text:
Category: Florence 2014+
Monday, October 03, 2016
Netflixhoax 7: Omitted - How Knox Lied Repeatedly To Florence Court She Was Too Scared To Attend
Posted by The TJMK Main Posters
Netflix's Amanda Knox is an extreme example of misleading bias by cherrypicking. This post is another in our ongoing series, the mothership for material for this media-friendly page online soon.
1. Many false claims in the film
NONE of the false claims by speakers were rebutted. Not one, by the Knox PR team moonlighting as serious directors and producers.
The producers' bizarre technique was to place Knox, Sollecito, Conti & Vecchiotti in front of a camera and then to let them lie unchecked as they did repeatedly throughout the 90 minute film.
For example, Knox makes a very shrill claim in the film that she was repeatedly hit and forced into a "confession" by angry and abusive cops.
In fact she wasnt hit by anyone, except by herself. There was not even an interrogation that night - only the building of a list of names with a couple of kind cops.
Her own lawyers confirmed she was not hit, and they never filed a complaint. They publicly pleaded that she stop making things up. The movie never tells us this, never ever challenges Knox. We'll return to this false claim in depth.
For balance, how many Italian justice officials do you suppose the PR team invited to represent the huge team of police, prosecutors and judges, and all of the witnesses, and the huge body of evidence? And to rebut Knox' claims? After, all she was accusing his staff of crimes.
Precisely one. Dr Mignini. That was it.
He was not even told of the accusations of crimes from Knox. Instead he was asked to address only childish touchy-feely questions which no Italian journalist would ever dream of addressing to a highly trained prosecutor or judge. Dr Mignini is a regular on Italian TV explaining serious legal issues of some complexity, and is a master at it.
2. Lies previously reported and rebutted
We have so far rebutted seven false claims made by the team in the media or in the film in the previous posts here..
(1) That Knox was found innocent by the Fifth Chambers and fully exonerated or exculpated. No she wasnt. She was confirmed as being at the scene at the time with blood on her hands based on copious evidence, and any trial or appeal court which normally handles murders (the Fifth Chambers does not) would have insisted the Nencini verdict should stand. She remains guilty for life of calunnia and she still owes Patrick his award. Research anyone?
(2) That Dr Mignini hoodwinked the Justice system some way in a supposed pursuit of Amanda Knox although 30-plus judges in fact guided the judicial process - in Italian justice they and not prosecutors are the equivalent of American district attorneys. Raffaele Sollecito is conveniently not accounted for in this conspiracy theory, although with the possible exception of Patrick Lumumba's lawyer, Sollecito's words for Knox were the harshest, and his anger rattled on for years. Research anyone?
(3) That Dr Mignini pursued this because he had been convicted, although the conviction, by a rogue prosecutor and rogue judge in Florence with murky connections, had been annulled (in effect deleted; no record) by an appeal court and that confirmed by a strident Supreme Court ruling more than three years prior to the Netflix movie. Research anyone?
(4) That Dr Mignini had consulted a psychic, though it was widely known for many years that he had done no such thing and had written to Corriere at length refuting this more than three years prior to the Netflix movie. Research anyone?
(5) That Dr Mignini holds satanic and sex-orgy theories in this and other cases. No he does not. He has been on national TV pushing satanic theories back and saying they are few. The satanic theory of the Monster of Florence case goes back over a decade before he was requested to check an arm of the case. Knox and Sollecito and Guede were all convicted of murder with a sex-crime element, read all the judges reports prior to trial, all agreed an attack with a sexual aspect was what the evidence said. Research anyone?
(6) That the Italian justice system is somehow a dangerous error-prone joke (widely accepted as gospel by the movie's reviewers) though in fact it is one of the most careful systems in the world and unlike the American system (with which it links extensively) never ever sees a false conviction standing by the end of the exhaustive appeals process. Research anyone?
(7) That the release of a provisional positive HIV finding for Knox and a list she created of her recent sex partners was a malicious act by prison staff or prosecutors, though they released precisely NOTHING and it was the Knox defense team that was fervently distributing those materials (of considerable damage to Knox's public perception). Research anyone?
3. Starting to address Knox's lies
Much of what Knox says in the movie is untrue. That is not unusual. She consistently lies in all her interviews. She also consistently tries to damage people.
In her book alone we have counted several lies on each page, close to 1000, and about 100 instances of defamations, lies intended to create real damage.
We are going to post separately on each of Knox's most sweeping and most self-serving lies. Here, we give several dozen examples of lies repeatedly refuted, some of which are in the movie.
The Knox PR team moonlighting as serious directors and producers claim that they devoted SIX YEARS to getting their movie right. They could have found these rebuttals and read them all in a day or two if an honest movie was what they wanted to make.
Perhaps they were simply uncaring of the truth, lost in the complexities of the case, and uncaring of who they damaged, including the real victim's family, and of what portrait they offered of Italy and Italian justice and its officers, however damaging and vile and untrue.
Or perhaps they were already deeply corrupted, and crazed at the prospect of fame and future career prospects and bloodmoney. If so, they are in unsavory company.
4. Knox's lies to Italy (#1) rebutted
Knox does not often get the opportunity to lie on a grand scale to Italians. Just as well for her as the negative reaction is opposite and immediate.
Italians followed the trial in real-time witnessed a strident contemptuous sharp-tongued "Terminator Knox" on the witness stand for two days at trial, resulting in this sarcastic reaction and this sarcastic reaction.
"Daffy Knox" and "Terminator Knox" who forever sought media attention at trial in 2009 were retired from 2010 onward in favor of "Whiny Victim Knox".
In 2013 Knox was too timid to return for her own Florence appeal presided over by Judge Nencini, but not too timid to send him a massively self-infatuated email containing some of the same lies Knox repeats in the movie. Here they all are, easily rebutted by Finn MacCool in Dec 2013. Research anyone?
[By Finn MacCool] You can read here the email Amanda Knox sent to Judge Nencini.
It is dated 15 December 2013 and was handed to Dr Nencini by Dr Ghirga, apparently to the disdain of both of them. It contains many statements which, if she were under oath, could be considered perjury.
One telling point is that she claims "I am not present in the courtroom because I am afraid." Her co-defendant, Raffaele Sollecito, was not so afraid and he did present himself at an earlier stage of the proceedings.
He made a spontaneous statement and the judge assured him that he should feel free to intervene and make further interventions whenever he wished. So far he hasn't wished to - he preferred to head back to the Caribbean for his holiday.
But that event and that presence by Sollecito completely undermine the credibility of Knox's claim that she feels afraid of the court proceedings. There would be nothing to stop her coming and going, at this stage, just as Sollecito did.
I have no doubt that my lawyers have explained and demonstrated the important facts of this case that prove my innocence and discredit the unjustified accusations of the prosecution and civil parties.
That's what her lawyers were about to try to do. But instead they had to hand this email to the judge, showing their client's complete contempt for the court process.
I seek not to supplant their work
She doesn't want to supplant the work of her own lawyers? Most defendants don't, nor do they feel the need to tell the court that using an archaic seventeenth-century grammatical construction (where modern English would have "I do not mean to…" or "I do not wish to"¦")
Because I am not present to take part in [my own appeal], I feel compelled to share.
As Judge Nencini said, if anyone wants to talk to a court, come to court. Knox chose not to be present, which means that the word "because" is not a logical connector for why she feels compelled to share what she thinks. "Even though" would make more sense.
The Court has access to my previous declarations and I trust will review them…
The court has access to thousands of pages. Everybody trusts that courts will review the evidence before passing judgment "" that's how the legal process works.
I must repeat: I am innocent.
In fact she does not have to repeat that, which is simply a reiteration of her not guilty plea.
I am not present in the courtroom because I am afraid.
The wording is reminiscent of a previous declaration, "I am very afraid of Patrik, the African boy who…" Also the court may remember the presence of her co-defendant, who made a brief presentation to the court (and was invited to intervene again at any time he saw fit) and who afterwards flew back to his extended vacation in the Dominican Republic. It is difficult to see what the defendants have to be afraid of from the court, except perhaps the truth.
I am afraid that the prosecution's vehemence will leave an impression on you, that their smoke and mirrors will blind you.
The prosecution's case has already been made; this was the opportunity for the defense to make their case. It is the court's duty to consider the evidence without being overly swayed by the vehemence of lawyers from either side "" they look at the facts, and pass judgment based on that, and this happens in literally millions of cases every year. (Cassazione alone reviews more than 80 thousand cases each year.)
This is not for lack of faith in your powers of discernment, but because the prosecution has succeeded before in convincing a perfectly sound court of concerned and discerning adults to convict innocent people "" Raffaele and me.
The second half of the sentence contradicts the first. The writer is explicitly stating that she doubts that the court has sufficient powers of discernment to be able to see through the prosecution's arguments. Her justification for saying this is simply that it has happened before, with a previous court.
I've attentively followed this process and gleaned the following facts…
This is a delusional statement. The writer is the defendant, who is the subject of the process, not an external observer to it. We can compare it with her statements following her arrest, in which she claimed still to be helping the police on an equal basis with them, despite being charged with the murder.
No physical evidence places me in Meredith's bedroom, the scene of the crime…
The bedroom is where the murder took place, but the crime scene is much wider than that, and certainly encompasses the adjoining room where the burglary was faked, the bathroom where the killers cleaned up, and the corridor that connects those rooms. Knox's blood, DNA, bare footprints are all found in those places. Within Meredith's room itself, there is also a woman's shoeprint that does not match the victim, and which Knox's own lawyer was obliged to claim was caused by an unfortunate fold in the pillowcase.
Meredith's murderer left ample evidence in the brutal scenario: handprints, footprints, shoe prints in Meredith's blood, DNA in her purse, on her clothing, in her body.
The term "brutal scenario" makes no sense here, although she repeats it again a couple of lines later. Perhaps she means "crime scene" or "bedroom". The only footprints found at the crime scene are those of Knox and Sollecito. A woman's shoeprint in the room where the murder took place cannot be that of either Guede or the victim, and is most likely that of Knox.
The prosecution has failed to explain how I could have… been the one to fatally wound Meredith "" without leaving any genetic trace of myself. That is because it is impossible.
Actually it is perfectly possible to do this "" for example, simply by stabbing someone to death while wearing gloves. However, in this case the prosecution has in fact explained how several traces of Knox's DNA have been found on the handle of the knife which had the victim's DNA on the blade. That obviously fits a scenario in which Knox stabbed Meredith Kercher with that knife.
Either I was there, or I wasn't.
The same thing applies to the appeal court. Either the defendants are there, or they are not. In this case, the defendant is not.
The analysis of the crime scene answers this question: I wasn't there.
Knox's footprints, blood and DNA, sometimes mixed with that of the victim, all place her at the crime scene, and so does her DNA on the handle of the murder weapon.
My interrogation was illegal and produced a false "confession" that demonstrated my non-knowledge of the crime.
"Non-knowledge" is a curious word. Knox's witness interview was perfectly legal "" it was only the unexpected confession from the witness that changed the status of that interview, so that its contents could no longer be used against her. But there is no question over its legality.
The subsequent memoriali, for which I was wrongfully found guilty of slander…
This is an extraordinary aside. The defendant is here rejecting the legitimacy of the Italian Supreme Court, which has definitively found against her, and is also rejecting the findings of the Hellmann court that provisionally freed her, pending appeal. Every single court has found against her on this count.
. ...did not further accuse but rather recanted that false "confession".
Let us reread some excerpts from this supposed recantation: "After dinner I noticed there was blood on Raffaele's hand… I stand by my statements that I made last night about events that could have taken place in my home with Patrik… In these flashbacks I'm having, I see Patrik as the murderer…Why did I think of Patrik?... Is there any other evidence condemning Patrik or any other person?" This is not a recantation, and it does in fact contain further accusations of Patrick Lumumba while also seeking to throw suspicion both on Sollecito and an unnamed "other person".
My behavior after the discovery of the murder indicates my innocence.
As dozens of witnesses have testified in a series of trials and appeals, Knox's post-murder behavior indicated the exact opposite, which is why suspicion fell on her in the first place.
I did not flee Italy when I had the chance.
On page 71 of her memoir, Knox recounts the following exchange with Officer Ficarra, on the day after the murder was discovered: "My parents want me to go to Germany to stay with relatives for a couple of weeks. Is that okay?" She said, "You can't leave Perugia. You're an important part of the investigation."
I stayed in Perugia and was at the police's beck and call for over 50 hours in four days.
Chapter Ten of her memoir gives her own account of what she did on Monday, November 5th. She went to a nine o'clock grammar class, at which she refused to discuss the case with her fellow students; she spoke on the phone with her Aunt Dolly, admitting that she had not yet contacted the US embassy; she bumped into Patrick Lumumba where she refused to talk to BBC reporters; she spent the afternoon with Sollecito and then accompanied him to a friend's house where she played the ukulele. Far from being at the police's beck and call, she ignored their request that she stay home while they interview Sollecito separately, and turned up to the Questura regardless, although not before they had finished their evening meal.
The police coerced me into signing a false "confession""¦.
Her false accusation of Patrick Lumumba, for which she was convicted and has already served four years in prison, was not a confession and was not coerced.
. "¦one may be coerced into giving a false "confession" because of psychological torture"¦ This is a universal problem.
The US-based Innocence Project reports that there have been 244 exonerations since 2000, which is just over seventeen per year, which in turn means that currently in the USA, roughly 0.1% of cases are eventually overturned. Being wrongfully convicted might be devastating for the person concerned, but it is not a universal problem.
I did not carry around Raffaele's kitchen knife.
The defendant has not been accused of carrying the knife around, but rather of stabbing Meredith Kercher to death with it. Forensic evidence supports that accusation, too.
I had no contact with Rudy Guede. Like many youth in Perugia, I had once crossed paths with Rudy Guede.
Very typical of Knox's writing is this kind of self-contradiction, sometimes occurring within the same sentence, or as in this case, in consecutive sentences, seemingly with no self-awareness that any contradiction has even occurred.
If the prosecution truly had a case against me, there would be no need for these theatrics.
The prosecution is present in the court, having made its presentation in the usual way. The defense lawyers are about to do exactly the same thing. The only theatrics happening in the court at that moment is a bizarre email sent by one of the defendants, in lieu of attending her own appeal to her own murder conviction.
But because no evidence exists that proves my guilt, the prosecution would seek to deceive you with these impassioned, but completely inaccurate and unjustified pronouncements.
No further comments… [End Finn MacCool]
5. Knox's lies to Italy (#2) rebutted
The Italian weekly magazine Oggi is actually on trial for contempt of court for translating and republishing some of the numerous lies and defamations in Knox's book Waiting To Be Heard. This is the article with offending Knox quotes in bold, and below our own rebuttal. Research anyone?
Amanda Knox: The American girl's sensational story
Chilling. No other adjectives come to mind after having read Waiting to be Heard, finally released in the United States. An extremely detailed and very serious charge against the police and magistrates who conducted the investigation into the murder of Meredith Kercher.
Immediately after the crime, Amanda recounts, and for entire days and nights, they had interrogated the American girl and placed her under pressure to make her confess to a non-existent truth, without officially investigating her, denying her the assistance of a lawyer, telling her lies, even prohibiting her from going to the bathroom and giving her smacks so as to make her sign a confession clearly extorted with something similar to torture.
And now the situation is very simple. There are only two choices: either Amanda is writing lies, and as a consequence the police officers and magistrates are going to have to sue her for defamation; or else she is telling the truth, and so they are going to have to go, not without being sanctioned by the CSM [the magistrates' governing body] and the top brass of the Police. The third possibility, which is to pretend that nothing has happened, would be shameful for the credibility of our judicial system.
Amanda Knox has written her Waiting to be Heard memoir with the sense of revulsion and of relief of someone who has escaped by a hair's breadth from a legal disaster, but has got her sums wrong. Cassation has decided that the [appeal] proceedings have to be redone and the hearings should be (re)commencing in October before the Florence Court of Appeal.
In a USA Today interview, Ms Knox has not excluded the possibility of "returning to Italy to face this battle too", but it would be a suicidal decision: it's likely that the appeal will result in a conviction, and the Seattle girl will end up in the black hole from which she has already spent 1,427 days.
In this way Waiting to be Heard risks being the "film" on which Amanda's last words are recorded about the Mystery of Perugia, her definitive version.
We have read a review copy. And we were dumbfounded. Waiting to be Heard is a diary that has the frenetic pace of a thriller, written in a dry prose (behind the scenes is the hand of Linda Kulman, a journalist at the Huffington Post), even "promoted" by Michiko Kakutani, long-time literary critic at the New York Times.
The most interesting part does not concern the Raffaele Sollecito love story (which Amanda reduces it to puppy love: "With the feeling, in hindsight, I knew that he… that we were still immature, more in love with love than with each other"), and whoever goes looking for salacious details about the three Italian boys Amanda had casual sex with, one night stands, will be frustrated (Ms Knox describes those enounters with the nonchalance of an entomologist disappointed with his experiments: "We undressed, we had sex, I got dressed again with a sense of emptiness").
There are no scoops about the night of the murder and even the many vicissitudes endured during the 34,248 hours spent in Capanne prison "" the [claimed] sexual molestations suffered under two guards, the unexpected kiss planted by a bisexual cellmate, the threats made by another two prisoners "" remain on the backdrop, like colourful notations.
Because what is striking and upsetting, in the book, is the minute descriptions, based on her own diaries, on the case documents and on a prodigious memory, of how Ms Knox had been incriminated (or "nailed").
COME IN KAFKA. A Kafkian account in which the extraordinary naivety of Amanda (the word naïve, ingénue, is the one which recurs most often in the 457 pages of the book) mixes with the strepitous wickedness of the investigators decided on "following a cold and irrational trail because they had nothing better in hand".
Devour the first 14 chapters and ask yourself: is it possible that the Police and Italian justice work with such incompetence, ferocity, and disdain for the truth? You place yourself in her situation and you scare yourself: If it happened to me? You're in two minds: is it a likely accusation, or a squalid calumny, the version of Amanda?
Because in reading it you discover that in the four days following the discovery of Meredith Kercher's body (on 2 November 2007), Amanda was interrogated continuously, and without the least of procedural guarantees [=due process].
She changes status from witness to suspect without being aware of it." No one had told me my rights, no one had told me that I could remain silent", she writes. When she asked if she had the right to a lawyer, the Public Prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, had responded like this: "No, no, that will only worsen things: it would mean that you don't want to help us". Thus, the Public Prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini.
For a long period of time, Ms Knox, who at the time spoke and understood hardly any Italian at all, mistook him for the Mayor of Perugia, come to the police station to help her.
Then, with the passage of time and of the pages, the assessment changes: Mignini is a prosecutor "with a bizarre past", investigated for abuse of office (he was convicted at first instance, but Cassation annulled the verdict on the grounds of lack of jurisdiction: the case will be held in Torino "" ndr) and with the hunger to fabricate "strange stories to solve his cases".
Mignini "is a madman who considers his career more important than my liberty or the truth about the killing of Meredith". On the phone, the Perugian prosecutor reacts with aplomb: "First I will read the book and then I will consider it. Certainly, if it really calls me "˜mad' or worse, I think I will file suit".
BEING IN PRISON IS LIKE CAMPING Amanda goes looking. When the officers mysteriously bring her along to the crime scene inspection of the apartment below the one in which she and Meredith were living in, Ms Knox put on the shoe protectors and the white forensics gloves and called out Ta-dah! spreading her arms "as if I was at the start of a musical: I wanted to appear helpful".
When they dragged her in handcuffs into Capanne Prison, she believed what the Police would have told her, and that was they would hide her for a couple of days to protect her (from the true killer, one presumes) and for unspecified bureaucratic reasons. "In my head I was camping: "˜This won't last more than a week in the mountains', I told myself," writes Amanda.
They take her money off her, and her credit cards, licence and passport, and she draws strength from repeating to herself that "surely they're not going to give me a uniform, seeing that I'm a special case and that I'll be here for only a little while".
But it's the account of the notorious interrogation that takes the breath away. Around ten in the evening on her last day of freedom, Ms Knox accompanies Raffaele to the police station (he was called in, also without a lawyer, by the Police) and is thrown into a nightmare which she populates with many faces: there is Officer Rita Ficcara, who gives her two cuffs on the head ("To help you remember," she would say); there's another officer who advises her: "If you don't help us, you'll end up in prison for 30 years"; Mignini arrives and advises her not to call a lawyer; super-policewoman Monica Napoleoni dives in and bluffs: "Sollecito has dropped your alibi: he says that on the night of the murder you had left his apartment and that you had told him to lie to "˜cover you'".
And a crescendo of yelling and intimidations that lasts from 11 at night until 5.45 in the morning. Seven hours "produce" two confessions that, exactly because they are made without a defence lawyer, cannot be used in the proceedings, but forever after "stain" the image of the accused Knox: Amanda places herself at the scene of the crime and accuses Patrick Lumumba.
RAFFAELE CONFIRMS THE ACCUSATIONS An account of the horror is confirmed by Sollecito in his memoir, Honor Bound, Raffaele writes of having heard "the police yelling at Amanda and then the cries and sobs of my girl, who was yelling "˜Help!' in Italian in the other room", and of having being threatened in his turn ("If you try to get up and go, I'll punch you till you'll bleed and I'll kill you. I'll leave you in a pool of blood", another officer had whispered to him).
Published lines which have passed right under the radar of the Perugian investigators: "No legal action [against the interrogators] has been notified to us," Franco Sollecito, Raffaele's dad, tell us. For having recounted the sourness of her interrogation in court, Amanda was investigated for calunnia: the trial will take place in Florence. This one, too, will be a circumstantial case: it's the word of two young people against that of the public prosecutor and the police.
The recording of the interrogation would have unveiled which side the truth stands on. But it has gone missing.
Our own rebuttals:
- Knox was NOT interrogated for days and nights. She was put under no pressure in her brief witness interviews except possibly by Sollecito who had just called their latest alibi "a pack of lies".
- Knox WAS officially investigated in depth, after she surprisingly "confessed" and placed herself and Patrick at the scene. Prior to that she'd been interviewed less than various others, who each had one consistent alibi.
- Knox herself pushed to make all three statements without a lawyer on the night of 5-6 November 2007 in which she claimed she went out from Sollecito's house, met Patrick, and witnessed him killing Meredith.
- Far from Knox being denied a lawyer, discussions were stopped before the first statement and not resumed, in the later hearing she was formally warned she needed one; she signed a confirmation of this in front of witnesses.
- Prosecutor Mignini who Knox accuses of telling her a lawyer would hurt her prospects when she claims she asked for one was not even in the police station at that interview; he was at home.
- She was not prohibited from going to the bathroom. At trial, she testified she was treated well and was frequently offered refreshments. Her lawyers confirmed this was so.
- She was not given smacks by anyone, though she did repeatedly smack her own head. Over a dozen witnesses testified that she was treated well, broke into a conniption spontaneously, and thereafter her talking was hard to stop.
- There is no evidence whatsoever that Knox was subject to "something similar to torture" and as mentioned above only Sollecito applied any pressure, not any of the police.
- There is nothing "suicidal" about returning to Italy to defend herself at the new appeal. Sollecito did. She risks an international arrest warrant and extradition if she doesn't.
- There is no proof except for her own claims of sexual molestations in prison; she is a known serial liar; and she stands out for an extreme willingness to talk and write about sex.
- Many people have testified she was treated well in prison: her own lawyers, a member of parliament, and visitors from the US Embassy were among them; she herself wrote that it was okay.
- She may have based her account on her diaries and "prodigious memory" but the obviously false accusation against the prosecutor suggests that much of the book was made up.
- The investigators had a great deal of evidence against Knox in hand, not nothing, and they were not ever faulted for any action; they helped to put on a formidable case at trial in 2009.
- "Police and Italian justice work with such incompetence, ferocity, and disdain for the truth" is contradicted by a very complete record prior to trial which was praised by the Supreme Court.
- Mr Mignini has NO bizarre past at all. He is widely known to be careful and fair. He would not have been just promoted to first Deputy Prosecutor General of Umbria otherwise.
- He was put on trial by a rogue prosecutor desperate to protect his own back from Mignini's investigations; the Supreme Court has killed the trumped up case dead.
- There was nothing "mysterious" about Knox being taken to the crime scene to see if any knives were gone, but her wailing panic when she saw the knives was really "mysterious".
- Knox never thought she was in prison for her own protection; she had signed an agreement at the 5:00 am interview confirming she did know why she was being held.
- Monica Napoleoni did not "bluff" that Sollecito had just trashed their joint alibi; he actually did so, because his phone records incriminated him; he agreed to that in writing.
- There was no crescendo of "yelling and intimidations that lasts from 11 at night until 5.45". There were two relatively brief sessions. Knox did most of the talking, named seven possible perps, and drew maps.
- There was zero legal requirement to record the recap/summary interview, no recording has "gone missing" and many officers present testified to a single "truth" about what happened.
6. Coming up In Our Next Posts
More of the same. Knox blowing smoke and our exposing her. Some of the same smoke she blew for Netflix. And also, our lies of omission seies.
Friday, June 26, 2015
What No-Show Amanda Knox SHOULD Have Emailed Judge Nencini As Truthful Testimony in December 2013
Posted by Chimera
As the real thing really didnt work any better for Knox…
As is well known, Amanda Knox refused to attend her own appeal in Florence in 2013/2014.
This was a defence appeal by Knox herself and Sollecito against the 2009 conviction by Judge Giancarlo Massei's trial court. It was not a new trial, or a retrial, or even a prosecution appeal. It was an appeal DEMANDED by Knox and Sollecito.
While Knox refused to attend, she did send a long, rambling email to Lead Judge Nencini. Judge Nencini tartly read out the email in court, and remarked that she could have delivered this in person and answered questions if she wanted it credibly on the record - after all, Sollecito was sitting right there and not scared out of his wits.
Kudos to fellow main posters Finn MacCool and SeekingUnderstanding for their original and well done posts on this ''submission''
With a bit of fact checking, Knox's email could have looked to the court and the media more like this. Enjoy.
Court of Appeals of Florence section II Assise Proc. Pen, 11113
Letter sent to attorneys Carlo Dalla Vedova and Luciano Ghirga via email Seattle, 15 December 2013
Attn: Honorable Court of Appeals of Florence
1. I have no doubt that my lawyers have explained and demonstrated the important facts of this case that prove my innocence and discredit the unjustified accusations of the prosecution and civil parties. I seek not to supplant their work; rather, even though I am not present to take part in this current phase of the judicial process, I feel compelled to share my own perspective as a six""year-long defendant and causation of Meredith's injustice.
2. The Court has access to my previous declarations, and please disregard that whole ''aggravated calunnia'' in which Cassation says i framed Patrick to divert attention, or that pending calunnia charge claiming I falsely accused the police to sabotage the court proceedings. I trust you will not be blinded by these things to come to this verdict. I must repeat: I am innocent. Because repeating it will help dissuade you from studying my lies too carefully.
3. According to my lawyers: I am not a murderer, I am not a rapist, I am not a thief or a plotter or an instigator, at least not until Cassation signs off on it. I did not kill Meredith or take part in her murder or have any prior or special knowledge of what occurred that night, (other than screaming, slit throat, and that the body was moved). I was not there for part of the time, and had nothing to do with it.
4. I am not present in the courtroom because I am afraid. Frederico Martini is probably still pissed that I gave him up; the court and jail officials don't like my book; and I think there is still an open warrant on me for calunnia. Also, without any employment or housing references, staying here may be tricky. I have faith in your judgement, but am worried you are so poor a judge you will be blinded my the Prosecution's vehemence. I remember Judge Micheli: he was the wise Judge who found Guede guilty; he was the idiot Judge who ordered Raffaele and I to stand trial as accomplices.
5. My life being on the line, at least until I get parole, and having with others already suffered too much, I've rehearsed this story and attentively followed this process and gleaned the following facts that have emerged from the development of this case that I beg you not to dismiss when making your judgement:
6. No physical evidence places me in Meredith "˜s bedroom, the scene of the crime, because I define only that as the crime scene. My DNA mixed with Meredith's was in the bathroom and Filomena's room, not Meredith's. Those bloody footprints cleaned away were in the hallway, not Meredith's room. Raffaele had one knife, and this other was at his flat, neither of which is Meredith's room. My lamp on Meredith's floor had no fingerprints on it, and does not implicate me. That DNA on Merdith's bra, and bloody footprint on the bathmat only implicates my alibi witness (who refuses to be questioned), not me. Those false alibis, false accusations, details I know about the crime, and phone records are not physical evidence, and did not happen in Meredith's bedroom. Those ''eyewitnesses'' the Prosecution produced are not forensic evidence, and do not place me in Meredith's room.
7. Meredith's murderer left ample evidence of his presence in the brutal scenario, we made sure of that. Heck, the police couldn't even find my fingerprints in my own bedroom.
8. No evidence places me in the same brutal scenario, again, which I restrict to Meredith's bedroom, and only actual physical evidence. The prosecution has failed to explain how—with these restrictions—I could have participated in the aggression and murder""to have been the one to fatally wound Meredith""without leaving any genetic trace of myself. Just because i spend a lot of time talking about it, and am a C.S.I. fan, doesn't mean I know how to remove evidence. That is because it is impossible. It is impossible to identify and destroy all genetic traces of myself in a crime scene and retain all genetic traces of another individual, or so C.S.I. has taught me. Either I was there, or I wasn't. My analysis of the crime scene answers this question: I wasn't there.
9. My interrogation was illegal and produced a false "confession" that demonstrated my non-knowledge of the crime- The subsequent memoriali, for which I was wrongfully found guilty of slander, did not further accuse but rather recanted that false "confession." Yes, I wrote out a false ''confession'' that accuses someone else. Just as I testified to the prosecutor in prison and to my family members in prison when our conversations were being recorded without my knowledge. Dammit, give me some privacy.
