The last time we checked in on Amanda Knox, her second murder conviction (as in, the second time she had been convicted of murdering Meredith Kercher in a second trial) had been overturned by the Italian Supreme Court. That was back in March of this year. Shortly after the second conviction was overturned, Amanda’s lawyer announced that they would be seeking financial compensation from the Italian government for “wrongful imprisonment.” It was sort of a baller move, especially considering it was seemingly up in the air as to whether the Italian authorities were going to pursue Knox for any other criminal charges. Now the Italian Supreme Court is basically saying that the prosecutors never should have tried Amanda in the first place. Sort of.
Italy’s top criminal court revealed on Monday that it overturned Amanda Knox’s murder conviction earlier this year because of “glaring errors” in the prosecution’s case. It’s the latest twist in the long saga. Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were first convicted of the 2007 murder of Knox’s roommate, British exchange student Meredith Kercher, in 2009. She was found dead in a pool of blood in the girls’ shared apartment, with as many as 40 stab wounds to her body.
But the murder convictions were overturned in 2011. Italy’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, then ordered a new trial for the pair after determining that the acquittal was full of “deficiencies, contradictions and illogical” conclusions. In that time, Knox fled Italy for Seattle, where she vowed to remain even if a second trial found her guilty again. Knox and Sollecito ultimately ended up being convicted again in 2014. However, that conviction was overturned in March. The same court that had ordered the new trial criticized police and prosecutors for “stunning weakness” and “investigative bouts of amnesia,” according to the decision made public on Monday.
“There was no shortage of glaring errors in the underlying fabric of the sentence in question,” the court wrote, NBC News reports.
In a statement posted to her website on Monday afternoon, Knox, now 28, wrote that she was grateful the court was forced to declare her innocence.
“This has been a long struggle for me, my family, my friends, and my supporters. While I am glad it is now over, I will remain forever grateful to the many individuals who gave their time and talents to help me,” she wrote. “Today would not have been possible without your unwavering support. I will now begin the rest of my life with one of my goals being to help others who have been wrongfully accused.”
I’ve said before that I really don’t know this case backwards and forwards like many of you, but it always struck me that even though the physical evidence wasn’t there, the cops were right to investigate her because, truly, her behavior was very odd. Knox’s behavior was odd when she was promoting her book too, but whatever. I guess it’s over now. Hopefully.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Getty.
Her behavior was odd for sure, but I feel the prosecutor and the Italian justice system made a circus of this case. Overturn, Re-conviction, overturn again etc. All I can say, RIP Meredith.
There was never even anything that pointed towards her being guilty , except the Italian Courts wanting to railroaded her and her boyfriend for the murder.
I feel terrible for her that the Italian Courts railroaded her into Prison, she was never guilty IMO of anything and I don’t trust anything the Italian press or Itialian prosecutors said about her behavior.
She was young, alone being questioned by people trying to stick a murder on her and her roomate had been brutaly murdered , it’s a wonder she didn’t end up in the Looney bin.
One of the points used to say they thought she did it was …she bought new sexy underwear for her boyfriend…like ..WTF? I feel bad for Meridth and her family but I also felt bad for this U.S. girl that the Italian Courts tried to railroad.
There is a US journalist who was on US tv who said the same thing happened to him, in Itsly with the same judge and prosecutors but he was smart enpugh to get on a plane and leave the Country before they could come back to his hotel to try to take him to jail, because they were trying to pin a murder on him of someone he had seen, hours before.
Actually, not only do defendants sometimes act different than we expect them to, but people convicted of crimes do too.
If they don’t act like we expect, for whatever reason, we think they’re guilty.
That said, she REEKS of some kind of guilt or secret or coldness. Something is really off.
It’s such a massive leap to go from “kind of odd” to “satanic orgy murder”.
And she was never even that odd – the British press just massacred her. Almost everything salacious they printed ended up being either false or egregiously exaggerated
The “Statement Analysis” website determined her statements were very guilty sounding. it’s an interesting form of analyzing statements and language to determine guilt or innocence, and some of it sounds possible.
They pore over testimony and statements and there’s a whole theory of word use, demeanor, etc.
I’m NOT recommending it — the guy gets very creepily rightwing and political sometimes, and so do some of his fans — but it fits with the gut feeling I’ve always gotten from her. She just seems very OFF in her affect. And I’d bet money she’s got a bunch of secrets about that killing.
She’s never seemed empathetic or sad about this violent awful crime.
We never really got to see what she was really like, though – most of what we know of her ended up coming from bogus reports, and then of course everything got swept into that crazy investigation. We’re making a pretty big judgement about her based on unusual, incredibly traumatic circumstances. It could be that your gut feeling is that you would never like her as a person, but that’s such an incredible (and unfair) leap.
The “Statement Analysis” was pretty ridiculous, in my opinion.
I agree with Bridget. Amanda, whatever her personality is like, got railroaded by the British and Italian press, and the Prosecuter was on nothing but a witch hunt. There was never any evidence, much less proof, that anybody but Rudy Guede committed this crime, yet what did the Italian authorities do in order to try to get Knox and Sollecito convicted? They gave Gude a mere 16-year sentence so Guede would implicate Knox and Sollecito. Now, unless Guede succeeds with his appeal and is out sooner, that murderer will be out in 8 years.
I’ve read and sometimes skimmed the judgement reports, which were translated by volunteers. I strongly believe she was involved in some way.
The prosecutors, about five or more involved in all the Knox trials, have zero power. It’s the 30 or so judges who ruled there was enough evidence to go to trial, keep Knox in jail while it was going on, and subsequently on her guilt or innocence.
Yeah, she acted very bizarrely. In all honesty,if I were the investigator Amanda’s behavior would be a giant red flag. I think she’s shows lack of compassion towards the victim and her family. I this she would consider herself victim as well. I don’t know if she did it, but just by immaturity and general attitude makes me dislike her a lot.
