Murder of Meredith Kercher

IF this pair get off it WON'T be because they are innocent, it will be on a flawed piece off evidence which the lawyers are exploiting.


If they think it was a flawed investigation then they should ask for a retrial NOT an equital due to this.

Sky News Report





































Amanda Knox Branded 'She-Devil' In Court

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2:26pm UK, Monday September 26, 2011


Nick Pisa, in Perugia, Italy



Amanda Knox is a sex-loving she-devil who knowingly lied to police, a lawyer has told the court hearing her appeal.










Carlo Pacelli, who represents a man Knox initially accused of
murder, said the American was "diabolical, satanic" and a "deceptive
witch".


In an angry court statement, he contrasted the "charming" and
"angel-faced" 24-year-old the world sees now with Knox four years ago.


Mr Pacelli, the lawyer for Patrick Lumumba, made his comments as Knox
and her ex-boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito's appeal nears its end.


Knox is serving 26 years and Sollecito 25 years for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, 21, in Perugia, Italy, in 2007.







Amanda Knox arriving in court on Monday





They have appealed the verdicts based on findings in an independent
court report that dismissed the original police forensic investigation.


But prosecutors insist they are guilty and in their closing
statements at the weekend asked for the pair's sentences to be increased
to life.


After her arrest, Knox blamed Meredith's murder on Mr Lumumba, a bar owner, following a night of police questioning.


She told officers she "remembered Patrick killing Meredith" and that
she had stayed in the kitchen covering her "ears to drown out the
screams".

She was a diabolical, satanic, demonic she-devil. She was muddy on the outside and dirty on the inside.

Lawyer Carlo Pacelli On Amanda Knox







Mr Lumumba was arrested in a dawn raid in front of his stunned wife
and baby and kept in custody for two weeks before being released.


Under Italian law, he is entitled to sue Knox and Sollecito for slander because her false statement put him in jail.


In court on Monday, his lawyer said: "She falsely blamed Lumumba when
she knew he was innocent. She put him in jail for two weeks away from
his loved ones and family.


"After poor Meredith, the second victim in all this is Patrick
Lumumba. Amanda destroyed him as a man, husband, father. She muddied his
character.


"The woman you see before you today is charming, simple soap and
water faced, intelligent, angel-faced because she has spent four years
in jail.


"She is the daughter everyone wants so you need to know what she was
like four years ago. She was a diabolical, satanic, demonic she-devil.


"She was muddy on the outside and dirty on the inside. She has two souls - the clean one you see her before you and the other."


He added: "She is borderline. She likes alcohol, drugs and she likes hot, wild sex."







Patrick Lumumba's lawyer Carlo Pacelli at court





Mr Pacelli closed his summing up by labelling Knox a "deceptive witch" as he urged the judge and jury "not to falter".


"She is guilty and needs to be convicted. The verdict on Amanda must be confirmed," he said.


The lawyer said Mr Lumumba, who is seeking damages from Knox, was
still suffering "moral, financial, psychological damages" from being
wrongly accused.


Knox's father Curt and stepfather Chris Mellas shook their heads as the description was translated for them.


Knox herself, wearing a black sweat shirt, looked intently at the judge and jury.







Bar owner Patrick Lumumba was held for two weeks over the murder





Meredith, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Perugia as part of her Leeds
University course and had only been in Italy for two months when she was
killed.


Knox, from Seattle, and Sollecito, who is from Giovinazzo near Bari, have always denied any involvement in the murder.


A third defendant, small-time drug dealer Rudy Guede, an immigrant from the Ivory Coast, has also been jailed over the killing.


He was handed a 30-year sentence for murder and sexual violence
following a fast-track trial in October 2008. The term was later cut to
16 years.


Prosecutors have vowed to take the case to a third and final appeal if Knox and Sollecito are cleared.

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2:17pm UK, Tuesday September 27, 2011


Nick Pisa, in Perugia



Jailed Amanda Knox has been likened to the sexy cartoon character
''Jessica Rabbit'' - just 24 hours after being labelled a "satanic
she-devil".







Amanda Knox listens intently to evidence during the appeal hearing




Knox was not a maneater, nor a "femme fatale", but rather a
faithful young woman with morals, a defence lawyer told the appeal
hearing in Perugia.


The battle of Knox's character has been a key issue throughout the
controversial case following her conviction for the murder of British
student Meredith Kercher, 21.

