WORLD BRIEFING / ITALY
An American college student accused of killing her British roommate in Italy testified for the first time, offering an alibi for the night of the 2007 slaying and alleging that police beat her into making a false statement.
Amanda Knox, 21, said she smoked marijuana, had sex with her boyfriend -- co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito -- and fell asleep at his apartment on the night of the slaying. She said she did not return home until after her roommate was killed.
Knox spoke in fluent Italian and English during about six hours of testimony in a packed courtroom in Perugia, where she is being tried on charges of murder and sexual assault for the slaying of 21-year-old student Meredith Kercher.
Knox’s account of the night of the killing contrasts with that of prosecutors, who say Kercher was killed during what began as a sex game.
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