Sorry, have to comment again because I find this case so crazy with yellow journalism. SO MUCH of what was reported by the press was an absolute lie. For example, the story that she took a shower when the bathroom was covered in blood was a total fabrication. If you look at the crime scene video, the only mark of anything awry is that there is a small stain in the corner of the bathmat. The picture that was shown in places like the DM was after the bathroom had been sprayed with a chemical that shows up traces of DNA by turning pink.
Another lie is that Amanda was out shopping for sexy lingerie the day after the murder. She was locked out of her apartment (as it was a crime scene) and bought underwear at a place that is like an Italian target. They were literally just cotton panties.
The Italian press would mistranslate things in the craziest ways, the police leaked false information, there was literally a witch-hunt out for this girl. The worst part? There was a third roommate. Amanda went to the authorities, by her own volition, to see if she could help. The other roommate just stayed out of it. I said this in another comment, but the absolute corruption and incompetence in this case makes my blood boil.
By Amanda’s own words she said she never did a cartwheel in front of investigators, she did whoever admit to doing a split to “blow off some steam.” That’s a little strange. She openly admits that some of her behavior was immature. Again, I don’t know if she did the murder , I’m taking about her behavior. Most people who are in a stressful situation do not behave as Amanda did. That’s why a lot of people were scratching their heads and frankly, turned off by her. I think the Italian police screwed up and that alone would make this case go away.
Actually, I believe there were two additional roommates. Italian women in their late 20’s they were out of town because the day of the murder was an Italian holiday. One of those Italian women, returned home, after receiving a call from Amanda that things were disturbed at the flat and Meredith’s door was locked but she wasn’t responding. That woman returned home and later contacted the police based on the condition of the flat. When the police arrived they declined to attempt to enter Meredith’s room and the Italian roommate’s broke down the door and Meredith’s body was discovered. All of these people milling around the crime scene contaminated the evidence and created huge problems when the investigative police arrived.
One of the things that came to light after the fact is that Amanda stuck around and tried to assist the police. Her roommate? High tailed it out of there on the advice of her parents. The other roommate also remained away from the investigation leaving Amanda a convenient target.
There may always be questions unanswered, just as there are with any high profile murder, but it seems like the police zoned in on Amanda because her demeanor was odd. Remember, there are huge piles of actual physical evidence linking Rudy Gruede to the crime scene and Meredith’s body AND he confessed, only implicating Amanda & her boyfriend when pressed to by the police. There was no credible evidence linking A & R to the crime scene or Rudy and unfortunately it was a really messy crime scene. What there was was a prosecutor obsessed with the occult and sex orgies who came up with the convoluted theories of motive.
Yep, vilebody, I didn’t know much about the case myself until I read a piece about it all in Rollingstone, and now I’m convinced of her innocence…
The sad thing is that her “strange behavior” was probably a reaction to extreme stress, a result of Autism spectrum disorder.
By “blowing off steam” she meant “trying to move around after being stick in interrogation for hours on end”
@vilebody: Thank you. I have read a few books on this case, just because her behavior was strange does not make her guilty. Honestly, from my knowledge of the case, she really isn’t smart enough to have committed this crime. That is not to say that she is stupid, but that her mind just doesn’t work that way. Beyond that, there was false evidence planted as well as a huge language barrier up against Knox. I’m glad she’s free. Finally.
And even worse is that people are still saying “I read all the translated this or that and know she’s guilty,” and “I’ve followed this case from the beginning [in the DM and other unreliable tabloids] and know she’s guilty,” and “I know she’s guilty because she gives me that *feeling*” and refusing to budge even though the latest gro Italy is that she never was guilty.
I just think I feel for her because I too am socially awkward and have some social disorders, it’s always misinterpreted as me being weird, a snob, and a bitch, when I honestly have probs with social cues and the like. I can easily see myself in her situation.
I practiced criminal defence law for a few years and many of my clients could be described as “weird” or people who would set off red flags. Some were mentally slow or had “strange” behaviour due to ADHD or anxiety disorder or Aspergers Syndrome or whatever. Some were guilty and some were not. My friend’s son is in his twenties and is one of these people who doesn’t act the way people expect him to. He will never “fit in” with people who don’t know about or understand his issues.
Amanda Knox May be one of these people who’s issues aren’t that obvious. I don’t know. But just remember that weird behaviour alone doesn’t mean someone is guilty but sadly it does make them easy to accuse.
I agree Sarah. People have been convicted for crimes that they hadn’t committed just by their behavior or they come across as unlikable. I feel that Amanda is unlikable for me. Does that make her guilty? No it doesn’t. I wouldn’t convict her either due to the police shoddy work. I just find her a bit bizarre.
Agreed. I’ve always wondered if she wasn’t somewhere on the Autism spectrum. I’ve worked with female clients in social services that reminded me of Amanda. Just because someone acts odd doesn’t make them guilty.
Totally. I don’t know the details of the case, but every time I’ve seen her talk I think Autism spectrum (Asperger’s), which could make some of her behaviorisms seem more “normal” for her.
At 25 I was a new teacher at a small high school, and I was almost sexually accosted. A deranged student ( just released from juvie with a long history of sexual assault) approached me in the hallway. The hallway was deserted because classes were in session. He followed me, asked questions, then stroked my hair. That got me frightened I walked quickly towards the office and he followed and pressed me into the lockers. Luckily a teacher who had no classes opened their door, took stock of the situation and got me in the room. The kid fled and we stayed put as the other teacher called the office. When the principal and another teacher came I started telling her what happened. I was half laughing (in disbelief and shock I think) and fixing my hair into a bun and rifling through my purse for my lipstick, trying to get back to normal. The other teacher thought I was acting odd and that I made the whole thing up. Even the teacher who rescued me thought I was acting as though I had not been in danger. The truth is I was terrified and it came out as nervous energy this way.