Amanda Knox has been transformed into a Venus in furs, femme
fatale, obsessed with decadent literature and sex - but instead of the
man eater she has been portrayed as, she is a faithful woman - the
comparison would be Jessica Rabbit - between these two youngsters there
was tenderness, nothing else.

Lawyer Giulia Bongiorno







Miss Kercher was found dead four years ago, semi-naked and with her throat cut.


She was discovered in her bedroom in a house she shared with Knox and two other women.


Knox has denied any involvement and is appealing against her conviction and jail sentence of 26 years.


Questions over the reliability of DNA evidence have led to prosecutors relying heavily on circumstantial evidence in the case.







Knox arriving at court where she has been described as 'satanic'





They have built up a damning picture of Knox and her co-accused and
former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who was also found guilty and
sentenced to 25 years.


Today, Giulia Bongiorno, who is representing Sollecito, began her
passionate defence by saying there was nothing that connected her client
to the murder.


She said:''The minimal amount of evidence was initially on Knox, and then it was all transferred onto him.


"There are those who when they marry get a family, he instead got linked with a crime, but there is nothing even on Amanda.''







Court was told that Knox and Sollecito (pictured) had a 'tender' relationship





She went on: ''Amanda Knox has been transformed into a Venus in furs, femme fatale, obsessed with decadent literature and sex.


"But, instead of the maneater she has been portrayed as, she is a
faithful woman - the comparison would be Jessica Rabbit. Between these
two youngsters there was tenderness, nothing else.''


Cartoon "sex symbol" Jessica Rabbit features in the film Who Framed
Roger Rabbit and is portrayed as a buxom, sultry singer - with morals.


In the film, the character was voiced by Kathleen Turner and her hit line is: ''I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way.''


Ms Bongiorno added: "These two, whether they are convicted or
cleared, will always be remembered for this case - he gregarious, she
the protagonist."







Patrick Lumumba was wrongly accused over the murder





She went on to describe the case as ''Amanda-centric''.


She also was critical of the questioning of Knox by police, pointing
out once again that she was a young American who barely knew any
Italian.


Ms Bongiorno said Knox had been interrogated all night without any proper legal representation.


She had eventually succumbed through tiredness to police insistence that she knew about the murder.







Meredith Kercher was found with her throat slit in Perugia





Ms Bongiorno added it was this physical exhaustion that had made her wrongly name bar owner Patrick Lumumba as the suspect.


The naming led to Mr Lumumba being arrested and spending two weeks in jail before being freed.


Ms Bongiorno - one of Italy's most respected lawyers - also said that
there was no evidence whatsoever linking her client to the room where
Miss Kercher was found.


As she spoke, Knox and Sollecito listened intently. Their family members sat close by.







Knox has disputed forensic evidence provided at her trial





The Jessica Rabbit comparison came hours after Mr Lumumba's lawyer,
Carlo Pacelli, described Knox as a ''diabolical, demonic, satanic,
she-devil".


He added that Knox was ''obsessed with sex and alcohol (...) muddy on the outside and dirty on the inside''.


The verbal attack has been strongly condemned by Knox's father Curt who said it had been ''over the top and unnecessary".


Knox and Sollecito have insisted they were at his home all night when the murder took place.


They have based their appeal on an independent court report that has dismissed the original police forensic investigaton.


Meredith, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Perugia as part of her Leeds
University course and had only been in Italy for two months before she
was murdered.


A third defendant, small-time drug dealer Rudy Guede, an immigrant
from the Ivory Coast, was also jailed in connection with the killing.


Knox's defence will begin summing up on Thursday. She and Sollecito
will also address the court before it retires to consider its verdict,
which is expected next week.

Forget about the DNA and think about the lies she has told.


She 'set up' her Boss prob because he didn't need her to work that night.


That, to me, is enough to prove she is a damn lier....


She lied that the police beat a confession out off her!


She brought men back to the apt and didn't bother cleaning up after her and Meredith had 'words' with her about it.


Meredith told her friend that money was going missing from her room and it was Knox taking it.

That's two things to get up knox's nose plus the fact that Meredith wasn't interested in sleeping with men but with her projects...Knox put men before anything else.


Meredith was EVERYTHING that Knox WASN'T...and she was jealous off how well liked Meredith was.


