Amanda Knox GUILTY in Italy 2009 - Appealed/OVERTURNED 2011

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44777225/ns/us_news-life/t/back-home-amanda-knox-touches-down-seattle/?gt1=43001#.TouxUbKVqT8
Amanda Knox back in Seattle: 'I'm really overwhelmed'
'I was looking down from the airplane and it seemed everything wasn't real'

Video of statement at link.

[cookie]

I am glad that she is home. I really think that she and her boyfriend are innocent.
and I am also glad because this story takes the focus off of Casey A. and that makes me happy! 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/justice-the-italian-way-20111005-1l9ka.html
Justice, the Italian way
October 6, 2011

AMANDA Knox and Raffaele Sollecito have won their appeal against their conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher but if many doubted the first verdict, just as many will doubt this one. It is one of the many failings of Italian justice that it never delivers conclusive, door-slamming certainty. What usually happens is that the door is left wide open to take the case to the next level, first to appeal and then to the Cassazione, or Supreme Court. Giuliano Mignini, the prosecutor, has already indicated he will go down that route. The score in the public imagination is simply one-all.
 ::snipping2::
Part of the reason that the Knox trial has captivated media attention isn't just the ''Foxy Knoxy'' thing, the fact that Knox was attractive and allegedly sexually adventurous. It isn't just because of the cosmopolitan nature of the crime, the fact that here was a foreign victim and, it was thought, a foreign assassin. Its appeal, if that's not too gruesome a word, lies in the fact that there was sufficient doubt about both the prosecution and defence cases. Italy is divided down the middle, meaning that the case is perfectly set up for a media circus, for debate and deconstruction. Already the Kercher case has spawned, at the last count, 11 books and a film.
  ::snipping2::
There are also, however, more mundane reasons that Italian justice never seems to resolve anything. It's partly a question of meritocracy: in a land in which appointments are invariably made through nepotism rather than competence, it's perhaps inevitable that any investigation has holes in it and that decent lawyers are able to find them.

A fair trial is often impossible because there's no jury (at least not in the sense that we understand the term) and there's no sense of sub judice: the juiciest bits have always been leaked to the press long before trial.

The judiciary, no one really doubts, is in desperate need of reform. The trouble is that the one man most desperate to reform it, the Prime Minister, is coincidentally the man most desperate to avoid it.

[trimmonthelake]

Theodore Simon, an attorney for the Knox family, tells TODAY’s Matt Lauer why the 24-year-old decided to thank her backers
Oct.5,2011
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44783827/ns/today-today_people/#.ToxrP7KVqT8

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/05/earlyshow/main20115856.shtml
October 5, 2011 8:19 AM
For Amanda Knox, freedom comes at hefty cost

 ::snipping2::
Knox's first challenge will be repaying the more than $1 million in legal debts her family piled up in the past two years.
Her parents each took out second mortgages and drained retirement accounts to pay for her lawyers. Elizabeth Huff, Knox's grandmother, took out a $250,000 loan to help pay bills, a burden she welcomed.

"We are happy; we are elated," Huff said. "I can't tell you how happy we are."

With the international media frenzy that surrounded Knox's trial continuing on the journey home -- from her flight out of Rome to her landing in Seattle -- there's no sign the interest in Knox or her story will let up soon. That could open up an avenue for the family to pay off those debts.

Sources close to Knox tell CBS News that she began to write a memoir while in prison. That could be worth millions to publishers eager to profit on one of the most sensational international legal cases in memory.

Video at link.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/05/earlyshow/main20115856.shtml
October 5, 2011 8:19 AM
For Amanda Knox, freedom comes at hefty cost

 ::snipping2::
Knox's first challenge will be repaying the more than $1 million in legal debts her family piled up in the past two years.
Her parents each took out second mortgages and drained retirement accounts to pay for her lawyers. Elizabeth Huff, Knox's grandmother, took out a $250,000 loan to help pay bills, a burden she welcomed.

"We are happy; we are elated," Huff said. "I can't tell you how happy we are."