10. My behavior after the discovery of the murder indicates my innocence, if you think creatively enough. I did not flee Italy when I had the chance, because (in my November 4th email), the police wouldn't let me leave. I stayed in Perugia and was at the police's beck and call trying to think of answers for over 50 hours in four days, convinced that I could help them find the murderer, or at least someone who was ''close enough''. I never thought or imagined that repeatedly changing my story would fuel their suspicions. I did not hide myself or my feelings: when I needed sex, Rafael ''embraced'' me; when I was scared of being exposed, I cried; when I was angry that it wasn't working, I swore and made insensitive remarks; when I was shocked, I paced or sat in silence, at least until I could find a new ''best truth''; when I was trying to help, I evaded questions, consoled Meredith's friends, especially her male friends, and tried to keep a positive attitude that this would blow over.
11. Upon entering the questura I had no understanding of my legal position, accompanying Raffaele to a witness summary session which I was not invited to. 20""years old and alone in a foreign country, I was, legally speaking, innocent and never expected to be suspected and subjugated to torture, and I wasn't. I was told I was a witness, then after I placed myself at the crime scene I was told I was a suspect. I was questioned for a prolonged period in the middle of the night and in Italian, a language I barely knew, and that questioning includes the time I was sleeping or getting tea. I denied legal counsel- still The Court of Cassation deemed the interrogation and the statements produced from it was inadmissible. In my memoir, WTBH; I was lied to, yelled at, threatened, slapped twice on the back of the head. I told myself I had witnessed the murder and was suffering from amnesia. I told myself that if I didn't succeed in ''remembering'' what happened to Meredith that night, I would never see my family again. I browbeat myself into confusion and despair, to sell to the media at a later date. When you berate, intimidate, lie to, threaten, confuse, and coerce someone in believing they are wrong, you are not going to find the truth, but again, that is not what happened here.
12. The police used tea and kindness to coerce me into signing a false "confession" that was without sense and should never have been considered a legitimate investigative lead. In this fragmentary and confused statement the police identified Patrick Lumumba as the murderer because we had exchanged text messages, the meaning of which I let the police wrongfully interpret ("˜Civediamo piu tardi. Buona serata'). The statement lacked a clear sequence of events, corroboration with any physical evidence, and fundamental information like: how and why the murder took place, if anyone else was present or involved, what happened afterward""it supplied partial, contradictory information and as the investigators would discover a little later, when Patrick Lumumba's defense lawyer produced proof of him incontestable alibi, it was obviously inaccurate and unreliable. After over 50 hours of rehearsing the questioning over four days, I was mentally exhausted and I was confused.
13. This coerced and illegitimate statement, which I dreamed up, was used by the police to arrest and detain a clearly innocent man with an iron-clad alibi with whom I had a friendly professional relationship, (at least until I destroyed his life). This coerced and illegitimate statement was used to convict me of slander. Judge Hellmann saw that this statement was coerced, and threw out my calunnia conviction .... I mean he increased the sentence .... never mind.The prosecution and civil parties are accusing and blaming me, a result of their own overreaching.
14. Experience, case studies, and the law recognize that one may be coerced into giving a false"confession" because of torture. I'm not sure why this applies to my case, but damn, it sure sounds impressive.
15. This is a universal problem. According to the National Registry of Exoneration, in the United States 78% of wrongful murder convictions that are eventually overturned because of exonerating forensic evidence involved false "confessions." Almost 8 in 10 wrongfully convicted persons were coerced by police into implicating themselves and others in murder. I am not alone: Susan Smith and Casey Anthony ''falsely confessed'' that other people did it too. And exonerating forensic evidence is often as simple as no trace of the wrongfully convicted person at the scene of the crime, but rather the genetic and forensic traces of a different guilty party""just like every piece of forensic evidence identifies not me, but Rudy Guide.
16. In the brief time Meredith and I were roommates and friends we never fought. Roommates, not friends.
17. Meredith was my friend, not that I was her friend. She was kind to me, helpful, generous, fun, and in retrospect, I should have been more of the same. She never criticized me. She never gave me so much as a dirty look, even as I left the place a mess, and even when I flirted with her boyfriend, or she took my job at the bar.
18. But the prosecution claims that a rift was created between Meredith and I because of cleanliness. This is a distortion of the facts. Please refer to the testimonies of my housemaster and Meredith's British friends. None of them ever witnessed or heard about Meredith and I fighting, arguing, disliking each other. None of them ever claimed Meredith was a confrontational clean-freak, or I a confrontational slob. Laura Masotho testified that both Meredith and I only occasionally cleaned, whereas she and Filomena Romanelli were more concerned with cleanliness. Meredith's British friends testified that Meredith had once told them that she felt a little uncomfortable about finding the right words to kindly talk tome, her new roommate, about cleanliness in the bathroom we shared. The prosecution would have you believe this is motivation for murder. But this is a terrifying distortion of the facts, as proving motive it not necessary—anywhere.
19. I did not carry around Rafael's kitchen knife. That's what men are for, to do the lifting for me.
20. This claim by the prosecution, crucial to their theory, is uncorroborated by any physical evidence or witness testimony. I didn't fear the streets of Perugia and didn't need to carry around with me a large, cumbersome weapon which would have ripped my cloth book bag to shreds. My book bag showed no signs of having carried a bloody weapon. The claim that he would have insisted I carry a large chef's knife is not just senseless, but a disturbing indication of how willing the prosecution is to defy objectivity and reason in order to sustain a mistaken and disproven theory. Yes, i can positively disprove a theory I know nothing about.
21. It is yet another piece of invented "evidence", another circumstance of theory fabricated to order, because having discovered nothing else, the prosecution could only invent: phone records, false alibis, false statements, false accusations.
22. I had no Contact with Rudy Guide, even though I mention in my book having seen him twice, and a third time in the next paragraph.
23. Like many youth in Perugia, I had once crossed paths with Rudy Guide. He played basketball with the young men who lived in the apartment below us. Meredith and I had been introduced to him together. Perhaps I had seen him amongst the swarms of students who crowded the Perugian streets and pubs in the evenings, but that was it. We didn't have each other's phone number, we didn't meet in private, we weren't acquaintances. I never bought drugs from Rudy Guide or anyone else. I was having sex with Federico for drugs, which isn't the same thing. The phone records show no connection. There are no witnesses who place us together, except my statement here. The prosecution claims I convinced Rudy Guide to commit rape and murder, completely ignoring the fact that we didn't even speak the same language. He has lived in Perguia for 15 years, and I am a student of Italian. Once again, the prosecution is relying upon a disturbing and unacceptable pattern of distortion of the objective evidence.
24. I am not a psychopath. That evaluation in 2008 was unfair, as I didn't get a chance to prepare my spontaneous answers.
25. There is no short list to the malicious and unfounded slanders I have enjoyed over the course of this legal process. In trial, in the media I have been called no less than:
"Conniving; manipulating; man""eater; narcissist; enchantress; duplicitous; adulterer; drug addict; an explosive mix of drugs, sex, and alcohol; dirty; witch; murderer; slanderer; demon; depraved; imposter; promiscuous; succubus; evil; dead inside; pervert; dissolute; a wolf in sheep's clothing; rapist; thief; reeking of sex; Judas; she-devil;
26. I have never demonstrated anti-social, aggressive, violent, or behavior. Throwing rocks at cars, writing rape stories, and staging break ins are not violent or anti-social. I am not addicted to sex or drugs. In fact, Federico Martini hasn't given me any since I was arrested. Upon my arrest I was tested for drugs and the results were negative. I am not a split-personality One does not adopt behavior spontaneously.
27. This is a fantasy. This is uncorroborated by any objective evidence or testimony. The prosecution and civil parties created and pursued this character assassination because they have nothing else to show you. They have neither proof, nor logic, nor the facts on their side. They only have their ''evidence'' against me, and my personal opinions about them. They want you to think I'm a monster because I am telling you they think I am a monster. it is easy to condemn a monster. It is easy to dismiss a monster's defense as deception. But the prosecution and civil parties think I'm both severely mistaken and wrong. I have condemned them without proof of wrongdoing, and I seek to convince you to condemn them without proof of wrongdoing.
28. If the prosecution truly had a case against me, there would be no need for these theatrics. Never mind that this is my own appeal, and I ''should'' be demonstrating why the 2009 trial verdict is unjust. If I had a case, there would be no need for smoke and mirrors to distract you from the mountains of physical evidence against me. But because this evidence exists that proves my guilt, I would seek to deceive you with these impassioned, but completely inaccurate and unjustified pronouncements. Because I am not a murderer (yet), I would seek to mislead you into convicting me by charging your emotions, by painting me as an innocent until proven guilty, but not as a monster.
29. The prosecution and civil parties are committing injustices against the Kerchers because they cannot bring themselves to admit, even to themselves, that they've made a terrible mistake, namely, that the murder was premeditated. Again, it is my own appeal, but they are persecuting me.
30. The Court has seen that the prosecution and civil parties will not hear criticism of their mistakes, by people who won't attend their appeal.
31. The Court has seen that the prosecution jumped to conclusions at the very start of their investigation: they interrogated and arrested innocent people and claimed "Case Closed"before any evidence could be analyzed, before bothering to check alibis. As proof of this, they called Raffaele to the police station (at his leisure), to clear up discrepencies in his alibi. Then when he claimed I lied, Rita Ficarra then asked me for an explanation. Those brutes! Then they hauled in Patrick just because in ''confessed'' several times that he did it.
32. The prosecutor and investigators were under tremendous pressure to solve the mystery of what happened to Meredith as soon as possible. The local and International media was breathing down the necks of these detectives. Their reputations and careers were to be made or broken. In spite of that, they still saw my mistakes. Under pressure, they admitted to as few mistakes as possible and committed themselves to a theory founded upon disproving my mistakes.
33. Had they not jumped to conclusions based on nothing but Raffaele's changing alibi and my false accusations, they would have discovered definitive and undeniable evidence of not Patrick Lumumba, but of Rudy Guede, Raffaele Sollecito, and Amanda Knox. We would not be here over six years later debating clues my lawyers claim are inconclusive and unreliable. Had we plead guilty we would have been spared the cost, anguish and suffering, not only of Raffaele's and my family, but especially of Meredith's family as well.
34. My accusations are unworthy of judicial or public confidence. In over six years I have failed to provide a consistent, evidence-driven, corroborated theory of the crime, but would nevertheless argue that you should not take my life away. I beg you to see through the ''facts'' and ''reason'' of what I say. I am innocent. Raffaele is innocent. Meredith and her family deserve the ''truth''. Please put an end to this great and prolonged injustice for them.
in faith,
Amanda Marie Knox
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Cassation Appeal By RS And AK Against Nencini: Cassation Rules Not Enough Evidence NOT Innocence
Posted by Machiavelli
1. Dispositivo issued by Judge Marasca
This statement by Dr Marasca was dated 30 March 2015. An English translation and analysis is below the document image.
Dispositivo: VISTO L"˜ART. 620 LETT.(A) C.P.P.; ANNULLA LA SENTENZA IMPUGNATA IN ORDINE AL REATO DI CUI AL CAPO (B) DELLA RUBRICA PER ESSERE IL REATO ESTINTO PER PRESCRIZIONE; VISTI GLI ART. 620 LETT. (C) E 530, COMMA II C.P.P.; ESCLUSA L'AGGRAVANTE DI CUI ALL'ART. 61 N. 2 C.P. IN RELAZIONE AL DELITTO DI CALUNNIA, ANNULLA SENZA RINVIO LA SENTENZA IMPUGNATA IN ORDINE AL REATI DI CUI AI CAPI (D) ED (E) DELLA RUBRICA PER NON AVERE I RICORRENTI COMMESSO IL FATTO; RIDETERMINA LA PENA INFLITTA ALL RICORRENTE AMANDA MARIE KNOX PER IL DELITTO DI CALUNNIA IN ANNI TRE DI RECLUSIONE.
seen art. 620 lett. A) c.p.p.;
annuls the impugned verdict as for the charge in count B) of the indictment section because the time of limitation of the offence has expired;
seen articles 620 lett. L) and art. 530 second paragraph of c.p.p.;
excluding the aggravating circumstance under art. 61 n.2 c.p. in regard to the felony of calunnia, annuls the impugned verdict without remand as for the crimes charged in counts A), D) and E) of the indictment section due to the recurrents not having committed the crime; re-determines the penalty inflicted to recurrent Amanda Knox in three years imprisonment for the crime of calunnia.
2. Two Warnings
Warning 1
(1) The statement "because they did not commit the crime" does not imply a finding of innocence under Italian law; and when the art. 530.2 is mentioned there is no possibility of a finding of innocence;
(2) There are major legal blunders: the Cassazione is not allowed to make any finding of facts of any kind, it does not assess evidence directly, and it may not mention 530.2.
It could not have re-determined the penalty for calunnia if the penalty was already definitive. Here unusually the verdict was definitive but not the punishment, as Nencini increased the sentence from the 3 years imposed by Hellmann to 3 and 1/2 years, having been asked by the First Chambers to consider whether there was a teleological link with a murder conviction. Having annulled the conviction for murder the Fifth Chambers wiped out the extra 6 months.
Warning 2
At the end of the 2015 Afterword of Knox's "If I did it" paperback edition, the Creative Writing student writes:
Minutes later Carlo Dalla Vedova, one of two Italian lawyers, called.
"Does "˜acquitted' mean not enough evidence to convict?" I asked him. Or did they find us innocent?"
"They find you innocent. Amanda!" he said. "It's the best result possible!"
That is untrue. Readers may like to be warned that this is the latest lie. Either by Knox or Dalla Vedova. See Warning 1.
In fact Cassazione explicitly mentions 530 paragraph 2, which in Italian law means "not enough evidence" but not "finding of innocence".
Such annulment is a legal blunder since Cassazione may not do any fact-finding in the merit.
However, as a court finding, 530.2 is finding of doubt, therefore the contrary of what Knox conveys to her readers.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Supreme Court Appeal By RS And AK Against Florence Court Rejection Of Their First Appeal #2
Posted by The TJMK Main Posters
This was in 2009, Meredith's family, not in court, may hear things came full circle today
Tweets from the court
New tweets from the court if any (we may have to wait for breaks) are being added under the various author's names below. Numbering flows from Wednesday's post.
Any breaking news
22. Reason for delay in the announcement is paperwork we believe, there were dozens of reasons for an overturn in the two written appeals, and they would have to be responded to one by one if appeal is denied. The Telegraph seems to be planning a live website feed though it may be from outside. .
21. Here is where Sollecito is headed if he makes it before any guilty verdict and the 2 police cars in his rear mirrors him stop him and take him in: 41°14'37.80"N 16°29'2.50"E Put that into Google Earth search and then descend to street view. Thats the gate for the compound, chez Sollecito is a couple of houses down on the left. Francesco Sollecito has addressed crowds of reporters there.
20. Video here of RS and his sister Vanessa leaving by side entrance, possibly for Bari. As Florence prosecutors are in court, this may be his way of ensuring he is not photographed being frogmarched out of there.
19. Knox undercut her own defence by stiffing Florence court. Could in new Florence trial face more years for criminal defamation. Moore & Burleigh & Fischer & other PR shills may face citations too, as their excesses outnumber those of Gumbel and Sforza already in court. Tweeting stalkers too. Communication Police looking now.
18. Italian ANSA report is calling RS lawyer Giulia Bongiorno's address to the court "Bye Bye Amanda" as she says only questionable DNA relates RS to scene of crime. [Oh? Several footprints? Opposing knife wounds? Multi alibis? Computer? Cellphone?]
17. Media, please get it right: Amanda Knox was not "tried in absentia" at Florence "trial". IT WAS HER OWN APPEAL and Italian lawyers argued with her for a week that she really needed to be there. Having abused so many in Italy, and put drug dealer in jail, was her no-show really such a surprise?
16. Strong-arming unethical Gogerty-Marriott PR firm closes down in Seattle with a final dishonest thump of the chest. Said to be freaked by potential legal liability. Maybe Knox herself should sue as they made her plight much worse.
15. So NYC Sollecito advisor John Q Kelly shows his face again. He was wildly wrong on the hard facts late 2009 and promptly disappeared.
Tweets from journalist Andrea Vogt
17. Heavy media & police presence at Italy's high court this a.m. for final hearing in #amandaknox case. Sollecito's defense at 9.
18. Raffaele Sollecito's Italian and American lawyers Giulia Bongiorno & John Q Kelly just greeted in hall outside Aula Magna
19. Giulia Bongiorno on the lack of DNA from #amandaknox and sollecito in murder room: only a dragonfly leaves no trace.
20. Bongiorno casting doubt on forensic police dna interpretation. "Maybe, in science, does not exist. Either it is Raffaele 's dna or not."
21. High court judges in #amandaknox case are going into deliberations now. They will alert all one hour before they announce decision.
22. Court can: 1) call appeal [outcome] inadmissable 2) accept it 3) reject it 4) annul convictions & back to appellate 5) annul convictions.
23. Members of Florence prosecutor's office are at Rome court today for decision on #amandaknox / Sollecito appeal of their convictions.
24. #amandaknox convictions have been completely overturned. She is a free woman.
25. Both raffaelle Sollecito and #amandaknox convictions have been fully overturned. Cries of joy in courtroom from sollecito's family
Tweets from main poster Kristeva
15. Follow @andreavogt as she has better phone reception than me. I apologize
16. Much larger crowd today attending the final hearing for #amandaknox & #RaffaeleSollecito
17. The general feeling among reporters is that #RaffeleSollecito might get a second appeal. no chance 4 #amandaknox
18. Several reporters interested in http://themurderofmeredithkercher.com and will call me to have more info in the next days
19. I was asked how the #MeredithKercher support website started and I gave the whole history
20. Spoke to Maresca to thank him and in return he thanked our volunteer work for http://themurderofmeredithkercher.com
21. Reporters were also interested in PR machine for #AmandaKnox and I referred them to http://truejustice.org
22. After Bongiorno, Maori will give his arguments and Judges with enter chambers to deliberate verdict
23. Timing of verdict for #amandaknox and #RaffeleSollecito unpredictable. May justice 4 #MeredithKercher prevail. My prayers for family
24. [6.15 am US east coast time] Maori finished. Judges have entered chambers to deliberate verdict.
25. No more appeals. Case over #amandaknox #RaffaeleSollecito acquitted for murder of #MeredithKercher #SHAME
26. I am shocked
Tweets from main poster Machiavelli
17. [no tweets yet]
Tweets from journalist Barbie Nadeau
4. High court now deliberating fate of #amandaknox and #RaffaeleSollecito in #MeredithKercher murder case.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Supreme Court Appeal By RS And AK Against Florence Court Rejection Of Their First Appeal
Posted by The TJMK Main Posters
Above: stock image on another day of the Supreme Court's Great Hall
Tweets from the court
New tweets from the court are all being added under the various author's names below. This will continue Friday for sure.
Any breaking news
13. Court is over for the day and will resume on Friday.
12. La Nazione reports: "The judgment of the Supreme Court on the murder of Meredith Kercher will not arrive before Friday 27, the day when the judges will meet in closed session. This was announced by the President of the Fifth Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, Gennaro Marasca, during today's hearing."
11. We dont know the local telephone network capacity there. But many cellphone transponders can handle only 24 calls at a time. Demand for "outside lines" could number in the hundreds from the entire court. Maybe there's an open WAN but we doubt.
10. Regardless of outcome Knox legal problems could go on for years. Since 2009 she has faced calunnia charges for lying on the stand. Possible sentence six years. Now Florence court has added calunnia charges for lying in her book, in Oggi, on her website, and on American TV. Perception going back to Ricciarelli is she is dangerous and hurts people, even if final murder verdict is not in.
9. Popper says of Dr Pinelli: "In his late 50s (a young man ref Cassazione average), a career both in Abruzzo region (Avezzano where he was born in 1957) and L' Aquila, and then Naples in the Procura Generale; then promoted to Cassazione. Very much acquainted with murders and organised crime."
8. Popper says of Dr Marasca: "Section President of Cassation [one of the few] and member of Consiglio Direttivo, a sort of Executive Board of the Supreme Court ... one of the most experienced magistrates in Italy, born in 1944. Since 1970 a magistrate."
7. News service ANSA: "The head judge is Gennaro Marasca. The lead prosecutor is Mario Pinelli. After the prosecutor has spoken it will be the turn of Maresca (for the Kerchers). Then they'll hear from Bongiorno and Maori, Ghirga and Dalla Vedova".
6. New report with today's date from Barbie Nadeau on the CNN Website. Seems CNN like most US media no longer solidly in Knox camp.
5. The Court has placed a ban on live tweeting from inside the courtroom, where mobile phone reception is poor anyway. Reports will come during the breaks.
4. Best guess at timing of decision is late PM US East Coast time. In 2013 it came the next day.
3. As with previous court outcomes, expect long-form analyses of outcome by Machiavelli etc within the next few days.
2. New York Times's Elisabetta Povoledo provides a good overview of today's context.
1. See our own scenario for today and coming weeks in the event the Florence verdict and sentences is confirmed.
Tweets from journalist Andrea Vogt
1. Raffaele Sollecito is here in court, speaking with his lawyer Giulia Bongiorno. #amandaknox lawyers and Patrick Lumumba also present.
2. Cannot tell how the court is leaning. Reviewer made hurtful and helpful comments to both sides. Still could go either way. #amandaknox
3. Court pres Gennaro Marasca calls break until 2:30. PG Mauro Pinelli has another hour of arguments. Arguments & ruling could be Friday
[break for lunch]
4. There is a sense among some observers that the Court is differentiating between positions of amanda knox and raffaelle Sollecito.
5. Maresca: I am representing the Kercher family in court for the 8th time. I hope this will be the last arguments I give on their behalf.
6. Maresca: It is time for the Kercher family to finally be able to remove this poor victim from the law courts.
7. Ghirga: "its not that we want to blame the poor black guy, its that you cannot rule out a single aggressor."
8. Lawyer Luciano Ghirga: The scientific evidence favors #amandaknox (no trace of her in the murder room).
9. Carlo dalla Vedova has launched a blistering attack on the state of Italian justice system and the problem of "the neverending trial."
10. Dalla Vedova for #amandaknox: How can we tolerate in Italy that trials can go on forever?
11. Hearing over for the day. Raffaelle Sollecito's defense will continue Friday, march 27.
12. Ghirga: "its not that we want to blame the poor black guy, its that you cannot rule out a single aggressor."
13. Lawyer Luciano Ghirga: The scientific evidence favors #amandaknox (no trace of her in the murder room).
14. Carlo dalla Vedova has launched a blistering attack on the state of Italian justice system and the problem of "the neverending trial."
15. Dalla Vedova for #amandaknox: How can we tolerate in Italy that trials can go on forever?
16. Hearing over for the day. Raffaelle Sollecito's defense will continue Friday, march 27.
Tweets from main poster Kristeva
1. I have arrived outside Section V. Sollecito, father and Greta. Poor [cellphone] reception.
2. Spoke to Avv. Maori & asked him who general prosecutor is and he doesn't know yet. there are 2.
3. Andrea Vogt has just arrived and speaking to Avv. Ghirga
4. American British Journalists are all talking to Avv Dalla Vedova now.
[court session starts]
5. Relator Judge P. A. Bruno laughs once and while getting names wrong such as Hallowo instead of Halloween.
6. Prosecutor finds Rudy's climbing up wall 4 numerous times "crazy"
7. Paolo Antonio Bruno knows the case extremely well without ever looking at his notes.
[court breaks for lunch]
8. Prosecutor has ended. He asked without remand 28.3 yrs #amandaknox and 24.9 for #raffaelesollecito
9. Bongiorno has asked to speak on Friday so most likely verdict will be then.
10. Pacelli now on civil case for Patrick Lumumba
11. Maresca has now concluded. Confirms all points made by Nencini, the general prosecutor and Galati
12. Maresca was brief and concise and said that after 8 years he hopes this is the last time he has to make same arguments
13. Maresca says that everything asked by #amandaknox and #RaffaeleSollecito has already been asked at Perugia and Florence trial.
14. Maresca makes a big point about pages re Conti & Vecchiotti and calls them on their lie.
Tweets from main poster Machiavelli
1. Reporting Judge at SC for the Meredith case is Antonio Paolo Bruno.
2. The Prosecutor General is Mario Pinelli. President Judge is Gennaro Marasca.
3. PG said the Florence sentence "respects the indications set by the Cassazione"
4. PG: says courts, based on findings "correctly established that the theft was staged".
5. PG: court "pointed out correctly" that there was a staging "in order to side-track investigation"
6. PG: "3 people attacked the victim" and "there was no fight" unless you mean "attempts to defend herself by restrained victim"
7. PG: Florence decision not to repeat computer analysis on Sollecito's laptop is "not censurable"
8. Sollecito reported nervous when PG observes computer data defence objections are irrelevant to alibi.
9. PG: Florence refusal to order anthropometric investigation on CCTV images is "adequately motivated"
10. Pinelli: phones removed because by "ringing in the home" may have caused early discovery of the crime.
11. Judge Bruno (like Zanetti) had said the trials had "not many certainties" beyond the girl's death and one definitely convicted.
12. PG Pinelli said some minor charges have expired, thus Florence should re-assess penalties with slight reduction due time limitation laws.
13. Antonio Paolo Bruno is the Supreme Judge who was accused of conspiracy with Mafia by prosecutor DeMagistris in 2006.
14. Pinelli asked 3 months cut from both penalties (weapon carrying). But this cut may technically require intervention by Florence court.
15. Maresca says that everything asked by #amandaknox and #RaffaeleSollecito has already been asked at Perugia and Florence trial. Enough.
16. Maresca makes a big point about pages re Conti & Vecchiotti and calls them on their lie.
Tweets from journalist Barbie Nadeau
1. Judge confirms verdict will be Friday in #MeredithKercher case.
2. Prosecutor in #AmandaKnox case asks to trim 3 months off Knox's 28 year 6 month sentence.
3. Reason for shaving 3 months off sentence in #AmandaKnox case is statute of limitations in theft charge.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Rogue Juror Genny Ballerini, Translated: She Misled, Oggi Misled More, UK Media Misled Even More
Posted by Peter Quennell
1. Interpretations Of The Interview
In reading the translation by Miriram these points may be worth bearing in mind. They are largely based on advice from Yummi in Italy.
Genny Ballerini comes across to Italians as someone not especially educated who is more than a bit lost on the law and the case. She herself admits she may be naive and had not followed Meredith's case. She was surprised to end up on the jury for Knox's and Sollecito's "trial". She voices no concern for Meredith or her family.
A former factory worker, she had been unemployed for some months, and she appreciated the small fee the court paid her for jury duty and apparently also a fee that Oggi paid her for the interview. She had to be persuaded by Oggi to do the interview, and she seems unaware that it may have been illegal.
The lead judge and side judge, the professionals, remained neutral and impartial and promoted no particular outcome. There were no arguments among the jury. She seems to be drawn toward Sollecito without any very logical reason. (Hmmm. Sollecito had addressed her and the others directly and he was standing right in front of her looking at her.)
She repeatedly refers to a "trial" and to previous "trials" for example "when the trial started" and "I formed my beliefs studying the three files of the previous trials. Not only. During the trial I kept a diary for every hearing". She never once uses the word for "appeal" or wonders why there were no prosecution exhibits and witnesses.
The Oggi headline is misleading. Almost of her doubts are described in the past tense and she admits she voiced them to the other jurors early in the "trial" because things were not clear to her. She had folders of evidence to poke though; these may have related only to the appeal points the defenses had filed.
At one point she says "we discussed to reach an agreement" and at another point she says she voted against the verdict. It is not clear in what order, and she may finally have joined in a total consensus. She seems to connect the punishment to the supposed amount of evidence rather than the barbaric nature of the attack.
Please see Part 3 below for how the UK media has managed to report this even more confusingly.
2. The New Translation By Miriam
Miriam has carefully translated the original interview in Oggi for us.
"Not Enough Evidence For Such A Heavy Sentence"
On January 30th of last year, the appeal Court of Florence sentenced Amanda Knox to 28 years and 6 months of imprisonment and Raffaele Sollecito to 25 years for the murder of Meredith Kercher. 12 hours of deliberation were needed for the eight judges - two professional judges (the President Alessandro Nencini and Doctor Liliana Cicerchia) and six Lay Judges - to wrap up that decision. Among the lay judges was Genny Ballarini, a 48 year old, worker from Prato. After long negotiations and courteous refusals, on the eve of the decision by Corte di Cassazione, she accepted to speak to Oggi.
Twelve hours, half a day: a lifetime for who judges and for who is judged. Without entering into detail, as not to violate the secrets of the "camera del consiglio", what can you tell us?
We went through all the documents, drew the conclusions, in order to arrive at an agreement.
And then?
I certainly had many doubts about the guilt of the two young people. I wasn't an upholder the defendant's innocence, but I thought and said to the others: "The evidence we have is not enough to inflict all these years of prison. Where is the evidence to send them to prison? Maybe I was naïve, but before pronouncing such a heavy sentence I wanted to see clearly. There was not enough, according to me, to justify a such a heavy sentence: questionable proof, odd testimony and uncertain evidence".
And of the motive, what ideas did you arrive at?
"That of the inadequate cleaning of the house? Nonsense. You do not massacre a girl because she complained about a bit of a smell in the bathroom. Anyway, at the end of every hearing we would sit down and discuss, we would reconstruct the facts on the basis of the timing, the cell phones, the statements of the accused that indicated how Amanda and Raffaele could be at the scene of the crime. I would ask " But is it enough to convict them?" Against Raffaele, beyond the hypothesis, remained the discussed trace on Meredith's bra clasp. How could you not have doubts? "What was the motive that could have pushed Raffaele to participate in the massacre of that poor girl"? I asked.
The prosecutor in the first trial described Sollecito as "depraved", putting him inside of the erotic game ending in a tragedy and he was depraved, argued the prosecutor, because he was a fanatic of Manga, the Japanese comics that mix eroticism and violence.