I believe that Knox and her boyfriend were high on drugs that night, I believe Knox instigated what happened and the boyfriend went along with it .


I wouldn't put it past Knox or her parents to sue the Italian authorities for the past 4 years she spent in prison as the parents are bankrupt.....that's how unscrupulous the lot off them are ..


I want to know what is going to happen to the case against her brought by the police IF she gets off?


IF she gets off ...it will be another kick in the teeth for justice....

Kitti, you have obviously followed the case more than me, but the Prosecution are certainly not mincing their words about what they think of her, let"s hope the Jury feels the same.

Panda wrote:Kitti, you have obviously followed the case more than me, but the Prosecution are certainly not mincing their words about what they think of her, let"s hope the Jury feels the same.

Knox definitely cleaned up for her trial and the same face is seen at the appeal. The one-time party-goer changed into a clean-living young lady with tied back glossy hair and demure outfits.

AnnaEsse wrote:

Panda wrote:Kitti, you have obviously followed the case more than me, but the Prosecution are certainly not mincing their words about what they think of her, let"s hope the Jury feels the same.

Knox definitely cleaned up for her trial and the same face is seen at the appeal. The one-time party-goer changed into a clean-living young lady with tied back glossy hair and demure outfits.

Hi AnnaEsse, yes, she even learned Italian before the first Trial so she knew what was going on.!!

I've got a horrible feeling she's going to get away with this!
Hope I'm wrong!

wjk wrote:I've got a horrible feeling she's going to get away with this!
Hope I'm wrong!

Hi wjk, as I said to kitti, I havn"t really been keeping up to date on this case, but there is not just the Lawyers slagging off Knox, the Italian population is as well and this is bound to affect the Jurors.

Knox Lawyer: 'Don't Jail Two Innocents'

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4:04pm UK, Thursday September 29, 2011


Nick Pisa, in Perugia



Jailed Amanda Knox's lawyer has urged the judge and jury in her
appeal case to "not jail two innocents" as he began his summing up.












Carlo Dalla Vedova reminded the court that Knox, 24, had been in jail
for "more than 1,000 days" and was still asking herself: "Why don't
they believe me?"


The American and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 27, were
sentenced to 26 and 25 years respectively in 2009 after they were found
guilty of murdering Meredith Kercher.


The 21-year-old victim was discovered semi-naked and with her throat
cut in her bedroom of the house the two women shared in November 2007.







Sollecito and Knox have both denied playing a part in the murder





The convicted killers have always insisted they had nothing to do with the murder.


Mr Dalla Vedova highlighted how numerous errors had been made during
the police investigation and how Knox's civil rights had been breached
by police and prosecutors during questioning.


He also stressed how the crucial independent report into the DNA
evidence which had been ordered by the appeal judge Claudio Pratillo
Hellman had been invaluable to them and he underlined this by saying:
"The truth never dies."







Knox arrives at court on Thursday for one of the final days of her appeal





Mr Dalla Vedova told the court: "The sentence in the first trial is wrong.


"Yes you must show respect for the poor victim Meredith Kercher and
her mother and father but do not make the mistake of putting two
innocents in jail," he said.


"Pain is not a judicial argument."


He then took the court back to the November night when Knox was
questioned for more than 12 hours without a lawyer or interpreter and
how this was an "incredible breach of human rights".







Meredith Kercher was murdered in Perugia in 2007





"She asked for a lawyer but was told that having a lawyer would make her position only worse than it was," he said.


Mr Dalla Vedova was also critical of how the police had declared
"caso chiuso" - which means case closed - just four days after Ms
Kercher was murdered and how they held a triumphant press conference
when they "had no evidence".


Ms Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Perugia as part of her
Leeds University course and had only been in Italy for two months before
she was murdered.


The judge later told the court that a verdict will be delivered on Monday.

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Merediths parents are in Italy and they have said that the Rest off the evidence has been forgotton and the DNA is just one part off it.


As I said, i think merediths parents know that the evidence against them is safe but the defence is concentrating on just one piece off DNA and their is concrete safe evidence which proves their guilt.


It's unfair that this seems to be an appeal which only hears about one piece off evidence and neglects to mention the rest.

kitti wrote:Merediths parents are in Italy and they have said that the Rest off the evidence has been forgotton and the DNA is just one part off it.