With the international media frenzy that surrounded Knox's trial continuing on the journey home -- from her flight out of Rome to her landing in Seattle -- there's no sign the interest in Knox or her story will let up soon. That could open up an avenue for the family to pay off those debts.

Sources close to Knox tell CBS News that she began to write a memoir while in prison. That could be worth millions to publishers eager to profit on one of the most sensational international legal cases in memory.

Video at link.

Well, I guess Amanda Knox's book can join the other eleven books and the movie that are already out there.   

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/justice-the-italian-way-20111005-1l9ka.html
 ::snipping2::
Already the Kercher case has spawned, at the last count, 11 books and a film.
 ::snipping2::

[cookie]

I hope that she is able to earn enough money to pay her family back the money that they have used for her defense..

[trimmonthelake]

http://shelf-life.ew.com/2011/10/05/amanda-knox-book-what-publishing-insiders-have-to-say/
Amanda Knox book? What publishing insiders have to say Oct. 5,2011
According to a recent LA Times poll, most American readers believe Amanda Knox should get a book deal.

So Shelf Life asked major players in the New York publishing world about the desirability of an Amanda Knox book. Although some of the editors and agents we reached out to were unwilling to comment out of fear of jeopardizing current or future book deals, the impression we got is something that’s been obvious all along: Pretty much every agent and publisher in town would love to make an Amanda Knox book happen.

Especially attractive to publishers is that Knox is a sympathetic figure without the “ick factor” of Casey Anthony, the other major headline-maker this year. It makes all the difference in the world to publishers that the public believes Knox is innocent. “People vote at the bookstore when it comes to any big case,” said a prominent editor. “You need to ask, ‘Where is the court of public opinion on this?’ That’s who’s going to buy the account.”

[pharlap]

I hope that she is able to earn enough money to pay her family back the money that they have used for her defense..

You know, I bet she pays her parents bills......not like you know who, who won't pay her bills for lying.
Book deal, what it was like being in a foreign prison/laws and so on.
 

[cadillac]

I hope that she is able to earn enough money to pay her family back the money that they have used for her defense..

You know, I bet she pays her parents bills......not like you know who, who won't pay her bills for lying.
Book deal, what it was like being in a foreign prison/laws and so on.
 

I heard on a news report that she spent her time in prison reading and perfecting her foreign language(s).  I don't think she was reading mags and plucking her eyebrows like the  "other inmate".  I also heard on a news report that she would like to possibly work with the Innocence Project - using her own experience for helping others.  This young woman wants to come out of jail, get on with her education, make something of herself and help others along the way.  Can't say that for the "other inmate"?

[pharlap]

I hope that she is able to earn enough money to pay her family back the money that they have used for her defense..

You know, I bet she pays her parents bills......not like you know who, who won't pay her bills for lying.
Book deal, what it was like being in a foreign prison/laws and so on.
 

I heard on a news report that she spent her time in prison reading and perfecting her foreign language(s).  I don't think she was reading mags and plucking her eyebrows like the  "other inmate".  I also heard on a news report that she would like to possibly work with the Innocence Project - using her own experience for helping others.  This young woman wants to come out of jail, get on with her education, make something of herself and help others along the way.  Can't say that for the "other inmate"?

Good for her.....

[cookie]

yes..Amanda Knox will make something of herself.
did you read that she got a great greeting from the other inmates when she was released? seemed that she was well liked by the other inmates and the guards...

[Samantha]

I hope that she is able to earn enough money to pay her family back the money that they have used for her defense..

You know, I bet she pays her parents bills......not like you know who, who won't pay her bills for lying.
Book deal, what it was like being in a foreign prison/laws and so on.
 

I heard on a news report that she spent her time in prison reading and perfecting her foreign language(s).  I don't think she was reading mags and plucking her eyebrows like the  "other inmate".  I also heard on a news report that she would like to possibly work with the Innocence Project - using her own experience for helping others.  This young woman wants to come out of jail, get on with her education, make something of herself and help others along the way.  Can't say that for the "other inmate"?

