they want