As I said, i think merediths parents know that the evidence against them is safe but the defence is concentrating on just one piece off DNA and their is concrete safe evidence which proves their guilt.


It's unfair that this seems to be an appeal which only hears about one piece off evidence and neglects to mention the rest.

Morning kitti,

Wasn"t there some complaint from Amanda"s Solicitors that she was questioned for 12 hrs without being able to engage a Solicitor , didn"t speak the
language, was practically forced into making a confession.

This is what happened.


She was interviewed as a witness.


Then she decided she wanted to make a 'statement".


The Italian police stopped questioning her and ASKED yes ASKED her if she wanted a solicitor.


She said NO.


They then ADVISED he that if she wanted to make a statement she needed to get a solicitor as the questioning had stopped by then.


Knox replied.....I want to carry on and make my statement.


The first statement she made was......'i was their, I was in the flat when it happened with her 'boss' who was in the other room, I sat outside whilst it was happening with my hands over my ears so I couldn't hear what was happening'.



And THAT LIE was what got her BOSS arrested for murder.


Know body BEAT a confession out off her, she gave it willingly.


Actually 12 hours isn't really a long time to be interviewed and they prob had breaks in between and as for 'not understanding them as she didn't speak italian'......do you really think they wouldn't have an interpreter in their with her!

The latest is that the the Knife exhibited was not used to kill Meredith, physical evidence is not reliable but an Italian Lawyer interviewed on T.V. this
morning offered the following explanation:-

Italy is used to dealing with circumstantial evidence of which there is plenty in this case.

The Court will realise there is not enough evidence to charge Amanda with Murder, but Manslaughter could be considered since amanda was very likely to be involved in the death of Meredith.

Journalists around the world, especially America are camped out in Perugia and if the charges against Amanda are dropped and she is released a
prominent T.V. station is ready to spirit her away immediately she leaves the Country to transport her back to America at the request at her Father.

[quote="Panda"]The latest is that the the Knife exhibited was not used to kill Meredith, physical evidence is not reliable but an Italian Lawyer interviewed on T.V. this
morning offered the following explanation:-

Italy is used to dealing with circumstantial evidence of which there is plenty in this case.

The Court will realise there is not enough evidence to charge Amanda with Murder, but Manslaughter could be considered since amanda was very likely to be involved in the death of Meredith.

Journalists around the world, especially America are camped out in Perugia and if the charges against Amanda are dropped and she is released a
prominent T.V. station is ready to spirit her away immediately she leaves the Country to transport her back to America at the request at her Father.[/quote]

Yet another criminal will be a millionaire from their crimes! What about the black fella who is serving 16 years, why is he guilty and not Foxy? Laugh? I'd frigging choke!

Hi buildersbum,

Kitti is the expert on this case but I think the Black guy is the Barman Amanda has accused ......if so, I think he was released. We have to hope that the
evidence the Police have is at least enough to charge her with Manslaughter.

Panda, Rudy Guede is serving 16yrs for the murder.
Lamumba was the guy arrested and let go because of Knox's allegation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Meredith_Kercher

wjk wrote: Panda, Rudy Guede is serving 16yrs for the murder.
Lamumba was the guy arrested and let go because of Knox's allegation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Meredith_Kercher

The police are suing her for lying about torture and Lumumba is suing her for lying about him.

wjk wrote: Panda, Rudy Guede is serving 16yrs for the murder.
Lamumba was the guy arrested and let go because of Knox's allegation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Meredith_Kercher

I tell everybody I"m not very clued up on this case.

So Amanda Knox, her then boyfriend solllecito and this guy Rudy Guede were all convicted ,,,,,,,,,three convictions for one Murder????

Merlin is back on BBC tonight at 7.50pm, one of my favourite programs, you can soon sort out the Baddies on that program.!!!!

So you think only one person can murder another?


Did you see the crime scene?


It took AT LEAST 2 people to do what they did....


I hear it now......why weren't these people covered in blood?


How do we know they weren't ?



Where are the clothes they wore that night?


It took two people to hold Her down and one person to slit her throat.....it took at nasty...vindictive...jealous person to do that...and it took a nasty...vindictive person to take her phone and THROW it into a garden so as to prevent a last gasp attempt by Meredith to get help....


The boss she said was their has already won compensation from Knox.....40,000....Knox sued someone for writing a book about her, she won....40,000..so Knox got nothing...that about right.

