The twenty-two-year old called Foxy Knoxy, Amanda Knox, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 26 years in an Italian prison. Her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito was sentenced to 25 years. Meredith Kercher was killed Nov. 1, 2007 in the cottage she shared with Knox.
In the United States, the case would be ripe for appeal given the extensive mistakes made by the Italian police who seem to know little about preserving evidence or maintaining the integrity of a crime scene. The evidence was largely circumstantial against the couple.
The most interesting difference between the U.S. and Italian system was a count on slander for Knox’s implication of another person. In Italy such counts are part of the criminal case while in the United States they are civil matters brought by the alleged victim of the defamation. In addition, Knox’s parents have been charged with defamation in a different case, here. This action is on behalf of police officers who they said abused their daughter.
Knox was convicted of murder, sexual assault, conspiracy, faking a burglary and slander.
For the full story, click here.
The Brits used many Italian spies and still do. Maybe the victim was murdered for having sex with multiple partners. The Brits carry special army knives. It could have been an inside job.
There is an Italian judge who may also be a Natzi the underworld said. This may have been a plot to exploit Knox because, that is a Jewish name. Fort Knox was built by the Knox family. There may have been skin cells as dna on the knife due to the fact she used it for cooking. There needs to be more proof. She may be being sexually exploited by the judge and his relatives. Did anyone check on the identity of the four men living below them? Could they be relatives of the Judge? What about the shoe print they could not find a match to? It all sounds like bullshit to exploit her and her family for money. Pot and drinking do not cause murder. Was the supposed victim a Muslim who could have had a relative kill her thinking she was sending her to paradise in order to exploit Knox and her family to be slaves for money? There needs to be more evidence. We do not buy it. Fight back America. Sex with multiple partners is not the same as committing murder.
rafflw,
Ok, Ablerto Gonzales is from Texas. I will give you that. Former Texas Supreme Court Judge too. He resigned to work for JorgeII, now he could not even get a Job in Texas. Hmmm.
Bob Esq.
It was interesting about the judge’s indictment not getting in the way of Italian justice. Italian justice seems alot like Texas justice.
Stel Pavlou,
Seriously? Exactly how is anything the defendant wrote while in prison, outside of a confession, relevant evidence?
Rule 401. Definition of “Relevant Evidence”
“Relevant evidence” means evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.
Self-absorptive ramblings are evidence of what? That she’s alone in a prison cell?
Let’s assume it’s a form of character evidence; how does it come in? Did the defendant even bring character into issue? Because if she didn’t, the evidence doesn’t come in.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/rules.htm#Rule404
And what about that cartoon closing of the prosecution; with autopsy pictures interlaced for the entertainment of the “jury?”
http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/rules.htm#Rule403
But hey, this is Italy. And you’ve got a judge, who is currently under indictment for abuse of office, deliberating with a jury of six who ‘know’ who did it.
And something about the man speaking in the video.
http://www.lhds.bcu.ac.uk/criminaljustice/davidwilson
For balance, here’s a UK version of the affair.
http://video.news.sky.com/skynews/video?videoSourceID=2126286&flashURL=feeds/skynews/latest/flash/ACT-BB-SA-DAVID-WILSON-INTERVIEW-EXTRA-051209.flv
Takoma,
Knox claimed Lumumba was the killer after police interpreted a text message she sent to the bar owner the night of the murder, containing the phrase “see you later,” literally and forced her to implicate him after several hours of interrogation without an attorney or interpreter.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/an-american-in-the-italian-wheels-of-justice/
BTW, Do you know why we Americans have rules of evidence denying prosecutors of the ability to create cartoons while parading photos of the crime to prejudice the jury.
Got any idea why we don’t allow our judges to deliberate with the jury?
Go out and buy a clue.
Read a summary of the saga of Diya Patrick Lumumba here
“The most interesting difference between the U.S. and Italian system was a count on slander for Knox’s implication of another person. In Italy such counts are part of the criminal case while in the United States they are civil matters brought by the alleged victim of the defamation.”
1) I’m glad there’s a “count on slander” in Italy. This convicted murderer ruined the life of a Congolese man called Diya Patrick Lumumba, a relative of murdered Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba.
Patrick Lumumba owned a pub in Prugia called Le Chic where Amanda Knox aka Foxy Knoxy was a part-time bartender. On November 1, 2007, at 8:18 p.m., he sent a text message to Amanda Knox telling her not to show up as the night was slow. The man was 37, married to Ola, a Polish woman with whom he had a baby boy called David…
On November 6, 2007, Amanda Knox was arrested. And when asked about Lumumba’s text message on her cell phone, she told police Lumumba was the murderer of Meredith Kercher. The guy was arrested the same day and thereafter his bar closed down.
More damning for Lumumba, he thought he didn’t have an alibi, as he spent the great part of the evening alone at his bar, with one patron he’d never seen before.