I never believed half of what the Italian or British press said about her behavior, they had a clear agenda and it was to try and railroad her….
And so what if she did some stretching after being questioned and hit i the head by those bastards trying to make her say she did it for hours.
IMO glad this is one time US family stuck by their daughter and fought back and back and back … Thank goodness they did.
Oh! She says “one of my goals being to help others who have been wrongfully accused?”
So I guess that means she’ll start with her boss who SHE ‘wrongfully accused,’ of murder?! The man she was convicted of filing false reports on and had to pay restitution to?
Lying ish.
*** Amanda Knox has spoken of her guilt at falsely accusing barman Patrick Lumumba of murdering British student Meredith Kurcher, admitting: ‘I know why he hates me.’
Lumumba was held in custody for two weeks after Knox, 26, told police she had ‘covered her ears as he killed’ Meredith in her bedroom of the house she shared with her fellow student in Italy.
As a result of the false accusation, Lumumba was dragged from his home in front of his children and wife in a dawn raid and taken to jail only being released when a university professor provided him with a rock solid alibi.***
Really great points. She FALSELY accused her former boss and made his life hell. Did she ever apologize for that? It shows her character that she would throw someone under the bus like that.
She only accused him because the police kept insisting he was involved after they looked at her text to him. She didn’t bring him up the police did. I don’t know whether she personally apologized to him, but she has said she was sorry about him ever being accused in interviews.
She did.
She got home at around 6:30am and by 11am she had sent a long note to the police saying that she didn’t think what she said was true. Read the note; it is heart-breaking. Here are a couple of excerpts:
“In regards to this “confession” that I made last night, I want to make clear that I’m very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion. Not only was I told I would be arrested and put in jail for 30 years, but I was also hit in the head when I didn’t remember a fact correctly. I understand that the police are under a lot of stress, so I understand the treatment I received.
However, it was under this pressure and after many hours of confusion that my mind came up with these answers. In my mind I saw Patrick in flashes of blurred images. I saw him near the basketball court. I saw him at my front door. I saw myself cowering in the kitchen with my hands over my ears because in my head I could hear Meredith screaming. But I’ve said this many times so as to make myself clear: these things seem unreal to me, like a dream, and I am unsure if they are real things that happened or are just dreams my head has made to try to answer the questions in my head and the questions I am being asked.
I’m very confused at this time. My head is full of contrasting ideas and I know I can be frustrating to work with for this reason. But I also want to tell the truth as best I can. Everything I have said in regards to my involvement in Meredith’s death, even though it is contrasting, are the best truth that I have been able to think.”
Remember, this is after the girl has been questioned since 10pm, in addition to questioning over the previous few days. Worse, the police had lied to her, saying that they had proof she and Patrick were at the apartment at the time of the murder. Girl was hungry and sleep-deprived and told they had proof she was lying, all in Italian. It was a coerced false confession.
Thank you for posting, vilebody. That really puts some perspective on things.
Thanks, @tiffany :)!
I really feel like this case is something out of the Twilight Zone. I really recommend reading http://www.injusticeinperugia.org/. I know I sound like I’m on some crazy crusade, but the miscarriage of justice was so jarring in this case that it single-handedly changed my stance on the death penalty. That website, written by former FBI agents, is absolutely fascinating.
The person she only falsely accused after immense pressure from Italian investigators, who were interrogating her? Remember, this isn’t the US – there was no lawyer present. It was coerced.
@ vilebody,
Thanks so much for the link. The article on the Mountain of Missing Evidence is really telling. No matter what heebie jeebies one might get from her, or how she talks, or how she acted after the crime, the utter lack of evidence pointing to her, and really the scientific, proven impossibility that one could commit the crime and not leave any trace evidence was really persuasive. I also found it interesting that it’s proven that without weapons training, or experience wielding a knife in the intention to maim or kill, once simply could not lethally stab someone without receiving any sort of wounds themselves. Very fascinating.
I side with science.
Sorry, but I just wanted to add some corrections because this case makes my blood boil.
Amanda Knox was questioned for 43 hours total, spanning over 5 days from 10pm to 6:30am by 12 detectives speaking a foreign language. A former FBI agent did an excellent review of the case, which pointed out this sort of scenario ONLY happens if there is an imminent threat (like a bombing), or if the authorities want a forced confession. 12 Italians working the graveyard shift for 5 days in a row? They had an agenda.
Amanda WAS TOLD that her boss, Patrick Lumumba, was the man that attacked Meredith and that they had proof he was at the scene with her. She did not give Patrick’s name to the police. His name was suggested to her. The “confession” was written in Italian and riddled with Amanda saying things like “I remember screaming” and then saying “I don’t remember screaming” in sentence afterwards. It is absolutely incoherent. Moreover, it was signed at 5:45am, when this girl had undergone eight straight hours of questioning without food or water.
Literally that morning, she sent a note to the police saying that anything she said about Lumumba was false and said under duress. She has consistently said afterwards that she suffers a lot of guilt about it.
For anyone who finds this interesting, I would look up a website called Injustice in Perugia, which has really been enlightening and shows just how effed up this entire trial has been. One other little note is that one of the most interesting articles I have ever read is called “Remembering a Crime You Didn’t Commit” from The New Yorker. It chronicles the power of suggestion and how people can internalize fiction to the point that it becomes a “memory.” Super cool and super creepy.
I’ve read that article. It’s a complete mindf how they do it.
There have been cases in the U.S. where the investigators have interrogate a suspect for grueling hours that have resulted in false confessions. If you have enough insight and ask for a lawyer, then you’re automatically in the eyes of the police guilty. It’s a no win situation.