I heard on the news that she read more than 1000 books while in jail. (I think it was JVM because one night this week I watched some of that and Nancy Grace with JVM covering.)

If she was in there for 4 years thats like 250 books a year.. a little more than 2 books every three days.

[MuffyBee]

Is Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann making these statements due to pressure from his peers and others to save face for the Italian judicial system, or does he really think Amanda and her boyfriend were guilty but there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute?  Did the prosecution get holes blown in their case?  What the heck does "... the acquittal was based on 'truth created in the proceedings' mean, as opposed to the truth created in the initial trial?  Truth created. What truth was created in the original trial?   Sounds like that could go either way imo.  See, this has been my problem with the case all along. 


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/06/amanda-knox-judge-responsible?newsfeed=true
Amanda Knox judge says she may have 'been responsible' after all
Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann tells newspaper the acquittal was based on 'truth created in the proceedings'
October 6, 2011

The judge who presided at the trial of Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, has reportedly said they may be guilty after all.

Speaking just two days after he and his fellow judges handed down a full acquittal on appeal, Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann, said the court's verdict "is the result of the truth that was created in the proceedings. But the real truth may be different. They may be responsible, but the evidence is not there."

The 69 year-old judge was speaking to the Corriere della Sera newspaper in the latest of several interviews he has given to media organisations since reading out the verdict on Monday night. On Wednesday, he had already begun to muddy the waters, telling another interviewer: "This will remain an unsolved truth. No one can say how things went."

Hellmann's remarks were all the more unexpected because he and the other judges could have reached a less clear-cut acquittal. Italian courts have ruling options in which the appellants are acquitted for lack of evidence – a verdict similar to "not proven" in Scottish law.

Monday night's decision was the climax of a dramatic and at times searingly acrimonious appeal that attracted global attention. It was reached by Judge Hellmann and a second professional judge sitting alongside six lay judges drawn by ballot from among the public.
This is no jury as we would know a jury. 

The acquittal of Knox and Sollecito meant that the only person left in jail for the 2007 murder of the British student Meredith Kercher is Rudy Guede, an Ivory Coast-born drugs peddler. He admitted he was in the house on the night she died, but denied he killed her. Guede is serving a 16-year sentence after opting for a fast-track trial.

Hellmann said: "I cannot affirm that Rudy Guede is the only one who knows what happened that night." But he added: "He certainly knows and hasn't said. Perhaps the two [other] accused, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, also know."

Commenting on protests outside the court in Perugia after the verdict was announced, the judge observed that many Italians had already decided on Knox's guilt. "I think it stems from [her] American nationality," he said. This was another concern of mine. 
 ::snipping2::
The prosecutor who led the investigation, Giuliano Mignini, has indicated that he wants to contest the court's decision in Italy's highest appeals tribunal. But the court, in Rome, normally deals only with points of law and procedure. This is another item different than that of the US, is that although Amanda appealed and the original decision to find her guilty was overturned, she would have to go to court and be tried again for the same crimes. This is why the prosecutor was saying if the original judgement of guilt was overturned (and it was) she could leave the country (and she did), and although he can try her again, he would probably end up doing so without her in the country.   I guess a person could spend years and years in the judicial system.

[MuffyBee]

From what I've read, Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito only dated 6 days before the murder of Meredith Kercher, and I don't believe there was evidence against him in the murder trial, so he may be trying to distance himself from Meredith.  He and his family still live in Italy, whereas Amanda is no longer in the country. 

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/06/knox-family-reportedly-invites-former-italian-boyfriend-to-seattle-for-reunion/
Knox Family Reportedly Invites Amanda's Former Boyfriend to Seattle for Reunion
October 6, 2011

BARI, Italy -- The family of Amanda Knox has invited her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, to Seattle for a reunion, after the pair was cleared of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

Sollecito's father told reporters outside the Italian beach house where his son was recuperating Thursday, after four years in prison in Perugia, that the invitation was extended by Chris Mellas, Knox's stepfather.