What I don't understand is......why is Knox and her boyfriend doing this appeal together...why not separate ?



I haepve never come across a case like this with so much circumstantial evidence...once or two pieces yes...but theirs too much off it.

Apart from the DNA...


1. 3 witnesses saw her...ok one was a drunk..

2. Shopkeeper saw her at 7am in his shop buying bleech...ok she wore a scarf over her face apart from her eyes.....he said he KNEW it was her due to her accent and her blue eyes....she went into his shop often.

3. Phone call to his relative (boyfriend) in the Italian police to report a break in.....the police found meridiths phone and found out where she lived and went their and.....Knox and boyfriend were ALREADY their...but didn't report the breakin...instead he rang his relative !!!(why didn't he report the break in to the police that had arrived).

4....screams heard at the exact time by two diff people that these witnessed has said they saw Knox and boyfriend.

5. Break in......merediths door was locked from the inside...friends have said they NEVER locked their doors.

6. Glass from the broken window was found ON TOP off lap top and belongings...if the window had been broken the glass would off been UNDERNEATH all the belongings....it was stated that the window was broken AND staged.

Knox killed her, it's a simple as that.


What a shame that this appeal is only concentrating on one piece off evidence, the DNA on the knife.


So MUCH evidence against her...so MUCH.....and a bloody footprint that was HERS.

Is
Amanda Knox about to walk free and make millions? The question being
asked by her victim's family who can barely afford to attend her appeal





By
David Jones

Last updated at 1:31 PM on 1st October 2011

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Denials: Amanda Knox is escorted into a Perugia
court yesterday but if acquitted on Monday she is guaranteed millions in
TV and Hollywood deals


During the four years she has
languished in an Italian prison, Amanda Knox has written her memoirs,
describing how she came to be convicted — unjustly, she of course
insists — of brutally murdering her British flatmate, Meredith Kercher.
If
she is absolved of one of the most grippingly macabre crimes of recent
times — an outcome many observers predict when her appeal case reaches
its denouement on Monday — her story is expected to be turned into a
multi-million-pound Hollywood movie.
Meanwhile,
a group of British film-makers led by award-winning director Michael
Winterbottom are considering a rival film with Colin Firth, who owns a
villa not far from the murder scene in Perugia, portraying a crusading
reporter who proves Knox’s innocence.
Three
American TV networks are already said to have offered a million dollars
for the first interview with Knox should she walk free. Her
Seattle-based PR agent says he has piles of interview requests on his
desk from around the world.
There’s
little doubt publishers would also be clamouring for the right to tell
her story in her own words. Undoubtedly, she would quickly become a
wealthy woman. The Italian press has even reported that one US TV
network has hired a private jet to whisk Amanda and her relatives back
to the States if she’s cleared.
In
response, the Kercher’s lawyer Francesco Maresca said ironically: ‘We
have heard about a plane waiting to take the Knoxes away, but poor
Meredith’s family barely have enough money to come to Perugia for the
verdict.’



More...

• Muslim mother stabbed daughter 40 times and cut out her liver in ritual killing to exorcise 'evil spirits'
  
• Failed asylum seeker strangled and drowned bakery worker who refused to marry him so he could stay in the UK
  

Should Knox be depicted
as the martyr in a miscarriage of justice movie, it would seal a quite
extraordinary image transformation, given that she has been demonised as
‘Foxy Knoxy’, a dangerously narcissistic, sex-and-drugs obsessed
wild-child.



Victim: 22-year-old British university student Meredith Kercher, had her throat slashed in November 2007


But all that is for the future. For
the past three months, the brilliant but brash student from Seattle,
Washington, has put aside her diary and used the internet-less laptop
she is permitted in her cell to tap out the most important words she
will ever compose — her personal address to the court.

Under
Italian law, the defendant is entitled to make a declaration — and they
usually wait until the end so theirs is the last voice the judge and
jurors hear before considering their verdict.
At
her original trial, which ended in December 2009, Knox was jailed for
26 years, a year more than her well-heeled Italian boyfriend, Rafaele
Sollecito, 27, her supposed accomplice in what the prosecution portrayed
as a gratuitous, cannabis-fuelled, sado-sexual slaughter.
The
young lovers were alleged to have murdered Meredith, a Leeds University
undergraduate studying in Perugia for a year on an exchange programme,
in her bedroom with the help of a third man, Ivorian immigrant,
small-time drug-dealer and petty-thief Rudy Guede (he pleaded guilty and
is serving just 16 years).
But
Knox has always denied being at the house that night, and when she
rises to re-state her innocence on Monday she is expected to strike a
more measured tone.
‘Amanda
has had four years to really reflect on who she is,’ says Knox’s loyal
friend Madison Paxton, who moved from America to Perugia a year ago so
she can visit her regularly.