A confession like this would have been tossed out in Canada for violating Charter rights. Not sure what else the police had beyond this confession.
Acting weird is not enough to prove they committed murder.
To @Merritt and @vilebody
Facts: Meredith lied to the police and falsely accused her innocent boss of the crime TO THROW POLICE OFF HER OWN GUILT. She was charged and convicted of slander and ordered to serve 3 years and pay Patrick 22,000 Euros in restitution. It took her years to apologize and was only done after Patrick repeatedly said to the world press how awful she was in not only accusing him falsely but also because she never apologized.
..an interesting quote from Patrick:
“One thing I could never understand is that Amanda has always said she was given a rough time by the police. But I was named early on as the one who killed Meredith, the black third world African, and they never gave me any problems.”
Also @vilebody
YOU might find that letter “heartbreaking,” I find it a chilling lie from someone who has already figured or been told that Lumumba may have an alibi, so now she comprises a letter of ‘dreams,’ that accuses him but doesn’t. It offers up yet another OUT for herself to escape charges of slander by saying she may have had delusions/dreams. The letter is as coldly calculating as she is.
She got away with murder in the eyes of many.
@Cleo
Please read properly what I said in this comment and the one above. This was a forced, false confession. It was an illegal interrogation both by U.S. and Italian standards. It was under duress caused by sleep-deprivation, hunger, and the fact that OH YOU KNOW SHE WAS PHYSICALLY ASSAULTED during the process. The fact that it was not recorded–a legal requirement, btw–speaks volumes. She was scared, tired, hungry, and dealing with crazy police officers who had hit her. They said they had proof Patrick had been there; they said they had proof Amanda was there with him; they said they had proof that her alibi of being with Raffaele was disproven. All of these are lies. All of these are massive mindf*cks to someone who was pulling an all-nighter under the conditions (hunger, assault, and language barriers) mentioned above.
Amanda immediately wrote the police within hours saying that she doubted the veracity of her statements. She is not and never was guilty, so she had no need to “throw the police off her own guilt.”
It is bizarre to me why so many are so determined to convict a young girl who is so clearly innocent. Seriously, read up on the case. Even the Italian court has recognized how they majorly screwed up the case in every single way.
@vilebody — this is anything BUT a case of “clearly innocent” Amanda Knox. Guilty or not, we will simply never know, but the case is most assuredly NOT clear. Please don’t patronize commenters with “read up on the case” — it sounds very much like @Cleo HAS read up and has formed her own opinions, much as you have.
Lol @catfood
It so clearly wasn’t her it’s painful to read the comments!
They said bleach was used to clean up the crime scene as Amanda’s DNA was nowhere in the murder room. Yet the actual guilty parties DNA was everrryyyywhere in the room. She magically cleaned around his finger and footprints!
She’s a witch!!!
Seriously… get over Patrick Lumumba!
He was arrested and in trouble for a heartbeat and was completely exonerated and received tens of thousands of euros for his trouble.
His “pain” is over forever.
Amanda spent years in gaol, believing she’d be there 25+ years for murder. Their pain does not compare at all. Amanda served her time for so called slander and so it’s done and over. She lost years of her youth she will never get back. Her family lost hundreds of thousands (millions?) of dollars to defend their daughter in a case with zero physical evidence to put Amanda at the scene.
@catfoodjunkie
Sorry, but if you read the case, she is clearly innocent. The science proves it. You can still say you still think she’s guilty, but I consider any argument with that like trying to reason with a creationist.
I am literally flabbergasted that any reasonable person can think she is guilty. Seriously, read Injustice in Perugia. I’m sorry if it makes me sound “condescending,” but this bizarro-world trial by the decidedly uninformed needs to stop.
I was so glad for her the day she walked out of that Prison, the Entire thing was a Railroad. So much of what was written by the Italian and British press about Amanda Knox was false and with the intension of railroading her, thank goodness she had a family who fought and fought and fought.
There was never one scrap of evidence that pointed in her Direction, I am so glad her family kept fighting and revealed the Italian prosecutors and judge for what they were.
Yes, definitely odd but maybe she doesn’t actually remember what happened. But the time for admitting that has long since passed, so we get this weird, confused and conflicting behavior. She changed her story, if I remember right, more than once. If she was blitzed and/or completely high at the time maybe she only remembers bits and pieces. Oh well, it seems we’ll never really know what happened.
The human mind is a funny thing. You can genuinely change memories in your mind with enough persuasion. You misremember and change details of things every single day.
Memory is really bad for using as evidene, no matter how well you think you’d remember important details.
I watched a documentary where they actually tested your memory during the show and it was scary how easy it is to use your preconceptions to falsely remember things.
Good for her. Maybe now they can find who really killed that poor girl. And I hope she gets some money…spending years behind bars while they knew they had NO case against her.
As for acting weird, yep it’s odd but it doesn’t make you a criminal.
+1
She was guilty of defamation. Her time in jail is also for that. She was convicted to 4 years for that
All the eidence pointed to the killer. It’s known by even common sense standards.
And yes. She acted totally weird, but not guilty weird. She has traits of a disorder that just displays you as disconnected, but not a killer. Many will confuse the behavior as the same, but a closer look makes that generalization foolish.
Agree that her behavior doesn’t point to guilt but rather to a defense mechanism of sorts. Maybe disconnecting/detaching was the only way she could survive the situation.
Esmon
That’s a point that totally valid, but gets overlooked. How some need to cope is an extreme angle.
Agreed. I’d probably act weird too. I have a strange ability to completely shut off emotions when I am super stressed.
@Magnolia They already have the killer ,Rudy Guede. He confessed to the murder.
He confessed to the crime led by Knox and Sollecito.
