'An ill wind is blowing': Now even PROSECUTOR says Foxy Knoxy will be freed 
 
 American closer to freedom as judge rejects calls to re-examine evidence 
 
 
 
 Knox currently serving 26 years for murder of student Meredith Kercher 
 
 
 
 By Nick Pisa 
 
 
 
 Last updated at 11:40 AM on 8th September 2011 
 
 Amanda Knox is likely to be freed, according to one of the lawyers opposing her murder appeal. 
 
 
 
 A prosecutor in the Amanda Knox appeal case has said 'an ill wind is blowing' as she predicted the American would be acquitted of the murder of Meredith Kercher. 
 
 Manuela Comodi, who is one of two prosecutors involved in the appeal of Knox against her conviction for the murder of student Meredith, 21, said she was convinced the American would be freed. 
 
 Comodi made her comments just hours before the appeal hearing resumed today, with prosecutors and defence lawyers again contesting crucial DNA evidence. 
 
 Hopeful: Amanda Knox, seen here at her appeal hearing in Perugia, is another step closer to freedom after a judge's ruling today 
 
 Knox, 24, is serving 26 years for the murder of Meredith, 21, who was found with her throat slashed and semi naked in the bedroom of the house she shared with her and two other women in November 2007. 
 
 Her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 27, was also convicted of murdering and sexually assaulting Meredith and he is serving 25 years with both claiming they had nothing to do with the killing. 
 
 Miss Comodi said: 'There is an ill wind blowing in this case. 
 
 
 
 'The judge and his assistant are clearly against us. I can see both Knox and Sollecito being freed which will be a shame as they are both involved.' 
 
 
 
 Knox is led into court in Perugia by a police officer as her appeal hearing comes towards its conclusion 
 
 The prosecutor spoke as the judge in the case denied her a further re-examination of forensic evidence. 
 
 An earlier review had cast doubt on DNA findings used by the prosecution. 
 
 
 
 Key to the case is a 30cm kitchen knife found at Sollecito's apartment, on which DNA from Knox was on the handle and that of Meredith was discovered on the blade. 
 
 However the independent report by Carla Vecchiotti and Stefano Conte of Rome's La Sapeinza University has questioned the reliability of the findings by forensic scientists. 
 
 Although they do not doubt Knox's DNA is on the handle they have questioned the findings related to Meredith, insisting that the level is so low it should not have been admitted as evidence in the first trial. 
 
 The experts have also questioned the reliability of DNA evidence found on Meredith's bloodied bra clasp which was found at the scene and then 'missed' for six weeks. 
 
 The original trial heard there were traces of Sollecito on the clasp after it was examined by forensic scientists but the experts say the fact it was left for six weeks at the scene leaves it open to contamination. 
 
 Police forensic scientist Patrizia Stefanoni, who led the original investigation, has dismissed any suggestion of contamination and insisted she and her team followed strict guidelines. 
 
 However, earlier in the appeal the court was shown a video which showed the forensic team collecting evidence with dirty gloves and using their hands instead of tweezers to collect items. 
 
 Raffaele Sollecito, seen left arriving at the appeal hearing in Perugia yesterday, is disputing his part in the death of student Meredith Kercher, right 
 
 Comodi added: 'We are going to ask for a second review of the evidence. There are to many aspects that are incomplete and we believe the experts are wrong so we want another review. 
 
 'This could take another sixty days but I'm not confident that the judge will grant the prosecution request - it's very obvious this time that they are against us.' 
 
 
 
 Comodi said that the tests, if granted, would be carried out using new techniques which had not previously been available when the first tests were carried out almost four years ago. 
 
 She also said she would request that Mafia mobster Luciano Avielli who had earlier testified that Knox and Sollecito were innocent of the murder be called back. 
 
