The Amanda Knox story is all over the media in the US. Sure, part of it is that she's a cute White girl, but this is one of those American-(possibly)-screwed-over-in-a-foreign-country situations that make for nice fodder in the battle for eyeballs on the 24/7 news stations:The expatriate American student has been the mysterious, ambivalent Mona Lisa face plastered across television, websites and newspapers since a few days after Halloween 2007. According to Italian authorities and their partisans in the blogosphere, where her case has been strenuously debated, behind her beatific smile lies a psycho hedonist capable of depraved murder. But family and friends insist she's just a granola-crunching athlete and honor student from Seattle who has, through bad luck, become the poster child for the perils that await American girls caught up in the dark side of Italy.This two-year-old murder is in the news because Ms Knox finally testified in court:
On Friday, in six hours of testimony, Knox finally spoke for herself, after a year and a half of silence and media speculation on the likely motives for the crime. She accused Italian police of hitting her and repeatedly calling her a "stupid liar," bullying her into a false statement on the fifth night after the murder she has been charged with. She reeled out what she said was an imagined tale of what "might have happened," placing herself with her British roommate Meredith Kercher on the night Kercher's throat was slit in the picturesque cottage they shared overlooking the Umbrian hills. Kercher bled to death after what police say was an agonizing two hours. Prosecutors say Knox cut her roommate's throat after Kercher refused to participate in group sex with the American and her alleged accomplices.Wow. If that's what Italians think of Americans, I wouldn't go teach English there, either.
The reason for my headline is that poor Ms Knox — if she is innocent — is having serious trouble defending herself because the night of the murder is lost in a haze of pot smoke:
Sphere: Related Content
Knox, a 21-year-old student from Seattle, said that because she was stoned on the night her roommate died she was confused about what happened that night, a confusion that muddled her original statements to Italian detectives.I wish the Italian prosecutors would stop reading Yonhap.
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Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito repeatedly told the police a pack of lies in the days after Meredith's murder.
ReplyDeleteOn 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.
Rudy Guede's bloody footprints lead 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.
Rudy Guede 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 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 Meredith's DNA was found lodged in a tiny groove 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.
Thanks for the insight, Harry.
ReplyDeleteJudge Massei's 427- page report will be published in English on Monday 9 August. It will be available for download from PMF and TJMK.
ReplyDeleteThe English translation of Judge Massei's sentencing report can be downloaded from here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.perugiamurderfile.org/viewtopic.php?p=53735