They have found who killed her- Rudy Guede.
A really great book which opened my eyes on this case was The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston. It’s being made into a movie by/starring Clooney. (Plot: a journalist moves to Italy to write a book and gets accused of being a serial killer (of murders happening 40+ years ago!!!). scary parallels to Amanda Knox case…
Basically: Italian police don’t wear gloves or worry about contaminating crime scenes. Prosecutors purposely and routinely leak details of crimes to the press. The jury is not sequestered or asked to be impartial to sit on a case and the case is won or lost by THE MEDIA. It was a great example of how police and justice systems can be and are CULTURAL.
Many westerners don’t realize how different the law can be in Italy.
I was pretty horrified by her interrogation, too. They slapped her repeatedly and screamed at her for hours in Italian… They sound awful. Not that our police are perfect by any means, but they sound truly corrupt and incompetent.
@GOODNAMESALLTAKEN
You should be made aware she was convicted of slandering police with her lies about their mistreatment/abuse, and served jail time.
As Patrick Lumumba, the innocent family man she accused who had given her a job as a student said: ‘they had every reason to believe I was the murderer early based on her lies, yet they never mistreated me.’
Oh, I didn’t know that, Cleo. Thank you.
@goodnames. Don’t really think you need to thank Cleo for pointing out police that broke the law then further used to demonize someone they were in the process of railroading. Her bias is clear based on her other comments.
@GNAT: remember, that “slander” was a COERCED CONFESSION, that she tried to take back almost as soon as she left the police station. Cleo is just one of those people who will never believe that Amanda was seriously mistreated by the Italian justice system.
@Cleo – if she was hit by someone while being questioned and she had no lawyer present, how do they prove it did or did not happen?
Of course none of the prosecutors would admit it happened.
Genuinely curious here – how do they prove it?
I live in Italy and police wear gloves. Sorry
In this case it’s documented the police cross contaminated loads of evidence if not outright destroying it at the scene. Gloves or not would be the least of their offenses in who this case was handled from the start.
Profs. Carla Vecchiotti and Stefano Conti of the University of Rome were appointed by a presiding judge to conduct an independent review of the forensic team. The conclusion was a harsh condemnation, particularly against the main forensic scientist, that protocols were not followed in any capacity. You can see videos of cross-contamination and a picture where a pair of gloves are discarded on the floor.
apologies Grace- thank you FLORC! In the Douglas Preston book/case, he worked with a former carabinieri (Sp?) who helped him see that Italian police/law is very different and that contamination of crime scenes happened often…
Not saying other countries are perfect legal/crime systems AT ALL…just that from the knox case AND preston’s experience and his ex-carabinieri friend’s experience there did not seem to be a lot of emphasis of keeping a crime scene clean with respect to gloves, footprints, mixing victim DNA into everything else.
My experience is limited to the knox case and what Preston and his ex-carabinieri friend detail in their book so I accept it is LIMITED. again, crime/legal stuff is CULTURAL.
There is actual video of them collecting evidence at the crime scene and it shows people picking up and putting down multiple things and noone changes gloves. Wearing gloves in itself isn’t enough! When you pick up evidence with blood/DNA on it, put it down and then pick up something else, it becomes contaminated.
….I read about that , it was awful
I read that book on my honeymoon…in Italy.
It was chilling.
The prosecutors who accused the journalists reporting on the serial murders in Monster of Florence of actually being the serial killers are the same who prosecuted Knox.
The film’s plot is based on true facts,but the story is fictional. The assumptions that all Italian investigation and court procedures are a mess, while American ones are perfect is wishful thinking
They beat her up? I don’t believe it!
the story is definitely true. the author had to flee Italy. The ex-(italian) policeman he was working with faced serious financial ramifications. If Preston had stayed, he was facing jail! (again, for 40 year old, 30 year old, and 20+ year old crimes)
I agree with this. I lived in Italy for three years and at the time spoke passable Italian. However, while living there I was in a car accident, there were injuries, in both my car and the other involved. I was questioned by the Italian police and asked to provide a witness statement. Since my mom in America is a lawyer , we were raised from the cradle to ALWAYS ask for an attorney if you deal with the police for anything above a routine traffic stop. The Italians were not pleased with me, I got called rude names and harassed. An Italian liaison/lawyer was provided by the US Navy ( I was military stationed there) and I thank God every day for that man. He made sure the Italian police kept my questioning above board, no long “talks,” and never allowed me to sign ANYTHING (as all the documents were in Italian and I didn’t read the language.) Who knows what I might have been coerced to sign if not for him. Amanda Knox had none of that, hers was a murder case, mine was a car accident and I got treated like baby murdering scum.
So, having a first hand knowledge of the Italian “judicial” system, Amanda in my opinion was railroad, coerced and slandered in the Italian press. Now, I loved living in Italy, loved the people, the culture, the food and grand history. However, if I ever went back and had another “interview” with the Italian police, I’d high tail it to the airport, return to the States and let the American embassy deal with the Italian authorities. The whole judicial system there is steeped in corruption, incompetence and out right slanderous lies by prosecutors who should be in jail, not practicing the law.
Just because the police messed up and the prosecution’s strategy/narrative was shite doesn’t mean this girl is innocent. Most murders aren’t solved as cleanly, neatly, and perfectly – even in America! – as CSI shows would lead you to believe. From all I’ve read and seen, it seems that Amanda Knox was definitely involved in this murder. If she’s the sociopath she seems to be, though, she’ll probably find herself in trouble again in the future.
Sociopaths by majority are not violent. Being 1 actually means you’re more likely to be non-violent. Just odd in the eyes of some. The term itself has a stigma though. Many with any mental or personality disorder were institutionalized because they didn’t act like what was expected. It’s also thought many killers can be charming and because they act as you expect from an innocent person they are removed of suspection.
