As does the AmeriKan media attention given to the case.
"Prosecutors ask court to affirm Knox verdict" September 24, 2011|Associated Press
PERUGIA, Italy - Italian prosecutors urged an appeals court yesterday to uphold the murder conviction of Amanda Knox despite what they called a media campaign in support of the American student, asking the jurors to think instead of the young victim whose life was brutally ended.
Yeah, doesn't matter who killed her. It's what one might call the banker and war criminal principle: lock 'em all up, let God sort it out.
In the first round of closing arguments that took seven hours yesterday, the prosecutors summed up circumstantial evidence, testimony, and other clues they believe point solely to Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.
One of the problems with prosecutors is they lock on to a suspect and look only for evidence to convict, or tailor it for conviction. Anything exculpatory is discarded. That would just mean more work and an admission of failure by the state.
They sought to move past a recent independent review of genetic evidence, which cast doubt on key traces used to link the defendants to the murder and dealt a significant blow to the prosecution’s case....
Yeah, WHO CARES about the TRUTH when it comes to JUSTICE? Certainly NOT the STATE!!
Knox and Sollecito were convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering Knox’s British roommate, Meredith Kercher, on the night of Nov. 1, 2007, when they were all students in Perugia....
I have noticed the young girl who was killed is pretty much an afterthought in all this.
--more--"
I must admit, readers, I know next to nothing of the case; however, my football friend has followed it somewhat closely and told me there is no DNA evidence linking them to the crime and that the pair were not even there that night.
"Italian appeals court frees Knox, codefendant; Jury acquits American of 2007 killing" by Elisabetta Povoledo New York Times / October 4, 2011
PERUGIA, Italy - An appellate court overturned the homicide convictions of the American Amanda Knox and her Italian codefendant yesterday and ordered them freed after nearly four years in prison, ending a sensationally lurid trial about alleged murder and rough sex that had made Knox notorious on both sides of the Atlantic.
A jury of eight Italians, which included two judges, delivered its verdict after more than 11 hours of deliberations. Knox and her supporters who packed the court let out whoops of joy and relief as the verdict was read on live television, prompting court officials to shout for silence. Knox broke down in tears.
The decision overturns the December 2009 ruling that sentenced Knox to 26 years in prison and her codefendant, Raffaele Sollecito, a former boyfriend, to 25 years in prison in the 2007 fatal stabbing of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, a Briton who shared an apartment with Knox. The case was built largely on DNA evidence that legal experts called flimsy and suspect....
All three figures in the trial were young, promising students in the picturesque central Italian city of Perugia, a fact that largely ignited the media hype that surrounded the case from the start. The unprecedented international attention in a murder trial in Italy was fueled by looming question marks over means and motive that made the case a classic whodunit....
The report makes it sound like an Agatha Christie novel. A girl is dead!!!
And just who would be responsible for the hype?
The elation at the acquittal extended to Knox’s circle of friends and supporters in Seattle, who had rented a hotel suite at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel to watch the verdict broadcast on television. They cried with joy as the news was read shortly before 4 p.m. Eastern time....
The joyful reaction of the defendants and their families and friends contrasted sharply with the ashen looks of disappointment by relatives of Kercher.
The British media had openly sympathized with the tragic figure of Kercher and her family, which backed the prosecution in seeking to uphold the original trial’s outcome....
The trial and retrial of Knox attracted widespread attention partly because of its sensational details and the starkly differing portraits of the main defendant, who was alternately described as a hard-working college student caught up in an arcane foreign justice system and a marijuana-smoking criminal.
Kercher was found stabbed in her room on Nov. 2, 2007, in what prosecutors described as a game of rough sex involving Knox and her boyfriend that went horribly wrong. Knox and Sollecito were arrested a few days later.
A third defendant, Rudy Guede, 24, was also convicted of Kercher’s killing in a separate trial and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. His conviction was upheld on appeal but his sentence was shortened to 16 years.
My friend seemed to indicate he was the real killer (with possible help from an unknown party).
The appeal, which began last November, was dominated by the reexamination of the DNA evidence.
Court-appointed independent specialists said the DNA had been collected in a way that could have allowed for contamination and the genetic information on two main pieces of evidence could not be matched to the defendants with certainty.
Oh, these guys are worse than the OJ investigators.
A lawyer for Sollecito, Giulia Bongiorno, argued that the evidence collected 46 days after the police first went through the scene should have been thrown out.
Starting to smell like a frame job.
In their closing arguments, prosecutors dismissed the findings of the independent specialists, calling them inept and inexperienced.
You know, like the state.
They also reiterated other evidence from the first trial, including eyewitness evidence placing Knox and Sollecito at the scene....
And just what was that eyewitness evidence?
"A key prosecution witness testifying in Amanda Knox’s appeals trial gave conflicting testimony yesterday about whether he saw the American near the crime scene the night her British roommate was murdered. The witness was Antonio Curatolo, a homeless man who is now in prison."
If it SMELLS LIKE SHIT you MUST ACQUIT!!
--more--"
Also see: Globe Court Report: Knoxed Out
I am.