Lumumba’s nightmare ended on November 24, 2007. Here’s how The Guardian had it: “[Lumumba] was only freed thanks to a Swiss academic who had talked politics with him at Le Chic that night – the sole customer. Back in Zurich, the man heard by chance about Lumumba’s arrest and contacted police with an alibi. ‘That is one person in all this that I would really like to see again,’ Lumumba said in September last year.”
Such a cold-blooded liar who could ruin the life of a man who gave her a job could as easily lie about the murder she might have committed. She’s got the personality of a sociopath: like O.J. Simpson. And Amanda Knox has to pay 40,000 euros to Patrick Lumumba (I think in civil courts in the U.S., the damage could be in the millions of dollars)…
2) I watched last night on CNN “nationalist” pundits lambasting the Italian legal system. Vanity Fair Judy Bachrach even called the proceedings at Prugia a “kangaroo court.” Well, here’s the headline for Bachrach: the Italian justice system is far more advanced than the US system for these reasons: 1) they don’t have the death penalty; 2) they don’t have crazy sentences like life without the possibility of parole; and 3)any of their sentences could be questioned by the European Union institutions that oversee the judiciary of the member states.
FK: a 14 hour interrogation in a foreign country with no access to an attorney could definitely explain a “shifting story.”
Like a said, The Monster of Florence is a must-read. The prosecutor that interrogated Knox plays a major and despicable role.
I would wager almost any amount of money that she had no role whatsoever. None.
I am truly of two minds about this case (which I have followed from the beginning).
On one hand, even the (I assume) Amanda-Knox-biased American media coverage– as well as Ms. Knox’s own ever-shifting story– made it apparent that she almost certainly had SOME involvment in the victim’s demise.
However, the shoddy police work and stories of overzealotry by the Italian prosecutor give me pause.
As I did not sit on the jury and see/hear the evidence/testimony that they did, I’ll reserve judgement. And, sadly, I’m not sure we’re ever know what “really” happened…
Bob,
Most certainly I agree. The Knox trial has been more than a bit of a circus all the way around. As a fact finding venue, the Italians have really dropped the ball. It’s a farce just like OJ’s trial was a farce albeit for slightly different reasons. In both cases the truth took a back seat to other considerations. That’s always an appropriate topic.
Buddha,
Wouldn’t you agree that this is a topic worthy of a “top law blog?”
Just the lack of certainty regarding the DNA on the knife, the premise of defendant’s use of cleansers to create the ‘immaculate crime scene’ and the prosecution’s use of cartoons and autopsy pictures to mold the minds of the jurors despite the actual evidence … seems worthy of discussion to me.
Bob,
I’ll be using that very functional definition.
Truth in jest & stereotypes?
Definition of Heaven:
1. You’re greeted by the English
2. You’re fed by the French
3. It’s run by the Germans
4. You’re entertained by the Italians
Definition of Hell:
1. You’re greeted by the French
2. You’re fed by the English
3. You’re entertained by the Germans
4. It’s run by the Italians
Stel Pavlou: “Damning pieces of evidence are completely omitted from the narrative.”
I’m just coming to this case as of yesterday and I spent the better part of an hour trying to find a narrative that lays out the evidence that warranted a verdict of guilty. Yet I’m reading over and over there was no trace evidence of the defendant being at the scene; except for one knife that requires a story to bolster the minute amount of DNA on it.
Add to that the prosecution taking a page out of the Colin Powell book of prejudicial fraud by using computer animation and appeals to emotion (viz pictures of the autopsy edited into the show). This was the same type of horseshit display Powell used to defraud the U.N. into believing Saddam had WMD’s (when he and his deputy, Col. Wilkerson, knew damn well they didn’t.)
If this is all it takes to persuade Italians to take action, I say we get Powell to gin up another cartoon and convince them to send all 30,000 troops that Obama pledged.
Where is the evidence that implicates her?
For those interested in the Italian justice system, The Monster of Florence is a must-read. It’s a true crime story about a serial killer where the authors themselves eventually become the accused by some bat shit prosecutors.
Really unbelievable stuff.
What’s been fascinating to me has been the circling the wagons mentality of the US media versus the UK and Italian media. On CNN for example there has been no questions asked whatsoever of Knox’s guilt. She was declared innocent early on and they have framed the debate per the defense’s argument consistently. Damning pieces of evidence are completely omitted from the narrative. Meanwhile in the UK and Italy, despite evidence that implicates Knox, they chose to go with character assassination. Any attempt to get at the truth has been largely ignored.
I read this feed when it first came out and was amazed they verdict. It seems crazy from the beginning. She is also ordered to pay 7.5 million to the family. The Jury is allowed to consider evidence even what is not introduced at trial, newspaper publication and anything else.
The appeals process is going to be some where between one and three years. There was just nothing that in my mind would have been sufficient to convict her but hey, the court of public opinion, to wit the 4th estate did a fine job. The actors 1) English Girl/Woman 2) American Girl/Woman. The second one promiscuity was played heavily at trial. Hmm, Do I hear Guilty of something?
She could have gotten life and they do not have truth in sentencing laws. Hell, who knows maybe shes eligible for international exchange of some sort.