I’m pretty well aware of what sociopaths are – and I know that the vast majority are not killers. Regardless, Amanda fits the bill in many ways. She can be very charming to lots of people – which is exactly why so many people feel she is innocent. (She and her family are using American nationalism and ethnocentrism to their benefit as well.) Many of her actions before and after this horrible incident point toward sociopathy/psychopathy. If you examine Robert Hare’s psychopath checklist, Amanda seems to possess most, if not all of the characteristics.
there was not one scrap of evidence that ever pointed towards this girl, it was all a Rail Road.
She was not guilty, is not guilty…
There was never even a motive presented as to why she would , all of it was a railroad by the corrupt Italian prosecutor
… agreeing w/ Friv about the sociopath stuff. Amanda’s innocence pleas came w/ dead eyes. Never once did she seem genuine to me (particularly when interviewed by American media!)
But if she’s innocent, I’m glad for her to be having this moment.
So what exactly have you read and seen that the rest of us (including the Italian court) aren’t privy to?
I really hope that Meredith’s family can accept this ruling. All the evidence points to Guede and always has.
Amanda acted strange, there is no question about that. But I think that has more to do with being self-absorbed the way many people in their early 20s are, and not about being a killer. There are people who decided she was guilty based on the fact that she was having sex with Raffaele Sollecito, after not kn owing him that long. It is really disturbing that her sex life was used against her.
I didn’t/don’t follow this case at all, but the I agree the way they painted her as a little trollop was disconcerting.
Sadly Meredith’s family seems to have been poisoned by the media and false claims around this case. They were certain it was Amanda and Raffaello and nothing but them being in prison would suffice for them. They made comments saying that.
The prosecutor really ruined any chance Merediths family had for closure. He needs to be removed. As do the police that destroys so much evidence at the scene.
And the line of reasoning she acted odd goes way back in history. Any mental disorder that didn’t follow the norm was reason enough to accuse them or murder. Aspergers, personality disorder. Disassociation. If someone died near you and you had 1 of those you were found guilty. And it still happens to this day which is sad we haven’t grown with a better understanding.
Well said, Exactly!
TO be honest, I think that part of why Meredith’s family has stayed so strongly in the prosecutor’s corner is their own guilt – because if he’s in fact grossly wrong, then by supporting him they were indirectly party to Meredith’s actual killer getting a more lenient sentence, and to an innocent couple (Sollecito and Knox) being railroaded and losing years of their lives in prison.
Yeah also I think they would rather imagine that their daughter was attacked by crazies – including her “jealous flatmate” rather than accept that she had sex with a man of colour who she didn’t know well, and was then killed by him.
Even though there is no question he did it. All the evidence was against hi, he immediately fled, and eventually confessed.
It’s a shame because they are completely programmed to need vengeance on Knox and her boyfriend now, and will always believe they did it despite no motive, no evidence.
With regards to her odd behavior, I think she’s just a little odd (not in a bad way). I think her youth and immaturity at the time was misinterpreted but once it was narrated the way it was that was it.
This latest move I believe is the Italians doing, well, not quite damage control but the side that thinks she was railroaded trying to voice that without totally calling out their colleagues for some behavior that borders on malicious prosecution if not corruption.
As someone who loves Italy and has lived there and visited on many occasions, the strong stench of misogyny and anti-Americanism in this case saddens me. I was undecided on this case and figured that she was probably guilty … until I actually got informed as to the alleged “facts” and “evidence.” I’ve read the decisions and the conflicting forensics reports, and it shocks me that anyone actually believed that she’s guilty. The e entire theory of the case arises from the twisted, sexually dysfunctional mind of a dubious prosecutor who has been accused of incompetence and corruption separately and apart from this case. There is no evidence that Amanda Knox or her boyfriend were at the house that evening. The alleged murder weapon turned out not to have been the murder weapon. The luminal traces of blood evidence never in fact existed. The so-called trace DNA evidence on Kercher’s bra clasp did not exist and was probably contaminated. Every piece of supposed evidence put forward by the prosecution turned out to be invented or misinterpreted. On the other hand, Rudy Guede’s fingerprints are all over the crime scene. His DNA was found in abundance on and around the victim. Guede is the one who fled the country and eventually confessed. And yet the Italian authorities want you to believe that Knox and Sollecito had the magical ability to cleanse the scene entirely of their own biological evidence while leaving all of Guede’s. I mean, use your common sense. If this had happened in the U.S., where we are more accustomed, sadly, to these types of crimes, it immediately would have been called what it is by knowledgable investigators – a sexually-motivated crime of opportunity by a lone home invader, Rudy Guede. But because the Italian Keystone Kops were infatuated by the idea of Knox’s involvement, he was given only 16 years in exchange for his insinuating that he had accomplices (again, accomplices who left not one trace of their presence in a crime scene riddled with evidence left by one man – Rudy Guede). Knox’s strange behavior boiled down to being comforted by her boyfriend at the crime scene, doing cartwheels and not sufficiently mourning a woman she hardly knew. Her interrogation, conducted without an attorney in a language she hardly knew, is a case study in how to coerce a wrongful confession. And if you think no one has ever implicated another innocent person while being coerced by interrogators, you’re naive and uninformed indeed. Meredith Kercher was an entirely innocent victim, and the worst part of this is that the man who raped and brutally murdered her is serving only 16 years, and her family has been led by incompetent prosecutors and investigators to believe that so-called “accomplices” have gotten away with it.
^^^This!!! but I think the most important thing is that justice/law/police work/jury selection/prosecutorial standards are not conducted by universally agreed upon standards. Cultural relativism AND ethnocentrism for sure.