‘Her character is really honed and she is more confident now than she ever was. It’s strangely beautiful.’
Knox’s
father, Curt, told the Mail this week how his daughter had spent
endless hours crafting the words that could decide whether she is freed
to resume her youth or is jailed for even longer, as the prosecution
have demanded.



Devastated: Meredith's mother Arline and sister Stephanie Kercher arrive at Perugia Airport for a court hearing



‘I
can’t tell you exactly what she will say, but it will be heartfelt, and
it will be humbling for us to listen to a 24-year-old girl fighting to
get her life back,’ said the Seattle Opera House executive.
Yet
as the Kercher’s lawyer reminded the court this week, Knox’s was not
the only glittering future destroyed that grim night in November 2007.
To
hammer home this point, he began by displaying a smiling photograph of
the Surrey-born student on a big projector screen. Then he replaced it
with shockingly candid pictures, never previously displayed in open
court, of Meredith lying, semi-naked and lifeless, the left side of her
slender neck ripped by a gaping knife wound.
The
scenes were so distressing that some onlookers fled the subterranean
courtroom, their gasps echoing off its bare stone walls with their
fading medieval etchings. According to Knox’s nemesis — the rumpled,
pipe-smoking veteran prosecutor Giuliano Mignini — Knox, surrounded as
ever by her American support team (including her divorced parents and
their spouses, her oldest sister Deanna, two aunts and a former FBI
agent) never once glanced across at the pictures of her supposed victim.


Other murderer: Raffaele Sollecito attends his appeal hearing yesterday


‘Did you see the way she lowered her
head and stared down at the desk?’ Mignini asked me, in his melodramatic
manner when we spoke outside the court later that evening.

‘Amanda
has still never seen those photographs and to me that says a lot. I
think she remains to this day shocked and ashamed of what she did. That
is why she covered Meredith’s body with the duvet. Only a woman would
have done that.’
Among the
many perplexing characters in this complex saga, the balding,
61-year-old Mignini is — with the exception of Knox herself — by far the
most enigmatic.
The Italian judicial system affords the public prosecutor enormous power and responsibility.

Unlike
in Britain, where evidence gathered by the police shapes the course of a
criminal case, in Italy it is his role to devise a hypothesis and
direct the investigation accordingly.
Given
that 21-year-old Meredith had attended a Hallowe’en party in the guise
of a vampire two days earlier and had then been subjected to a frenzied
sexual assault at the rambling hillside cottage shared by Knox, he
theorised that the attackers had enacted some twisted ritualistic
fantasy.
On the instruction
of one of the many judges who examined his case before it first went to
trial, Mignini abandoned this unsubstantiated motive and now concedes
he can but guess why Knox, Sollecito and Guede might have wished to harm
Meredith.
As he told me
this week, however, though the appeal case appears to be turning against
him, he remains convinced they killed her — and that it was Knox who
slit her throat.
‘I’m calm,
I’m serene,’ he said. ‘And I haven’t changed my opinion of Amanda Knox
one iota. In my summing up, I spoke about Meredith because nobody
remembers her.
It is always about Amanda. But I will never forget that day when I first saw her body.
‘It
was the sexual element to the crime that struck me immediately; and
then I saw how beautiful she was — a young British-Asian girl with her
eyes wide open — and I thought of my own daughters and how I would feel
had it had been one of them.
‘Soon
afterwards, I met Meredith’s mother, Arline, and her younger sister,
Stephanie, and I remember how reserved and dignified they were when I
took them to the mortuary to see Meredith. Mrs Kercher even asked my
permission to kiss her daughter’s body one last time.

‘Of
course, I gave it, and I left her to see Meredith alone. That wound in
her neck was terrible, terrible. How must she have felt? I promised then
that I would do everything I could for her.’