 Denial: Knox has appealed her murder conviction at the court in Perugia after always denying she played a part in Meredith Kercher's killing 
 
 Investigation: Forensic teams search the Perugian flat in November 2007 where Meredith Kercher's body was found 
 
 Aviello has told the hearing that it was his on-the-run brother and fellow mobster Antonio who had carried out the killing after he was disturbed by Meredith during a botched break in. 
 
 Comodi said: 'Aviello was a key witness for the defence in this appeal but he has now contacted me to retract everything he said so it is only right that we ask for him to be called back so he can testify again.' 
 
 
 
 The findings of the review had given hope to Knox and Sollecito that they would be acquitted at the end of September when the court is expected to give its verdict. 
 
 However a request to have a second review plus Aviello heard again could delay a verdict by as much as two months, meaning no decision before November at the earliest - four years after Meredith was murdered. 
 
 After the hearing Knox's father Curt, said: 'I'm very happy with the decision to stick with the original independent review - it's a tell tale of how the court feels the report was effective. 
 
 
 
 Bereaved: Stephanie Kercher, with her mother Arline Kercher and father John Kercher in Perugia in 2007, have pleaded for their daughter to 'not be forgotten' 
 
 'The court truly believes in what the experts have told them. We are still hopeful and this tells me that the court believes what these experts are saying. 
 
 
 
 'Amanda is happy and hopeful that she won't be spending too much more time in prison but it's still up to the judges in the court and we will start those arguments later this month. 
 
 
 
 'These were court appointed experts and if you ask me it looks like an act of desperation from the prosecution. I personally didn't believe that another review was necessary. 
 
 
 
 'It seems as if they are unwilling to listen to common sense - there was no trace of Amanda or Raffaele in the room where Meredith was murdered. 
 
 
 
 'The prosecution should be seeking the truth and I'm sure that is something the Kerchers would want.' 
 
 
 
 Meredith, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Perugia as part of her Leeds University and had only been in Italy for two months before she was brutally murdered. 
 
 A third defendant, small-time drug dealer Rudy Guede, an immigrant from the Ivory Coast, was also jailed in connection with the brutal killing. ||||| One of Amanda Knox's Italian prosecutors conceded today "a possibility" that the American woman and her ex-boyfriend could win the appeal of their murder conviction, and said, "I would find it very serious if they were set free." 
 
 Prosecutor Manuela Comodi, one of three prosecutors on the case, spoke to ABC News after the court refused her request to have further tests carried out on DNA evidence that was used to help convict Knox and Raffaele Sollecito of murdering Meredith Kercher. 
 
 Kercher, 21, was Knox's roommate in Perugia, Italy, in 2007. Knox has been sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito was given 25 years. 
 
 Their appeal got a boost when a court appointed panel of forensic experts issued a blistering report on key pieces of DNA evidence, concluding it was baldy handled, likely contaminated and should not have been presented in court. The appeal is expected to conclude later this month. 
 
 Amanda Knox Prosecutor Cites "Possibility" She Could Go Free 
 
 Speaking to the court today, Comodi criticized the panel's work as "inadequate, unreliable and flawed" and said they "were incapable of carrying out the duty they were assigned." She asked the court to order more sophisticated tests on the DNA by different experts, but was rebuffed. 
 
 "The court thought our request superfluous and we accept it," she told ABC News. 
 
 ABC News Amanda Knox attends her appeal hearing in... View Full Size ABC News Amanda Knox attends her appeal hearing in Perugia's Court of Appeal Sep. 7, 2011 in Perugia, Italy. 
 
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 The prosecutor allowed for the possibility that Knox could win the appeal. 
 
 "We did our job. I am convinced by what I have said. I am fully convinced of their guilt and I would find it very serious if they were set free," Comodi told ABC News. 
 
 "Today's decision could lead one to think that there is more of a possibility that they be set freed," she said. 
 
 A fresh round of tests could have added months to the appeal at a time when the Seattle woman has gotten her hopes up that her four year incarceration could be coming to an end. 
 
 Amanda Knox's father, Curt Knox, noted that during the trial the prosecution fought attempts to have independent DNA experts examine the evidence. 
 