"But if he is a murderer you need to prove it!" I noted. "It is not enough to read comics or watch cartoons. And then it was the same prosecutors that reminded that Amanda was not a tranquil young lady because she once received a fine for nocturnal racket. It seemed to be, excuse me, more nonsense".
One of the controversial points is that in that small room in which Meredith was murdered, there was not even one trace of Knox. How do you explain that?
"They claimed that Knox had removed her traces by cleaning. Who knows! Today when I think about it again I have even more doubts", she said. When the trial started the atmosphere in the "camera del consiglio" was accusatory. Maybe I am naïve, but I had doubts. I thought: what we have in our hands it's not enough to send them to prison for all those years. May be Amanda was there, but she didn't participate. I listened to Raffaele and he seem to me a fine young man, he seemed to me sincere"¦ At the beginning I had no opinion: I have never liked crime news and I had read just a bit on the case. I formed my beliefs studying the three files of the previous trials. Not only. During the trial I kept a diary for every hearing. I wrote down everything that was happening and at the end I would add my impressions.
How did you interact with the Court's President?
He and the side Judge did not express an opinion till the end. During all those months I never managed to understand what they thought about the case.
So they did not influenced the Lay Judges?
Absolutely not. They would explain only the things that we could not understand. I understood what they thought only when the verdict was decided, but my doubts remained. At a certain point, I stressed that Rudy Guede left on the crime scene more traces than Raffaele and Amanda and yet he was given 16 years instead of 25. They explained to me that he was judged through a fast track trial, that provides a reduction of the sentence.
And what do you think of Guede?
I think that he gave three different versions of the facts and he never said that Amanda and Raffaele were with him. How can you take into consideration Rudy to establish the guilt of the other two?
What did you think when the verdict was decided?
Right away I said that I did not agree and it was noted. On the increasing on the sentence even other Lay Judges did not agree, but it was explained to us that it could not be any different.
Did you ever fight among yourselves?
No, never.
You said that you do not like crime news and the speculations on blood related crimes? Why than did you accept to became part of the Lay Judges of a trial so complicated and a such media driven event?
I was drawn. I could only refuse only for health reasons. I accepted even for economic reasons since at that time I was on unemployment check. On the other hand they had told me that in that session, from July to September, usually the "Corte d'Assise" has scheduled trials of less importance. I would have never imagined that we were going to end up with Meredith's murder.
You implied to economic reasons. You worked seven months from July to January with burdensome hearings. How much did you received?
In all 1.500 Euro: 200 Euro a month! I received them from the Department of Justice seven months after the conclusion of the trial. Not much, but needed: I spent them for a sensitive surgery.
3. How The UK Press Reported This
The Mirror and Daily Mail cherrypick the most sensational claims, make them sound current rather than nearly 18 months old, and dont publish the whole interview.
In effect they leave out almost all of the context in Par 1 above, dont explain why Italians are unmoved, and omit the essential point that this was NOT a new trial and the jury did NOT hear the case presented in depth with exhibits and witnesses as the trial jury did.
Friday, March 20, 2015
Why Rogue Juror Genny Ballerini Was So Confused About The Appeal: It Was NOT A 2nd Trial
Posted by Peter Quennell
Umberto Brindani, the editor of the weekly Italian magazine Oggi
1. Explaining The Broad Context
A rogue juror has mischaracterized the outcome of the Nencini appeal in Oggi.
Very odd, as the consequence of this very unusual action is that she could be charged with vilipendio, with an illegal action to poison public opinion to lean upon a court process to affect its outcome. To help explain what may be going on here, think of Italy as two factions.
- A very large faction which is comparatively very law-abiding and very forgiving and which greatly admires Italian law enforcement and judges and prosecutors.
- A relatively tiny faction consisting of such unsavory elements as corrupt politicians and businessmen, the mafias, rogue masons, satanists (yes there are some) and others who, by any means fair or foul, seek unfair breaks for themselves and their associates.
The Perugia courts, being close to Rome, and the Florence courts, being very large and very competently staffed, have particular roles in matters of national-level justice. Anyone who manages to throw sand in the wheels of those court systems may have won one for some in the small and unsavory faction at the cost of the very large pro-justice faction.
MP Rocco Girlanda is a great example of how this works. The member from Gubbio once of Berlusconi's party used his parliamentary privilege to "check Knox's conditions" in Capanne dozens of times. Apparently even the Knox-Mellases found Girlanda's advances pretty creepy, and someone from the family is said to have headed for Italy in a hurry.
Girlanda not only wrote a creepy book about Knox and took a creepy position on panels of the Italian-American Society in Rome which he once headed. He also tried to monkey with Meredith's case by petitioning the President, and by attempting to reduce the national Department Of Justice budget. But some of his closest political colleagues from Gubbio are on trial now and may entangle him, and see Andrea Vogt's tweet the other day that Florence prosecutors are investigating Girlanda, for corruption at a national level.
The Sollecitos also incline toward murky incitement outside the courtroom. Think of the bag of cash the witness Aviello said was offered. Think of conversations caught on tape discussing the capturing of politicians who might lean on the Perugia justice officials. For this Vanessa lost her job and the Sollecitos may still face charges.
The Sollecitos seem to have made a beeline in 2008 for Giulia Bongiorno, a longtime defender of some of those in the smaller faction, for her political clout, although some of her actions in handling the case, such as shrieking at Judge Nencini with a knife in her hand (the same judge who will execute Cassations decisions) seem daft in the extreme.
The Sollecitos may - may - now be a party to some strange media developments in Italy, such as the fawning Porta a Porta show of a few days ago.
2. The Court Pressure Oggi Faces
The editor of Oggi Umberto Brindani seems to take malicious glee in Oggi's reports to its weekly readership that put Italian justice in a bad light, perhaps to bring Italian justice down a peg and win one for some in the small faction.
Now although no other Italian media would risk repeating in Italian the lurid conspiracy theories of the Knox PR in English in the United States, Oggi did choose to go there - and was slapped with charges as a result.
Our posts here and here explain how Brindani's taunting has bitten him in the tail. Oggi quoted defamatory and inaccurate claims from Knox's book which are a magnet for diffamazione and vilipendio charges, as Brindani found out.
If Brindani goes down against the Bergamo prosecutor for this, as seem inevitable, both the Oggi house of cards and the Knox-Mellas-Sollecito house of cards are put at risk. Oggi may face fines and civil damages for a lot of Euros. More especially, Oggi's credibility and future would take a knock.
3. Enter The Rogue Juror
This Daily Mail report is in fact 100% quoting the latest edition of Oggi. (Gee, thanks, Daily Mail; for obvious reasons Oggi try hard never to put their own scurrilous stories online.)
Essentially Genny Ballerini is complaining that it was an unfair "trial" and she didnt see a case being made or a motive explained.
On the face of it, this makes absolutely zero sense.
What happened in Florence just over a year ago was an APPEAL by RS and AK, not a second trial. It was tightly focused only on a couple of points the defenses wanted to quibble about (unsuccessfully, as it happened).
The prosecution presented next to nothing of the case it had already presented in great detail in 2009. There were no similar summations, no recreations of the attack on Meredith, no witnesses of its own examined in court, and almost no exhibits.
And guess what? Genny Ballerini didnt even set eyes on Amanda Knox or Rudy Guede!!
Working under strict instructions from Cassation, Judge Nencini guided his lay judges to examine and vote on ONLY the points the defense had tried to prove to their advantage. They all knew, or should have known, even this rogue juror Genny Ballerini, that any attempt to act as a second trial jury on the lines of the Hellmann appeal jury would be illegal, and was not why they were sitting there.
Unless she is seriously daffy the surprise surfacing of Genny Ballerini in Oggi of all places only makes sense in the light of what Part 1 above explained. Genny Ballerini seems to be being used to muddy the waters to the hoped-for advantage of some in the smaller faction.
4. The Guts Of Ballerini's Claims
Our main poster Chimera checked out Genny Ballerini's individual claims, and at that level also shows that Genny Ballerini is either out to lunch or working as a tool for Oggi and by extension some in the small faction.
(1) The juror did not ''help convict'' Knox/Sollecito at the 2013/2014 Florence appeal. The court merely confirmed the trial verdict of Giancarlo Massei (2009).
(2) ''She slams the prosecution's case, citing questionable proof, flimsy evidence, and bizarre testimony''. This was only a defence appeal, which is a HUGE detail to omit.
When the defense files an appeal, essentially they are saying there is something wrong with the prosecution's case as presented back at trial. The prosecution PROVED their case, they don't have to again. So yes, the burden is on the defense.
If she does not know this (and these comments may be deliberately misquoted), then Ms. Ballerini doesn't understand the purpose of an appeal or her role in it.
(3) Knox was 20 at the time of the murder, not 19.
(4) The article says they served 4 years before being freed on appeal, but it leaves out the fact that they had been convicted at trial. While technically correct, it implies something that is not the case.
(5) The article says that Knox rebuilt her life finding love with Colin Sutherland, and working as a journalist. While true, they were only recent developments (late 2014). Knox had been released 3 years prior to that.
(6) The appeal court reinstated the guilty verdict? Wrong. Again, the March 2013 Cassation ruling annulled Hellmann's ruling, but it left Massei's trial conviction intact. The appeal court actually confirmed it.
In other words, AK and RS weren't forced back to Florence for a new trial. They themselves chose to redo their own appeal, rather than accept the 26 and 25 year sentences. Big difference.
(7) ''The evidence is not there to inflict all these years in prison''? Frightening, if she actually made these statements. The appeals court is ONLY to look at errors, not to retry the case. Did she not read her job description?
(8) Ms. Ballerini says of Sollecito: What possible motive could he have for participating in that murder?
A better question would be: why he did refuse Judge Nencini's invitation to testify? Come on, he just did a freaking book tour. And Ms. Ballerini was there in court ... did she not have an urge to ask him questions?
(9) ''She insisted that the 2 professional judges had not tried to sway the jury.'' Can you think of why that may have done so? Perhaps back in late 2011?
Part of me thinks this story is a plant, her words and conclusions sound almost verbatim from the FOAK crap that has been coming out for years.
If it is true (a big if) it is frightening that someone so limited could be on a appeal jury. Either she does not understand the purpose of an appeal, or she is being used as a sockpuppet.
5. Present Conclusions
This aint over. Investigators will already be checking out Genny Ballerini to see what makes her tick and decide if she should face charges. We will keep you posted.
Genny Ballerini is the lay-judge on the left
Friday, August 15, 2014
Legal Timeline Of The Main Case, On Which The Next Ruling By Supreme Court Could Be Final
Posted by catnip
Cassazione (Supreme Court of Italy) seen from the east across the Tiber River
Todays Status
The Supreme Court is due to rule, possibly in the autumn, on what might be the final appeal by Sollecito and Knox on grounds which have not been published. Main steps prior to this:
November 2007
Meredith Kercher is found violently killed in her home while studying abroad in Italy. Her housemate, Amanda Knox, and Amanda's friend Raffaele Sollecito, as well as Amanda's boss, Patrick Lumumba, are arrested. A fourth person, Rudy Guede, is tracked down and also arrested. Patrick Lumumba's alibi is confirmed and he is released.
December 2007, January 2008
Due process hearings authorise the continuation of preventative custody for the suspects, on the grounds of flight risk and possibility of tampering with the evidence.
October 2008
Preliminary Hearing Court, Perugia, Micheli presiding "" after investigations have completed, the committal hearing finds there is a case to answer and remands Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito to stand trial on the charges of :
- (A) aggravated murder in company of Meredith Kercher
(B) illegal transport of a knife from Raffaele Sollecito's apartment
(C) aggravated sexual assault in company of Meredith Kercher (later folded into charge (A), on the grounds of being part of the same criminal event)
(D) illegal profiting by possession, to wit: of a sum of money approx. €300 and of credit cards belonging to the victim, and her mobile phones
(E) simulation of a crime, to wit: staging a break-in in Filomena Romanelli's room
(F) Amanda Knox, in addition, calunnia, for falsely claiming, knowing him to be innocent, Diya Lumumba also called "Patrick", of being the author of the murder
Rudy Guede is tried summarily "on the papers", as he has requested the expedited trial procedure ("fast-track" trial) and is found guilty of charges (A) and (C), and not guilty of the theft, charge (D), and sentenced to life, automatically discounted to 30 years for choosing the expedited trial procedure.
December 2009
On appeal to the Court of Appeals, Perugia (4/2009, on 22 December 2009), his sentence is reduced to 24 years, automatically discounted to 16 years, the aggravating factors of the charges not being found by the court. His final appeal, to the Supreme Court of Cassation, First Criminal Section, is rejected (7195/11, hearing of 16 December 2010, reasons handed down 24 February 2011).
December 2009
Court of Assizes, Perugia, presided over by Massei "" finds Amanda and Raffaele guilty of all charges (except the theft of the money and credit cards) but without the aggravating factors applying, and sentences them, with mitigating factors included, to 26 years for Amanda, and 25 years for Raffaele (the extra year for Amanda being for the calunnia).
October 2011
Court of Appeals of the Court of Assizes, Perugia, presided over by Hellmann (after a last-minute replacement) "" trial convictions quashed, except for the calunnia charge against Amanda (charge (F)), where sentence was increased to time served (3 years); both prisoners released (4/2011, decision 3 October 2011, reasons handed down 5 December 2011).
March 2013
The Supreme Court of Cassation (25/3/2013) found the acquittals on charges A&C, B, D, and E to be unsafe, and annulled that part of the decision, remanding the matter to the Florentine jurisdiction, as per the usual cascade rules, for a fresh determination, and rejected Amanda Knox's appeal on the charge (F) conviction and sentence.
January 2014
Court of Appeals, Second Chamber, Florence, presided over by Nencini "" trial convictions on the non-calunnia charges upheld, therefore sentence increased to 28 years and 6 months for Amanda (11/13, decision 30 January 2014, reasons handed down 29 April 2014). All convicted parties to pay the relevant compensation to the various injured parties. Appeals to the Supreme Court of Cassation have been lodged.
Associated Timelines
See the posts here and here on the timing of events arrived at by the trial judges.
Tuesday, May 06, 2014
Judge Nencini Issues Harsh Warning To Tell The Truth - So Amanda Knox Does The Precise Opposite
Posted by The TJMK Main Posters
1. Substance Of The Nencini Explanatory Report
The Florence Court of Appeals released the Nencini Motivations Report in Florence one week ago today.
This report explains the rejection of Knox's and Sollecito's own first appeal against the Massei trial outcome of 2009. Four years were lost because the Hellmann court, which heard the first iteration of that appeal was bent as Cassation, the competent judge displaced, and now Judge Nencini have all concluded.
The Hellmann outcome of 2011 was mostly annulled, as in "ceased to exist". The main findings and verdict have zero legal standing, and zero relevance to today's process though (see below) Knox and Sollecito repeatedly try to ride that dead horse again.
Cassation confirmed Knox's three-year prison sentence for framing Patrick (for which she has served the time). And Cassation referred the methods and recommendations of the Conti & Vecchiotti consultancy, which Cassation had hammered on legal grounds, to the Florence appeal court for the substance to be reviewed.
Our evidence and law experts here and in Italy have been looking at Judge Nencini's 347 page report and find it hard-hitting and unequivocally blunt.
It will be extremely hard to appeal against within the very narrow limits Cassation allows. It removes all of Judge Massei's ambiguities about motives, it reaffirms the witness statements of Curatolo and Quintavalle, and it judicially affirms the validity of the DNA and other forensic evidence against Knox and Sollecito.
There is overwhelming proof of the presence of all three perps, Knox, Sollecito and Guede, in the cottage that night. Guede is considered to have been brought inside by Knox, who had the only key, and he could not possibly have broken in through Filomena Romanelli's window in the manner asserted by their defense.
Especially troubling for the defense, the report hints at an illegal suborning of the independent forensic experts appointed by the Hellmann court, and it also hints that the two "supergrass" witnesses, the prisoners Aviello and Alessi, may have been illegally tampered with by Sollecito's lawyer Giulia Bongiorno, as first claimed 30 months ago.
The report warns that criminal slander of justice officials and other contempts of court will be heavily leaned on.
So the report demolishes the last remnants of Judge Claudio Hellmann's now annulled acquittal, and substitutes for its fatally flawed reasoning a tightly crafted report that confirms the convictions of Knox and Sollecito.
It confirms that they acted in concert with Guede as Cassation itself long ago concluded had to be the case, and it appears to close any possible argument against the verdict that will carry weight at the Supreme Court.
2. Amanda Knox's Press-Release Statement In Response
Knox issued a seven paragraph statement later the same day. Maybe not the smartest bit of work.
It is riddled with factual inaccuracies and innuendo, is typically arrogant and condescending in tone, includes the trademark racial innuendos about Italians and the black guy in the case, and shows no signs in its compiling of competent legal help.
Here below we show the various ways in which Knox flouts Judge Nencini's warning and attempts to mislead. None of what Knox stated was the truth.
Claim: The Hellmann Court Found Knox "Innocent"
I have stated from the beginning of this long ordeal that I am innocent of the accusations against me. I was found innocent by the only court in Italy that retained independent forensic experts to review my case. I want to state again today what I have said throughout this process: I am innocent of the accusation against me, and the recent motivation document does not "" and cannot "" change the fact of my innocence.
First even if she was provisionally released following the now-annulled appeal, Amanda Knox was never, repeat never, found innocent. Only Cassation can make that final ruling, and they strongly found against the lower court that had jumped the tracks midway-through.
Even Judge Hellman himself said after his verdict that 'the truth might be otherwise' and suggested any reasonable doubt as to guilt has not been categorically and legally dismissed. He seemed to divine that he had failed in his task of bending the outcome in a way that would stay bent.
Second the court that Knox thinks found her innocent no longer exists as a legal fact. It seems to endemically escape Knox that the Hellmann outcome was annulled. Annulled. As in: wiped off the books. It is surprising that even Curt Knox and Ted Simon and David Marriott, while admittedly themselves no masters of Italian law, cannot help Knox to grasp that simple fact. It weakens her to keep clinging to a myth.
One reason it was annulled (and the reasons were overwhelming, one of Italy's most decisive annullments ever) was that both Cassation and Dr Nencini had good reason to suspect the Hellmann court had been corrupted and had deliberately departed from the evidence and the law. Knox needs to ask herself why the highly qualified Judge Chiari was pushed aside (and immediately resigned in anger) in favor of a wrongly-qualified business judge (who is now ignominiously retired).
Third, it needs to be grasped by Knox that the Conti/Vecchiotti consultancy, far from being legally right and acting independently (and scientifically), was suggested as illegal by Perugia's chief prosecutor Dr Galati, as appeal judges are forbidden from appointing consultants at that stage. While Cassation passed in ruling on that one, the consultancy outcome was criticised as illogical and legally unsound by both Cassation and Judge Nencini, as biased, full of baseless innuendo about contamination, and possibly tampered with by an American academic hired by the defense.
Conclusion: none of what Knox stated was the truth.
Claim: Only Rudy Guede's DNA Was Found
The recent motivation document does not "" and cannot "" change the forensic evidence: experts agreed that my DNA was not found anywhere in Meredith's room, while the DNA of the actual murderer, Rudy Guede, was found throughout that room and on Meredith's body. This forensic evidence directly refutes the multiple-assailant theory found in the new motivation document. This theory is not supported by any reliable forensic evidence.
The forensic evidence is not just the DNA on the knife or in the room. It also includes the extensive traces deposited by Knox in the rest of the crime scene (bathroom, corridor and Filomena's bedroom), and it also includes all of the autopsy.
Meredith's room itself was not comprehensively tested for DNA. The room was dusted only for fingerprints, as the investigators had to make a call on prints or DNA.
Guede's DNA was not found "throughout that room" or all over Meredith's body. Guede's DNA was found only in one instance on Meredith's body, on a part of Meredith's bra, mixed with Meredith's blood on a sweatshirt cuff and the purse, and on toilet paper in a bathroom.
Knox's DNA was found mixed with the blood of Meredith in multiple places, the only known source for which was the pool of blood in Meredith's bedroom: multiple prints of Knox's bare right foot in the hallway and in Knox' bedroom, and at least five instances of mixed samples containing the DNA of both Meredith and Knox, including in the north bathroom and Filomena's room, places where Guede did not go.
The court ruled that the blood and mixed DNA evidence found throughout the crime scene places her and Sollecito there at the time of the murder at the same time as Rudy Guede.
Though not DNA, there was one bloody shoe print in Meredith's bedroom estimated to be Euro size 36-38, compatible with Knox size 37 and with no one else known of who could have left it there.
No fingerprints of anyone were found in the room, just a palmprint of Rudy Guede. Fingerprints were not found even on Knox's own lamp, which she only confirmed grudgingly at trial was her own, and not found even in Knox's own bedroom. Overwhelming sign of a cleanup? The courts all believed so.
Conclusion: none of what Knox stated was the truth.
Claim: The Knife As Murder Weapon Was Disproved
The forensic evidence also directly refutes the theory that the kitchen knife was the murder weapon: the court-appointed independent experts confirmed that neither Meredith's blood nor her DNA was on the alleged murder weapon, which experts also agreed did not match the stab wounds or the bloody imprint of a knife on her pillow.
Judge Nencini's finding is that two knives HAD to have been involved from both side of Meredith's throat and the final blow was by a large knife the same size as the one in evidence.
Regarding the large knife, Knox rehashes the same arguments her defense made to no avail before the original trial court that found her guilty. We posted explaining the solid proof here and here.
The only DNA tests that matter with regard to the big knife are (1) the sound finding by Dr Stefanoni that Meredith's DNA was on the blade - Knox is wrong, the independent experts did not refute that; (2) the sound findings by Dr Stefanoni and the Carabinieri lab that Knox's DNA was on both the blade and the handle of the knife. None were overturned; contamination was ruled out; and the defense was left without a shot.
The Hellmann-appointed experts confirmed that the genetic profile found on the knife blade was the genetic profile of Meredith Kercher. The TMB test did not confirm if it was blood, but defense experts were forced to concede that TMB erroneously fails to confirm that blood is present about half the times in assessing minute quantities.
The Hellmann-appointed experts tried to explain away the genetic profile as being the result of contamination, but were never able to identify any scenario by which a knife that had supposedly never left Sollecto's kitchen contained biological material yielding a clear genetic profile of Meredith Kercher.
Accordingly the Appeals court has ruled the kitchen knife is in fact the one that was wielded by her to strike a final blow, and at the same time there was a second knife in the room used by Sollecito to torture Meredith.
London DNA expert Dr David Balding certified Raf's DNA as being on the bra clasp. This proves by itself that Sollecito was there. Knox belatedly claimed she stayed at the Via Garibaldi apartment with Sollecito all evening and now and then Sollecito belatedly backs her up. But how could that be if the court has positives of his footprint on the bathroom rug and on the bra, showing he was over at Meredith's cottage that night? Proof of him present equals proof of her.
The Hellmann-appointed experts were not charged with analyzing the stab wounds, or whether the imprint on a sheet was of a knife or of something else and the result of the fabric being folded - nor was this within their field of expertise. Defense experts testifying on these issues were in conflict.
Conclusion: none of what Knox stated was the truth.
Claim: The Circumstantial Evidence Is "Unreliable"
In fact, in the prior proceeding in which I was found innocent, the court specifically concluded that the forensic evidence did not support my alleged participation in the crime and further found that the circumstantial evidence was both unreliable and contrary to a conclusion of guilt.
The recent motivation document does not "" and cannot "" change the fact that the forensic evidence still does not support my participation and the circumstantial evidence still remains unreliable and contrary to the conclusion of guilt.
Knox appeals to Hellmann's ruling on the circumstantial evidence being unsound. But the Supreme Court, in annulling Hellmann, explained why it found his arguments illogical, and reminded the court of the standards by which circumstantial evidence must form a coherent whole. Judge Nencini in our opinion amply meets those standards in an elegantly argued report which will be hard to defeat at Rome's Supreme Court.
Knox herself has proved the "unreliable" one, proven over and over again to be a liar who attests to her own bad memory in written statements, who talks of "dreams her mind made up", who repeatedly goes vague.
We cannot rely on Knox's recall of phoning mom, the timing of which moves and sometimes disappears. Knox claims she can't remember where she was that night, she told a whopper of a lie on her boss, she can't remember if the door to Filomena's room was open or closed, she can't remember her own lamp, she claims she rarely looks at a clock. On and on.
The strongest example of circumstantial evidence Knox can't shake is the five spots of her DNA mixed with Meredith's blood. Maybe 2 or 3 spots could be put down to unlucky chance, but five really removes reasonable doubt.
Conclusion: none of what Knox stated was the truth.
Claim: No "Legitimate" Motive Is Identified
And the recent motivation document does not "" and cannot "" identify any legitimate motive for my alleged involvement in this terrible crime. No fewer than three motives have been previously advanced by the prosecution and by the courts. Each of these theories was as unsupported as the purported motive found in the new motivation document, and each of these alleged motives was subsequently abandoned by the prosecution or the courts. Like the prior "motives", the latest "motive" in the new motivation document is not supported by any credible evidence or logic. There is simply no basis in the record or otherwise for this latest theory.
"Proof" of motive is not required in any legal system in the world. The serial misleader Ted Simon should at least admit to that. The motives advanced were not withdrawn or abandoned by successive judges; they were fine-tuned chronologically only within very narrow limits. The sex hazing that went too far was weighted downward and pushed back, and a battle over theft of money was weighted upward and pushed forward.
The court found very compelling evidence that Knox committed the murder and led the pack. It postulates that Meredith and Amanda were incompatible with each other, and that Knox, Sollecito and Guede, high on drugs, first assaulted Meredith, restrained and abused her, and then murdered her with two knives.
Knox was known to be in serious rejection by those she encountered in Perugia for her sharp-elbowed brashness - growing rejection by her flatmates, her employer and the bar customers, and just about everyone she encountered except initially for Sollecito. But soon even he was being given a hard time and has semi-rejected Knox in return ever since. The first words of his 8 November 2007 statement to Judge Matteini were "I wish to not see Amanda ever again."
And money was a huge looming problem which could have had her back in Seattle in weeks. Knox was known to want to head for China, and was known locally to have an expensive drug habit which had cut her savings in half. She really needed to hang on to that job at Patrick's bar, especially as she had no work permit.
Sollecito's bank balance was minimally topped up by his father each month. Francesco seemed to realise cocaine is an expensive habit and didnt want to see his son off down that slippery slope. So with Knox's own habit, her remaining savings would have run out in weeks. How then to explain to Curt Knox that she really needed a whole lot more? He would have given her a very hard time before any more money flowed.
Conclusion: none of what Knox stated was the truth.
Claim: The Supreme Court Will Allow Another Full Appeal
I will now focus on pursuing an appeal before the Italian supreme court. I remain hopeful that the Italian courts will once again recognise my innocence. I want to thank once again, from the bottom of my heart, all of those""family, friends, and strangers""who have supported me and believe in my innocence.
Cassation wont "once again" recognise innocence. Knox should be encouraged to get real. So should her dummy followers - all her immediate circle know she was involved. There are no obvious grounds for Cassation to second-guess Judge Nencini, a very senior and very respected judge, considering the thoroughness of the Nencini Report. The disjointed series of statements on her blog arguing to the contrary look like the opinions of her friends and fans, not legal minds, and it is time she realizes they have feet of sand and no power to help.
Conclusion: none of what Knox stated was the truth.
Three lawyers and five others supplied the rebuttals for Amanda Knox's false claims here and elsewhere, such as Knox's email to Judge Nencini and her interviews on TV. Posts on those follow soon. Below: the careful way in which Italian media explain what Judge Nencini released.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Council Of Magistrates In Effect Shrugs At Judge Nencini Answering Loaded Question Of A Reporter
Posted by Peter Quennell
[Cassation judge Antonio Esposito who just faced down a similar complaint to the CSM]
The only ones pushing for the CSM committee hearing today and maybe another one at Cassation were Giulia Bongiorno and a few political friends.
Everybody knows she has once again lost very big and once again is snakily trying to demonize the court rather than gracefully moving on.
The final vote of the full CSM will be announced next week, but it seems a foregone conclusion. The Council will shrug and move on.
Judge Nencini explained himself well for one hour (with his wife, also a judge, present) and probably no magistrate on the Council would have acted so differently, given that the michievous reporter had been asking if the killing of Meredith happened simply because the three had nothing better to do.
Maybe some of the magistrates were thinking "So Bongiorno didnt put Sollecito on the stand? Hmmm, she KNOWS of his guilt only too well". There is no mood among them to to see the defiant Sollecito who has slimed the system and slimed a much admired judge use a loophole to get himself off.
Jools explained the context of today's hearing several weeks ago and translated one of the media reports for us today.
Knox, Sollecito judge unlikely to be disciplined by CSM
Inquiry over post-conviction press statements
Rome, March 11 - The Italian judiciary's self-governing body, the CSM, is likely to drop an inquiry into a Florence judge who broke Italian legal convention by giving press interviews after convicting Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher in February, judicial sources said Tuesday.
In Italy, judges usually only talk about their verdicts via written explanations published at least a month after they are handed down. But Alessandro Nencini, the head of the panel that sentenced Sollecito to 25 years and American citizen Knox to 28 and a half years at the repeat of the appeals-level trial, gave three interviews to different newspapers that were published February 1.
As a result, Nencini was accused of being biased. One of the most controversial aspects is that in one of the interviews, Nencini seemed to suggest that the fact Sollecito had not allowed himself to be cross-examined had damaged his chances of getting off.
The judge told a CSM commission Wednesday that he did not give interviews, but rather spoke in passing to reporters at the courthouse. He also denied saying the murder was the result of ''kid's play'' gone wrong, or expressing an opinion on Sollecito's defense strategy.