Crime scene: A view of the house where Meredith
Kercher was found. She shared with Amanda Knox, her former Italian
boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and Ivorian Rudy Guede who were convicted
and jailed in 2009 for the murder


Mignini certainly kept his vow,
for within two days of that harrowing mortuary visit, Knox and
Sollecito had been arrested. Guede, aged 20, who had fled to Germany,
was held later while returning to Italy on a train.
In
court this week we have heard Knox described by one opposing lawyer as a
‘lying, sex-loving she-devil’. Her defence countered that she was no
wicked ‘man-eater’ and likened her to the voluptuous but moralistic
cartoon character Jessica Rabbit from the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Paraphrasing Jessica’s favourite catchphrase, she said of Knox: ‘She
isn’t really bad — she’s just drawn that way.’So which is the real
Amanda, and did she kill Meredith?
To
the pro-Knox lobby in the United States, who are waging a xenophobic
war via the internet, not only on Mignini and his colleagues but on the
arcane Italian judicial system, even to pose such questions is
tantamount to heresy.
So,
too, for Amanda’s fractured family, who have been united by their common
cause and are encamped for the final stages of the hearing in a rented
Umbrian farmhouse together with the ex-FBI man who is plotting Knox’s
rapid escape to the West Coast should she be freed.
Reputable
sections of the American media also appear to have abandoned
objectivity and become fully affiliated members of the Free Amanda
campaign.


Family: From left, sister Stephanie Kercher with
mother Arline Kercher and father John Kercher before a press conference
following Meredith's death


A female member of the ABC News
team even looks after Knox’s step-sisters, aged 16 and 13, while her
mother attends court, taking them to cafes and shops.
In
Perugia’s sun-dappled piazzas, the clan are instantly recognisable.
Some locals offer good luck and sympathy, but Deanna Knox, aged 22, also
claims to have been spat on.

Such
behaviour is deplorable, but only the most blinkered Knox supporter
could deny her behaviour was bizarre and grossly insensitive during the
days and hours after the murder, and that she made herself the obvious
focus for suspicion.
How
she must now regret turning cartwheels and performing handstands at the
police station as she waited for her boyfriend Sollecito to be
questioned.

How she
must regret waltzing off to buy lingerie with him as the investigation
got under way, declaring very volubly that they planned to have ‘hot
sex’; and smooching with him in the street as the cameras whirred.
Nor
will Meredith’s British friends in Italy forget Knox’s reply when one
expressed the hope that she hadn’t suffered too much. ‘What do you
think?’ she said. ‘She f*****g had her throat cut. She bled to death.’

The
retort was not merely insensitive but seemed to suggest Knox knew
rather too much about the manner in which Meredith died. In a phone-call
to her mother, she also described how the body had been found in or
near the wardrobe.
She had
been standing behind several police officers, flatmates and friends when
the bedroom door was kicked in, and her view of the bedroom was
obscured. So how could she know these details?
Knox
later claimed to have overheard paramedics describing what they saw,
but there is a considerable amount of circumstantial evidence which is,
to say the least, strange. Knox and Sollecito habitually left their
mobile phones switched on, so why turn off them off between about 9pm
and 6am on the night of the murder?

If,
as she says, this hugely intelligent A-grade student really did return
home the following lunchtime to be confronted by a mysterious scene
(Meredith’s bedroom door locked and the front door open, blood spots in
the bathroom, the place eerily deserted), why did she take a shower
before raising the alarm?
Was
she really very friendly with Meredith, as she says, or rather, as
others would have it, was there ill-feeling between the considerate,
well-mannered Home Counties girl and the loud, self-absorbed Knox, with
her bunny-shaped sex toy and lax personal hygiene?

There
are many more unexplained mysteries — prominent among them the weird
short story she penned shortly before the murder about two students who
drug and rape a girl for kicks. Piece them together and one begins to
understand why she was placed in the frame.
That
said, she was at the time patently immature for all her pretence to
sophistication, and none of these puzzles makes her a murderer. During
her years in prison she is said to have changed markedly, teaching
fellow prisoners English, broadening her education and joining the
choir.
And whatever we
might think of Knox, the prosecution case has been seriously undermined
during the appeal — in effect a ten-month-long retrial before a new
judge and jury.