"We didn't manage to speak to Amanda. Raffaele didn't manage even by telephone. After the court ruling, we went in different directions, but through my daughter I learned that Amanda's stepfather invited us to Seattle," Francesco Sollecito said. "At this time, we have nothing planned."

Raffaele Sollecito commented briefly on his relationship with Knox in a phone call with Italian news agency ANSA shortly after his release.

"Amanda? Maybe I'll see her again, but now I only want to be with my family," he said.

The freed 27-year-old is currently staying at his father's villa in a gated community in Bisceglie, outside Bari in southern Italy. His father said that his son seemed "reborn."

"He's like a baby growing up that has to learn to get used to life," he told reporters. Unlike Knox's clamorous return to Seattle, only about 20 photographers, cameramen and reporters went to the Sollecito home.

Francesco Sollecito told reporters that he wanted to speak to Kercher's family following Monday's appeals court verdict, but was warned off by their lawyer.

"I realized it was too soon," he said. "I hope that when they have digested the ruling, I will be able to have a meeting with the family of poor Meredith so they can understand that Amanda and Raffaele had nothing to do with this horrible death."

He added that the family had not decided whether to sue the Italian state for compensation for their son's four-year imprisonment.

 ::snipping2::

[pharlap]

MuffyBee
snip

From what I've read, Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito only dated 6 days before the murder of Meredith Kercher, and I don't believe there was evidence against him in the murder trial, so he may be trying to distance himself from Meredith.  He and his family still live in Italy, whereas Amanda is no longer in the country.

What's wrong with this picture.
Only dated for 6 days and there was a murder?

I wish the writers of "Castle" would look into this.
They are the best of "who done it's".
 

[MuffyBee]

MuffyBee
snip

From what I've read, Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito only dated 6 days before the murder of Meredith Kercher, and I don't believe there was evidence against him in the murder trial, so he may be trying to distance himself from Meredith.  He and his family still live in Italy, whereas Amanda is no longer in the country.

What's wrong with this picture.
Only dated for 6 days and there was a murder?

I wish the writers of "Castle" would look into this.
They are the best of "who done it's".
 

I agree pharlap    

[pharlap]

MuffyBee
snip

From what I've read, Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito only dated 6 days before the murder of Meredith Kercher, and I don't believe there was evidence against him in the murder trial, so he may be trying to distance himself from Meredith.  He and his family still live in Italy, whereas Amanda is no longer in the country.

What's wrong with this picture.
Only dated for 6 days and there was a murder?

I wish the writers of "Castle" would look into this.
They are the best of "who done it's".
 

I agree pharlap    

If I got this right,the guy left in jail is a drug dealer right?
Well maybe the victim owed him money or was going to tell something to the police about him.....
Maybe there's a king pin, that didn't want it to lead to him  (big boss drug man).
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045316/Amanda-Knox-latest-news-Meredith-Kerchers-family-plead-justice.html
Give our girl justice too: Murdered Meredith's distraught family plead as jubilant Amanda Knox flies home to a celebrity welcome in America
 October 5, 2011





 ::snipping2::
Exchange student Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was found semi-naked and with her throat slashed in the Perugia house she shared with Knox in November 2007.

The Kerchers have largely maintained a dignified silence since the murder, while the Knox family have deployed every resource at their disposal, including an expensive PR campaign.

At a press conference in Perugia yesterday, Meredith’s family said it was impossible to forgive because no one had ever confessed to the murder. Knox and Sollecito have been acquitted, and a third defendant, Ivory Coast drug dealer Rudy Guede, remains convicted but has never admitted to the killing.

At Guede’s murder trial, he was convicted of committing the crime ‘with others’.

Meredith’s mother Arline said: ‘I’m not interested in Amanda having a show. Either way [Meredith] is not coming home. Their lives have been destroyed. Our lives have been destroyed.’

Lyle Kercher said: ‘There is of course a third defendant, Rudy Guede, who is convicted, and at the time I understand the court agreed that he was not acting alone.