The hearing transcript will be available within a week, when the CSM commission will make its opinion official. The consensus seems to be that Nencini's statements to the press may have been ill-timed, but not enough to justify a transfer, judicial sources said. Nencini is still not out of the woods, pending the result of justice ministry and Cassation Court inquiries that could lead to disciplinary action against him.
Friday, February 28, 2014
What We Might Read Into Sollecito Lawyer Giulia Bongiornos Final Arguments To The Appeal Judges
Posted by Machiavelli (Yummi)
Under the table & over the top
The picture of a serene-looking Giulia Bongiorno waving a couple of knives in court on 9 January may be visual inspiration to this reflection about what we can understand from the structure and content of her closing arguments.
A very peculiar feature of her arguments was the desperate opening, suggesting to put the investigation "" and the whole justice proceedings "" on trial.
The introductive topic of her speech is a quote from a book by Alessandro Satta, a narrative description of the riotous irruption of the mob inside the Revolutionary Tribunal hearing room on Sep. 2. 1792, the defendants are the some of the King's Swiss guards.
The passage by Satta describes the "horrendous" vision of a hord of sanculots slowly gathering outside the court, Bongiorno compares that to the angry mob in Perugia after the first appeal verdict.
But if you read the same text by Satta a little further, a few lines beyond the snippet Bongiorno was reading, the narration goes on describing how sanculots manage to enter the courtroom, in a force of hundreds ready to lynch the defendants, but they are suddenly halted by an authoritative order of the Judge, and they unexpectedly obey.
Just after that, Satta drops in an explanatory quote from the book Le Tribunal révolutionnaire (by historian Lenotre) saying: "the people understood that these highly educated individuals in black robes would have gone on with the action started by the hords, and they would accomplish it more perfectly".
It seems like Bongiorno opened her speech with an implicit depiction of the judges and magistrates of Perugia as kind of Jacobin extremists whose task is to "legitimize" the vindictive fury of a pitchforks mob.
The quote she read did not include Satta's conclusive lines, so that the consequent thought about the judges' role remained unexpressed and in the background.
(Photo by Machiavelli_Aki)
A side note about Bongiorno's arguments: in fact I had the feeling that allusion to implicit subtexts was something that belonged to her speech as a method or a style, it marked the whole of her arguments. You may recall Wittgenstein's dictum "This work consists of two part, what is written in it, and what is not written in it. The latter is the most important part."
Such a motto might be apt to address the major feature of Bongiorno's defensive argument, insofar as she conveyed that something that "couldn't be talked about openly" was there and that was probably a main argument.
(photo by Ansa)
At first, as I said, she went through a brief emotional recollection of her moments while in Perugia surrounded by a raging mob, and then she unfolded the rest of her introductive section.
The purpose of this bit of revolutionary narrative first juxtaposing the Perugian citizens to Sanculots and the judges to Jacobins, and then, immediately following, a series of accessory arguments all encompassed by an introductive function, all this was clearly intended to set a framework thesis meant to work as a basis for the structure of the whole defensive arguments.
It is in fact a peculiar structure, apparently entirely resting upon one, single elaborate premise.
The thesis she places at the foundation of the entire defensive argumentation is the following: the trial as a whole, as much as its outcome, had been somehow determined and "tainted" from the beginning by events which occurred within a very short framework of time, in the very early days of the investigation, the weeks around the time of the suspects' arrests.
Bongiorno suggested that only this "short period" "" the early days of November 2007 - is what matters and the only topic worth of a defence analysis; since this was the time frame within which - according to Bongiorno - everything was decided, this was the time when some "errors" in the investigation occurred, before the point when a veil of prejudice and hatred fell upon people's hearts and minds like kind of black curtain, preventing from that moment on any fair or rational judgement.
Aggressive Digressions
After the quoting of Satta's speech, she develops her introduction for a while, branching out into some political-sociological speculations (such as that authorities chose the crime scenario that was most reassuring for the population) as well as some political-anthropological consideration (like the theory that free spirited women are seen as suspicious as a consequence of women empowerment movements).
(Palace of Justice of Florence "" photo by FrederickStudio)
A speech opening as did Bongiorno's, that is, relying on a set of over-the-top considerations, and apparently so much depending upon one extreme premise, unavoidably conveys a perception of weakness, which is at risk to be transferred to the rest of the argumentation.
Thus, it would be a logical question to ask ourselves: why did Bongiorno chose such a setting and introduction, with several risky, over-shooting arguments?
A perception that the argument was unconvincing was palpable among the public as she was unfolding her theories about Perugian police opting for "political" scenarios and about sexy and free women seen as suspicious because of the women's political movement.
Scepticism emerged even more openly when she described a scene with Amanda Knox releasing her false accusations while speaking under the hypnotic influence of interpreter Anna Donnino - whom she called "psychic" "" which triggered some stifled laughs among the public.
Then her long introduction dealt with the unfolding of a rhetorical structure set around the concept of "half".
I use the word " rhetoric" in a most technical, non-derogatory sense, to mean the setting of a clear order and concepts designed to be easily remembered, anchored to multiple implicit suggestions, so as to remain impressed in the mind of listeners what is distinctive of the style of Giulia Bongiorno.
Introducing to "˜Halves'
In the previous trial instances she didn't miss the opportunity to borrow characters such as Jessica Rabbit, Amelie and the Venus in a Fur. I thought she would mention at least a few characters of Disney or the Harry Potter saga this time too, and I was not disappointed as she met expectations on this matter (she did mention Harry Potter, the Eskimo kiss "˜Unca-Nunca', the Bunga Bunga, the Aladdin Lamp and 9½ Weeks).
She entered the topical part of the introductive section saying "˜basta' to always focusing on Amanda's personality alone, while considering Raffaele just Knox's other "half", he is not half a character, he should not be seen as reflexion of Knox.
The curse of being "half" chases him also, meaning there are only "half pieces of evidence" against him. And this is the rhetoric structure envigorating the arguments after the introduction, the concept of "half" .
Only half pieces of evidence, almost a half admission, or the clear suggestion that there is maybe one "other half" of something (of culprits?) somewhere else, something not to be said, something that is not here.
The concept of "half" recurs and somehow pervades her defence, we should say something more about later on because she picked it up also in the subsequent hours of speech.
Some videos from the Florence trial available may still be available at the Sky site.
Primordial Fossils
Only after recollecting all these things in the "˜aggressive digressions' over the introductive part, she goes on with a ponderous section which is the main part of her argumentation.
It's a topic directly stemming from the introductive themes and premises, in the sense that this main part focuses on and blows up events of the first four days of investigation. It zeroes on few small details of the investigation history, the previous introductive part functionally working to justify the choice and to limit the argumentation to these topics.
Something the listener would notice from this first and main part of the arguments, as everyone well understands, is that these arguments are arranged in a peculiar type of architecture. A choice that makes crystal clear the actual state of the defence's options.
The defence strategy is to focus attention on the supposed flaws in evidence collection at the beginning of the investigation, and not on the evidence set itself.
Bongiorno's arguments do not map out the evidence set array. They do not devolve an effort of analysis in proportion to the actual weight of the of pieces of evidence.
The bulk of her speech in fact can be summarized as a criticism of some historical happenings "" what she sees as such "" which allegedly occurred within a very small time frame. She devoted hours to attacking the beginning of the investigation, early errors such as that the shoe print that had been wrongly attributed to Sollecito on a first assessment.
It appears this attack against the early procedures of the investigation was really considered to be the most effective weapon the defence had left.
The "˜topics' Bongiorno addressed in this attack as "˜main points' of evidence against Sollecito, are only three: the wrongly attribute shoeprint, Sollecito's side-tracking the investigation, and "˜the knife' (a topic which gets picked up again later, with a long discussion focused on the blade length).
In the same "˜knife' topic she included DNA discussion, in a connected digression she dealt with the bra claps, called all the scientific evidence collection "˜the mother of mistakes' and offered again the known criticism of Stefanoni's alleged "suspect-centred".
Later in her speech, she dealt with the other evidence topics, parroted the "˜principles' expressed in the Conti & Vecchiotti report, offered the known arguments about the bathmat print, etc.
But the bulk of her defence hinged around those "˜mistakes' in the early investigation phase, this was the actual core of her argumentation, while the other pieces of evidence were dealt with summarily, I had the impression they were almost treated as accessories.
It was clear above all that the defence was not battling the structure of the evidence actually existing today, they were battling a minuscule part of it, or better they were battling something else, something which is not directly the evidence, but rather some historical foundations of the accusation building.
Basically what Bongiorno conveyed is, the fighting terrain was the "˜investigators' errors', their "˜excesses'. That is, they were not actively contending Raffaele's innocence any more.
The implicit content was rather obvious to the listener: a direct claim of Sollecito's innocence had been already abandoned, that territory was left beyond the lines and the defensive front had been drawn back.
The topic now was not innocence, but rather how the accusation had been unfair and excessive.
At her opening, the quote of Satta was a device to draw attention to the events at the "origin", so as to prepare listeners for the fact that defence arguments will be focused on what happened during the moments before the "black curtain" came down.
Hence the a long introduction starting from an image of the fury of a mob of sanculots, a narrative on this theme: people were willing to convict the defendants immediately and judges were legitimizing people's violence.
She oriented the discussion towards the topic of early prejudice and excesses, so to justify the fact that she will talk about the early phases rather than the evidence set, and then she introduced the leit-motiv of the "half".
This means, rather than disputing the pieces of evidence, Bongiorno wanted to set a "trial of the investigation", she zeroed on just a few details actually not having much relevance in the actual evidence set.
She talked at length about elements that are kind of fossils "" like when she went on discussing about the number of circles in the sole of Guede's shoeprint "" putting the alleged "errors" in the course of the investigation on trial, and her speech at times sounded as if it was a lecture about dinosaurs, recalling curious things now extinct.
The explicit function of her introduction was to justify her setting aside the evidence set, downplaying it by framing it into a historical moment, maintaining that it was collected and interpreted when investigators were already beyond the "black curtain" of bias, therefore tainted by prejudice, while judges were like sycophants before an angry mob.
The purpose behind the Black Curtain
The implicit, most important function of the introduction was accomplished via the concept of "half" and all the subliminal suggestions attached.
We should ask ourselves: is it reasonable to believe Bongiorno was so naïve to expect that the court may accept a theory about a dismissal of evidence in limine?
The answer is no. Bongiorno knew perfectly well that her preliminary criticism of the investigation would not lead to a dismissal of the evidence.
Bongiorno also knew that the series of preliminary arguments she would offer would be considered ineffective by judges. Such as that the knife DNA should be seen as unreliable preliminarily, that Stefanoni's work lacked "transparency", that Vecchiotti and Conti's "method" should be taken at face value (Bongiorno knows C&V's intellectual honesty was called manifestly questionable by the Supreme Court ), that this and that allele in the bra clasp DNA should not be considered because, etc.
She also knows that this court will not allow pieces of evidence to be considered separately from each other in a parcelled out way, and that imperfection of single pieces themselves do not work as a logical argument. Even less could she dismiss the evidence based on political and anthropological theories.
From the fact that she was setting afoot on a trial of the investigation instead of battling the evidence, the rational listener infers that she is well aware of the weakness of her position, since it implies that the evidence set as the battleground would be indefensible. She needs to search for another terrain of attack, a different structure, as the only possible move.
But there is also another implication. She does need to engage and draw attention to areas where she could "win" something, but this also means that her intent was to "soften" the accusation, to work it out at the flanks rather than face it frontally; to reduce the size of some fundamentals, the "excess" of the accusation.
In other words, to shorten the sentence. And if possible, to separate Sollecito's position from that of Amanda Knox, albeit within the boundaries of her client's plea.
Her strategy of attack had a reason, that was to try to soften the accusatory attitude against Sollecito. Besides being risky (may sound extremely unconvincing) the strategy was also loaded with implicit meanings.
What was most stunning to me "" as it was a recurrent topic through her whole speech "" was the concept of "half". She picked up this introductive theme several times, such as while speaking about the medical findings explaining that only "half" the length of the blade would be used, if a knife so large as Sollecito's kitchen knife was used, saying that, in this event, this would mean the perpetrator did not intend to kill and killing was the effect of "mistake", an involuntary movement.
The importance of the length of the big blade and its "half" was emphasized by a waving of knifes, in a quite impressive theatrical performance: "Either the big wound was made by a smaller knife" that was held by "someone else" or the knife was "plunged only by half" showing there was no intent to kill.
All this is to be coupled with the fact that, as said above, she devoted a main portion of her 6-hour speech to discussing things that are fossils, elements not existing any more.
She dealt later with other pieces of evidence too, though in a way that seemed somehow marginal, and she did not deal with some of them at all - the inconsistencies in Knox's account, for example, were left completely out.
She was not that kind with Knox's written memorials either, calling them "farneticanti" (waffling, raving).
I noted her complaining about Raffaele being "halved", as his character is portrayed as depending on Amanda's and thus seen as equally guilty insofar he was Amanda's half "" and this effect is somehow transferred to pieces of evidence.
Bongiorno's rhetoric emphasizes that Sollecito was accused on "half" pieces of evidence (you perceive that the metaphorical repeating of "half" implies that evidence actually exists, "by half", and at the same time this complaint about being seen as "half" of something is a subliminal suggestion that the defendants should be considered separately, and their charges as well, thus maybe their responsibilities if considered separately may be different; and when it comes to discussing how the murderer used only half of the blade, the subliminal suggestion is bring down the charge by half, involuntary event/manslaughter versus voluntary murder).
The Mark of Infamy
Giulia Bongiorno picked on the investigators and acted as if she was putting the investigation on trial not because she thought that this would lkead to the defendants being found innocent, but exactly for the opposite reason, because she expected them to be found guilty.
Insults against Prosecutor General Crini, against witnesses and and gratuitous accusations are a risky path but they are also an overt attempt to "soften" the investigation scenario, rather than fight it frontally.
She had no hope to make her client look innocent, her only hope was to soften the strength of the accusation, to make him look less guilty, not so bad as the investigators saw him.
She pursued this in two ways, by suggesting that he should not be seen as the "half" of another perp but rather his responsibility should be considered separately, only that evidence which proves directly against him (Bongiorno repeatedly pointed out that Knox did not utter his name in her interrogation and statement), his actual responsibility might be much lesser than the charge for which he is accused.
The other arm of the defence's pincer move, the second way to try diminish the accusation, was to portray the investigators in bad light. The "˜excess' of accusation was to lay blame on investigators for their bias and errors.
Bongiorno's attack against the investigation might be intended to achieve a psychological effect due to comparative process.
If you consider how the police are responsible for "˜excesses' and disputable behaviours, you may think the investigators have been prone to gross mistakes that lead to exaggerating Sollecito's implication, thus the accusation should be not be taken at face value and should be corrected. Maybe the correct assessment of evidence proves he not as much implicated as they had thought.
This seemed to be Sollecito's own defence strategy, albeit implicit, since Bongiorno must restrain her action within the boundaries of her client's plea.
In order to follow her strategy, however, Giulia Bongiorno decided to take a few steps which must be pointed out as particularly reprehensible and infamous.
I was surprised and stunned by those action because they qualify the character of Giulia Bongiorno as far worse than I thought, I really did not expect her to stoop so low.
The infamous part of Bongiorno's speech is her gratuitous name calling and defamatory attack against Anna Donnino, her attempt to smear her professional reputation and the rude insult in calling her a "˜psychic'.
In real life Anna Donnino is a very respected professional, she has been working for the Questura on tasks of interpreter and language mediator (not as a "˜translator').
She is also an intelligent person, she is precise and expresses herself with the utmost clarity as her lucid testimony shows.
She is known not only for having unquestionable professional ethics, but also she has an excellent reputation as a person; she is honest and humane and known by everybody for her extremely reassuring, protective temperament, and for her expertise and excellent performance of working with people.
She would help immigrants in difficulty to express themselves and understand their rights and was priceless helping the police to obtain precise information in their investigations.
As an expert in chuchotage and linguistic mediation from two foreign languages, the professional quality of her work is excellent. Her training and work is of interpreter and language mediator although sometimes shee is given translating tasks such as the translation of recordings and wiretappings.
The Questura of Perugia used to hire "˜language mediators' at the time. You don't know what a language mediator is? See a university course for a degree in Language Mediation.
The Questuras of some bigger cities also have "˜cultural mediators' in addition. They are mother-tongue trained to deal with African or Chinese immigrants (one of the many young people having their internship as cultural mediator in a Questura is shown here.)
To me, this defamatory attack against Donnino was most disturbing. By doing this Bongiorno came across as surprisingly mean, I'd say what she did was really infamous.
Indeed this was not the only virulent attack, it came after insults to the city of Perugia as she was comparing its citizens to a mob of blood-thirsty fanatics.
This attack too is also particularly vicious, since it exploits, inflames and is subtly synergic with the tones of lies and prejudices disseminated by a perfidious propaganda strategy.
But at a certain point, Bongiorno focused the defamation against one person. As she unfolded a narrative about Anna Donnino acting as a "˜psychic' who managed to hypnotize, to gaslight Knox to the point of inducing a state of trance in which she mistook a dream for reality, some people couldn't help laughing in the courtroom.
But even if we consider the surreal and comical rather than the convincing effect, the defamatory intent stands out as reprehensible and humanly vicious.
This is because, as I said above, these particular insults were directed against a person distinguishable for her being a most decent, honest and trustworthy character, and also "" a further reason "" because of the recent events for which this person experienced personal suffering: Anna Donnino, a mother of teenagers, has been struck with cancer, and has undergone surgery.
She is under treatment but still currently remains in very bad health.
The attack against Anna Donnino is an action that rebounds as an ugly stain on the reputation of those who launched it. A young man from Perugia created a Facebook group to express a the citizens' "hate" for those who lead a defamatory campaign of lies against the city. He collected over two thousand likes within three days.
Some of the comments were about Bongiorno's insults against the city and against respected citizens, pointing out her outrageous hypocrisy since Giulia Bongiorno poses as a campaigner for the respect and dignity of women.
(a StripBit comment by a poster on a Facebook group)
Criticism of Giulia Bongriorno pointing out her hypocrisy is actually not a novelty, it has appeared long since in the press and on the internet.
But it's hard to understand how someone like her, promoting an image of herself as an advocate for women and for correctness and respect in language and culture, could take such a an egregiously visible false step, come out with such stupid stereotypical rants, only for what looks like an awkward and useless cause.
A note for the record: we may recall Bongiorno has also attacked the Perugian police officers, citing the recording of some of their phone conversations in which they say bad words about the Sollecito family.
We can understand her outrage (at least we could, if only she were not the hypocrite she is) but at the same time we can't fail to notice that she "forgot" to mention another half of the phone call recordings.
Specifically those where the members of the Sollecito family were speaking about the police officers; and the kind of language they were using, while attempting to plot "˜under the table' help from some politician.
Expressing their intent to "˜scorch' officers and "˜destroy' magistrates, and one person even suggested that if he met Monica Napoleoni on the road, he would kill her by "˜running over her with the car' then flee without telling anything, pretending that nothing happened.
Never mind.
After these last sparkles and the knife waving Bongiorno's performance was over. In the following day's hearing it was Maori's turn. As a really last resort, he was taking on the task of disputing evidence in a more "traditional" way, objecting to points of evidence.
Possibly this revealed even more the extreme weakness of the defensive argument (a commenter called it "˜pathetic'). I did not listen to his argument myself, I only notice that he did not get much space neither in the press nor in the pro-Knox commenting sites; this might be a clue of how unconvincing he might have been.
One thing that however I could learn about it, is about the feeling, the perception that Maori pointed out even more the separation between the two positions of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.
A hint about this comes in the words of a journalist who was questioning Alessandro Nencini in the lounge immediately after the verdict: the journalist pointed out how Sollecito defence "tried to split the positions of the two accused".
This mild attempt of a separation was the last act by the defence. As for Raffaele Sollecito himself, we were left with his rather different claim, his book where he described himself as sticking to a "˜honour bound'.
He reportedly bragged about this also with his ex-girlfriend Kelsey Kay, who described him as feeling very entitled because of his loyalty to Amanda Knox and believing she owes him a vital a favour; but Knox won't even respond to his messages.
Then, we had his final admission in an interview that his friendship with Amanda Knox has "˜deteriorated', because apparently Knox in practice no longer supports him as before.
If his defence advisors understood that they needed to somehow "˜separate' his position from Knox's at any cost, despite his plea, to suggest he may be implicated but just "˜less' guilty, we may only agree with them on this. It would also be convenient for him to confess even if he shared the same degree of guilt of Knox.
Sadly, instead he still felt compelled to offer further lies and changing stories such as"˜I noticed no blood on the bathmat' when questioned by Kate Couric; he offered again a story of pricking Meredith's hand while cooking together at the cottage.
Other murderers, who committed even more heinous crimes, have recovered and rehabilitated themselves after time spent in prison; even some of those deemed among the worst serial killers managed to do this by expressing remorse "" for example the rather psychopathic "˜Ludwig' (Furlan & Abel) killers.
Sure after the years he will spend in jail for the gang-like crime he is found guilty of, there would be a possibility for a "˜casual murderer' such as he is to be perceived as rehabilitated. But to see him as "˜less guilty' or as "˜rehabilitated' would be impossible as long as he remains silent or denies.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
How Claims By Perpetrators & Their PR That THEY Are Victims Get Equal Pushback
Posted by Peter Quennell
[Florence prosecutor Giambartolomei will soon confront many false claims ]
To the considerable pain of victims and their loved ones, Italy's has become one of the most pro-defendant justice and penal systems in the world.
That doesn't mean that it has become a complete pussycat. Push it, and it usually pushes back harder in its search for the truth. And the quality Italian media goes along.
Time and again the ill-conceived short-term PR and legal tactics for Knox and Sollecito based on a hurricane of lies have left them in terms of the ultimate end-game worse off than they were before.
Judge Matteini and Judge Micheli (the judges in 2008) both took firm lines with the copious evidence and the psychological tests of AK and RS in front of them.
Both judges took a line as firm as the prosecution (as firm as the "evil Mignini") in concluding that there was a drug-fueled hazing escalating to murder with sexual aspects (however short the timescale of the intent).
[Ed note: See comment by Yummi below which explains the above a little differently. PQ.]
Though his panel of judges voted unanimously for guilt, Judge Massei in 2009 did take a somewhat less firm line in the sentences, after observing one daffy defendant and one very nervous defendant sitting in front of him for nearly a year. Judge Massei for no especially convincing reason
(1) pinned the initiating of the attack on Rudy Guede (really?!) and
(2) handed Knox and Sollecito (and thus Guede) quite a break with his supposed "mitigating circumstances" (the duvet over Meredith's body) resulting in 20 years lopped off their combined sentences.
Both the defenses and the PR were weak and largely futile in that year. But come 2010 the dirty tricks moved into overdrive.
Cassation reverted to the firmer line in January 2011 when it ruled on Guede's final appeal: Guede was a party to the murder, but copious evidence proved he did not act alone.
The Hellmann appeal court and DNA consultancy and verdict of 2011 were corrupted (counter-measures are still quietly playing out) which fully explains its startling soft line.
Thereafter the Italian courts observed the illegal blood-money binge with the essentially fictional books of Sollecito and Knox, and two years of them each claiming to ill-prepared interviewers "we're the real victims" on TV.
Cassation observed all of this, annulled the corrupted Hellmann court verdict, and issued instructions in June 2013 to the Florence appeal court to ensure that the firm line should be maintained. Unsurprisingly, we have seen a firm line from the chief prosecutor (Crini) and a seeming firm line from the lead judge (Nencini) in recent weeks.
In the rest of this year Italy will see at minimum these events where the court's firm line will go on and the babbling and unhelpful legal and PR tactics may finally dry up.
- 1) RS and AK continuing to babble for a while on TV as they each dig the other one deeper. Sollecito has just said that his saliva or sneezing may explain why his DNA was on the clasp of the bra.
2) The sentencing report of Judge Nencini is due at the latest on 30 April and he seems likely to give space to rebuttals of any bizarre new claims made by Knox and Sollecito before 30 April like the one just above.
3) The obstruction of justice trials of witness Luciano Aviello and incessant meddlers Mario Spezi and Frank Sforza will continue, probably though into 2015. Each of those trials could result in others (like Spezi ally Doug Preston and Sforza allies Bruce Fischer and Steve Moore) being declared at minimum persons of interest if not actually charged.
4) Florence prosecutor Giambartolomei Firenze (image above) may soon be announcing which passages in Sollecito's book Honor Bound criminally defame Italian officials or deliberately miscontrue hard facts in evidence in an illegal attempt to to poison public opinion against the court.
5) Similarly soon after on Amanda Knox's book with the surreal title Waiting To Be Heard (and on Knox articles and interviews in Oggi) by the chief prosecutor in Bergamo.
6) Cassation's First Chambers should be the one to handle Knox's and Sollecito's final appeal. They handle murder cases and they issued the guidance to Florence in 2010.
7) If so, they should take note of such revelations by way of Judge Nencini's and Prosecutor Crini's reports; and this next autumn or winter may finally declare a firm "confirmed guilty" final-appeal outcome and invite Knox to come back.
And when prosecutor Giambartolomei Firenze announces which claims are radiocative, hopefully a major hush will come over Heavey, Fischer, Bremner and Moore.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Power Shift In Italy Very Unfavorable To Anyone So Stupid As To Thumb Their Noses At Italian Justice
Posted by Peter Quennell
Meet 39-year-old Matteo Renzi
Mr Renzi was sworn in by the President of the Italian Republic on Saturday as the new Prime Minister of Italy. As a top German newssite remarks, he is looking like a much-needed breath of fresh air.
Mr Renzi is colorful and dynamic and very popular, and may become one of the most effective leaders in recent Italian history and a major player on the world stage. Mr Renzi comes from FLORENCE where he was the popular and effective mayor.
Unlike the Berlusconi faction in parliament (which once included Giulia Bongiorno) Mr Renzi is a big friend of law and order, police, and justice. In the image at bottom you can see him opening the huge Palace of Justice in Florence with all the top officers of the court who just organized the appeal.
This is very bad news for Sollecito and Knox and their foolish gangs, as Mr Renzi will be very unlikely to look kindly on that same Florence court - and any court in Italy including, especially, Cassation - being flouted by convicted perps and made to look weak.
If the new Minister of Justice sends an extradition request to his desk, you can bet that he'll send it on to the United States. And the US, very keen to stay on good terms with Italy as one of its 2-3 most reliable allies, will exhibit little if any resistance to the extradition of Knox.
More bad news for Sollecito and Knox
The sardonic Italian media is paying very close attention to the ongoing game of each of them pushing the other closer to the flames, and the almost-certain prospect of the two of them and Rudy Guede explosively flying apart.
The Italian media is picking up on signs that Sollecito has become highly resentful at his on-again off-again rejection by Knox, especially as many or most in Italy believe it was Knox who wielded the big knife that killed Meredith to which the other two had maybe not signed on in advance.
There are additional pressures headed down the pike. First, Rudy Guede will be given brief study leaves soon, and under Italy's new "clear the over-crowded prisons (somewhat)" law Guede could even soon see himself released and free to talk.
Plus the investigators examining the criminal defamation of the justice system and officers of the court by Knox and Sollecito in their exceptionally foolish books are believed very close to announcing that a case against them has been made.
Sollecito's father on national TV has already admitted that Raffaele lied about a deal to get him off, and this on Knox seems an open & shut case. Knox and Sollecito might face additional sentences of 3 to 7 years if they keep provoking a hard line.
Here are two articles translated by Miriam which summarise (not perfectly in our terms but good enough) the signs of the growing divide and the evidence that will see Knox and Sollecito back in prison.
Amanda Knox Will Return to Italy and Go to Jail, as Will Raffaele Sollecito, While Rudy Guede Will Be Freed
This scenario is not only plausible, but seems to be the natural outcome of the last sentencing of the Mez case. Few believe that the Corte di Cassazione could overturn, again, the verdict of the Corte d'Assise d'Appello of Florence.
So Amanda Knox will return to Italy and go to jail. For Amanda Knox, "her extradition is quite possible" Christopher Blakesely say without equivocation. He is one of the main experts on such penal proceeding in the United States.
The day after the verdict of the Corte d'Assise d'Appello of Florence, Giovanna Botteri, the RAI correspondent in the USA, reported something similar, underlining that Amanda rushed to CNN to cry all her tears didnt help.
Knox uses even the social networks to scream again her innocence, but the law says something different.
Even Italian popular opinion seems not in Amanda's favor : Perugia, through the social networks, has literally screamed its disagreement and displeasure against Amanda (read: L'Urlo di Perugia: a Facebook page against Knox: from the people of Perugia)....
Rudy is at the moment the only one sentenced in jail…. How does Rudy reconstruct that night? Rudy swears to having consensual sex with Mez.
After the intimate relation Guede went to the bathroom and from there he heard her scream, rushing to her room he found her in a pool of blood, and tried to help her. Realizing that Meredith was dead, in shock he ran away.
On the plausibility of this reconstruction, the judges had numerous doubts, to the point of finding Guede guilty and sentencing him.
This reconstruction, according to his lawyers, explains not only the biological traces of Rudy all over the crime scene but also his flight.
How does Amanda reconstruct that night?
Amanda continues to sustain that she did not wield the knife that killed Mez, that she heard her scream while she was in the kitchen and that she covered her ears like a scared child.
The "whys" are many and heavy. Why did Amanda accused Patrick Lumumba, incarcerated for 14 days while innocent, due to her ignominious accusations? Why on the knife used for the murder are there traces of Mez and Amanda?
Knox DNA was on the handle of the knife that killed Meredith: only because she used it to cut potatoes? The alibi of the potato has always been used by Knox and her lawyers, but it is plausible?
And Raffaele Sollecito?
One of the most decisive evidence against Sollecito in the first trial was the bloody foot print on the bathroom math. In the appeal process that footprint was challenged, it was said that it could be not Sollecito's and was ascribed to Guede with benefit of doubt .