The
forensic evidence, in particular, is disgracefully flawed. Indeed, so
many basic errors were made, both in gathering and testing the samples,
that a British judge would have thrown the case out of court.
At
the first trial, for example, the prosecution claimed traces of
Meredith’s DNA were detected on the blade of a 30cm knife recovered from
Sollecito’s flat, and that Knox’s DNA was on the handle. She is said to
have ‘trembled and shook’ when police pulled it from the kitchen
drawer.

The original
judge refused to allow the test to be independently reviewed, but the
second appointed two university experts to analyse it.

While
they confirmed that Knox had touched the knife — as well she might have
done when preparing meals at her boyfriend’s house — they said the
sample attributed to Meredith was so tiny it could not even be
re-tested, let alone relied upon as accurate.
This
is but one instance of the Italian investigative team’s appalling
incompetence. There are countless more, though whether they will prove
sufficient to convince the judge and jury remains to be seen.

The
Kercher family, for their part, have reiterated their belief that the
original trial verdict was fair. Four years after their sparkling,
cherished daughter followed her heart to the Italian hills, they still
don’t know why she met such a terrible end.
And
whether or not Knox emerges a murderer or martyr after delivering her
carefully-crafted speech on Monday, that will remain the greatest
tragedy of this sordid and deeply perplexing saga.














Comments (131)




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I don't believe shes guilty,and i don't think shes going to walk free.

- cockney william, haggerston eastend, 01/10/2011 17:21

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Remind me, did Kenny Richey (the
Scottish-American guy who was on death row for 20+ years) make millions
from British news companies wanting his story following his release? I'm
pretty sure he didn't so why does this girl "deserve" anything?
- Nick, Glasgow, 1/10/2011 16:47
Nick, he wasn't found innocent. He took a plea bargain which meant he
had served his time - I think!. Has pretty much disappeared since then.

- Jen, Glasgow, 01/10/2011 17:13

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This is not some stupid reality TV show. The
statement by Knox will alter nothing as it cannot alter facts. The
forensics are against her, her behaviour immediately after the murder is
against her. The fact that she tried to frame an innocent man is
against her. Italy is a very sophisticated country with an impressive
history. I certainly have faith in Italian justice and I think that Knox
will be eating prison food for a very long time to come. My thoughts
and prayers are with the Kercher family.

- Colonel Mortimer, Ubique, EUSSR, 01/10/2011 17:09

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This whole case has been a travesty of justice.
Meredith's parents in their grief should be seekers of the TRUTH. .....
Shame on Meredith's parents, they lost their daughter, and now they are
blindly willing to ruin some other young girls life because they are too
angry and ignorant to look at the facts. Shame on them, this makes me
furious, and it has to do with justice not being American.
- loren, USA,
Good grief. How spectacularly offensive.
There does seem to be a general air of disbelief in the US than an
American could be guilty of such a crime but most of your compatriots
seem to be trying to be objective. You might consider joining them.


- Jay, Sheffield, 01/10/2011 17:08

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Whats worrisome is the one sided view we are
getting over here and the DM report is correct the American media is now
totally one sided.Kerchers family is not even mentioned.So Sad.We dont
know what happened but by what ive seen I dont think Amanda actually
killed her but was there along with the boyfriend and the guy who
actually did it.Knox was drug fuelled when the murder happened hence the
cartwheels in the police station later, she heard the screams of
Meredith and did nothing.But with the pressure from America theres a
good chance she wil be home, doing the circuits,as Amanda knox ever
shown any emmotion over Meredith? any concern? no.but now shes out of
her drug world its all probbaly like a dream/nightmare. Out of jail and
on with her life.

- lisa, usa, 01/10/2011 17:05

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@Tony, Derbyshire
You *do* understand that the American and British legal systems are more similar to each other than the Italian system, right?

- Joe Shih, Geylang, Singapore, 01/10/2011 17:02

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in her bedroom with the help of a third man, Ivorian immigrant,
small-time drug-dealer and petty-thief Rudy Guede (he pleaded guilty and
is serving just 16 years)."

Well surely, if he pleaded guilty, he must have been an accomplice rather than the perpetrator, hence the lighter sentence.?

If Anthony can get away with murder I'm sure Knox can.



This case today must be a landmark for justice.......if Knox walks then you might aswell say....ok, you did it but to save money going through an appeal, you can walk now, after all, you've already served half your sentence.


I would like to say today....."thank god justice has prevailed and the British newspapers can STOP calling foreign police....bungling and inept" ....pisses me off.

Sky news too....