At some point I should write a post about the trial of Amanda Knox, an American who (together with her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito) was convicted, in Italy, of the murder of her English roommate, Meredith Kercher, allegedly as part of a "a premeditated ... sexual and sacrificial rite." The verdict is highly controversial, with many commentators saying there was no evidence.
Recently the prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, was convicted of abuse of office. according to the Independent (U.K.) story Knox prosecutor tainted by 'satanism' case by Peter Popham, Sunday, June 6, 2010.
Another new development: Amanda Knox is innocent, jailed Italian mobster says his brother killed Meredith Kercher by Sean Alfano, New York Daily News, June 9, 2010, and Jailed mobster claims he can prove Amanda Knox is innocent by Hada Messia and Mallory Simon, CNN, June 11, 2010.
I'll dig up more of the background of this story sometime later.
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Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito repeatedly told the police a pack of lies in the days after Meredith's murder.
On 5 November 2007, Knox and Sollecito were confronted with proof that they had lied and were given another opportunity to tell the truth. However, they both chose to tell the police even more lies.
Sollecito's new alibi was shattered by computer forensic evidence and his mobile phone records.
Knox accused an innocent man, Diya Lumumba, of murdering Meredith despite knowing full well that he was completely innocent. She didn't recant her false and malicious allegation against Lumumba the whole time he was in prison.
Knox's account of what happened on 2 November 2007 is contradicted by her mobile phone records.
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito both gave multiple conflicting alibis. Neither Knox nor Sollecito have credible alibis for the night of the murder despite three attempt each. At the trial, Sollecito refused to corroborate Knox's alibi that she was at his apartment.
Rudy Guede's bloody footprints led straight out of Meredith's room and out of the house. He didn't lock Meredith's door, remove his trainers, go into Filomena's room or the bathroom that Meredith and Knox shared.
He didn't scale the vertical wall outside Filomena's room or gain access through the window. The break-in was clearly staged. This indicates that somebody who lived at the cottage was trying to deflect attention away from themselves and give the impression that a stranger had broken in and killed Meredith.
Guede had no reason to stage the break-in and there was no physical evidence that he went into Filomena's room.
The scientific police found a mixture of Amanda Knox's DNA and Meredith's blood on the floor.
There was no physical evidence that Rudy Guede went into the blood-spattered bathroom. However, the scientific police found irrefutable proof that Knox and Sollecito tracked Meredith's blood into this bathroom.
Amanda Knox’s DNA was found mingled with Meredith’s blood in three different places in the bathroom: on the ledge of the basin, on the bidet, and on a box of Q Tips cotton swabs.
Sollecito left a visible bloody footprint on the blue bathmat.
Amanda Knox left a bloody shoeprint on the pillow under Meredith's body.
Knox's and Sollecito's bare bloody footprints were revealed by luminol in the hallway. Knox’s DNA and Meredith’s DNA was found mixed together in one of the bloody footprints.
An abundant amount of Raffaele Sollecito's DNA was found on Meredith's bra clasp. Sollecito must have applied considerable pressure to the clasp in order to have left so much DNA. The hooks on the clasp were damaged which confirms that Sollecito had gripped them tightly.
Amanda Knox's DNA was found on the handle of the double DNA knife and a number of independent forensic experts - Dr. Patrizia Stefanoni, Dr. Renato Biondo and Professor Francesca Torricelli - categorically stated that Meredith’s DNA was on the blade.
Sollecito knew that Meredith's DNA was on the blade which is why he twice lied about accidentally pricking her hand whilst cooking.
The defence experts were unable to prove that there had been any contamination. Alberto Intini, head of the Italian police forensic science unit, pointed out that unless contamination has been proved, it does not exist.
Amanda Knox voluntarily admitted that she involved in Meredith's murder in her handwritten note to the police on 6 November 2007. She stated on at least four separate occasions that she was at the cottage when Meredith was killed. She also claimed that Sollecito was at the cottage.