Now it seems certain that Rudy was wearing shoes ,as is demonstrated by other prints at the scene of the crime, thus the bloody footprint goes back to being ascribed to Sollecito.
Why is Rudy Guede in jail while Amanda and Raffaele are on the loose?
After the verdict of the Corte d'Assise d'Appello of Florence the appeal to the Cassazione, was announced, while waiting for the Cassazione, the guilty Raffaele Sollecito had to hand over his passport in order to make it impossible for him to leave Italy.
Right after the sentence Sollecito was stopped in Udine about 60km from the Italy/Austrian border and about 40km from the Slovenian border.
Before the verdict of Corte D'Assise d'Appello of Florence Sollecito was a free man, and therefore legally in possession of a passport and the right to cross the border.
Sollecito, instead of waiting for the verdict in the court room, around 12 o'clock that day left with his new girlfriend and arrived in Udine [in north-east Ital]..
Around night time during a snow storm the two of them took refuge in an hotel , and the owner recognizing Sollecito by name, alerted the police that promptly arrived in order to confiscate Sollecito's passport as decided by the Court.
Sollecito told the media that he had no intention of fleeing the Country.
One can ask what Sollecito was doing in Udine then, a few hours after his guilty verdict. To excuse Sollecito one can perhaps say that the young man was overpowered by anguish and fear, in fact up to today
Sollecito had never seemed to want to evade justice, instead he was usually in the Courtroom.
Amanda in contrast was not sanctioned with any precautionary measures. She arrived in America as a free citizen after the not guilty verdict.
Now, if and when the Cassazione confirms the verdict of the last proceeding, America needs to extradite Amanda and remit her in the hands of the Italian Justice…
America is tied to Italy by sanction accords by name of international laws, thus if the Cassazione upholds the guilty verdict, Amanda must return to Italy. Nothing makes one think that America could oppose an extradition.
Rudy Guede is the only guilty one in jail at the moment. His detention was confirmed after a fast track trial, decided by his layers, and his detention was 16 years in jail. (with time off for the fast track trial)
Not many know that while the doors of the prison may soon open for Amanda and Raffaele,, for Rudy instead "freedom" may be close by.
Thanks to the new decree passed last December by the Parliament, Rudy could leave the prison where he is detained. Guede is one of 3 thousand detainees who could benefit from the "empty the prisons" decree.
Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox are close to a break up after the sentencing..
Raffaele wrote Amanda a letter saying: "Amanda I am tired. I don't want to be punished, neither do I want to continue to give justifications for matters that concern you and not me".
Amanda says "I understand him but: I want to say that Raffaele is not my slave and I am not his oppressor. Raffaele has many reasons to be resentful, but not with me."
The bond between the two, accused of the homicide of Meredith Kercher, is cracking. A bond that lasted from that horrible night of November1st 2007, when in a house in Perugia, via della Pergola, their English friend was savagely killed.
Looking at a concrete possibility that the Judges of the Cassazione will confirm the sentencing which condemned Amanda and Raffaele to 28 years of jail for her and 26 for him, the two ex-lovers are starting to distance themselves from each other.
Amanda took a picture of herself holding a sign that read "we are innocent" so as to underline a common faith, from which Raffaele can't dissociate. Not anymore.
Raffaele after six years may be starting to understand that being Amanda's "fiancé" did not help him at all. He said this to Giulio, in an interview a few months ago, and now in an interview to CNN:
In the Judges head I must be guilty because I was Amanda's boy-friend. It does not make any sense for me. According to the Judges because in some way I supported Amanda, I must be implicated. According to me this is aberrant. My standing has not been just ignored, but completely forgotten. In all the proceedings I was not part of them unless for the scientific investigations.
For many, many hearings the topic was my DNA, but nobody said nothing of the reason why I was accused of the homicide except the fact that I was Amanda's boy-friend and because I was with her very often and spent many nights with her, I had to be in some way connected with the homicide.
Is Raffaele's defense thinking of ditching the girl? Is Raffaele ready to tell the truth of what happened that night? Now Raffaele is in Bari, and is thinking over what happened to him. He reveals:
I discussed with my friends and family the possibility of going abroad a year ago, but I cannot accept the fact of leaving all the people who are dear to me for a theory. I had no motive to hurt Meredith Kercher.
Now I have no light in my future. They took away my passport and I.D. card, and I do not know if I can realize my dreams, or anything I want to do. I do not accept that my future is destroyed.
Too often, though, Amanda and Raffaele forget to mention that Meredith's life really was destroyed.
Against Amanda and Raffaele there are scientific evidence, bloody footprints on the floor, DNA on the bra clasp and knife, and the many contradictions in their alibis.
From the beginning their behavior caused the carabinieri to be suspicious of them.
Without forgetting the spontaneous confession of Amanda of being in the house while her friend was being murdered. "I have a vision of being in the kitchen, covering my ears while they kill her." She even gave the name of the killer Patrick Lumumba, her boss, who was then discovered to be innocent.
The attempt to divert the investigation, pointing the finger against an innocent man, is evidence of the quilt of Amanda.
Even Raffaele changed versions more than once. In one of the interrogations he said Amanda was not with him that night and arrived at his apartment in the early hours of the morning. He then said he smoked too much marijuana and could not recall what happened that night.
In the meantime Rudy Guede, 27 years old, condemned to 16 years for the murder of Meredith Kercher, with others, writes:
Now that my verdict is definite, for too long the judicial reasoning have been subjected to a continuous and willful manipulation and alteration of the data of the proceedings… I would like to point out that I do not accept being labeled as a homeless man, drifter, and a thief; when instead I had a splendid family and precious and clean friendships in Perugia.
Amanda Knox's defense team wants to pass him off as a habitual thief. Rudy adds: " "Meredith's house was turned upside down, someone simulated a break in. I was not condemned for this simulated break-in."
If it was not Rudy, then who?
Tuesday, February 04, 2014
Defense Dirty Tricks: Did We Just See Yet Another One, An Attempt To Compromise Judge Nencini?
Posted by Jools
Judge Nencini offers corrections
This is my translation of a statement from Judge Necini carried by the Florence GoNews website.
"In relation to the press articles that reported my statements on the trial for the death of Meredith Kercher I intend to point out that there has been no interview organized or pre-arranged.
I ran into some journalists in the corridors of the courthouse who told me of the rumors and speculations that were being circulated on the duration of the deliberation session.
I then had a brief talk with them meant, in my intention, to clarify possible misunderstandings. In this I accept responsibility, reaffirming that I did not agree to disclose in any way the reasons for the sentence. In particular, I have not expressed any opinion on the strategy procedure followed by the defence of the accused.
In fact the only reference to that matter, reported in the article that appeared in Il Messaggero, is one in which I stated that the accused were defended in the process to a 'very high standard.'
If my words have generated misunderstandings on this point and on the absolute legality of the choice of an accused to make spontaneous statements I regret it.
These explanations are dutybound for the respect I owe to the people who participated in the process with me and to the [Law] System of which I'm proud to be a part of; as well as for consistency in my professional history, with over thirty years of work carried out without spotlights and without interviews."
Context for those corrections
This is in relation to the previous days articles claiming Judge Nencini supposedly gave an "inappropriate" interview to the press.
In very short order three or four lay members of the Superior Council of Magistrates (CSM) laid a complaint about non-appropriate conduct (under Art. 6 of the CSM rules) for a presiding appeal court judge to give press interviews commenting on the motivations reached by the judges on any sentence before its official publication.
Not surprisingly, the first people to complain were Bongiorno and Maori (grasping at straws, much?!!) and then to follow were these three or four lay members of the CSM, who happen to be also members of the centre-right political party "Forza Italia" (Berlusconi's party).
As a result of the complaint made by these people, the Justice Minister, Annamaria Cancelleri, ordered an inquest on the allegations against Judge Nencini which could have led to his reprimand for disclosing details of the verdict reached to the press.
Personally, I think this all results from the desperation of Sollelcito's defense and they have erncourgaed the others to instigate it. Making a meal out of nothing, in the hope that the whole appeal trial gets thrown out.
And let's face it, it wouldn't be difficult for Bongiorno to find some of Berlusconi's people that are always looking for ways to attack members of the judiciary given Berlusconi's hatred for the system. Just my opinion…
In any case, the allegations seem to be false, Judge Nencini actually didn't say much, and the inquest will prove it, but in the meantime the press is concentrating on this rather than the hopeless work the defense produced. This maybe is the whole objective.
The later, longer interview
The interview by Fiorenza Sarzanini with Judge Nencini the following morning is claimed to be quite legal, because the decision of the court had been published the previous evening.
Andre Vogt kindly posted a very accurate translation on The Freelance Desk, and as it will scroll down soon and be hard to find, we can repost the full interview here.
Posted 1 February
Italy's most influential newspaper, the Corriere Della Sera, this morning has published a fascinating long interview with Judge Alessandro Nencini about his reasons for convicting Amanda Knox. The interview was done by one of the newspaper's most veteran crime and investigative reporters, Fiorenza Sarzanini. Click here to read the original.
HEADLINE: Amanda and Raffaele: The Judge Speaks
SUBHEAD: "I have children too; it was a huge burden."
SUBHEAD2: "The defense had asked to separate the positions of the two accused, but Raffaele would not allow himself to be questioned."
By Fiorenza Sarzanini
"I feel relieved because the moment of the decision is the most difficult. I have children too, and handing down convictions of 25 and 28 years for two young people is a very hard thing, emotionally."
It is 10 am the day after the verdict and Justice Alessandro Nencini is in his office. The President of the Florentine Court of Appeals, which two days ago found Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito guilty of the murder of Meredith Kercher, knows that the decision will "open up new debate, especially in the media", but that is exactly why he agreed to explain how the verdict was reached.
You deliberated in chambers for 12 hours. Was the judicial panel divided?
"The case files took up half of the room. There are 30 expert reports. The lay judges, who aren't court staff, had to read all the documentation to reach a joint decision, as is expected in the appeals court. You have to review all the documents, think about them, and reason. We did that using all the time that was necessary, and taking into account the fact that the victim was also a young girl.
And then the decision was unanimous?
"I spoke of a joint decision. I can say that in all these months and in particular during the last session of deliberations, we carefully considered the gravity of a verdict that involves young people and their entire families. This is a case that has consumed many lives."
Yours was a narrow path, the Court of Cassation had urged you to remedy the Perugia appeal decision that had acquitted the two accused.
"Not so, we had maximum flexibility. The only restriction was that in the case of acquittal, we would have to have give reasons based on logic. There was no other binding restriction."
Not even with regard to the decision handed down in Rudy Guede's case?
"Effectively the specifics of the case was this: there was a person already convicted via fast-track, and definitively, for concourse in the same homicide. The Court of Cassation was asking us to consider who participated and their roles. We could have said that the two accused weren't there, and then provided convincing reasoning, but we did not believe this to be the truth."
Why didn't you question Guede?
"For what purpose? He has never confessed and even if we had called him, he had the right to remain silent. We didn't think it was necessary. Rather, we felt it was important to study the other aspects more in depth. In fact we requested an expert report and heard witnesses about which there were doubts. That is the role of the appeal judges. In four months, we've been able to arrive at a result."
Sollecito's lawyers had asked you to split the defence.
"We'll explain the point more in the reasonings, where we will explain why we rejected that request. In any case, Sollecito did not want to be questioned during the trial."
And this influenced your choice to convict him?
"It is the defendant's right, but certainly it removes a voice from the trial proceedings. He limited himself to making spontaneous declarations, saying only what he wanted to say, without being cross examined."
Over the years, various motives have been speculated. What idea did you yourselves form?
"We convicted and we will explain it explicitly in our reasoning. For now, I can say that up until 20:15 of that evening, these young people all had different plans, then their commitments fell through and the occasion for this to happen was created. If Amanda had gone to work, we probably wouldn't be here."
Are you saying that the murder was just a coincidence?
"I'm saying this was something that unfolded between these young people. There may have been coincidences, and we've taken it into the reasoning. I'm aware this will be the most debatable part."
Cassation demolished the acquittal. Will you as well?
"We are not going to mention it. We simply have to focus on the decision in the first instance (Massei) which we confirmed, on the facts.
And you don't believe that there were errors?
"I didn't say that. Some I believe there may have been and I'll point them out."
You convicted Amanda Knox, but didn't issue any precautionary measures against her. Why?
"She is legally in the United States. At the moment of the offence she was in Italy to study and she went home after having been acquitted. She is an American citizen. The problem will arise when it is time to carry out the sentence. For now I don't believe that such a measure wouuld have been necessary."
So why then have you confiscated Raffaele Sollecito's passport?
"It was the agreed minimum. In these cases such measures serve as prevention. We want to avoid that he makes himself impossible to find during the period of waiting for a definitive judgment."
And you believe being forbidden to leave the country is enough?
"Yes, that seemed more than sufficient to us. If there are other developments later, we will consider them."
Monday, February 03, 2014
Authors Of "Math On Trial" Bring The Explanations Of The Hard DNA Evidence Up To Date
Posted by Peter Quennell
The important new book in question Math On Trial is by mathematicians Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez who is Leila's daughter.
This article by Leila Schneps appeared in yesterday's edition of The Independent and explains why the Nencini court has not ruled out any of the DNA evidence.
It's not right to say there is "˜no evidence' in the case against Amanda Knox. There's plenty
The DNA alone is enough to raise questions
The verdict handed down yesterday at the new appeal trial for Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, accused of the murder of British citizen Meredith Kercher in Italy in November 2007, may come as a surprise to those whose view of the case has been affected by an international media blitz based on the oft-repeated claim "There is no evidence". Many believe that Rudy Guede, convicted in October 2008 for participating in the murder, acted alone.
There is, however, copious evidence to consider: the DNA alone is enough to raise questions. Leaving aside much of it, let's focus for a moment on three key pieces of DNA evidence and present them from both sides, just as the jury may have heard them spoken of in court.
First "" the bra clasp.
The part of the victim's bra containing the hooks had been ripped or slashed from the rest of her bra. Not immediately collected on that first day after the murder, it remained in the room in a sealed house for six weeks before being sent to the lab in December. There, it was tested and found to contain a large sample of Meredith's DNA, together with a smaller but clearly visible contribution from Sollecito. The defence objections: firstly, between the two searches, objects in the crime room had been moved around, and indeed the bra clasp was found about a metre away from its original position.
Secondly, apart from "˜alleles' - genetic traces - of Meredith and Sollecito on the clasp, there were a few unidentifiable extra ones. Putting these two facts together, the defence pointed out that Sollecito's DNA on the bra clasp could have been a consequence of a careless police technician stepping on Sollecito's DNA elsewhere in the flat and then entering the room and stepping on the bra clasp, even though no DNA of Sollecito was found anywhere else in the house except on a single cigarette butt in the ashtray.
Second "" the mixed stain.
Although not visible to the naked eye, the chemical Luminol which flashes blue on contact with blood revealed a spot in the room of the flatmate whose window had been smashed and room rifled. Swabbing the spot produced a mixture of Amanda and Meredith's DNA. This is a clear proof that the murderer entered that bedroom after the murder, as someone must have brought Meredith's blood into the room, contradicting the defence theory that Rudy Guede broke into the house and then committed the murder.
The usual defence explanation for mixed DNA stains in the bathroom and corridor, namely that the house would have been coated in Amanda's DNA given that she lived there, does not necessarily apply to a flatmate's bedroom. It is much harder to leave traces of DNA than is commonly conceived, and hardly any of Amanda's DNA was found in her own room - where she surely spent a lot more time than in her flatmate's.
Lastly "" the knife.
Days after the murder, a large kitchen knife was seized in Raffaele's flat, where Meredith had never set foot. Police geneticist, Patrizia Stefanoni, swabbed spots on the blade of the knife and on the handle in the knife's first DNA Test. One spot in particular attracted her attention: a visible scratch on the flat of the blade. The swab taken from this scratch yielded a positive ID for Meredith Kercher.
By the third trial, when a new attempt was made to collect DNA from the knife (which had been swabbed again during the appeal trial, though no tests were then conducted) there was no match to Meredith "" a result welcomed by Knox's defence team, though it did not in fact impact on the findings of the first trial.
Stefanoni's test "" she only conducted the first - came under strong fire in the courtroom. Two independent expert witnesses called in for the appeal against Knox and Sollecito's original 2009 conviction stated that she had not worked in conformity with standard international protocol. Indeed, standard protocol for DNA testing involves three steps: first determining how much DNA is in a sample, secondly amplification, which reproduces the sample millions of times, and thirdly electrophoresis which produces the familiar DNA graphs showing peaks in the location of an individual's alleles. Under cross-examination, Stefanoni explained that quantification had given a result of "too low" as the machine she used that day was not the most sensitive one in the lab.
Knowing that samples undetectable by the machine can still be sufficient to yield positive results, she chose to continue with testing. At the second stage of testing, amplification, a sample will normally be split into two or more pieces in order to run independent tests. But knowing that the sample was small, Stefanoni feared that cutting it in two would yield no result at all, and chose to amplify the entire sample in one unrepeatable test. The end result was a perfect match to Meredith Kercher.
Knox's supporters have claimed since the beginning that the accusations levied against her are based on the Italian justice system's hatred of a pretty, American girl who likes parties and having sex. And whilst both parties protest their innocence , Thursday's decision shows that there is real evidence against her and Sollecito, that cannot be ignored.
Guide For Smart Media: Note Extensive Hard Evidence In Exceptionally Fair, Careful Legal Process
Posted by Media Watcher
[Accurate Italian media recreation of attack based on masses of closed court evidence 2009]
Vital media history in 2009
In Italy and Europe generally the guilt of the two is almost universally perceived.
One reason is that although about 1/4 of the trial in 2009 was behind closed doors (quite the opposite of the "tabloid storm" and "show trial" Americans have been told about) Italians in particular got to find out about the long (15 minutes), remorseless, highly sadistic attack on Meredith.
Click here for the rest
Friday, January 31, 2014
Appeal Session #10 Images: The Attorney General Of Tuscany Dr Tindari Baglione Breaks The News
Posted by The TJMK Main Posters
This help with translation happened right after Judge Nencini finished reading the verdict and sentences yesterday
Below: images of Lyle and Stephanie earlier in the long tense day
Appeal Session #10 Images: The Two Judges And Six Lay Judges Deliver The Guilty Verdict
Posted by The TJMK Main Posters
The statement is sharp and quite brief. Judge Nencini confirms that both Knox and Sollecito are confirmed guilty. The 2009 Massei verdict is upheld.
The sentences are 25 years in priosn for Raffaele Sollecito and 28.6 years in rpison for Amanda Knox including the 3.8 years for the calunnia already served. Each must also incur financial penalties.
Both may be locked in the sex offenders wings as both were confirmed convicted with a sex-crime component. Both may face further charges for false accusations of crimes in their books and in the media, as may some of their more strident "supporters".
Few in the US and UK seem to realize, but the evidence presented at trial in the first half of 2009 was in fact overwhelming. In the US and UK it is probable no appeal would even have been allowed, as the appeal grounds were so flimsy.
Nothing was undermined at the Florence appeal. In fact the evidence became STRONGER as another trace of Knox was found on the big knife. Innuendo about DNA contamination was sharply rejected in face of zero evidence or even scenario.
Please read our case overview here which links to some vital posts and touches on several of the defense's illegal tricks.
That includes the corrupting of the 2011 appeal, which is well understood in Italy but not registering with most US and UK media - Sndrea Vogt has begun reporting on part of it, the illegal meddling with the Hellmann DNA consultancy
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Appeal Session #10: After Defense Remarks Panel Of Judges Reaches Its Decision: BOTH GUILTY
Posted by The TJMK Main Posters
Verdict: Both are confirmed guilty
The Massei verdict is upheld. The sentences are 25 years for Raffaerle Sollecito and 28.6 years for Amanda Knox. Sollecito is to have his passport taken away.
For Knox they could issue a worldwide Interpol Red Notice for immediate arrest around the world, even before going for extradition, to stop her dishonest self-serving blabberings.
Take a look at our conjectures down the bottom of this post on the judges' deliberations. Looks like we got One, Two and Four right and Knox will be named in the judges report as the prime instigator.
That will hardly help her resist extradition. And it will please Guede and Sollecito, who both always hint at that.
To CNN: yet again this is NOT double jeopardy. Read the extradition treaty. It was ONE valid trial (2009) and now ONE valid and failed appeal (2014). Not two trials.
Tweets from our main poster Machiavelli
26. All these many thanks are so warming and comforting; I'm glad my contribution was useful among the many others.
25. No measure taken for expatriation of Knox because she is a US citizen currently in her own country.
24. Passport withdrawn for Sollecito and movement restriction within the boundaries of the state of Italy. No restriction for Knox.
23. Ruled that Knox's royalties belong to Lumumba,
22. Accessory penalties/settlements: established Knox stinks, ordered Dalla Vedova to change jobs… (!)
21. Her calunnia sentencing has been increased from 3 years (Hellmann-Zanetti) to 3 years and 6 months.
20. To be more precise: Knox has been sentenced to 28 years and 6 months. (She has already served four years).
19. Massei sentence confirmed (25y), Knox sentence increased to 28 years because of calunnia aggravation
18. Bongiorno very agitated
17. Five minutes and a half from a verdict?
16. Judge declared the verdict will be 3D and distributed goggles [?]
15. Sollecito was in the courtroom. Appeared nervous.
14. Said because of the greatness of their power they should acknowledge reasonable doubt.
13. Ghirga emphasized discretional power of the court. Said they have big power to acquit.
12. In point of law: Ghirga said evidence must be considered as a whole in compliance with SC, but assessment should find reasonable doubt
11. Said no blood on knife because of negative TMB and blood confirmatory tests.
10. Ghirga: cited the claims about picograms, said amount is not the point, the problem is test repetition and other conditions
9. Says bruise at back of head is compatible with frotal fight against single aggerssor (disagreement with Introna on this too)
8. Ghirga: Meredith's blue sweater was removed before fatal stabbing, as for Torre's opinion. Admitas he disagrees with Sollecito's defence.
7. Ghirga talked about: Meredith's blue sweater, an echimosis at back of her head, DNA laboratories and Stefanoni's quantization
6. Ghirga recalled a small number of details of physical evidence and autopsy.
5. Dalla Vedova asked acquittal, did not specify, whereas Ghirga instead, talking later, invoked reasonable doubt.
4. D.V. says believes there are other Supreme Court rulings in his favor.
3. D.V. emphasized the single pieces of evidence should be assessed each one in parceled out, atomized way before considering the whole
2. DV focused on evidence assessment procedure, quoted SC rulings.
1. Dalla Vedova's talking lasted a short time, and not very orderly.
Tweets from reporter Barbie Latza Nadeau
28. Court: Amanda Knox Is Guilty. See more in The Daily Beast.
27. Kercher family members being briefed by lawyers and British consulate.
26. Sollecito must surrender all documents, passports, identification,
25. Its 25 years for sollecito and 28.6 years for amanda knox
24. Amanda Knox [2009] guilty verdict upheld, sollecito [2009] guilty verdict upheld.
23. Judges and jury enter.22. Huge security presence ahead of verdict including riot police outside and in public area of courtroom amandaknox tense
21. meredithkercher sister stephany and brother lyle have arrived in court for verdict.
20 Prosecutor Crini has arrived in court for verdict in amandaknox appeal
19. Clerk says between 9-930 local time judges will return. Says judges want "utter silence no shouting or clapping"
18. Court clerk says verdict will be delivered between 9 and 9:30 tonight.
17. Amanda Knox "˜Afraid' Of Today's Court Verdict http://thebea.st/LeteHD via @thedailybeast
16. Court clerk says at 8pm she will go back to judge to find out if and when they are ready to deliver verdict.
15. Court clerk says "presumably verdict at 8:00 but everyone come back at 7:00
15. Court clerk just announced that at 6pm local they will tell us when the verdict will be announced.
14. Mario Spezi, author of Monster of Florence, has come to court to hear amandaknox verdict.
13. Lawyers for amandaknox and sollecito, journalists already in courtroom ready for verdict that come come any time from 5pm Florence time.
12. Lunch has just been brought in to judges and lay jury deliberating amandaknox case. No wine.
11. Refreshments just delivered to jury members in amandaknox new appeal, espresso, cappucino and possibly a tea…
10. Judge in amandaknox new appeal says decision will not come before 5pm.
9. amandaknox lawyer asks court to absolve his client.
8. amandaknox lawyer says the dna on the knife attributed to meredithkercher can not be verified, can not be considered.
7. amandaknox lawyer Ghirga tells court they have to look at all the evidence to reach verdict, not value pieces here and there.
6. amandaknox lawyer says you can't put two innocent people in jail to cover up mistakes of judicial system.
5. amandaknox lawyer tells judge: you cannot convict for murder in the name of Italy when evidence is 'probably' attributed to a defendant.
4. amandaknox lawyer says you can't cancel out evidence, says Amanda's rights were violated, she was in shock when she accused Lumumba.
3. sollecito in court by his dad who said they are all nervous for verdict over drinks with journalists at hotel bar last night.
2. amandaknox lawyer CDV says they are serene going into verdict because they believe in her innocence,
1. Court in session. One of the jurors wearing a shiny spangled skirt, rest dressed soberly.
Tweets from Freelance Reporter Andrea Vogt
13. Meredith Kercher's brother: It was the best we could have hoped for, but amanda knox verdict not cause for celebration.
12. amanda knox guilty verdict upheld. Her lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova said he has called her. She did not cry. She was "petrified."
11. amanda knox conviction upheld. sentenced to 28 years and six months. Sollecito to 25. Ordered passports to be taken.
10. Meredith's sister and brother are accompanied by British consulate officials. A hush has come over the courtroom.
9. The family of meredith kercher has arrived in court to hear the verdict.
8. Even most experienced Italian court reporters not predicting what long wait for amanda knox verdict means. Could go either way
7. amanda knox verdict is expected at 9 or 9:30. Clerk reminds about the decorum expected:no applause, shouting, cheering, etc
6. Standing room only in Florence court as media, legal teams, public await amandaknox verdict (timing soon to be announced).
5. Judge and jury in amandaknox case have retreated for deliberations. Verdict not before 5 pm Italy time.
4. amandaknox Judge : we will not give a verdict before 17, after that,can come any time, but will announce with lots of advance notice.
3. Ghirga: We wait anxiously and seriously for justice for Meredith. But doing justice means doing it also for amandaknox and RS.
2. amandaknox lawyers are in court. Ghirga: "siamo fiduciosi, serene, emotionati." (Roughly: "Trusting, calm, on edge").
1. Verdict expected late today in amandaknox appeal….
Freelance Reporter Andrea Vogt On Website
From The Freelance Desk
Amanda Knox is expected to wait out the verdict in her appeal at her mother's Seattle home (likely with American television news networks present) while Raffaele Sollecito was in court with his father and a friend. Sollecito made no remarks upon leaving for the courthouse in a taxi, surrounded by a pack of cameras. Meredith Kercher's sister, Stephanie, and brother, Lyle, are also expected in Florence today for the court's decision, expected in the evening hours….
Conjectures on what the judges may be discussing
The panel of judges is in effect deciding now on positions that must be sustained in 2-3 months in a 100-400 page document that must be okayed by the Supreme Court.
This might be what the quite long (by Italian standards, they will have discussed the case intermittently) jury discussion today is focused upon. Here are four possible issues.
Possible issue one
As sharp Italian media are pointing out, Prosecutor Crini departed from the Massei scenario and suggested a different driver in one key respect.
Like Mignini and Micheli in 2008 he assigned the role of prime mover to Amanda Knox and not to Guede. (Nobody ever assigned it to Sollecito.)
Maybe hoping to give RS and AK a break the Massei jury (not neccessarily the judge himself) assigned to Guede the primary role in starting the attack, saying maybe he forced himself upon her.
Then maybe the other two came in from next door, and set about helping him to subdue Meredith.
They just happened to have two knives handy, and even Massei assigns the fatal blow to Knox.
Crini argued as more likely that Knox started to quarrel with Meredith over hygiene or drugs or money and the other two joined in and for 15 minutes the attack escalated.
In this Knox and not Guede is assigned the role of prime mover.
The judges may want to accept this and seek to assign Knox a harsher punishment accordingly.
(Neither court seems to have settled on a convincing reason for why the big knife was brought down from Sollecito's house which looks to us at minimum forboding.)
Possible issue two
This relates to the scenario in the comment above. Judge Massei lopped five years off the routine sentences by conjuring up "mitigating factors".
One such factor was the duvet placed over Meredith which Massei thought could be a sign of remorse, surely by a woman.
Many including psychologists never agreed with this. It could have been simply an aversion to all the blood, which Knox on the stand in 2009 chillingly described as "yucky".
If so the sentences awarded could creep up beyond the durations decided on by Massei. Above 25 and 26 years.
Possible issue three
This is an alternative to One and Two above. The judges might think the crime was more like a manslaughter, an attack that ended in murder
But not intended as such and never agreed to by two of the attackers. In which case sentences could be a lot lighter.
Possible issue four
There are financial award considerations. How much to award to whom, plus maybe ways to ensure their payment in light of Knox blatantly stiffing Patrick..
[Below: image of the judges and lay judges arriving this morning]
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Continuing Enormous Strength Of The Evidence Which Defenses Seem To Have Abysmally Failed To Shake
Posted by The TJMK Main Posters
[Above Judge Massei at Meredith's house with panel-of-judges members early 2009]
What this Florence appeal is REALLY about
There is much confusion on this, sowed by various at-distance commentators who don't read the Italian press or the excellent English-language reporters right there on the spot.
This is NOT a re-trial. This is a FIRST appeal by Sollecito and Knox against the guilty verdicts and sentences Judge Massei awarded them late in 2009. It is being repeated since their defense teams helped to bend the first (Hellmann court) iteration of the first appeal two years ago.