I’m with you. And if you think people can’t be coerced into confessions or blaming other people watch 20/20 stories, etc. It’s frightening. One man confessed to killing his little girl. She had been abducted in the middle of the night and unrefuted evidence later turned up with DNA on the rape and the criminal who did it, how she was abducted from the house in the middle of the night, and the man was eventually convicted. But all those years an entire town turned on the father and mother. Many stories like this when put in an interrogation room with unrelenting questioning nonstop for hours upon hours.
What is sickening is the guy who did it will get out in a relatively few years for a murder.
Well said Kate.
+1000. As another American who loves Italy and lived there, this case makes me so sad. There was NO forensic evidence that said Knox or her bf were involved in the murder, only Rudy’s DNA was at the crime scene. I have a Masters in Criminology now, and the videos of the so-called forensic “experts” handling the evidence makes me ill. I feel for Meredith’s family, but they backed a lying, incompetent prosecutor who has been proven to have lied in this case and others. Just a horrible situation all around.
What do you all make of the cell phone evidence? Curious since everyone on here seems to think she is innocent. http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=7131195
(Not saying she isn’t innocent. Just curious for opinions since I am not too familiar with the case.)
This was incomplete evidence (and leaked, to boot). With more investigation, phone and computer records corroborated Amanda and Raffaele’s stories.
Raffaele Sollecito’s computer had a remote control which was used to pause the movie Amelie. If the remote is used it doesn’t register as a human interaction. With further investigation, it was shown that he did, in fact, use his computer was used when he said. The last action was watching a file for 23 minutes beginning at 21:26.
In terms of phone communication, Raffaele was shown to called (or be called by) his father at 20:42. The conversation lasted 3.5 minutes.
The calling pattern was not unusual for Amanda; that was a reporter being lazy, since the prosecutor did say it was unusual for Raffaele not to use his phone late at night. However, this was before it was proven that he had spoken to his father a little before 11, as he had originally said.
The man who did the killing is in prison, Rudy Guede, DNA evidence put him there.
However, the thing that has always bugged me about these 2 is how often their stories changed, even after they were released. Wasn’t it recently that Rafael admitted that Amanda wasn’t with him most of the night. That alone will make people continue to ask questions about their honesty and will only add to the feeling of ‘no justice’ to Meredith’s family. If you can’t keep ur story straight then what else are you not being honest about. And yes i am fully aware of how long they were held and questioned for but it changed during each trial and since they’ve been released.
Odd behaviour doesn’t make you a killer but if you’re a witness/suspect in a murder investigation its going to put a spotlight on you.
Raffaele got a really rotten deal. He tried to be a good Italian citizen and stayed, having faith in his justice system, which then tried to put him away again. Why do you think he changed his story after all these years, when she was gone and out of the Italian justice system’s reach?
I don’t know if she’s a killer or not, as I’ve never been able to make sense of this circus. But she’s very pretty. She must have got a good stylist. No matter what was said about Amanda or what horrible rumors would be swirling, she would always show up on those interviews pulled together and so pretty. She’s either innocent and an incredibly strong individual — or she’s one heck of a liar.
She was a few years behind me at our high school, and I have some other social ties to her, so my family and I have followed her case very closely. The documentary about her trial and the TERRIFYING Italian prosecutor paint a pretty good portrait of what she went through. I agree her behavior after her arrest and throughout the investigation was odd and I feel most law enforcement would have taken a closer look at her involvement upon seeing that, but that was literally all they had against her. Everything else was circumstantial at best, and the case would have been laughable if it has not resulted in the wrongful imprisonment of a young girl who had was subjected to physical and mental abuse and kept from her family for years.
I am happy for her and wish her the best.
I am so sad for Meredith’s family and friends. The incompetence of the investigation and of the prosecutor created a situation where they wrongly blamed Amanda, and they may never believe in her innocence. This statement by Italy’s highest court absolutely exonerates her and calls out their own police and prosecutor for mishandling the case and railroading Amanda in light of no credible evidence. I hope Meredith’s family is now able to have the closure they deserve. Both her family and Amanda’s family have been victimized by how this was handled.
This. They will never get justice. And they are so often overlooked even today.
Well, her killer is jailed, is that not justice? And everybody brings them up, I don’t think they are forgotten.
I hope Knox sues and wins, only way a lot of people will finally believe her and stop saying ” no smoke without fire” .
The Italian police and prosecutor botched everything so we’ll never know what really happened. I get that there is no physical evidence to prove Knox is guilty of Kercher’s murder, but I still beleive she was involved. I do not beleive Guege dragged them into his crime for a lesser sentence. I beleive he’s telling the truth. I have always wanted Knox to take a lie detector test administered by the FBI, but she won’t do it. She only took a lie detector test performed by a company hired by her family. I call BS!
Lie detector tests are inadmissible in court for a reason. She could take a million of them and it wouldn’t matter one whit.
Really? You don’t think that the kind of guy who would rape and murder a woman in cold blood would try to drag anyone he could in to try to save his own skin? Or do you think it’s more likely that Amanda Knox convinced her brand new boyfriend to pick up a creepy drifter and have a satanic orgy, and then killed Meredith when she wouldn’t go along?
There are much better things for the FBI to do with their time.
+1. I don’t think a murderer would have any qualms implicating his own mother, let alone two strangers, to get out of jail early.
I remember reading Rudy is already getting some work release from prison. He got an insanely reduced prison term for saying they were there. He knew they had his DNA and that he was going down anyway. May as well make the best of his bad situation.
I am suffering from jet lag today, seriously feel like someone has been sitting on my face all day (though I may be getting sick who knows). When your mind is sleep deprived and confused it goes weird places and you do or say things that seem odd. I have been struggling not to seem like a total weirdo at work that’s how jet lagged I am. If the Italian police was seriously questioning Amanda from 10 pm to 6:30 am (like what the hell?) I could see why her behavior seemed odd. Have any of you ever lived in a foreign country in which the main language is not your own? I have (two years, not just your 3-4 month study abroad thing) and it can be exhausting. I don’t know if Amanda is guilty or not but the conditions of her interrogation were appalling and not sure if they would have been admissible in a US court.