 "You know for the prosecution to always say they didn't want an independent review, and then come around and say they want another independent review, I think that was kind of desperation on their part," Curt Knox said. 
 
 "If they'd done an independent review during the first trial I don't think you and I would be talking to each other now," he said. "My hopes are obviously that they acquit Amanda and Raffaele and we get to take her home. It's been a four year goal." 
 
 Amanda Knox's stepfather Chris Mellas told ABC News that she is feeling the pressure. 
 
 "The stress of it being so near..getting a taste of maybe, possibly, being closer to freedom might be keeping her up at night. Most poeple don't have to go through this ever and it is an amazingly difficult phase to endure," Mellas said. 
 
 Knox, 24, and Sollecito, 26, have been in prison since shortly after Kercher was found murdered in November 2007. They were convicted in 2009 and began their appeal shortly after. 
 
 A third person, Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede, has also been convicted of taking part in Kercher's murder. He was tried separately and has been sentenced to 16 years in prison. He has exhausted his appeals. 
 
 The court appointed DNA experts concluded there was too little DNA on the alleged murder weapon, a knife, to be acceptable as evidence. Prosecutors had claimed the knife had both Knox and Kercher's DNA. 
 
 The report also concluded Kercher's bra clasp that had Sollecito's DNA -- and placed him at the murder scene -- had likely been contaminated by the police sloppy handling of evidence. 
 
 The prosecution made the request for addtitional tests today after forensic experts from both sides argued over the credibility of the DNA evidence. ||||| Amanda Knox May Be Freed in Italian Murder Case 
 
 Nearly two years after Amanda Knox was convicted in the brutal murder of her roommate in Italy, a judge appears likely to free the American woman because of problems with the DNA evidence.An independent report by forensic experts has questioned the validity of tests of blood samples on a 12-inch knife allegedly used to kill Meredith Kercher, 21, in what authorities called a sadistic sex game gone awry in 2007.Now, in an appeals trial, Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman in Perugia, Italy, rejected a prosecution request to introduce new records on the original tests and to hear from a new witness, CNN reports. The decision was a blow to the prosecution and a major victory for the defense of Knox, 24, and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 27, who had been convicted after Kercher's semi-naked body was found in the house they shared in Perugia."There is an ill wind blowing in this case," Prosecutor Manuela Comodi said, according to The Telegraph . "The judge and his assistant are clearly against us. I can see both Knox and Sollecito being freed, which will be a shame as they are both involved."Prosecutors originally presented evidence that Knox's DNA was on the knife handle and the victim's on the blade.Knox, a University of Washington student studying in Italy, was portrayed in the European press as an amoral, pot-smoking party girl – an "angel-faced killer," in one headline – and was sentenced to 26 years in prison.The court-appointed experts didn't question the finding of Knox's DNA, but raised questions about that of the DNA on the blade."Amanda is happy and hopeful that she won't be spending too much more time in prison," her father Curt Knox said, "but it's still up to the judges in the court and we will start those arguments later this month."Attorneys will return Sept. 23 for final arguments in the appeals trial and a decision is expected as early as Sept. 29.
– Amanda Knox can almost see daylight. Court developments in her murder trial appeal are all falling her way, strongly indicating that she could soon be released. Even the once-confident prosecution is prepared for the case to go either way, reports ABC News. "The judge and his assistant are clearly against us," a lead prosecutor tells the Daily Mail. "I can see both Knox" and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito "being freed, which will be a shame as they are both involved." As for Amanda, she's "happy and hopeful," said dad Curt Knox, reports People. The judge in the case has refused to allow new DNA testing of evidence after original findings in the 2007 murder of Knox's British roommate were challenged by expert testimony. He has also blocked prosecution moves to introduce newly discovered records about the original tests and to present a new witness. They have "no case left," declared Curt Knox. The hearing has been adjourned until late this month when final arguments will be presented. Amanda's parents will be allowed to visit her in prison tomorrow.