Since the end of 2009 they have been provisionally guilty of murder and other crimes, subject to final ratification by the Supreme Court, which has not yet occurred. Judge Hellmann decided to let them out and travel worldwide. Many think his decision on this was legally weak.
Was there prime-face justification for this appeal?
Under US and UK law many lawyers and judges think the judicial process could have stopped right there in the US and UK, because the grounds for appeal the defenses came up with in 2010 were essentially innuendo about DNA and little else.
But the pro-defendant Italian system unlike almost any other in the world allows appeals if any are filed to automatically go forward. So the bent, stretched-out and illegally wide-scope Hellmann appeal of 2011 was the first result.
Appointed apparently in illegal circumstances to replace the highly-qualified Judge Chiari (the lead-judge for criminal appeals, who then resigned) Judge Hellmann was ill-qualified at best - he was not a criminal judge and had handled only one other murder trial before, which he got wrong.
The annulment of the first first-appeal
The Supreme Court very rarely completely annuls any trial or appeal. But in this case in March 2013 it did just that, on a large number of grounds.
The 2013-2014 Nencini appeal court in Florence starts with the early-2010 Massei report plus new guidelines from the Supreme Court. Nothing else floated since early 2010 counts.
This case seems to break all records ever for (1) defamatory and dishonest PR; (2) dirty tricks, many illegal, by the defense; (3) dishonesty by those accused in two defamatory books and multiple statements to the press; and (4) greed and blood money while the process still goes on.
Contempt of court trials and investigations have commenced to push back, Amanda Knox is particularly at risk because her book contains false accusations of crimes (again) and she defies the Supreme Court in not paying Mr Lumumba his damages though she destroyed his business.
Suggested Reading: Part One
Sooner or later (no necessarily now) read all the must-read posts in this group here, all the open questions for Sollecito in this group here, and all the open questions for Amanda Knox in this group here.
1. Getting up to speed on the 2008 RS and AK charges
Our four-part summary of Judge Micheli's report is the best thing to read (scroll down) especially Micheli's argument that ONLY Knox had any reason to re-arrange the crime scene - she lived there and needed to point evidence away from herself.
Also read Amanda Knox's and Raffaele Sollecito's many mutually contradictory attempts to provide one alibi for both.
2. Getting up to speed on the 2009 RS and AK trial
The prosecution performed brilliantly and left the defenses despondent and out-classed (paving the way for more dirty tricks in 2010-13) and we were told that two defense lawyers nearly walked off.
To get a flavor of how badly the defenses did, read this post and this post on Knox's absolutely disastrous stint on the stand. From there the defense portion of the trial really went downhill.
To get a flavor of how well the prosecution did read about the damning reconstruction (known about in all of Italy but not widely elsewhere) described here and here.
3. Getting up to speed on the Massei 2010 Report
The most vital read of all is the short-form version of the Massei Report by Skeptical Bystander and a team on PMF dot Org. If you have no time to read any posts, make sure to read that.
The other vital reads, not here but on the new "The Murder Of Meredith Kercher Wiki", are the overview of the evidence and the chart of evidence synopsis.
We had a large number of posts starting in 2010 checking out whether in all details the Massei Report got it right. Read this first take.
4. Getting up to speed on the crime-scene scenario
Vital to understanding the Massei court's crime-scene scenario which Prosecutor Crini espouses, wade through this excellent reconstruction of the crime in a long Powerpoint by our lawyer James Raper with the Powerpoint whizz Kermit.
About Part Two
The next part of our most-recommended reading from 2010 to 2014 will follow after the verdict to help correct the ill-informed debate over whether Knox goes back to jail.
It hardens the case and in our view leaves no holes for RS and AK to wiggle through. We will point the post to those arguments that anyone tries to raise.
Monday, January 27, 2014
An Investigation Into The Large Knife Provides Further Proof That This Was THE Knife
Posted by Ergon
This is the first report of an investigation (the second part follows soon) of the kitchen knife used in the murder of Meredith Kercher, RIP.
Specifically its compatibility with the imprint of a bloody knife found by police investigators on her bed under-sheet which as you will see here seems possible to prove.
Two other recent posts also concentrated on aspects of the knife as strong proof: (1) proof of both Knox and Kercher DNA and (2) proof from the throat wounds.
- Reference files are from very high definition crime scene photos not in general circulation.
- Grateful thanks to the volunteers of the Meredith Kercher community who assisted in this production
Florence Court of Appeals
This is our poster Machiavelli, tweeting from the Florence courtroom on November 26, 2013:
"(Prosecutor Alessandro) Crini stated that this kitchen knife was compatible with the knife print on Meredith's bed sheet".
And this is from the defense summing up on January 09, 2014:
Bongiorno: "It's too big, not the murder weapon."
"Bongiorno shows a picture with an envisioned "knife" (pocket knife belonging to Guede?) together with the print on the bed sheet."
"Nobody brings a "small blow with a big knife" "You don't use half of a big knife" (she says)
Genesis of an investigation:
To recap: evidence was been presented at the Massei court of the first instance, which accepted that the kitchen knife, containing both Meredith Kercher's DNA on the blade (trace B) and Amanda Knox's DNA on the handle (trace A) was the weapon that struck the fatal blow to Meredith Kercher's throat.
At some point after the attack, the perpetrator, Amanda Knox, puts it down on the bed, leaving "hematic stains" (bloody imprints) on the mattress.
The court concludes the shape of the imprints are compatible with the kitchen knife. It also concludes, based on the size of a lesser wound that a second, smaller knife caused the wound on the other side of the neck, and, the impossibility of accepting that a single weapon inflicted both wounds.
This is what it boils down to now, as we come to the final arguments of this case on January 30, with a decision to be handed down by the court later in the day:
- Was the kitchen knife found in Raffaele Sollecito's kitchen the murder weapon that killed Meredith Kercher on November 01, 2007?
- Did the killer leave behind proof in the form of bloody imprints on the under sheet covering Meredith's bed?
- And is the defense trying to divert attention away from it, even though the image on the bed fits the dimensions of the kitchen knife?
- And pointing to a second knife, not ever found?
This article (to be followed by part II) was prepared to offer answers to these questions.
Methods used
As someone with a keen interest in photography, I know we see things in photographs that are not always apparent to the naked eye.
Where before we had all been misled by low definition photographs released by the defense to obscure incriminating details, I was able to obtain and view the high definition photographs shown here that proved that indeed, the bed imprints matched the seized kitchen knife, exhibit 36.
These photographs, first posted at Perugia Murder File Evidence Files have been circulating for some time, with members trying to match the knife to the bed imprints, but not, in my opinion, being able to match it exactly.
First, note that the killer placed a knife on two separate locations on the bed, marked by reference cards "J", and "O". (Reference photos below.)
I discarded "J", because there was too much blood there to form an accurate measurement. The killer lifted the knife and then placed it at "O", which gave a better image, but even then, did not match exactly. Still, it was clear the images looked like a kitchen, and not, a pocket knife as alleged by the defense.
Looking at the reference photo, I saw a double image of a knife blade at "O". (see where there's a curved edge of the blade? That's what convinced me there might be a double image there)
Conclusion reached
My opinion is the knife shifted slightly when it was placed there, hence the double image, which now made a perfect match with the kitchen knife, in both instances (see reference photos).
So I got a professional illustrator and other skilled people people to do the scale drawings and produce the video you see above which seems to provide conclusive proof the murder knife was placed on the bed.
Reference photos:
Image 1 above (click for larger image): Bed II (Image J and O on under sheet, shot November 02, 2007)
Image 2 above (click for larger image): Knife II (Image O on under sheet, shot November 02, 2007)
Image 3 above (click for larger image): FOTO5BIS (Conti-Vecchiotti lab, Mar. 22, 2011)
Image 4 above (click for larger image): Knife-Bed-Vector-AllScales (To prove the scales used to match the images)
Image 5 above (click for larger image): Knife-pos-lower-hi (The knife's first resting position at "O")
Image 6 above (click for larger image): Knife-pos-upper-hi (The knife's final resting position at "O")
Next steps
There are only four more days left till the Florence Appeals Court under Judge Nencini issues its verdict. It must of course consider ALL the evidence, of which there is a preponderance that indeed suggests the verdict will, as would be proper, be guilty as charged.
Part II will be ready ASAP. It will be a recap of Massei on the knife, and how the defense continually tried to divert us away from the knife image by saying it did not fit the dimensions of the major wound. Also will have Frank Sfarzo's misdirection and Bruce Fischer's amateurish attempts to prove that Rudy Guede caused the knife wounds.
Happy as always to do my share for justice for Meredith Kercher.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Rejected Yet Again By Knox, Sollecito Seems Frantic To Avoid What Might Be A Final Return To Italy
Posted by Peter Quennell
The explosive story of Kelsey Kay
Radar Online is an American celebrity-news website owned by the American Media group in New York.
It is ranked at about the 500th most popular site in the US. Starting yesterday, Radar Online has been advancing a story with a video by an ex-girlfriend of Sollecito, Kelsey Kay (image above) who lives in Idaho.
Kelsey Kay is claiming that while in the US in several of his 2012-2013 stays Sollecito was seeking a way to get married in a hurry, supposing that being a US resident would somehow keep him safe from Italian law. At first glance Kelsey Kay seems compassionate and smart and she paid Sollecito some money and it is not obviously that she is drumming up any for herself. She sized him up accurately in retrospect. So here we go.
Foxy Knoxy BETRAYED: Ex-Lover Raffaele Sollecito Turns On "˜Evil B*tch' Amanda As He Faces 26 Years For Meredith Kercher Murder "" And Knox Won't Help Him Beat The Rap
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were branded a modern-day Romeo & Juliet when they were both imprisoned for the 2007 murder of Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher. But now, Sollecito is turning on the woman who was once his only ally, branding Knox an "evil bitch" who is "selfish, mean, [and] cruel" "" all because she wouldn't marry him in a scheme designed to keep him out of prison!
As Radar has reported, Sollecito proposed to Knox in March 2013, hoping she would marry him and help him flee the retrial and potential reconviction for Kercher's murder. When Knox refused, he turned to his online pen pal, Idaho woman Kelsey Kay to air his anger.
According to a new report in Star, Sollecito told Kay Knox was "a selfish, mean, cruel girl," and an "evil bitch."
Now Kay tells Radar, that was only the half of it.
"I think his feelings were hurt," Kay explains. What's more, she says, it seemed that Sollecito felt Knox was obligated to help him because of the couple's unique history.
"He came across very entitled, like he had saved her [during the first trial] in Italy by not turning on her," Kay claims, "and that maybe she was obligated to do the same for him."
"I've read text messages "¦ between the two of them," Kay says. "The text messages were [often] him texting her and her not responding. And he portrayed that to me as she was insensitive, and didn't care."
But in the few messages that Knox did send Sollecito, Kay says, she seemed like an entirely different woman than her ex-lover claimed.
"There were some [texts] about them not being able to marry, and [Amanda] explained herself in a very elegant way," Kay reveals.
Sollecito's responses, however, were "more desperate, needy," Kay says…
The Knox-Sollecito kabuki dance goes on
Going back to the very night they were arrested Knox and Sollecito have never been fully as one.
In early statements they each quite openly placed suspicion on the other, and Sollecito retained this high-ground position right through the 2009 trial to its "guilty" end, slyly suggesting he had the upper hand.
Sollecito never at trial or the 2011 Hellmann appeal ever yanked his charge that Knox was absent from his house and maybe present at the attack on the night that Meredith died.
At trial in 2009 the distancing continued. Knox became so desperate about this that she wrote Sollecito frequent "love letters" and finally quite publicly asked justice authorities if they could meet (it was denied).
Their lawyers danced the same kabuki dance. Read this series by a Rome lawyer who watched every feint on TV.
In January 2012 the prosecution said they would appeal the Hellmann outcome to the Supreme Court. They KNEW the outcome had been tainted by the defenses - as, later, so did the Supreme Court.
Two months later this happens. Sollecito suddenly rockets off to Seattle - with his family in hot pursuit.
No marriage with AK resulted, but what did result, six months later, was Sollecito's dishonest book, which shows all the signs of channeling the Seattle-centered FOA loonies, and none at all of the hard facts on the ground.
Six months later Knox's own book appears.
In the two books, Knox and Sollecito not only tell different versions of their truth - they each reveal some exasperation with the other, and it reads in both books like their amazing love affair back in 2007 would have soon ended on the rocks.
In the short period they were together in Perugia, Knox continued messing with other boys - both in Perugia and (with her old boyfriend) in Seattle - while Sollecito stayed home and sulked.
The titles of both books (Honor Bound and Waiting To Be Heard) were themselves big lies - but Sollecito's is probably the bigger lie.
The prosecution did NOT ask him to roll over on Amanda - they had no need and no legal right - as even Sollecito's own dad on national TV confirmed ("That was made up.") and Sollecito's one and only claim to be "honor bound" had been that he had resisted.
Thereafter Sollecito and Knox seem to have met again in Seattle and maybe in London and New York. But still no peace of mind or mutual joy at the end of the road for either, as this post and this post strongly demonstrate.
And legal residency in a country is of course not a barrier to perps convicted in other countries ending up back there and behind bars. The US sends its own nefarious citizens-by-birth to face foreign justice on occasion. Very naive.
Knox and Sollecito both self-admitted flight risks
Ten days ago in a breaking-news box we posted this:
Breaking news. UK media quote Amanda Knox as saying she may go on the lam if guilt is confirmed. (Remember this is HER appeal. She opened this can of worms.) However the US/Italy extradition treaty and official US paper trail give her zero reason for comfort, and an extradition request would immediately put her in a US jail to stop her going on the lam. An Interpol Red Notice would make her unemployable and subject to worldwide arrest.
Now the poster Jackie on PMF dot Org (a lawyer) has posted this:
I think the Kay Fiasco bears directly on the proceedings underway: IF the texts can be authenticated, and IF there is a guilty verdict, those exchanges will make it all but impossible for RS's lawyers to argue that he is not a flight risk.
So one week from today there is a strong chance a judicial order to lock them up will flow from the Florence court.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Appeal Session #9: Sollecito Team Concludes, Prosecutor Crini Rebutts Defenses' Claims
Posted by The TJMK Main Posters
[Above: Sun hits the facade of of one of the most modern courtrooms in Europe]
5. Andre Vogt's Excellent Post-Court Reporting In The Week
From Amanda Knox's fugitive fears: she's right to be worried
Sources close to defence lawyers confide that they, too, fear it may not go their way.
It didn't help that Knox ignored her lawyers' pleas to travel from Seattle and attend court in Florence - she sent an email instead - nor that she repeatedly requested to meet the Kerchers, only to be sternly rebutted by their lawyer, who suggested she act more like a defendant.
Then she started a new blog and began blithely responding to comments "" most recently posting an admission that she had once faked a break-in as an April Fool's prank before she left for Italy (a staged burglary is a key part of the case against her).
Have the wheels come off Knox's public relations machine now that she's safe in Seattle? She may need them again soon, because this appeal differs radically from the first one in 2011 which resulted in her acquittal, but which was harshly criticised and eventually annulled by Italy's Supreme Court earlier this year.
There are three good reasons why this trial is different "" and why Knox has reason to be nervous:
First, her co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito's lawyers have distanced his defence from Knox's. "He may have brushed her hair and cleaned her ears, but he would not have killed for the love of Amanda," his lawyer Giulia Bongiorno told jurors in closing arguments earlier this month. "Turn off Amanda," she said. "Raffaele is not Amanda's other half."
Second, the uncompromising Perugia prosecutor Giuliano Mignini has stayed away from Florence. Without him in court as a convenient villain, the "innocent American abroad being railroaded by a rogue prosecutor" narrative no longer holds water. The Florentine prosecutor, Alessandro Crini, has distanced the state's case from the always controversial kitchen knife that may or may not have been the murder weapon. He's also given less credence to the "˜sex game gone wrong' theory that was central to the prosecution case in the first trial. Instead he's considered all the evidence as a whole. There might have been a fight about missing money and hygiene, he said, but motive doesn't matter: murders happen all the time for banal reasons. And convictions happen on much less evidence.
Third, the strict Florence judge, Alessandro Nencini, has curbed all antics by lawyers, public and media. There are no perp walks with popping flashbulbs this time. However the appeal ends, no one can argue that this trial wasn't professionally managed.
4. Tweets by freelance reporter Andrea Vogt
14. Sollecito defense on bra clasp: For us, the condition of the room and conduct of the forensic police tells us there was contamination.
13. Judge interrupted Sollecito lawyer with a booming "No!" saying wiretapped conversations of Sollecito family not to be discussed this trial.
12. Maresca: Whatever you decide, we believe justice will be done & all elements considered in depth. We will serenely accept your decision.
11. Kercher attorney Maresca: Perugians reacted angrily to amanda knox acquittal because it was scandalous: acquittal was decided in advance.
10. Fabbiani, attorney for Meredith's brother, urges court to look beyond motive. Perna for her sister: one person alone did not kill Meredith.
9. Lumumba attorney Pacelli concludes with this phrase to the jury: "Convict liar Amanda, the diabolical slanderer."
8. Presiding Judge Nencini has cut Pacelli's amanda knox monologue short. Says going off track. Pacelli promises to finish in 5 min.
7. Lumumba's attorney Pacelli is delivering a vitriolic rebuttal on amandaknox - mixing his unbridled contempt w/her own statements.
6. Prosecutor asks (in case of conviction) cautionary measures so defendants can't flee. Options are: passport, house arrest or arrest.
5. Prosecutor Crini: a lack of motive does not equal proof of innocence.
4. Trial back in session after "pausa caffe" during which Sollecito and his accusers were in tiny court coffee bar at same time. Only in Italy!
3. Sollecito attorney: The only things certain are the death of Meredith Kercher and the presence of Rudy Guede in the house that night.
2. Sollecito attorney: This case is an anomaly. Various judges interpreted facts differently over the years. There's reasonable doubt.
1. In court, Sollecito attorney Maori contesting prosecutor's arguments point by point. Knife, bathmat, alibi, witnesses. Afternoon rebuttals.
3. Tweets by our main poster Machiavelli
[At this point Machiavelli signed off]
62. Crini: Nencini asks the clerk's officer to write down formally the exact terms of prosecution request to issue cautionary measures [if verdict guilty]
61. Crini says his conclusions are unchanged. Prosecution suggests arrest decrees are issued immediately if defendant(s) is(are) guilty
60. Crini points out the crime and motive originate from group dynamic.
59. Crini: Bongiorno had pointed out that anyway Sollecito should be accounted only for what he had done (implicit: not what Knox did)
58. Crini: The excessive and too quick reaction to a situation of rising argument is typical of group reaction.
57. Crini: Argument about cleaning was also reported by Meredith to her father John Kercher
56. Crini: Massive rejection of English [girls] testimonies is "weak" on the part of defence; tensions and dislikes in the house are recorded on paper
55. Crini: Movite cannot be assessed preliminarily as if it was a piece of evidence to be discussed
54. Crini: if you need to prove a crime, it is opportune to detect a motive, but a motive is only a plausible conjecture not basis for deduction
53. Crini: Bongiorno called all English girls 'unreliable' (because English, maybe coached by lawyers etc.)
52. Crini calls 'amusing' Bongiorno comparing her client with captain Schettino
51. Crini: Some thoughts about the motive.
50. Crini: It makes no sense to say the large kitchen knife is 'incompatible' with the big wound.
49. Crini: To the court: can you imagine a 'surgical operation' with a small knife producing a wound with clear margins on a live struggling victim?
48. Crini: it is difficult to produce an 8x8 cm large wound with a small 8cm long knife, it would produce at best a wound with irregular margin
47. Crini: The blade hypothesized by defence from the bed sheet stain is anyway larger; these are anyway conjectures. Datum is compatibility
46. Crini: thinking you can preemptively deduce the size of the blade from bed sheet stain is 'unrealistic'
45. Crini: The "double knife theory" is based on the small size of the right wound, experts point to a likely much smaller knife with thin blade.
44. Crini: no defence wounds, no fight bruises, nothing under nails, bruises indicate forced restraint of victim; how she was immobilized
43. Crini: Massei court did not decide about attribution of pillowcase shoeprints, Crini objects Vinci's finding, thinks prints are too small
42. Crini: Knox defence: says when Guede leaves palm print on pillowcase leaves a signature
41. Crini: Bongiorno called the murder scene "flooded" with Guede's DNA. Crini points out his traces in room indicating he had free hands (no weapon)
40. Crini: The defences also dealt thoroughly with the use of the knife, wounds, blade size
39. Crini: The dynamic of the crime. Maori attributed all traces to Rudy Gede alone
38. Crini: All alleles of the victim were found in a scratch on the knife blade. Human DNA is normally not on knife blades
37. Crini: Vecchiotti admitted there was a scratch on the blade
36. Crini: The same defence experts did not object to the attribution Y haplotype of Guede found in the victim's vagina
35. Crini: Calls Vecchiotti's reasoning on bra clasp "a priori", dismissed for reasons totally general and vague. Doesn't read Y haplot. and X together
34. Crini: Points out a passage where Vecchiotti's report misquotes police findings inserting the word "only", built a strawman
33. Crini says let's look at the Conti-Vecchiotti report, to see what it says, if you can subscribe with the report.
32. Crini: Tagliabracci in 2008 objected to quotes of prof. Gill calling them "too recent"
31. Crini: Objections referred to Low Copy Number are obsolete, and also partly undermined by the RIS report
30. Crini: Calls "embarassing" Bongiorno when alleges the police was wrong in attributing stains to cat's blood
29. Crini: Disproves Bongiorno's allegation that the clasp was stepped over.
28. Crini: Novelli rules out there was contamination in laboratory, as well as tertiary transfer in situ.
27. Crini is "pleased" the defence did not attempt to allege laboratory DNA contamination. Points out findings by Novelli
26. Crini: report says had there been internet surfing or writing activity, this would have resulted as obvious.
25. Crini cites arguments about computer expert reports, hearings of 14 Mar 2009 and Dec 2010 say further investigation is unnecessary
24. Crini: Maori omits to quote pieces of Curatolo's testimony.
23. Crini will deal with Maori's "theory of alibi" only very briefly
22. Crini says defence arguments on bathmat print are conjectures. Rinaldi is actually same person who correctly attributed shoeprint
21. Crini: Bathmat print: compatibility assessment can be done on what is measurable
20. Crini: Guede knew the hous and apartments, would have chosen logical entries and logical behaviour, Crini calls burglary theory 'not credible'
19. Crini: alleged small wounds on Guede's hand, inconsistent with absence of his blood on scene
18. Crini: Talks about Bongiorno's criticism to staged burglary scenario - the scenario of Guede already inside apartment
17. Crini says police report timings, records of CCTV video camera and phone calls are 'consistent'
16. Crini does not see corroboration of alleged 7-minute late clock error of CCTV. The 13.29 call was from Carabinieri HQ and don't change anthg
15. Crini tris to "strain" the timing of police arival to favor the defence, to see if scenario fits. Considers possible CCTV time error
14. Crini: Sollecito calls Carabinieri too late, also because last phone call to Romaneli was at 12.38
13. Crini: Call to Sollecito's sister, and then Sollecito's call to Carabinieri at 12.51-45. Crini: this timing is late independently from Battistelli
12. Crini: Battistelli arrives on foot about 10 minutes eariler than postal police car
11. Crini wants to look better at some arguments about Sollecito's declarations to postal police. Battistelli recalls 12.35 consistent with CCTV
10. Crini talks about Sollecito 'sidetracking', talking about statements to postal police
9. Crini: Knox's Calunnia also contains details that have external corroboration and she could not have deduced from simple burglary scenario
8. Crini: A Calunnia is itself incriminating (require strong defence explanation), but Knox's Calunnia also contains furth incrimiating details
7. Crini: Knox maintained her calunnia against Patrick over a period of several days. Crini points out the logicality of Cassazione argument.
6. Crini: Knox statements: 'Patrick had sex with Meredith' and 'there was a loud scream' were new elements, unrelated to known facts and not retracted
5. Crini: On calunnia, Crini points out that there was an argumentation about Knox defence about usability of Knox's statement. argument is wrong
4. Crini: Theoretically all defense points could be replied to, Knox's Calunnia, Sollecito statements to police, the staged theft, the mat print; DNA evidence
3. Crini says he will talk briefly only about a few selected points, without repeating himself, and without discussing old arguments again
2. [After the break] Prosecutor General Crini begins to reply.
1. [After the break] Sollecito entering the court, asked what he expect, says "no comment"
2. Tweets by reporter Barbie Latza Nadeau
44. Judge especially hard on Sollecito sub lawyer, reprimanding her for introducing new arguments when she is only supposed to be refuting.
43. Sollecito sub lawyer argues no DNA from Meredith Kercher on bra clasp w/Sollecito's DNA, failing to mention she was wearing the bra..
42. Six years of Kercher trials and some lawyers still pronounce the K in Knox.. "ka-nox" as Sollecito's sub lawyer just did.
41. Kercher lawyers finished, now Sollecito lawyers up for rebuttal, but both his principal lawyers had to leave early.
40. Kercher atty Maresca: Perugians reacted angrily to Amanda Knox acquittal because it was scandalous: acquittal was decided in advance.
39. Kercher lawyers ask court to consider all the previous testimony they say proves more than one person killed Meredith Kercher.
38. Lumumba lawyer says his client has not received any of the €22k he is owed by Amanda Knox even though the slander conviction is final.
37. Judge reprimands Lumumba lawyer for veering off course, he is only to discuss slander aspect of case, not murder itself.
36. Lumumba's atty Pacelli is delivering a vitriolic rebuttal on Amanda Knox - mixing his unbridled contempt w/her own statements.
35. Lumumba keeps referring to Amanda Knox as "the American", says she had a penchant for drugs, alcohol, sex.
34. Lumumba lawyer calls Amanda Knox a "diabolical slanderer" "¦
33. Lumumba lawyer says Amanda Knox substituted Patrick for Rudy Guede.
32. Court back in session with Lumumba lawyer up. Sollecito back in court after break.
31. Prosecutor Crini: a lack of motive does not equal proof of innocence. Amanda Knox
30. Prosecutor focused on knife, says traces of Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox are valid.
29. Sollecito staring at prosecutor as he delivers rebuttal, jury taking notes, judge listening intently, journalists trying to stay awake.
28. Prosecutor in new Amanda Knox appeal says motive in murder is never simple and clear, like murder itself is complex.
27. MeredithKercher lawyer says her brother and sister plan to come for verdict Jan 30.
26. Prosecutor just referred to Amanda Knox as "la nostra Knox" as he tries to refute defense arguments.
25. Trial back in session after "pausa caffe" during which Sollecito and his accusers were in tiny court coffee bar at same time.
24. Prosecutor making brief rebuttal, pushing Sollecito and Amanda Knox back together after Sollecito lawyer clearly tried to separate them
23. Sollecito just told group of reporters he was not sure if he would come for verdict.
22. Sollecito lawyer finished. Judge asks lawyers how much time they need for rebuttals. 15 minute
21. Sollecito lawyer says his client is not guilty. Does not mention Amanda Knox in final moments of closing arguments.
20. Sollecito atty: This case is an anomaly. Various judges interpreted facts differently over the years. There's reasonable doubt.
19. Sollecito lawyer tells the court they can only accept that Meredith Kercher was murdered and that Rudy Guede is the lone killer.
18. Sollecito lawyer G Bongiorno has just arrived in court with three male assistants.
17. Sollecito lawyer says Sollecito was never with Guede, Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox. Says testimony that they were was false.
16. Sollecito lawyer working to discredit witnesses. Says store owner who says he saw
15. Judge in response to Sollecito lawyer asking if jury is tired: if we are tired now we will have to kill ourselves by the end of the day.
14. Sollecito in court today. Will he come for verdict on 30th?
13. Sollecito lawyer lays out why homeless man in park who testified he saw Amanda Knox and Sollecito arguing night of murder is unreliable.
12. Patrick Lumumba also absent from court today.
11. Judge in Amanda Knox new appeal rarely looks at Sollecito lawyer, writing notes, scrolling tablet, but minimal eye contact.
10. Sollecito lawyer on mass media tangent, says the "super witnesses" for prosecution in earlier trials were all for show.
9. Judge in Amanda Knox 2nd appeal asks for clarification on hard to follow techie evidence.
8. Sollecito lawyer showing computer records for Raf's computer access, says access was human, not automated. Jury squinting at slides.
7. Sollecito lawyer moves on to Raf's computer, how computers belonging to Amanda Knox, Meredith Kercher were all "accidentally" destroyed.
6. Sollecito lawyer back on break in. Frequent reference to Guede "the real assassin". No mention of Amanda Knox at all yet.