But they weren’t questioning her for that long. The interview was two hours at max, with just one police most of the time. She had an interpreter, who later worked during the trials. She was given food and drink. She accused the boss only after being told her boyfriend (in the other room being questioned) had said he lied at her behest. She then wrote it all up without being prompted to after a night’s rest. That’s why she was found guilty of calunnia and sentenced to three years in jail and ordered to paid Patrik, her boss, 50K euro (still outstanding). And that’s why she’s still on trial for aggravated calunnia, for writing this bs in her book and saying it in interviews, and possibly may have to serve more time. None of this is even disputed by her legal team.
id like to know how this chick continues to get boyfriend after boyfriend.
She has weird taste in men. Her latest guy is a professional ghostbuster. Yeah. You read that right.
I’ve followed this case from the start, and trust me, she knows more than she has said. She has engaged a massive PR machine and without it, she would still be in jail.
(1) There was possible but not proven contamination at the house, but even this latest judgement ruling states that she was probably washing her hands of Kercher’s blood, in explanation of the bloodstained bathroom (where Knox and Kercher’s blood was mixed – this is not even disputed by Knox’s legal people at trial).
(2) The double DNA knife at Sollecito’s apartment didn’t have any contamination controversy, but there was just one single cell of Kercher’s on it, along with plenty of Knox’s DNA. Sollecito was caught in a lie about pricking Kercher, which he later admitted.
(3) Too much circumstantial and behavioural evidence, including the staged break-in, mobile phone records proving Knox and Sollecito lied about their whereabouts, and of course, the false accusation of the boss, for which she’s undergoing another calunnia trial for the lies about 50-hour interrogations et cetera. This high court judgement has just said that will go ahead as there wasn’t sufficient duress to have caused her to lie and accuse another. All the facts point to her guilt, but higher legal standards have been applied because of the diplomatic implications.
My two cents? The Italians wanted to avoid a messy extradition/diplomatic fight. Read Nencini’s translated report if you’re interested. That’s the best ruling and Massei’s is also worth a read. This case is about the power of PR, not really about guilt, innocence, or the crazy Italians.
1) Why was Amanda’s blood mixed in with Meredith’s? It was never reported that Amanda had any open wounds – it surely would have been noted as it would back up the theory that Amanda had been there in the violent struggle.
2) The knife had too few DNA cells for a genuine test to be done that would be acceptable for use in a trial…
3) The phone and laptop stuff can be explained easily enough
1) Technically the courts didn’t want to speculate on whether in fact it was mixed blood, but the DNA levels, nearly equal in at least one bathrooms sample, indicate that Knox blood had mingled with Kercher’s blood. The Massei court just played it safe and said it was mixed DNA with Kercher’s blood. There was also at least one solo Knox blood stain in the bathroom (I think it was on the tap). Knox testified herself there hadn’t been blood the day before, and she claimed it was pierced earrings. Her mum said it was menstrual bloody.
Where did it come from? One of the flatmates testified she saw a little gash on Knox’s neck in the days immediately following the murder. Knox testified it was a love bite. The flatmate said it looked nothing like a love bite and was clearly an injury of some sort. You can google the image yourself; the Perugia police took a photo after the flatmate was interviewed about it, and the healed cut looks like a cut, not a love bite. My hypothesis is that Knox sustained arm and at least one neck cuts when Kercher, who had a brown or black belt, fought back. Things then escalated from there and because they were high on drugs, it got out of hand.
2) There was one single cell of Kerchers, but there are no strict international standards as to how many times or how much you need to repeat this type of test for trials. Stefanoni, the police scientist who conducted the test, has a solid background.
3) To save time, I’ll just direct you to a summary of the evidence at the murder of meredith kercher dot com. Click on “evidence list.” All evidence taken directly from the court documents and sources clearly footnoted. My personal favourite go-to site for this particular true crime story. You can download the judges’ reports there too.
awesome Nude!!!
I’ve read convincing narrative and details from many sides of this case. I don’t know whose take on the alleged facts is accurate. I’m also unclear why Amanda continues to offer new or changing details. The single fact that seems to be agreed upon is that Meredith’s murderer is behind bars. Amanda had a role or she didn’t. I don’t know and although I find the diverse opinions credible, they are still just opinions. The only thing I do know, is that I’d never want to live with her. And my heart goes out to Meredith’s family.
The tin foil hats are out in force today! She’s guilty.
Tinfoil hats? The courts are now saying they screwed up. The tinfoil hat crew would be the ones who believe “satanic sex game gone wrong,” and keep citing botched evidence as legit, come on now.
Well, Mignini, the prosecutor credited with the sex game theory, has been off the case for a number of years now. He had little power and actually, the sex game theory is not even bothered with in any of the judgements. He was just one of many prosecutors working on this case. The Knox PR machine has focused on him because he’s so eccentric and obviously a bit out there. But he’s been off the case since the Nencini trial. Note that there were dozens of judges (30 plus) who ruled on pre-trial issues, including there being enough evidence to go to trial and to keep Knox and Sollecito in jail during the trials. Prosecutors have little power except to put forward a case. The judges and jury members are the ones that have the final say.
Secondly, this judgement is actually not a statement of innocence. It confirms the aggravated calunnia trial will go ahead, states that Sollecito and Knox were at the house that night, and that the presence of DNA/blood in the bathroom was probably because Knox was washing her hands of Kercher’s blood. It condemns the quality of the police work but is not a declaration of innocence.