If you weren’t sure whether to believe in Amanda Knox’s innocence, a DNA test performed on the infamous kitchen knife may help to finally clear her name. Knox’s laywer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, is currently in Florence, Italy while the case against Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito is once again being heard in an appeals court. In Italy, there is no double jeopardy law. Therefore, even though Knox was found not guilty in 2011, her case can still be heard again. Italy’s highest court overturned the not guilty verdict from the appeal because the court felt that important DNA evidence was not taken into consideration.

It now seems that the kitchen knife, which was originally alleged to be the murder weapon used to kill Amanda Knox’s British roommate Meredith Kercher, had no DNA evidence on it which matched the victim. The knife is an important piece of evidence because it played a large role in the original verdict which convicted both Knox and Sollecito of the crime that took place in Perugia.

Knox’s lawyer told the AP today that the knife was simply a tool in preparing Amanda’s meals, not a deadly weapon. The knife was found by the police in a kitchen drawer at Sollecito’s apartment. Italian prosecutors have pushed the knife as the murder weapon because they felt that the blade matched Kercher’s wounds. They also contended, at the original trial, that DNA from Kercher was found on the knife. The new DNA evidence heard today now proves otherwise.

Meredith Kercher was brutally killed in 2007 after being stabbed more than 40 times. Amanda Knox, who is now 26-years-old, was not required to return to Italy to face the appeals court. Both she and Sollecito have both maintained their innocence through this entire process which included a double conviction in 2009, where they both subsequently sentenced to 26 years in an Italian prison. However, the conviction was overturned in 2011 by an appeals court, upon which time Knox returned to her hometown of Seattle, Washington. Knox is currently a student at the University of Washington.

Knox family spokesman, David Marriott, told the press that he did not think Amanda would have anything to say about this new evidence. A verdict for the appeal is not expected until January.

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