5. Sollecito lawyer focusing on staged break in.
4. Sollecito lawyer G Bongiorno not in court this morning.
3. Sollecito lawyer Maori says luminal also picks up fruit juice, not just blood. Judge taking notes.
2. Sollecito lawyer showing slides of famous footprint on bathroom rug in Meredith Kercher blood.
1. Sollecito lawyer now summing up in Florence, then rebuttals. Verdict expected Jan 30.
1. Tweets by reporter for La Nazione
46. Lawyer Colotti (Sollecito) : "In a process based on circumstantial evidence motive is the glue of the whole thing."
45. Lawyer Colotti (Sollecito defense) begins.
44. Sollecito defense : "The Meredith's bra clasp was contaminated as evidence "
43. Sollecito defense : "It was Rudy Guede who entered through the window after breaking the glass "
42. Sollecito defense : "There was no misdirection in statements of Sollecito "
41. Now it's up to the defense again, Sollecito team begin their final responses
40. Lawyer Maresca (Kerchers) : "On the blade there are traces of the victim ""
39. Lawyer Maresca (Kerchers) : "Hellmann appeal, the acquittal was a pre-cooked judgment"
38. Lawyer Francesco Maresca (Kercher family) begins
37. Lawyer Perna (Kerchers) "Wounds on the body victim compatible with the knife found at Sollecito's house "
36. Lawyer Perna (Kercher family) begins
35. Lawyer Vieri Fabiani , one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, the Kercher family
34. Lawyer Pacelli (Lumumba) : "Judges, sentence the liar Amanda , the devilish slanderer "
33. Lawyer Pacelli (Lumumba) : "Meredith could not stand Amanda"
32. Lawyer Pacelli (Lumumba) : "Amanda is on Lumumba's mind constantly "
31. Lawyer Pacelli (Lumumba) : "Amanda hoped Lumumba slander would not be discovered "
30. Lawyer Pacelli (Lumumba) : "the defense of Amanda was rancorous and non-existent "
29. Lawyer Carlo Pacelli (for the plaintiff Lumumba) begins.
28. Crini: "If Sollecito and Knox are condemned then precautionary measures should be decided to ensure execution of the sentence"
27. Crini: "There were tensions in the house for reasons of hygiene "
26. Crini: "The absence of sure motive is not a defensive threshold "
25. Crini : "At the scene there was no contamination "
24. Crini : the prosecutor carries on his indictment reaffirming the validity of the clues
23. Crini : the prosecutor continues rebuttal, the Tuscany Attorney General Dr Tindari Baglione enters the court
22. Crini : "Slander of Lumumba in itself is an important element "
21. Crini : the Prosecutor General starts his rebuttal
20. Sollecito's father::"That's understandable , too much stress"
19. Sollecito :"I do not know if I'll be in the courtroom on the day of judgment
18. This ends the argument of Maori (defense of Sollecito )
17. Maori: "The only possible verdict is an acquittal"# meredithnazione
16. Maori: "In the various processes motive , time, and the murder weapon changed ontinuously"
15. Maori: "The witnesses who say that Raffaele and Rudy knew each other, said things false"
14. Maori:"The witness Quintavalle for many days after the murder of Amanda did not speak"
13. Maori: "The witness Quintavalle speaks thirteen months after the fact"
12. Maori: "The witness Curatolo is unreliable , wrong date and report things that are false"
11. Maori: "Some witnesses have had access to financial sinecures"
10. Maori: "The witnesses are characters created by the mass media"
9. Maori: "At 21.26 Sollecito opened from his PC the cartooon Naruto"
8. Maori: "At 21.10 there was interaction Sollecito with his pc"
7. Maori: "Analysis of the computer shows that Sollecito 's alibi is true"
6. Maori: "No simulation , glass window broken by a stone from the outside. No glass outside"
5. Maori:"No simulation of theft. Blinds on window with broken glass were not closed"
4. Maori: "The bloody footprint on the bath mat is not Sollecito's foot"
3. Maori: "Meredith was killed at 21"
2. Maori: "The kitchen knife is the murder weapon . Wounds are not compatible"
1. The hearing begins : now it's up to the lawyer Maori
[Below: previous image of Attorney General Dr Tindari Baglione who is in court to hear Dr Crini]
Saturday, January 18, 2014
False Claims In Bongiorno's Summation: That The Wound "Proved" Sollecito's Big Knife Was Not The One
Posted by The TJMK Main Posters
In defense summation on 9 January, nobody who really knows the case (such as Judge Nencini) would have bought many of Giulia Bongiorno's outlandish arguments.
The post below this one illustrates how Bongiorno in about half her arguments tried to demonize and mischaracterize all of Perugia, as if somehow Perugia itself had become the real villain in forcing a rush to judgment and wrong conclusion. In fact Perugia took a huge hit from Meredith's murder but has acted gracefully and competently ever since.
This post by several of us after discussion in Comments is the first of two on Bongiorno's claims about the large knife. The second one will follow next week by Ergon.
There is no question in our minds but that this IS the murder weapon. It was proved convincingly by way of the DNA tests done by the Scientific Police and Carabinieri. Here we prove it by way of human physiology and the autopsy.
Waving two knives with a manic expression, Bongiorno claimed that the the large knife in evidence was far too large for the wound in question - and anyway, anyone intent on murder would have easily pushed the large knife right through so there was no intent of murder anyway. Bongiorno dismissed the possibility that hyoid bone could have somehow stopped the blade, prevented it from penetrating, as the bone is not resistant enough.
The surface location of the hyoid Bone is shown in the Illustration above; its front is only a few millimeters below the skin: The hyoid bone is loop-shaped like a C, open at the back; this Hyoid loop encloses part of the airway:
The hyoid bone curves around the upper airway at the base of the tongue, and is also called the tongue-bone or the lingual-bone. It is located between the mouth and the larynx; therefore during inhalation air passes through the hyoid loop before it passes through the larynx, and during exhalation air passes through the larynx before it passes through the hyoid loop.
The hyoid is an integral factor in the swallowing, breathing, and phonation mechanisms. If transected in such a way as to connect its part of the airway directly to the atmosphere, as it was in this case, swallowing, breathing, and phonation will be seriously impaired, as they were in this case.
The coexistent bleeding from the also-transected Right Superior Thyroid Artery accelerated Meredith's death, more by the drowning-effect of inhalation of the blood into her lungs, than by the loss of circulating-blood alone.
Both the hyoid bone and the jawbone are mobile, which is why we can chew, swallow, talk, smile laugh, and sing, the way that we do, each of us in our own unique way.
The Massei Prosecution Reconstruction depicted the killers making cuts obliquely from behind.
The fatal cut started on the Left, but crossed the midline to the Right.
Both the Right Superior Thyroid Artery, and the nearby Hyoid Bone, were severed but from Massei, it is not precisely clear where the hyoid loop was severed, and it seems that the cut did not include the midline skin; The Florence Appellate Court will have access to the relevant records.
Here is why the hyoid could not have damaged any knife:
It is an old rule of materials-physics that a softer substance cannot even scratch a harder substance.
[To some people this may be counter to their intuition, so I have passed it by an eminent MIT physicist, and he agrees with me that the knife blade would not show signs of damage caused by the stabbing in this case.]
As pointed-out recently on TJMK, some confusion has arisen, caused by a quotation in the Massei Report, where on p371is written: ""¦a single blow was apparently halted by the jawbone"¦"
The statement that a blow could be "apparently halted" by Meredith's jawbone is at best a figure of speech, and the quotes of Prof Cingolani on page 152 of the Massei Translation clearly indicate that any cause and effect inference from the phrase "apparently halted by" did not mean it was stopped-by the jawbone:
Prof Cingolani "did not, however, have elements of certainty to establish that the blade which had caused the wound 4 centimetres deep had stopped at the said depth because [it was] stopped by the jawbone."
Maybe there is a Judicial, translational, or typographical glitch and "by" the jawbone should have been "at" the jawbone.
Skin is soft and bone is harder but there is no way that the knife striking the jawbone would halt the knife in this case, the jaw would just roll with the strike, depending on the angle of attack. [The force was not even enough to mark the jawbone itself!]
Furthermore, contact between the knife and jawbone or hyoid bone would not mark the knife because living-bone is softer than the knife.
When your pet gnaws on a non-living cow-bone, neither the bone nor your pet's teeth can bend; both your pet's teeth and the bone can be broken or dislocated, and the bone gets scratches on it because it is still softer than the teeth, but your pet's teeth do not get scratches on them, because they are harder even than the non-living bone.
If someone is stabbed in the back with a kitchen carving knife, penetrating ribs on its way to the heart, the knife may have no scratches at all, nor show any signs of damage caused by that action.
[Look at your own kitchen carving knife. It probably has no marks caused by striking chicken thigh bones. It will have fine parallel scratches created in the manufacturing process.]
Any implication-in, or inference-from the statement quoted above that stabbing Meredith's neck with enough force to penetrate the layers of her neck and then strike bone would have the effect of signs of damage to the knife-blade is a figment of an uninformed imagination.
The kitchen-knife, found in Sollecito's apartment, with Meredith's DNA on the blade and Knox's DNA on the handle, is the weapon that killed Meredith.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Demonizations By Knox: Multiple Ways In Which Her Email To Judge Nencini Is Misleading
Posted by FinnMacCool
You can read here the email Amanda Knox sent to Judge Nencini.
It is dated 15 December 2013 and was handed to Dr Nencini by Dr Ghirga, apparently to the disdain of both of them. It contains many statements which, if she were under oath, could be considered perjury.
One telling point is that she claims "I am not present in the courtroom because I am afraid." Her co-defendant, Raffaele Sollecito, was not so afraid and he did present himself at an earlier stage of the proceedings.
He made a spontaneous statement and the judge assured him that he should feel to intervene to make further interventions whenever he wished. So far he hasn't wished to - he preferred to head back to the Caribbean for his holiday.
But that event and that presence by Sollecito completely undermine the credibility of Knox's claim that she feels afraid of the court proceedings. There would be nothing to stop her coming and going, at this stage, just as Sollecito did.
I have no doubt that my lawyers have explained and demonstrated the important facts of this case that prove my innocence and discredit the unjustified accusations of the prosecution and civil parties.
That's what her lawyers were about to try to do. But instead they had to hand this email to the judge, showing their client's complete contempt for the court process.
I seek not to supplant their work
She doesn't want to supplant the work of her own lawyers? Most defendants don't, nor do they feel the need to tell the court that using an archaic seventeenth-century grammatical construction (where modern English would have "I do not mean to…" or "I do not wish to"¦")
Because I am not present to take part in [my own appeal], I feel compelled to share.
As Judge Nencini said, if anyone wants to talk to a court, come to court. Knox chose not to be present, which means that the word "because" is not a logical connector for why she feels compelled to share what she thinks. "Even though" would make more sense.
The Court has access to my previous declarations and I trust will review them…
The court has access to thousands of pages. Everybody trusts that courts will review the evidence before passing judgment "" that's how the legal process works.
I must repeat: I am innocent.
In fact she does not have to repeat that, which is simply a reiteration of her not guilty plea.
I am not present in the courtroom because I am afraid.
The wording is reminiscent of a previous declaration, "I am very afraid of Patrik, the African boy who…" Also the court may remember the presence of her co-defendant, who made a brief presentation to the court (and was invited to intervene again at any time he saw fit) and who afterwards flew back to his extended vacation in the Dominican Republic. It is difficult to see what the defendants have to be afraid of from the court, except perhaps the truth.
I am afraid that the prosecution's vehemence will leave an impression on you, that their smoke and mirrors will blind you.
The prosecution's case has already been made; this was the opportunity for the defense to make their case. It is the court's duty to consider the evidence without being overly swayed by the vehemence of lawyers from either side "" they look at the facts, and pass judgment based on that, and this happens in literally millions of cases every year. (Cassazione alone reviews more than 80 thousand cases each year.)
This is not for lack of faith in your powers of discernment, but because the prosecution has succeeded before in convincing a perfectly sound court of concerned and discerning adults to convict innocent people "" Raffaele and me.
The second half of the sentence contradicts the first. The writer is explicitly stating that she doubts that the court has sufficient powers of discernment to be able to see through the prosecution's arguments. Her justification for saying this is simply that it has happened before, with a previous court.
I've attentively followed this process and gleaned the following facts…
This is a delusional statement. The writer is the defendant, who is the subject of the process, not an external observer to it. We can compare it with her statements following her arrest, in which she claimed still to be helping the police on an equal basis with them, despite being charged with the murder.
No physical evidence places me in Meredith's bedroom, the scene of the crime…
The bedroom is where the murder took place, but the crime scene is much wider than that, and certainly encompasses the adjoining room where the burglary was faked, the bathroom where the killers cleaned up, and the corridor that connects those rooms. Knox's blood, DNA, bare footprints are all found in those places. Within Meredith's room itself, there is also a woman's shoeprint that does not match the victim, and which Knox's own lawyer was obliged to claim was caused by an unfortunate fold in the pillowcase.
Meredith's murderer left ample evidence in the brutal scenario: handprints, footprints, shoe prints in Meredith's blood, DNA in her purse, on her clothing, in her body.
The term "brutal scenario" makes no sense here, although she repeats it again a couple of lines later. Perhaps she means "crime scene" or "bedroom". The only footprints found at the crime scene are those of Knox and Sollecito. A woman's shoeprint in the room where the murder took place cannot be that of either Guede or the victim, and is most likely that of Knox.
The prosecution has failed to explain how I could have… been the one to fatally wound Meredith "" without leaving any genetic trace of myself. That is because it is impossible.
Actually it is perfectly possible to do this "" for example, simply by stabbing someone to death while wearing gloves. However, in this case the prosecution has in fact explained how several traces of Knox's DNA have been found on the handle of the knife which had the victim's DNA on the blade. That obviously fits a scenario in which Knox stabbed Meredith Kercher with that knife.
Either I was there, or I wasn't.
The same thing applies to the appeal court. Either the defendants are there, or they are not. In this case, the defendant is not.
The analysis of the crime scene answers this question: I wasn't there.
Knox's footprints, blood and DNA, sometimes mixed with that of the victim, all place her at the crime scene, and so does her DNA on the handle of the murder weapon.
My interrogation was illegal and produced a false "confession" that demonstrated my non-knowledge of the crime.
"Non-knowledge" is a curious word. Knox's witness interview was perfectly legal "" it was only the unexpected confession from the witness that changed the status of that interview, so that its contents could no longer be used against her. But there is no question over its legality.
The subsequent memoriali, for which I was wrongfully found guilty of slander…
This is an extraordinary aside. The defendant is here rejecting the legitimacy of the Italian Supreme Court, which has definitively found against her, and is also rejecting the findings of the Hellmann court that provisionally freed her, pending appeal. Every single court has found against her on this count.
. ...did not further accuse but rather recanted that false "confession".
Let us reread some excerpts from this supposed recantation: "After dinner I noticed there was blood on Raffaele's hand… I stand by my statements that I made last night about events that could have taken place in my home with Patrik… In these flashbacks I'm having, I see Patrik as the murderer…Why did I think of Patrik?... Is there any other evidence condemning Patrik or any other person?" This is not a recantation, and it does in fact contain further accusations of Patrick Lumumba while also seeking to throw suspicion both on Sollecito and an unnamed "other person".
My behavior after the discovery of the murder indicates my innocence.
As dozens of witnesses have testified in a series of trials and appeals, Knox's post-murder behavior indicated the exact opposite, which is why suspicion fell on her in the first place.
I did not flee Italy when I had the chance.
On page 71 of her memoir, Knox recounts the following exchange with Officer Ficarra, on the day after the murder was discovered: "My parents want me to go to Germany to stay with relatives for a couple of weeks. Is that okay?" She said, "You can't leave Perugia. You're an important part of the investigation."
I stayed in Perugia and was at the police's beck and call for over 50 hours in four days.
Chapter Ten of her memoir gives her own account of what she did on Monday, November 5th. She went to a nine o'clock grammar class, at which she refused to discuss the case with her fellow students; she spoke on the phone with her Aunt Dolly, admitting that she had not yet contacted the US embassy; she bumped into Patrick Lumumba where she refused to talk to BBC reporters; she spent the afternoon with Sollecito and then accompanied him to a friend's house where she played the ukulele. Far from being at the police's beck and call, she ignored their request that she stay home while they interview Sollecito separately, and turned up to the Questura regardless, although not before they had finished their evening meal.
The police coerced me into signing a false "confession""¦.
Her false accusation of Patrick Lumumba, for which she was convicted and has already served four years in prison, was not a confession and was not coerced.
. "¦one may be coerced into giving a false "confession" because of psychological torture"¦ This is a universal problem.
The US-based Innocence Project reports that there have been 244 exonerations since 2000, which is just over seventeen per year, which in turn means that currently in the USA, roughly 0.1% of cases are eventually overturned. Being wrongfully convicted might be devastating for the person concerned, but it is not a universal problem.
I did not carry around Raffaele's kitchen knife.
The defendant has not been accused of carrying the knife around, but rather of stabbing Meredith Kercher to death with it. Forensic evidence supports that accusation, too.
I had no contact with Rudy Guede. Like many youth in Perugia, I had once crossed paths with Rudy Guede.
Very typical of Knox's writing is this kind of self-contradiction, sometimes occurring within the same sentence, or as in this case, in consecutive sentences, seemingly with no self-awareness that any contradiction has even occurred.
If the prosecution truly had a case against me, there would be no need for these theatrics.
The prosecution is present in the court, having made its presentation in the usual way. The defense lawyers are about to do exactly the same thing. The only theatrics happening in the court at that moment is a bizarre email sent by one of the defendants, in lieu of attending her own appeal to her own murder conviction.
But because no evidence exists that proves my guilt, the prosecution would seek to deceive you with these impassioned, but completely inaccurate and unjustified pronouncements.
No further comments.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Appeal Session #6: Case For Knox's & Sollecito's Guilt - The Civil Parties
Posted by The TJMK Main Posters
[Above, today: Dr Maresca, the Florence lawyer who speaks for the victim, arrives at the court]
7. Court resumes tomorrow
Court will resume at 9:30 am Italy time with the first of the summations for the defenses. When they conclude, probably in January, the prosecution will have a chance of rebuttal.
6. Reporting in English
Andrea Vogt has posted a detailed report from the court at The Freelance Desk, Scroll down to the heading "Update Dec 1t 2013"
5. Reporting in Italian #3
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, accused in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, were in the grip of a "murderous rage" fuelled by illegal drugs and alcohol, a lawyer for the victim's family said Monday. Knox, Sollecito and a third person definitively convicted of the crime, Rudy Guede, had "no inhibitions" because of the drugs and alcohol they ingested before murdering Kercher in November 2007, charged Vieri Fabiani.
Only later did the "fear take over" and led to false explanations including a simulated break-in and robbery, and a false accusation against a bar owner in Perugia, where the murder occurred, added Fabiani. A Florence court is trying the case against Knox and Sollecito, who have been on trial twice before for the murder of Kercher. Both have said they are not guilty of the accusations.
Guede was convicted in a fast-track trial and is serving a 16-year sentence in the murder, but Italy's top appeal court said it was unlikely he acted alone. Knox, who is in the United States and has not returned for this trial, and Sollecito each served two years in prison after a lower court convicted them of murder in 2009. An appeal court overturned those convictions in 2011 and in March, Italy's highest court sent the case back to the appeals stage over aspects of the evidence it argued had not been properly examined before.
The supreme court ruled that the initial forensic evidence had been wrongly dismissed in the acquittal and a prosecution theory about a sex game that went wrong should be re-examined. Kercher, 21, was found dead on the floor of an apartment she shared with Knox on November 2, 2007. Guede's DNA was found inside Kercher, on her clothes, and elsewhere in the apartment.
Fabiani said that a motive for the murder was "irrelevant" because the crime was committed while the trio were abusing substances. An Italian prosecutor has requested a 26-year prison term for Knox and Sollecito for the murder, plus a further four years for Knox for allegedly slandering bar owner Patrick Lumumba, whom she initially implicated during tough police questioning before later retracting, saying she had been confused.
The new trial opened in Florence in September, and a decision is expected on January 10.
Translation by The 411
4. Reporting in Italian #2
For the Kercher family it is "intolerable" that Amanda Knox on her website is issuing "invitations to collect donations in memory of Meredith" declared Dr Francesco Maresca, the lawyer for the parents and siblings of Mez, speaking in the Assize Court of Appeal of Florence, where judicial process continues for the murder of the young British student Meredith Kercher, which occurred in Perugia on the night of November 1, 2007 .
Dr Maresca asked the Court "to forget the opposing sides and all that is foreign to the process", meaning the media coverage of the controversy being generated in the U.S. in the legal defense of Knox, as they should also "forget the statements made in court a few weeks ago by Raffaele Sollecito, who is now returned to a "vacation" in Santo Domingo"
Dr Maresca also pointed the finger at Knox for her book, for which she signed "contracts in the millions" and also retains "a person to handle public relations". Finally, he invited the Court to also forget "those journalists who are inspired by the freedom of delirium and not the freedom of the press."
Many elements confirm the original verdict. "We have no doubts about the guilt of the accused - there are so many elements to confirm the sentence".
The family of Meredith Kercher, said the lawyer, will be in Florence on the day of the judgment of the appeal for the murder of the young British student by the defendants Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito .
This was a heinous crime committed knowingly. "We ask the Court for truth and justice for a heinous crime committed with precise awareness and desire" said the lawyer Vieri Fabiani, one of the lawyers of the Kercher family… "The defendants Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede, in the process of killing Meredith Kercher, were "excited and a murderous rage was triggered" because, with the drugs and alcohol taken " their minds were free of inhibitions".
Fabiani focused in particular on Rudy Guede also convicted for the murder of Meredith, recalling that the judgment was delivered after the first degree trial in Perugia [in October 2008]. And on the verdict against Guede, Fabiani stated that he was sentenced in collusion with another two who "accidentally" have been identified as Sollecito and Knox, whose responsibility and presence on the scene of the crime are well documented.
Fabiani called Sollecito and Knox persons of "high criminal capacity" who have created the picture of a crime without serious motive. Then after the murder "fear, terror, took over and they set out to simulate a theft, frame Patrick Lumumba, to mystify, however clumsily, to banish from their minds the crime they committed."
Fabiani argued that the presence of two defendants in the house on Via della Pergola that evening, and their willingness toward murder, were strongly demonstrated.
"The motive becomes irrelevant," even if it can be identified "in the issues between Amanda and Meredith, which evolved into a sort of punishment of the victim, in an escalation".
3. Reporting in Italian #1
Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede were " excitedly and this unleashed their homicidal rage " that tragic night between the first and November 2 of 2007. Vieri Fabiani, one of the lawyers of the Kercher family, during the appeal session in Florence about the murder of Meredith Kercher .
Because of drugs and alcohol their minds were "devoid of inhibitions ," argued the lawyer, according to whom the defendants should be considered " persons of a high criminal capacity ." After the murder, fear took over, then they get to simulate a theft, to accuse Lumumba, to mystify to banish from their minds the crime they committed."
The lawyer explained that the presence of the two defendants at the crime scene and their willingness to commit murder was strongly demonstrated. "The motive becomes almost irrelevant, even though important elements can be identified" in the problems existing between Amanda and Meredith, which "evolved into a sort of punishment of the victim in an escalation".
For the Kercher family it is "intolerable that Amanda Knox on her website makes invitations to collect donations in memory of Meredith" added the lawyer Maresca. He invited the Court " to forget the opposing sides and all that is foreign to the process." The court should "forget" the statements made in court a few weeks ago by " Raffaele Sollecito who has returned to "a vacation" in Santo Domingo
Avv Maresca also pointed the finger at Amanda and her book thanks to which she " has signed contracts making her a millionaire."
2. Tweets from La Nazione
10. Amanda knows the mode of the crime because she was present
9. Motive is irrelevant, the presence of the accused at the scene of the crime is proven
8. Amanda and Raffaele in the grip of the excitement and this triggered the murderous rage
7. It is not sustainable that Rudy Guede is the only murderer
6. The lack of motive is irrelevant, there is evidence of homicidal intent
5. The ruling of the Supreme Court crushed the acquittal of appeal
4. Amanda knew the mode of the murder
3. On the knife found at Sollecito's house there was the DNA of the victim
2. Contamination of the bra clasp is false (invented)
1. Meredith proceedings: hearing begins. Lawyer Vieri Adriani for the victim family to speak first
1. Tweets from Freelance Andrea Vogt
5. Courtroom nearly empty for closing args of lawyer representing meredith kercher family. Not much interest in their quiet suffering.
4. Maresca: "While we're here in trial, Sollecito in Santo Domingo & Knox in US taking online donations for victim she's accused of killing."
3. Kercher attny Serena Perna: Meredith's many wounds in many places (from bare hands,from knife, yet not defensive) = multiple attackers.
2. Kercher attny: Motive, or lack thereof, is absolutely irrelevant.1000 different problems could have led to fatal escalation of violence.
1. Right now lawyers for the civil parties (specifically Kercher family) giving closing arguments. Defense is to follow.
[Below: two images in the courtroom from previous sessions]
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Why Is Appeal Prosecutor Crini So Very, Very Interested In The Precise Position Of Filomena's Door?
Posted by Cardiol MD
[Above, we can see Filomena's grey door, at hard left; ahead are Meredith's & Knox's bedrooms]
Do please bear in mind that this appeal was initiated by Knox and Sollecito, and the verdict, sentence and sentencing report they dispute is Judge's Massei's from the 2009 trial.
The subject of one of Dr Crini's focuses - whether or not Filomena's door was open at the various times Knox and Sollecito stated they went to the women's apartment on the morning-after "" is a crucial one, relevant to proving Knox's and Sollecito's lies and obfuscations.
Wasn't the staged break-in to Filomena Romanelli's room glaringly obvious? In the early morning of November 2nd, 2007? In spite of the Knox/Sollecito obfuscations? There is much information in Massei on this question, pointing to many very obvious obfuscations.
Now, for the legal requirements of beyond-reasonable-doubt (BRD) actual, literal quotations are needed. Much relevant information can easily get "˜lost in translation' not only at the superficial level of paraphrase, as in "They said that"¦..", but also at the more subtle level of the formats used for quotations.
Some of the Massei Report as translated consists of the actual oral quotations of witness statements, some are quotations of the content of written documents, but some consist only of paraphrases of both oral statements and of written documents.
For some quotations, especially nested-quotations the translation uses various formats, beginning either with a comma or an apostrophe, ending with an apostrophe, and, in my copy, some back-slashes.
This mixture can be confusing to some readers, and Knox and Sollecito are seasoned veterans of exploiting such translational losses. That is a major factor in their continuing obstruction of justice: using chronic obfuscation.
He said, "She yelled, 'I'm going to kill you.' "
This quotation-format has been substituted in this post where it seems appropriate. It is hoped that when this format is used only to indicate editorial irony it will be self-evident.
John Follain and Will Savive also make a number of relevant references, and so do some Wiki articles whose authors are too modest to identify themselves though "˜Underhill' has been mentioned as a co-ordinator.
Of course, the members of the Florence Appellate Court have access-to, have probably already read, thousands of pages of evidence, including the actual verbatim witness-transcripts, and that Court will make up its own mind independent of what is written elsewhere.
Here are some of the Massei "˜door' instances - this is a selection of a relevant 6 out of a grand total of 192 instances:
Massei Page 28: [Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito "" said that they were waiting for the carabinieri whom they had called since "coming back to the cottage in the morning because they had been away for the night" and finding "the entrance [15] door open and then the window broken" (see declarations by Battistelli, hearing of February 7, 2009, page 64).]
Access to the Court Records would help us better-understand this passage, but Follain (Page 67, Kindle location 939), indicates that Battistelli is actually quoting Sollecito, substituting "˜they' for "˜we', so it seems that Sollecito was already obfuscating the facts, encouraging the inference that their shocking observations began only when both he and Knox arrived together and discovered together both the open apartment entrance-door, and from inside Filomena's room, the broken-window, so we are all being steered away, by Sollecito, from the true answer to our question.
Massei Pages 29-30: [Around midday(Nov, 2nd, 2007), at ten past twelve, when they had not yet arrived at the car park of the Fair, and she(Filomena) was in the car with her friend Paola Grande, she received a phone call: it was Amanda letting her know that there was something strange. She had arrived and had found the door open: she had had a shower and it had seemed to her that there was some blood; moreover she said that she was going [17] to Raffaele's place (declarations of Romanelli page 31, hearing of February 7, 2009).
To her (Filomena's) question about where Meredith was, she had answered that she did not know.]
Filomena had apparently not been told by Knox, in this 1st phone-call, about the broken pane, the stone, and the bedroom-disarray, as if Knox was not yet aware of these stunning facts. The obfuscation continues.
Massei Page 30: [Marco Zaroli, who was without a car because Ms. Romanelli had taken it, had called his friend Luca Altieri and they had gone together to the house in Via della Pergola, where they arrived around 1:00 pm, at almost the same time as Filomena Romanelli and Paola Grande. In the house there were the also the two present accused and "" as we have seen "" Inspector Battistelli and Assistant Marzi. The presence of the latter two was linked by Ms. Romanelli to what Amanda had told her about the open door, the broken pane, her own room in a mess.]
When Knox first told Ms. Romanelli about her visit, she had omitted reference to Laura's and Filomena's doors, whether they were open, whether they were openable, whether Knox opened them, and whether Knox looked inside and saw the broken pane, the stone, and the bedroom-disarray. It is implausible that Knox tried only Meredith's door and not the others.
It is also implausible that Knox even took a shower at the women's apartment, colder as it was than Sollecito's. Amy Frost testified that hours after the body was discovered Amanda Knox told her that she never took the shower, because when she noticed the blood that had stopped her from showering.
The Postal Police commented that Knox also emanated an unpleasant, "˜post-shower' odour, inconsistent with Amanda having recently had a shower anywhere, implying Knox was lying about taking the shower.
Knox is steering Ms. Romanelli away from these crucial facts which logically demanded that their "˜discoverer' flee (again), and call the Police. Knox is obfuscating by selective piece-meal feeding-of-the-facts to Filomena.
Massei Page 38: [On the day of November 2, 2007 at police headquarters, Amanda was also there and she said that that night she had been with her boyfriend Raffaele and that the next morning at around 11:00 am she had gone back home to get changed. She had found the entrance door open and this seemed strange to her: she had gone into the house and into her room and she had taken a shower and had seen drops of blood.
She said that after the shower she got dressed and noticed that Meredith's door was locked. She went into the other bathroom and said that there were faeces in the toilet. Then she went into another room and noticed that the window had been broken and that there was glass inside. She told these things to her and the other girls present. Then she related that she had gone back to Raffaele's house and had rung Filomena. She remembered that on that occasion at police headquarters Raffaele was very calm, silent.]
When Knox first called Filomena, Knox had omitted any mention of the most significant information - the (staged) break-in, as if she had not 'noticed' it.
Now, later, paraphrasing, Massei states: "Then she went into another room and noticed that the window had been broken and that there was glass inside."
