Amanda Knox and the Murder Mystery

[robertlouis]

Under the Italian legal system, the weakest evidence is produced at appeal, apparently one of the reasons why Italy has one of the smallest prison populations in Europe. What the strongest evidence consists of, I do not know, its an odd system, but in the end, all of the cases -the guilty who go free, the innocent who are imprisoned- stand and fall by the evidence presented in Court, and that is never all of the evidence that exists.

A masterly summation, Stavros, with the section in italics a masterpiece of laconic understatement. Read The Monster of Florence and be wary of hurting your jaw after all the times it will hit your table.

[Stavros]

Thank you for the compliment, I just don't have time at the moment to read anything outside of work -had I done so I would have been made aware that the original Judge in Perugia -Giuliano Mignini- had form stemming from the Florence case; that he was charged with abuse of office; has a bizarre obsession with Satanic cults (everyone's at it, apparently -except him of course) and the Masons, which is ironic given that a section of Italian anti-communist politics was once manipulated by a Masonic lodge. His attitude from the start was hostile and deeply damaging for all concerned, and didn't even have much to do with the evidence!

I have also read somewhere that the 'Mafia' was involved in Meredith's murder, perhaps Rudy Guede has kept his mouth shut to save his life. And so on. The 'Mafia' is an easy culprit to drag into everything that goes wrong in Italy. But it is even further complicated because Italy created an independent judiciary with extraordinary powers, capable of taking on organised crime. And on top of that, I was told by a law graduate from Bari that it was a standing joke in Italy that so many students in the Mezzogiorno studied law at university so they could get a cushy job pushing pieces of paper around some obscure ministry in Rome or the regions -she was a brilliant lawyer and has a successful career outside the country. Anyway, Berlusconi now has an additional reason to try and reform a system that doesn't seem to work very well.

[arnie666]

Thank you for the compliment, I just don't have time at the moment to read anything outside of work -had I done so I would have been made aware that the original Judge in Perugia -Giuliano Mignini- had form stemming from the Florence case; that he was charged with abuse of office; has a bizarre obsession with Satanic cults (everyone's at it, apparently -except him of course) and the Masons, which is ironic given that a section of Italian anti-communist politics was once manipulated by a Masonic lodge. His attitude from the start was hostile and deeply damaging for all concerned, and didn't even have much to do with the evidence!

I have also read somewhere that the 'Mafia' was involved in Meredith's murder, perhaps Rudy Guede has kept his mouth shut to save his life. And so on. The 'Mafia' is an easy culprit to drag into everything that goes wrong in Italy. But it is even further complicated because Italy created an independent judiciary with extraordinary powers, capable of taking on organised crime. And on top of that, I was told by a law graduate from Bari that it was a standing joke in Italy that so many students in the Mezzogiorno studied law at university so they could get a cushy job pushing pieces of paper around some obscure ministry in Rome or the regions -she was a brilliant lawyer and has a successful career outside the country. Anyway, Berlusconi now has an additional reason to try and reform a system that doesn't seem to work very well.

Nah what happened was Knox didn't like meredith. Typical girl issues, rivalry jealously hormones that type of shite. She wanted to take meredith down a peg or two and was skint ,wanted money for drugs so she got the druggie guede who she bought drugs off to have a shufitie at her room, looking for cash. meredith came home found guede in her room and guede decided to rape her and slit her throat.As you do when you are a junky fuck who likes white women. Rule number one never trust a junkie to do anything for you.

That wasn't part of the plan for knox and she was in the house hiding away. Her boyfriend was in on it too. Then the druggie fucked off and they shat themselves.Knox was a naive stupid yank and her boyfriend was also not from the street,they were not used to being around unsavory people and didn't think guede would go that far. Conncocted several stories for the police made an attempt to sanitise the place to remove all traces of them being there.They thought they would be sent down for murder see. Knox fingered a black for the crime, the Police quickly (for the wop police) saw through her lies and let him go.

She got convicted along with her boyfriend and the junky wog but the prosecution and the wop police fucked things up, brought out the sex cult angle,police work was shite which would never hold water.The truth is simpler than that. Then cue PR being hired by knox family, big time media help, even Hillary clinton had go. Cue her beling released on appeal, along with the nice white boy from a respectable family. And the only one doing the time is the nigger small time drug dealer who no one gives a shit about. Modern justice by media that. And people call me racist!