‘The search goes on to find out what really happened.’

Meredith’s sister Stephanie said: ‘That’s the biggest disappointment, still knowing that there is someone or there are people out there who know about this. We still don’t have any answers.’
 ::snipping2::
Last night she touched down in Seattle with her family on a British Airways flight. A large blue and green Welcome Home’ banner was hanging outside her father’s house.

Waiting for her were friends and supporters who have waged a relentless PR campaign on her behalf.

Some observers have speculated their positive portrayal of a young woman initially attacked as a cold-hearted party girl influenced the previously hostile Italian media. This in turn may have been the deciding factor in the appeal jury’s decision.

The pro-Knox campaign was boosted by a sympathetic U.S. media whose coverage of the case has always largely ignored Meredith Kercher’s tragedy, played up the unfairness of Italian justice and played down any evidence that showed Knox in a bad light.

Celebrations planned for Knox include the 21st birthday party she missed because she was in jail.
 ::snipping2::
Meanwhile Sollecito, 27, arrived back home near the southern Italian city of Bari, where his father Francesco said he remained stunned by events. ‘He is going around touching things as if he is a child who needs to take back the things of his life,’ he said.

Appeals judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman has 90 days to write a report on why he and the jury came to their decision. This will be examined by prosecutors to see on what grounds they can launch their appeal, which is unlikely to be heard until next year.

Knox is not obliged to attend any potential retrial. Lawyer Dalla Vedova said: ‘There were other sets of unidentified fingerprints in the murder room. The real culprits are possibly the ones who left the fingerprints.’

Meredith’s last resting place is a flower-covered plot in a cemetery not far from the family home. It only bears a small temporary marker but a permanent headstone is expected soon.
 ::snipping2::


MISTAKES ROBBED THE CASE OF CERTAINTY': JUROR TELLS OF ERRORS THAT CLEARED KNOX
A Forensic technician looks at a police video. Mistakes by forensic teams helped Knox and Sollecito's appeal

The lack of a motive and errors made by forensic investigators crucially undermined the case against Amanda Knox, one of the jurors who freed her from Italian jail said yesterday.

Fabio Angeletti, a teacher from Terni, near Perugia, was a member of the jury who upheld Knox's appeal against her conviction for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

He told the Guardian newspaper: 'As a father, I have a real feeling for the Kerchers' pain. But you need conclusive motives to condemn, as well as conclusive evidence.

'There were lots of mistakes by the forensic investigators that robbed the case of any certainty.'

Mr Angeletti, 40, was one of six jurors who, along with two professional judges, upheld the appeal by Knox and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito against their 26- and 25-year sentences for the brutal sex killing of Miss Kercher in 2007.

The six jurors - five women and Mr Angeletti - were themselves technically lay judges, and were selected using more demanding educational criteria than those at Knox and Sollecito's first trial.

Mr Angeletti, who said he had heard appeals in four other murder trials, said he had focused more on documentary evidence provided to the court than the speeches by Knox.




Resting place: The flower-strewn temporary grave of Meredith Kercher, near her family home

[MuffyBee]

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/08/amanda-knox-facial-expressions?newsfeed=true
Amanda Knox: What's in a face?

Amanda Knox was convicted of murder and her reputation sullied around the world, in large part because of her facial expressions and demeanour. Her story reveals how our instincts about others can be dangerously superficial, writes Ian Leslie
October 7, 2011

In the days and weeks following the discovery of Meredith Kercher's body, Italian police found no physical evidence linking Amanda Knox to the murder. But then, they didn't need it: they could tell Knox was guilty just by looking at her. "We were able to establish guilt," said Edgardo Giobbi, the lead investigator, "by closely observing the suspect's psychological and behavioural reaction during the interrogation. We don't need to rely on other kinds of investigation." Giobbi said that his suspicions were first raised just hours after the murder, at the crime scene, when he watched Knox execute a provocative swivel of her hips as she put on a pair of shoe covers.