Had Massei not paraphrased, but had written "Then I went into Filomena's room and 'noticed' that her window had been broken and that there was glass inside.", we could use it as BRD evidence.
The actual, verbatim quote should be among the many thousands of Court Records relied upon by Massei; Nencini's Court should use such Record in reaching its decision.
Massei Page 65: [Upon returning home, she [Amanda] noticed that the door was wide open. She thought someone had gone to take the trash out or gone to the floor below, closing the door behind them but not locking it. She asked loudly whether anyone was at home, but no one answered. The door to Meredith's room was closed, and this meant she was sleeping. She undressed in her own room and took a shower in the bathroom, (the one) nearest to (both) her room and to Meredith's.
When she got out of the shower, she realised that on the little bath mat where she had placed her feet, there was blood and also, there were drops of blood on the sink and the faucet. She left the bathroom and went to get dressed in her own room. Then, she went in the other bathroom to dry her hair, where there was a blow dryer. It was at this time that she noticed feces in the toilet, which surprised her. She then took the mop and returned to Raffaele's home, locking the door (on the way out.)
She told Raffaele what she had seen and he suggested that she call one of her friends. She then called Filomena Romanelli, who said that she had been out with her boyfriend and that Laura Mezzetti was also away, in Rome with her family. She then realised that the only one to have spent the night in Via della Pergola was Meredith, about whom, however, nothing was known. Filomena seemed worried, so Amanda (Page 66) told her that she would call Meredith, who would then call her back.
She then called the two cellphones that Meredith had, but without getting any response (from her). She then returned home, this time with [55] Raffaele. Upon returning home, she opened the door to Filomena Romanelli's room and saw that the window was open and completely broken: there was chaos, "šbut her computer was in its place on the desk."› Convinced that there had been a burglary, she went into the other rooms: Laura's room was in order, and nothing was missing from her own room.
However, Meredith's door was closed. She began to knock and to call out, without receiving any answer. She was then seized with panic and went on the balcony to see if she was able to see anything, but she couldn't see anything. She went down to the apartment below to ask someone, but no one was there. She therefore went back inside and Raffaele said that he wanted to try to break down the door of Meredith's room, but he wasn't able to. It was then that they decided to call the police, which is what Raffaele did. She let Filomena know about this, asking her to come home.]
Now, only after returning "home, this time with [55] Raffaele." does Knox allege that she had then "opened the door to Filomena Romanelli's room and saw that the window was open and completely broken: there was chaos, "šbut her computer was in its place on the desk."
Knox continues to obfuscate by selective piece-meal feeding-of-the-facts.
Massei Page 66: [While they were waiting, two police officers arrived (at the scene) and she showed them all that she had seen. Then Filomena arrived with her boyfriend and two other friends, and they broke down the door of Meredith's room.]
True. There are a number of other Massei references to Filomena's door and room, but they are basically repetitive of information already in the above references.
This seems to be enough for Nencini's Court to reach its verdicts re Knox and Sollecito.
[Below: the area from which Knox would have been looking at Filomena's door]
Thursday, December 05, 2013
With Sollecito's First Plea For Mitigation Seen As A Flop, His Behavior Seems Extremely Suspect
Posted by Peter Quennell
Sollecito headed for Dominican Republic, but stopped pending court okay
1. Post Overview
A week ago Prosecutor Crini had begun a two-day summary of the state's case so stark and implacable that it had two effects on Sollecito.
He stayed in his hotel on the second day; and he then took off like a rabbit for some destination initially unknown and repeatedly lied-about by his father (see Part 3 below).
One of his lawyers (accidentally?) broke the secret. Sollecito had flown to the Dominican Republic. Where he just happens to have some really unsavory relatives.
2. High Drama In The Nencini Court
Sollecito has not ever taken the witness stand.
And given the minefield his foolish book and media claims amount to, don't hold your breath expecting otherwise soon. However, last month Sollecito did use the Italian accuseds' privilege of making an impromptu plea to the judges.
He was not under oath and not subject to cross-examination by the prosecutors. He did not address the copious evidence, and was seen as attempting to humanize himself to perhaps get some years knocked off a final sentence.
As always, Knox forces were left confused, thinking he had somehow helped both of them. But Sollecito repeatedly drew attention to his being an Italian and in effect to Knox and Guede not being Italians, thus once again separating himself from Knox on lines Barbie Nadeau also described here..
Our main poster Yummi was in the court and reported in part as follows:
One of the woman judges kept staring elsewhere and almost never watched Sollecito all the time he was talking. Sollecito's speech itself was actually not that exciting. It was so overt that he was focused on portraying himself as a person who is so good and cannot hurt anyone, not the bad guy described in the media. The real and only topic of Sollecito's statement was himself, who he is, his "true" personality, he begged them to look at what a good and suffering a boy he is…
And believe me, Sollecito was just whiny. For a big part of his speech he was just putting distance between who he is today and the person he was when he was 20 years old. He talked about the impossibility of finding a job (the job he would like to have in a corporation, obviously, not just any job) and wanted the judge to project to his condition from that of young Italians who can't hope to see a future.
Then 10 days ago the skilled senior prosecutor Dr Alessandro Crini fired back, and effectively demolished Sollecito's premature statement. As we reported, Dr Crini took nearly two days to do that.
Sollecito was again in court on the first day, but was seemingly unable to face Dr Crini's onslaught on the second day. He remained holed up at his hotel.
Although Dr Crini settled on a lowest-common-denominator motive - a Lord of the Flies flare-up which had escalated into mob violence and the fatal stab to Meredith - his recounting of the evidence and associated behavior of the pack was comprehensive and very hard. Translated from Cronaca:
Meredith was treated "as if she was an animal." In this way Dr Crini defined the dynamics of the murder of Meredith Kercher during his indictment.
According to Dr Crini, the attack escalated to the point where the attackers felt they "needed to get rid of a girl they had abused". While Rudy Guede sexually abused Meredith Kercher, supine on the floor of her room, Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox, according to the reconstruction, were at each side of the body of the victim.
"The mouth and neck of the victim were contained in a fierce way to avoid Meredith going berserk and screaming, and when Meredith did in fact manage to scream, she received the final fierce stab to the throat." Two knives were used in the crime at the house in Via della Pergola on the night between 1 and 2 November 2007"...
Dr Crini referring to the bra clasp of the victim, said that "the presence of the DNA of Raffaele Sollecito is quite certain" and explained at length why there was no "possibility of contamination".
Amanda Knox was at the scene of the crime, according to the identification made "‹"‹by the scientific police in Meredith's room of an imprint of a shoe (female size 36-38 according to the results of the analysis)... On the pillowcase, the center of gravity of this bloody history, were found a palmprint of Rudy Guede and this print of the shoe."
3. High Drama Right After End Of Court
Dr Francesco Sollecito was reported as being shocked by the unrelenting tone of the indictment. However, Sollecito's plight is not nearly as bad as the ever-stubborn Amanda Knox's.
Knox has already served three years and was fined heavily for obstruction of justice. She could face another year for that if it is found to have been aggravating. And as the post below mentions, she could face as many as three more charges for aggravating obstruction of justice.
Sollecito in contrast has respected the court by actually showing up, and, unlike Knox, has lately shown restraint in accusing his accusers.
However, the day after Dr Crini 's startlingly powerful summary of the case against him, it looked like Sollecito was hastily taking off out of Italy for somewhere.
La Nazione reported that police at Florence Airport had held back a fully loaded Air France flight to Paris while they checked with the prosecution that he was indeed allowed to leave the country. La Nazione said the prosecutors have some concern that he might skip and not come back, but he did voluntarily come back previously from the Dominican Republic, and his family has always ensured some presence in court.
But next TGCom24 reported that Sollecito's father had claimed that Sollecito had already gone home to Bisceglie, although he is a free citizen still in possession of a passport and can travel anywhere if he wishes.
But then TGCom24 reported that he had indeed flown to Paris, but had turned around and come straight back again, to stay with family friends. And that on 8 December he will sit his final exams in computer science at the University of Verona.
However, soon after that La Nazione reported that Sollecito's father had been contradicted by his lawyers, and his erratic son had slipped through his fingers and flown "for his work" back to the Dominican Republic. Translation by Jools:
1 December 2013 "" SCOOP. Denials, lies, game by the defenders. But in the end it's up to the lawyer Luca Maori to admit: "Raffaele Sollecito returned to Santo Domingo, as anticipated on Friday by La Nazione"
He embarked from Florence's Peretola Airport and made a stop-over in Paris, from where he then flew to the Caribbean island where he spent the last few months that preceded the start of the new appeals process. "But there is nothing strange - minimizes the lawyer - Raffaele went back to pick up the things he left there, will be back in ten days for the final exams and to await the judgment. With anxiety, but self-assured."
No escape, just a normal "work" trip. Permissible, since there is no measure that prevents the accused to leave Italy. But the departure of Sollecito, accused of the murder of Meredith Kercher along with former girlfriend Amanda Knox (already sheltered in the U.S.) caused some sneering. And even the agents of the Border Police, when they saw him in front of the [departure] gate, made a phone call to the Procura to be sure whether the journey in the midst of the appeal process was really "normal."
IN FACT. Sollecito 's father, in an understandable effort to defend his already too overexposed son, slipped on the so-called banana peel, placing the young man within a few hours in various locations, but never in the true destination across the ocean: in Verona, preparing for the final exam in computer science in regard to the thesis, or in Paris, but just for a flash-stay from which he was back the day after. At Christmas, maintained the father, Raffaele will return from abroad. Maybe for the last break before the final rush of the Mark II process, which, according to calculations by the Assize Court of Appeal, could be concluded on January 15.
Meanwhile, the hearing on 16 December is for the remaining civil parties, then double date for the defence, (December 17 and January 9) and hearing on the 10 dedicated to counter-argument. With Sollecito in the courtroom, assures the lawyer.
Nothing strange?! Doctor Sollecito lying repeatedly, instead of explaining to the media where Raffaele went, and why he went there, and why it was a huge secret, was VERY strange.
It should have official minds very seriously wondering why. WHAT did Raffaele have to do so secretly in the Dominican Republic - where his notorious mafia relatives from Montreal occupy a town there?
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Appeal Session #5: Prosecutor Alessandro Crini Concludes, Proposes 30 Years For AK And 26 For RS
Posted by The TJMK Main Posters
This is the report on the second day of Prosecutor Crnini summarizing the entire case.
This was not attempted at such length at the 2011 Hellman appeal and that panel of judges was perhaps not ever fully in the picture. The first day of the presentation is reported on here.
Real-Time Reporting, Bottom Up
4. Assessment by main poster SeekingUnderstanding
The case put forward by the prosecution and reported to us by Yummi is almost startling in its lucid and concise approach.
It couldn't be more in contrast to the equivocations and disingenuousness, as well as irrelevant sentimentality that we have unfortunately become used to witnessing. The cutting use of logic was therefore refreshing, and gives grounds for optimism, albeit it tempered by unknowns.
All the issues seemed to be addressed from the base line, as if from primary considerations. And many points were simply politely dismissed as being unimportant to the true case in hand -which is the establishment of the guilt (or not) of the accused. For example, it was great to hear that the reason why the knife had been brought to the cottage need not be examined - it was enough that it was there.
It seemed that where the defence had challenged the evidence, for example suggesting contamination of DNA, it was here that Crini spared no detail, and took time in bottoming out the logic, and dispensing with their points. His arguments certainly carried conviction to me.
I was glad to see motive and behavioural dynamics looked at, as indeed Cassation had requested. It seemed good too that Crini ruled out premeditation, and reduced the dynamics to something highly plausible and believable as well as simple. There are just two points I might observe :
First, it would seem within character for Meredith to have been both open and direct in confronting issues of hygiene, drug use, infringement of privacy and noise etc., (or even theft of rent money, another possibility). I am not convinced that she would necessarily have been aggressively confrontational. Someone who is relaxed within themselves, accepting of their self, is well able to be assertive in a non-provocative manner. That is quite British too - especially old-fashioned English.
Secondly, bearing in mind the possible or probable profiles of the defendants, it would not have taken more than one small trigger of reasonable confrontation to release the consequent temper-tantrum or drug fuelled rage. I do not think we are dealing with something proportionate - and this is also why it escalated in the terrifying way it did. I don't think it is essential to hypothesize as to what in particular Meredith raised an objection to (e.g. Rudy's bathroom event). It is probable that Meredith's concerns were reasonable, and then the overly defensive and angry reaction to any criticism whatsoever was unreasonable. I personally think this is enough.
I liked the way Crini said that even though a source is unreliable or not credible in some ways, that does not mean they do not (inadvertently as it were) give out information that is also true and useful. Possibly other statements from Guede might be taken into account in this way?
As a psychologist, it would seem dialogue with Rudy might yet be fruitful, but, with things the way they remain with the other two, it does not seem the time now for further words. Something else needs to happen.
3. Assessment by main poster James Raper
Crini spent about 10 hours in total addressing the court and was certainly very thorough. Maresca was so impressed that there was no need for him to add anything further.
Crini came to the prosecution case without the baggage of having presented any previous scenario or of having had his reputation sullied and slandered by the Knox PR machine. He reviewed the evidence dispassionately and found it compelling.
Clearly he also found the previous machinations of C&V and the Hellmann court objectionable and went in hard here, even discussing previous cases where Vecchiotti and Conti had goofed up. Hellmann had tried so hard to avoid that coming out during his appeal.
He was not, however, averse to taking a different tack where he thought this was appropriate. A sign of his intellectual honesty which may have impressed the court.
For instance, he thought that there was no need to nail TOD down to 11.30pm as Mignini had sought to do. He allowed for an earlier TOD.
He was of the opinion that coming up with an exact time line for a period in which there is no alibi, and when there is already evidence of involvement in murder, is of only marginal interest.
He spent well over an hour discussing the knife. He did not think it necessary to mull over how it came to be at the cottage. That is speculation that need not detain anyone if the knife is accepted as the murder weapon, and he thinks that on all the evidence it is.
He ruled out premeditation, even as to a hazing, and presented a very simple scenario as to motive and the dynamics behind and during the attack on poor Meredith. Keeping it simple makes it understandable to everyone. Elaborate further and you risk alienating someone who disagrees with the elaboration and thinks they have a better theory.
My only objection is that it is a tad ridiculous to believe that Meredith objected to poop being left in the toilet, the toilet she didn't use. But yes, the objectionable behaviour of a trio of drunken/drugged up louts invading her space would most likely have triggered argument, unpleasantness and then a fight.
There is plenty of character evidence to support that scenario and with a little imagination, and some recollection of one's student days, one can easily see how this might have gone. In a way, and Crini admitted to this possibility, Meredith's own behaviour, or misreading of the situation, may also have been a trigger. Whether one agrees with this or not, it is at least a believable and honest suggestion.
So he set out base camp for the court (bearing in mind that Cassation had suggested that behavioural dynamics be given serious consideration by the appeals court) and whether the judges elaborate further (perhaps by conjecturing a possible range of equally valid motives and dynamics) is up to them.
2. Assessment by main poster Hopeful
Crini is magnificent! He's absolutely crushing the defense. He nails Knox as having left her bloody shoeprint on the pillow under Meredith.
He accepts Novelli who found Meredith's trace on the knife. He believes Knox left DNA on the knife. He quotes from differing experts Gill and Balding and says Sollecito's DNA on the bra clasp stands.
He describes a small, very sharp knife that he believes was used to cut off the bra in several places. He says the knifeprint on the sheet was from the big kitchen knife.
Crini contends that the strong bruise marks around Meredith's mouth were from restraining her and blocking the scream.
He believes this fight was caused by Meredith angrily reacting to Knox's constant dirty ways in the cottage and Guede's nasty toilet habit along with his and Sollecito's unwanted presence in the cottage that night.
Crini argues a crime of rage when Knox was confronted by Meredith, citing Laura Mezetti's remarks about the cleaning conflicts. Crini says that Meredith's scream is what caused the fatal knife blow to silence her.
Not premeditated, the murder was the final result of the perps' terror that they had gone too far during the raging fight. He's asking for 30 years for Knox and asks to increase sentence for calunnia to 4 years, inclusive in the 30.
He almost laughs at Knox's weak excuse over the drops of her blood found in the bathroom, saying she would surely have known if she bled.
He confirms the storekeeper did see Knox early in the morning after the crime. He finds no proof of Sollecito being firmly at his computer sending emails during the crime. He blasts the Knox and Sollecito alibis as being a tissue of lies.
Crini has another ex-Supreme Court justice standing with him in the Florence courtroom! (Baglione). Crini has worked extremely hard. He has conquered this convoluted pack of lies and distortions and his diligence shows. He upturned the applecart of Conti-Vecchioti nonsense and thoroughly redeemed Stefanoni's findings.
He has completely severed the heads of this Medusa Gorgon mess, Crini is the bomb!
1. Tweets continue from main poster Yummi
114. This means a total request of 30 years for Knox and 26 years for Sollecito
113. [Propose] 26 years for both for the murder
112. The murder is contextual, their was no premeditation, and no futile motive
111. Because of their staging and denials, they should not be given generic mitigation for murder.
110. Requests to increase the penalty for [Knox] calunnia to 4 years
109. But experience tells statements of unreliable perps do contain revelations about the truth. The 'argument' between girls, why such context?
108. Rudy Guede has no credibility, even if the Supreme Court is right that this cannot depend on his refusal to answer.
107. Crini cites Laura Mezzetti about the 'annoyance' caused by Knox on house cleaning issues.
106. Meredith was the one triggering an argument because of the 'impolite' invasion and behavior. She accused Knox .
105. Rudy was not sober, quite high, a bit annoying, and was acting the same disgusting way he behaved downstairs days before.
104. Meredith Kercher was sober, fully awake. The others were at least 'smoked', a bit high, Rudy was there in the house.
103. The motive is not futile, the motive is terror, it is the consequence of the prior aggressive action in which they were involved.
102. Nothing points to an agreed plan among the three that run out of control; the first cause was an aggression, a clash, impetus of rage
101. Crini: there is a prosecution duty to conjecture a motive.
100. The blood drop on the tap: a point is Knox does not explain, guesses, while she must be aware that she bled in the bathroom.
99. Crini believes the shoe prints on the pillowcase are from a female's shoe as suggested by police
98. Knox's DNA between the blade and the handle (36-i)is very significant. It's not from sweat or contact.
97. The print on the bed sheet is compatible with the kitchen knife.
96. Crini: we don't need to figure a reason for a kitchen knife to be carried from one apartment to the other..
95. The bra straps are cut in multiple points, not with a kitchen knife.
94. Sollecito cut her bra with a knife in multiple parts. hold bra to cut it - no Guede's DNA in that point - used a small very sharp-edge knife
93. Rudy did not stab her, because he wad used both his hands, which were unarmed
92. Wounds indicate she was immobilized by multiple people, they killed her because failing to do so completely, were terrified by her scream.
91. Criticizes Torre's theory that the large wound could be caused by a small knife: improbable, the wound has clear margins.
90. There were two knifes, one was small, not much fit to kill.
89. Ridiculous to think that Rudy Guede - which she knew - could intimidate Meredith totally to that point. She would react.
88. Specific indicator: no defence wounds; means bruises are not from fight but restraint.
87. Description of bruises and lesions around her mouth, indicates extreme force to prevent from screaming. Rest of body was also immobilized.
86. She was still wearing a blue sweater which was removed subsequently.
85. Analysis of blood drop pattern and position of victim when stabbed; body moved in a different position.
84. Location of crime - space between the bed and the wardrobe - is peculiar, analysed by UACV
83. Crini says will sketch a dynamic of events of the crime.
82. Crini says - implying Vecchiotti, Pascali - some experts should be "hold where they belong"
81. Crini recall Pascali working on the Olgiata and the Claps case (2008, 2010);
80. There is no instance of transfer of Sollecito's DNA anywhere on the scene
79. Crini cites the Olgiata case.
78. Contamination must be deduced from context of finding and collection. You must think a practical way for Sollecito's DNA to be transferred
77. Tagliabracci defends Vecchiotti saying the RIS statistical techniques were not used at the time; Crini cites Gill and Balding
76. Guede's Y haplotype in victim's vagina alone was used to identify him.
75. Sollecito's DNA is certainly on the clasp for the police; Vecchiotti doubts but considers X separately from Y haplotype
74. The bra clasp: the first objection was the interpretation of the mixed/complex trace
73. Crini says he learned a bit of genetics working on cold cases
72. Vecchiotti and Tagliabracci have a reliability problem in relation to the case, for different reasons
71. Vecchiotti said she obtained all cooperation she required. Raw data could be accessed by accessing the machine itself as Stefanoni offered.
70. Crini says he found out the negative controls were deposited, the court will find the document of deposit etc.
69. Vecchiotti omitted to note the censures/observations written by the other consultants, this procedure is incorrect
68. Vecchiotti's approach to the I-trace (refusal to test it ) was 'ideological', 'weak', 'insufficient'
67. Interpretation of profile is for complex result. For non-complex profiles there is actually no 'interpretation'.
66. Crini recalls answers by the RIS, defence tried to elicit approval of CV, but RIS said multiple test only if possible, compromise for result
65. Novelli cited saying the profile of Meredith is certain.
64. Meredith's profile came out clean on a single amplification, means the trace is clear.
63. The meaning of test repetition is its necessity when you have a 'dirty', uncertain sequence like Knox's profile on the knife
62. Novelli knows very well about double and triple amplification protocols, and Stefanoni knows well too
61. Guidelines are an indication that guide your driver, but then you have to drive
60. Someone who keeps a refrigerator like the one Vecchiotti has, should be less critical about laboratory practice
59. Crini: should we toss any result in the garbage, no matter how important and clear, whenever the test is not repeated?
58. Speaks about the single amplification by Stefanoni versus guidelines.
57. The presence of human DNA in a scratch on the blade of a knife itself is not usual
56. Crini: another introduction specific on DNA; notes btw that the new RIS finding is 'important' because adds information
55. Crini makes an introduction about circumstantial evidence
54. Discussion on DNA and remaining evidence will start in 1h.
53. Francesco Sollecito [in interview] was shocked, said he never expected so aggressive arguments from PG [the Tuscany Prosecutor General]
52. Yesterday, Crini spent the first hour to argue about logical 'method': how assess evidence altogether, examples, quotes of SC sentences
Monday, November 25, 2013
Appeal Session #4: Today Lead Prosecutor Alessandro Crini Summarises The Prosecution's Case
Posted by The TJMK Main Posters
This is the report on the first day of Prosecutor Crnini summarizing the entire case.
This was not attempted at such length at the 2011 Hellman appeal and that panel of judges was perhaps not ever fully in the picture. The second day of the presentation is reported on here.
Real-Time Reporting, Bottom-Up
5. Good reporting on the court today
Andrea Vogt has posted an objective report here and Barbie Nadeau an objective report here. We will post excerpts from both and other sources after the appeal session on Tuesday is done.
5. Warning about AP's Colleen Barry
The Associated Press's Colleen Barry is once again filing highly biased reports from the court. This is an appeal by Knox and Sollecito AGAINST a guilty verdict (by Judge Massei) and not an appeal by the prosecution to "reinstate" a guilty verdict. Get a grip.
4. Final post from the court today
It is 5:30 pm in Italy. Judge Nencini has declared today's session at an end and he has allowed the prosecution to resume its presentation tomorrow. Prosecutor Crini has about 1/3 of his presentation on the evidence still to come.
3. Tweets from main poster Yummi
Yummi has warned us that the wireless internet bandwidth inside and just outside the courtroom gets overloaded late in the day as the reporters get busy on their reports. Yummi does have a way around this but it involves leaving the courtroom when key arguments might be made and walking some distance away. So there might be some slight delays.
[More pending; Dr Crini has alerted that his presentation will be in 16 chapters]
51. [Judge] Nencini suggests to interrupt and go on tomorrow with following prosecution's points. New schedule.
50. Chapter 11. is DNA. Crini says we may have evidence enough by now anyway
49. Crini censures Hellmann-Zanetti's reasoning about calunnia (why not indicate the real culprit?). Says H-Z committed 'physical violence' on trial file
48. Knox's calunnia is a strategy protracted over time says Crini
47. Dreamlike component in Knox's statement, fish blood, are devices needed to surround a calunnia strategy
46. Knox needed to put some additional content into the 'calunnia', says Crini, or wouldn't be believed, so she puts in pieces of truth
45. Knox spoke about a scream an a sexual violence before anyone knew. Sollecito said nothing was stolen before they knew.
44. Points out Sollecito says Romanelli's door was wide open; Knox doesn't notice theft. Crini highlights the 'combination' of inconsistencies
43. Knox thinks locked door is normal; does not flush toilet when finds feces; does not notice blood before having a shower; thinks blood is ok
42. Notes Knox's statements are inconsistent and ommisive before her interrogation.
41. Crini speaks about Knox's declarations. Interested in the timings. Says too much was repeated to be coerced.
40. Crini speaks about chapter 9, the statements of Sollecito. His call to her sister. His alert was late but even so preceded the postals arrive
39. Bathmat print and luminol prints were chapter 7. of Crini's argument; 8. is the staging of theft.
38. The most significant stain may be the one in Romanelli's room, says Crini.
37. Speaking of a female's print left in luminol, Crini sounds outraged, saying other substances is vague unsubstantiated conjecture [eg it was blood not bleach]
36. Guede's sentencing was not well calibrated says Crini. But a Guede alone scenario is not tenable
35. Does it make sense for Guede to leave there the evidence of (putative) theft, and clean footprints?
34. The unitary sense made by elements like the bloody print, is a cleanup. Considers the lone-perp scenario: inconsistent
33. Crini: starts talking about the isolated bloody print; calls it a 'talking element'. Why is that print alone?
32. Suspects are only ones with a 'logistic' capability and an interest to 'clean' the murder scene. They aimed at 'diminishing' the evidence mass
31. Knox's lamp was the only light in her room.
30. Crini: the perp(s) organized a rather complex plan to clean up and 'sidetrack' at the murder scene.
29. Still to be determined if calunnia was "occasional" due to pressure, or "aggravated" [sidetracking]; Crini saya a 'depistaggio reale' (sidetracking) occurred
28. Crini: suspects' statements are extremely interesting: RS's statements; AK's e-mail, internet statements, [Knox's] memoriale
27. Crini: a most fertile chapter of analysis is the 'post-factum' actions and behaviors of defendants
26. Crini has unfolded five chapters. Says he has a total of sixteen
25. Quintavalle, details of his testimony and woman's description are exceptional indicators of accuracy.
34. Crini: it is unlikely that Quintavalle got it wrong. Because of contextual elements.
23. It is incorrect to dismiss a witness a priori because late. But for reasons totally different. Sometimes late is symptom of reliability.
22. Wants to deal with the issue of the fact that he came forward late, urged by an acquaintance
21. Crini: fifth argument is Quintavalle. He says he is sure about his testimony. Is a different kind of witness
20. Crini accepts both alternatives on time of death, after 23.15 or before 22.30 (but seems to prefer the earlier one)
19. Crini: Do not overestimate importance of timings that are not anchored accurately or cannot be proven
18. Crini: timeline is marginal to the case. All unproven timings to be taken cautiously.
17. Crini starts fourth theme: timings. Says they are very vague, except the tow truck
16. Crini: Curatolo is no 'super-witness', but can contribute to helping the court to draw their scenario
15. Curatolo saw a couple discussing and this memory is very specific, peculiar
14. Curatolo did not confuse night with Halloween, because it was big party in piazza the previous night, and because it did not rain
13. Crini: the court saw Aviello, shows what top [level] of unreliability is; the SC suspected so unreliable that calunnia elements had to be assessed
12. Crini: many trials could not exist if drug addicted testimonies were dismissed
11. Crini: the H-Z court assessed Curatolo a priori based on him as a person, stemming from questions of the court itself
10. Crini about Curatolo, describes Piazza Grimana; he was an habitual presence of the piazza, proven reliable in other cases
9. Crini: computer records and alibi point to Sollecito being not at home but on murder scene
8. Crini cites the log files of Fastweb: no internet activity, only automatic connections.
7. Crini: failure of computer alibi is evidence against, not just lack of confirmation.
6. Nencini notes prosecution did not ask to interrogate Sollecito. Crini cites D'Ambrosio's computer expert report. No interaction before 5am
5. Sollecito gave computer alibi days later, and words his statement in the singular form.
4. Crini: first theme he deals with is presence of crime scene; alibi, if it's false it is evidence no matter why false (cite from Guede trial)
3. Crini attacks the method of logic reasoning of annulled appeal: parceling out evidence, parrots aspects of civil procedure
2. Crini: Supreme Court censure was against the foundations of appeal , all parts not just some errors; appeal was 'razed to ground'.
1. Crini: this appeal is unusual, not because of the case but for the course followed. Usually appeals are narrow, this SC annulment is not.
2. Tweets by Andrea Vogt
3. At Crini's side in amandaknox appeal today is veteran Florentine prosecutor Tindari Baglione. Before this, he was in Cassazione.
2. Prosecutor Crini in Florence: don't repeat error of Perugia appeal. Consider evidence wholly, including Curatolo.
1. Will prosecutors ask life sentences in amandaknox appeal today? Will Sollecito's presence in court benefit him? Verdict January 10.
1. Prosecution Begins
This is the prosecution's day. Sollecito is reported as being in court but low-key.
Various reporting notes the significant presence of Dr Tindari Baglione, formerly with the Supreme Court, about whom we posted on in September as follows:
The new Prosecutor General of Tuscany (Florence's region) Dr Tindari Baglione, the chief prosecutor of Tuscany's appeal court, is selecting the prosecutors for the appeal. He arrived in Florence in May of this year. He is said to be formidably unbending. He recently imposed tough sentences on 27 people for the environmental damage caused by illegal work in Mugello on the high speed rail link between Florence and Bologna.