Barbie Nadeau and Andrea Vogt are the only American journalists who are fluent in Italian and attended the majority of the court sessions. They also had full access to the prosecution's 10,000 page file. They have been far and away the best journalists covering the case.
The judges' sentencing report will soon be published in English.
I recommend the following websites:
True Justice For Meredith Kercher
Perugia Murder File
Lies Our Mothers Told Us
Judge Massei believes that the motive was "sexual erotic violence" and that Knox and Sollecito were acting under the influence of drugs. I think Knox and Sollecito both have serious personality defects.
Incidentally, Mignini never claimed that Meredith was killed as part of a satanic ritual.
I do need to research the background of this story more, including what commentators on both sides have to say.
Are there any specific sources you would recommend?
Also, what is your opinion on the alleged motive?
Looking now at the Wikipedia article on the Murder of Meredith Kercher:
Regarding Amanda Knox's initial statements about Patrick Lumumba, which everyone now seems to agree were false, she claims she was coerced into making them. The source given for this is the Guardian (U.K.) new story Amanda Knox tells court police hit her during interrogation over Meredith Kercher murder, Friday 12 June 2009. As the Wikipedia article notes, the conduct of the police's initial interviews with Amanda Knox remains an area of controversy in the case.
Many other aspects of the case seem murky as well, from what I can tell so far.
Apologies for the seeming non-sequitur above. I deleted a previous comment of mine to post an edited version. The new version appears AFTER Harry Rag's reply to the previous version. Hence some of the questions are answered in Harry Rag's comment above it.
Someone Tony posted the following comment in response to a different post of mine, when obviously it belongs here:
------[BEGIN COMMENT FROM TONY]-----
You can find Harry Rag's prepare comments all over these articles as he has mastered the use of cut and paste but has not mastered original thought. Too bad for the person who is paying him to post misinformation on public blogs.
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Harry likes to make open ended statements without providing any support at at all Statements such as "Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito repeatedly told the police a pack of lies in the days after Meredith's murder." I need to know, what constitutes a pack of lies? Is that one or a dozen> What are these lies? Did they give false names like Rudy did, did they lie about the arrival of the Postal Police like the Postal Police did?
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This "shotgun" approach is neither helpful nor credible.
To say Ruede did not go to the girl's bathroom is insane...he pooped there.
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We will never know the truth about what was on Sollecito's computer because the skilled Italian Police destroyed all the information on that machine. They also conveniently destroyed Meredith's and Amanda's, removing photographic proof that the two girls were friends.
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The Police destroyed the tape recordings of the interrogations.
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Curiously, two of the roomates were in Perugia at the time of the murder, excluding Meresith of course. Both stayed he nght with boy friends. Both had a key to the unit. Both wore tennis shoes (sneekers, trainers). Only one had her shoes tested for blood (that was Amanda and none was found.) This tells me that the police were past the evidence gathering point in the investigation. They had a suspect in mind...Amanda. However, they did not stop there interrogations as required. ***NOTHING Amanda said after testing only her shoes should be inadmissible. But, illegally, it was. The Perugian police are corrupt.
------[END COMMENT FROM TONY]-------
Tony,
Knox and Sollecito gave three different alibis. Knox even gave three different times for when they had dinner on the night of the murder.
Sollecito claimed that he had slept until after 10.00am on 2 November 2007. However, this lie was exposed by his telephone records and data recovered from his computer.
He used his computer at 5.32am and played music for about 30 minutes.
He turned on his mobile phone at about 6.02am.
He received three phone calls at 9.24am, 9.29am and 9.30am.
The CCTV camera recorded the arrival of the postal police at 12.25am, which supports their claim that they arrived at the cottage at about 12.30am.
In case you didn't know, the cottage has two toilets. Rudy Guede didn't leave his faeces in the bathroom that Knox and Meredith shared; he left it in other toilet.
Guede's visible bloody footprint led out of Meredith's room and out of the cottage. This means he couldn't have staged the break-in in Filomena's room or gone into the blood-spattered bathroom.
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