Little about Knox's behaviour during that time matched how the investigators imagined a wrongfully accused woman should conduct herself. She appeared too cool and calm, they said – and yet also, it seems, oddly libidinous. One policeman said she "smelled of sex", and investigators were particularly disturbed by a video that first appeared on YouTube, shortly after the investigation began, which showed Knox and Raffaele Sollecito in each other's arms outside the cottage in which Kercher was murdered, as the investigation proceeded inside.

In fact, the video is anything but sexy. Knox, looking wan and dazed, exchanges chaste kisses with Sollecito, who rubs her arm consolingly. But the police professed shock. "Knox and Sollecito would make faces, kiss each other, while there was the body of a friend in those conditions," tutted Monica Napoleoni, head of Perugia's murder squad. A detective said he complained to Knox when she sat on Sollecito's lap, describing her behaviour as "inappropriate". Knox later explained to Rolling Stone magazine, via an intermediary, that she had been pacing up and down when Sollecito pulled her on to his knees to comfort her. The only strange thing about this is that an explanation for simple physical affection became necessary.
The Italian police's overheated interpretation of Knox's behaviour was a particularly pungent manifestation of a universal trait, one that frequently leads criminal investigators and juries astray: overconfidence in our ability to read someone else's state of mind simply by looking at them. This is not a uniquely modern error, born of pop psychology books. Shakespeare was wary of it. In Macbeth, he has Duncan remark how hard it is "to find the mind's construction in the face". It's a warning that law enforcement officers often seem unable, or unwilling, to heed.

In 2008 a group of Norwegian researchers ran an experiment to better understand how police investigators come to a judgment about the credibility of rape claims. Sixty-nine investigators were played video-recorded versions of a rape victim's statement, with the role of victim played by an actress. The wording of the statement in each version was exactly the same, but the actress delivered it with varying degrees of emotion. The investigators, who prided themselves on their objectivity, turned out to be heavily influenced in their judgments by assumptions about the victim's demeanour: she was judged most credible when crying or showing despair.
 ::snipping2::
It is astonishing how quick we are to draw conclusions about how a person ought to look or behave in circumstances we haven't ourselves even come close to experiencing. How many of us have returned to our home after a night away to discover that our flatmate has been brutally murdered? How many of us can know what it feels like to be at the sharp end of a punishing interrogation, in a foreign country, carried out by men in uniform who seem absolutely convinced that they know what happened, who are as certain as we are confused, fearful and exhausted? None of us. And yet we feel free to blithely pronounce, from a great distance, on whether someone in this situation is "acting weird" or not.

What does it stem from, this over-confidence in facile intuitions about what other people are thinking? It probably has something to do with our innate difficulty in recognising that other people are as fully rounded and complex as we are. Emily Pronin, a psychologist at Princeton University, points out that there is a fundamental asymmetry about the way two human beings relate to one another in person. When you meet someone, there are at least two things more prominent in your mind than in theirs – your thoughts, and their face. As a result we tend to judge others on what we see, and ourselves by what we feel. Pronin calls this "the illusion of asymmetric insight".

You know when you're hiding your true thoughts and feelings – pretending to be fascinated by your boss's endless anecdote, or grinning your way through an agonising first date – but you nonetheless tend to assume the other's appearance tells the full story of how they feel: if she's smiling, it's because she's genuinely enjoying herself.

Studies have found that people over-estimate how much they can learn from others in job interviews, while at the same time maintaining that others can only get a glimpse of them from such brief encounters. The model we seem to work with is something like this: I am infinitely subtle, complex and never quite what I seem; you are predictable and straightforward, an open book.
 ::snipping2::
An inclination to oversimplify the minds and motivations of others lies at the root of sexism and racism, and all forms of inter-group conflict, violent and benign. Liberals and conservatives tend to think that those on "their" side are reasonable, reflective, and thoughtful, while those on the other side are not just wrong, but simplistic and dim. Part of the reason that Knox became unpopular in Europe, and especially Italy, is that people projected on to her what they regarded as the worst qualities of Americans: arrogance, greed and brashness.

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