Just my theory.

[arnie666]

man who knox falsely accuses speaks

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ed-murder.html

If that swiss chap hadn't spoken up for him he could well be sitting rotting in a cell now as knox never fessed up about the false accusation. And if she did say it under duress ,she could easily have retracted it in the weeks that followed. Apparently the Police never put a foot wrong with him despite the pigment of his skin as well as the crimes he was accused of and him not being american.If they gave the white american girl a few digs what would they have done to him, if they are like she says? No one would have given a shit if he had fallen down the stairs at the police station,not that it ever happens .

It certainly sounds to me like the Yanks oj'd the appeals process. Still knox and her family stands to make a lot of money once the mainstream media take their pound of flesh, I hope this guy sues her for damages.

[Stavros]

Arnie, all we really know is that the whole of the available evidence has not been presented in court; the defence knew what was coming and yet so too did the Prosecution; the books and articles make all sorts of allegations which appear to link Knox to the crime scene whether she was in the room or not, but unless the evidence is shown, and cross-examined, how can we ever know the truth? That is the nature of murder mysteries in real life. Unsatisfactory response, but I don't know what else to say. In theory, both Knox and Sollecito could be re-arrested if the prosecution appeals and the first appeal is over-turned.

[Ben]

Amanda Knox, in Her Own Words:

[Stavros]

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito have had their convictions for murder re-instated by a Court of Appeal in Florence, a detailed report on the judgement will appear later. Because Knox is in the USA there may be an appeal for extradition from the Italian Government, a decision that will be passed to John Kerry -in the past the only Americans who have not been extradited to Italy (I think) have been military personnel or agents of the CIA. The decision is a disaster for both Knox and Sollecito and to those who think they are innocent simply incomprehensible given the lack of evidence in the original trial and the conduct of the lead prosecutor. I still feel there is a lack of hard evidence to convict beyond a reasonable doubt and also a lack of proven motive.

For those interested there is a detailed, but pro-Knox/Sollecito examination of the evidence and the trial here:
http://www.injusticeinperugia.org/index.html

[Stavros]

Correction -the case will now go to the Supreme Court and I believe only after that may extradition proceedings take place.

[broncofan]

I don't have much time to go through all of the trial evidence now (or any of it actually) but from what I remember the evidence that the original conviction was based on was extremely weak. I don't want to misstate any facts based on memory, but a lot of the forensic evidence almost seemed more exculpatory than anything else, given that it clearly implicated Rudy Guede.

One can always speculate as to a motive, but in this case there was speculation about everything from what happened to why it happened.

[broncofan]

The evidence against Rudy Guede:
Rudy admitted he was in the room.
Rudy's DNA was found in and on Meredith's body.
Rudy's DNA along with Meredith’s blood, was found on Meredith's purse.
Rudy's excrement was found in the toilet.
Rudy's shoe prints, set in Meredith’s blood, were found in the bedroom and hallway.
Rudy's handprints, in Meredith’s blood, were found on a pillow case in Meredith's room and on her wall.
Rudy had a cut on his right hand that was still visible when he was arrested.
Rudy fled the country.

This is from the site Stavros linked. I remembered reading some of it. His dna is all over the place, and we're to believe that Knox and Sollecito's dna was confined to specific items like a bra clasp. The evidence that Rudy Guede committed the murder, as you can see above, is substantial. Yet the evidence that they knew him, were at the scene, or conspired with him, is non-existent.

According to his story, he went to the restroom, came back and found her dead. Then somehow he becomes covered in her blood, and flees the country.

Prior bad acts evidence is usually inadmissible to show a person has a violent propensity, but it can be admitted when it is instead used to show a distinctive modus operandi. That Rudy Guede was known to break into buildings and carry a large knife would be of questionable admissibility in a U.S court on account of its potential for unfair prejudice, but its probative value is fairly obvious.

It's difficult when you can't account for all of the evidence yourself on first impression and instead get snippets here and there. But I remembered being fairly convinced that far from sustaining any burden of proof, the evidence almost seemed to rule out Sollecito and Knox' possible involvement.