Amanda Knox GUILTY in Italy 2009 - Appealed/OVERTURNED 2011

[Nut44x4]

 

Amanda Knox's parents indicted, accused of libeling Italian policeBy the CNN Wire Staff
February 15, 2011 1:58 p.m. EST
Rome (CNN) -- The parents of Amanda Knox, an American convicted of murdering her British roommate in 2007, were indicted Tuesday for allegedly libeling police in Perugia, Italy, Knox's mother and the family's Italian attorney said.

In a 2009 interview in the Sunday Times of London, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas said that their daughter "had not been given an interpreter, had not received food and water and had been physically and verbally abused" by police after her arrest for the murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher, according to Italy's ANSA news agency.

They also said police struck her and told her "things will get worse for you" if she requested an attorney.

"Yes, I am going to trial for libel ... along with one of my lawyers and a group of journalists," Mellas told CNN Tuesday.

"We are very upset by this decision," said Luciano Ghirga, Amanda Knox's attorney who represents her family in this case. "We worked towards a dismissal because there was no intent" on the part of Knox's parents to libel the police, he said.

The indictment says their claims were "contrary to the truth," according to ANSA.

A hearing in the case is set for July 4, Ghirga said.

"These are old charges," said David Marriott, spokesman for the family. "They've been around since 2009." The story in question was published in 2008, he said, and Knox's parents were repeating what their daughter had told them.

The indictment, Marriott said, finalizes the charges the prosecutor had filed and is "nothing surprising."

Knox's parents' focus is not on their case, he said, but on her appeal of her conviction, which is under way. There is a break in the proceedings for experts to retest forensic evidence, he said.

"This is, I guess you'd call it, a bit of a minor distraction," Marriott said.

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http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/02/15/italy.knox.parents/#

[MuffyBee]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13824684
Video
Amanda Knox: Convicted murderer presents 'new evidence'
June 18, 2011

A convicted child murderer has told a court he has information which could clear Amanda Knox, who was found guilty of killing her British roommate.
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Mario Alessi told the appeal about a prison confession made to him by Rudy Guede, who was also convicted in a separate case of killing Miss Kercher.
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[MuffyBee]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13823473
Video
Amanda Knox 'innocent' says convicted child murderer
June 18, 2011

convicted child murderer has told a court he has information which could clear Amanda Knox, who was found guilty of killing her British roommate.

American Knox, 23, is appealing against her murder conviction for killing 21-year-old Meredith Kercher.

Mario Alessi told the appeal of a prison confession made to him by Rudy Guede, who was also convicted, in a separate case, of killing Miss Kercher.

He said Guede confided Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito were innocent.
Viterbo prison

Sollecito, Knox's 26-year-old former boyfriend, is also appealing against his murder conviction.
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A forensic report is due at the end of June where two independent experts have re-examined the evidence, in particular a knife which the prosecution say could have been the murder weapon but which the defence teams of Knox and Sollecito are convinced will help to find them innocent and overturn their convictions.

[MuffyBee]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/amanda-knox-hopes-home-christmas/story?id=13974676
Video
'Radiant' Amanda Knox Hopes to Be Home for Christmas
July 1, 2011

A thrilled Amanda Knox hugged her lawyer when he explained the legal report that questioned the DNA evidence used to help convict her of murder and told her lawyer she hopes to be back home in Seattle in time for Christmas.
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Ghirga spoke with Knox in her Italian prison Thursday, the day after a panel of DNA experts assigned by a court in Perugia, Italy, released its report saying that two key pieces of DNA evidence used in Knox's trial were unreliable and could have been contaminated. Ghirga described his conversation with Knox to Italian media.
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The report by the DNA experts is part of their appeal of the conviction and sentencing. The appeal is underway in Perugia and the report will be discussed in court at the next hearing set for July 25.
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Prosecutors maintained in the trial that Knox's DNA was found on the handle of a kitchen knife they believe to be the murder weapon, and that Kercher's DNA was found on the blade. Prosecutors also argued that Sollecito's DNA was found on the clasp of Kercher's bra.

Defense lawyers argued that there was so little DNA on the knife that it couldn't be retested or be reliable. They said the bra clasp wasn't collected by police until weeks after the murder and after it had been moved around Kercher's bedroom during their probe.
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[MuffyBee]

http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/30/could-amanda-knox-have-an-autism-spectrum-disorder/
Could Amanda Knox Have an Autism Spectrum Disorder?
June 30, 2011

Amanda Knox, the 23-year-old American college student who was convicted of sexually assaulting and killing her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Italy in 2007, allegedly after an orgy gone wrong, got good news this week. Independent experts working on her ongoing appeal said that the traces of DNA used to convict Knox may have been contaminated and are "unreliable."

With the DNA evidence excluded, the only substantiation of Knox's guilt includes a possibly coerced confession and her bizarre behavior after being arrested. But could those two things have the same explanation? Is it possible that Knox has an underlying condition — Asperger's syndrome, a less severe form of autism — that caused both her unusual social behavior and a gullibility that triggered a false confession?
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[MuffyBee]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/amanda-knox-court-battle-lifetime-tv-movie/story?id=13993149
Amanda Knox in Court in Battle With Lifetime Over TV Movie
July 4, 2011

Amanda Knox arrived at Perugia's civil court in Italy today for the second hearing of her case against producers of the TV movie about the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher; the murder for which she was convicted in 2009.

Her lawyers have demanded that producers of the movie, "Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy," starring Hayden Panettiere as Knox, block its distribution in Italy and immediately remove all images and video of it from the Internet.

The producers, Lifetime TV, aired the movie in February in the United States despite opposition from Knox, Raffaele Sollecito, her Italian ex-boyfriend who was also convicted for the crime, and Kercher's family.

Today's half-hour, closed-door hearing was adjourned and no date for the next hearing was set. The judge, Teresa Giardino, said she would have to decide how to notify the producers of the TV movie because no legal representative had shown up for the hearing and she would then announce the next hearing date.
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(Video at link)

[MuffyBee]

http://www.justpressplay.net/reviews/8188-amanda-knox-murder-on-trial-in-italy.html
Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy Review
July 15, 2011

[MuffyBee]

http://www.groundreport.com/Business/Why-Wont-the-State-Department-Speak-Up-for-Amanda-_11/2940131
Why Won't the State Department Speak Up for Amanda Knox
July 12, 2011

[cookie]

not sure if I think that Amanda is guilty or not...
what is everyone else's thoughts? I haven't followed this case as closely as some others so maybe I just don't know enough to form an opinion ....

[MuffyBee]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/new-evidence-in-amanda-knox-case/2011/07/23/gIQA31C7UI_video.html
New evidence in Amanda Knox case
July 23, 2011

(Video at link)

[MuffyBee]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/24/amanda-knox-dna-appeal-threat
Amanda Knox DNA appeal sparks legal battle by forensic experts
July 24, 2011

Amanda Knox's appeal against her conviction for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Italy faces a fresh challenge. A prominent forensic scientist, whose DNA evidence helped to convict the US student and her former boyfriend, has vowed to overturn the findings of an independent report that says much of her work in the case was unreliable.

Knox returns to court in Perugiaon Monday, armed with the new forensic report, which she hopes will help lead to her being freed.
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Written by two independent experts from Rome's Sapienza University, the 145-page DNA review rubbishes the work of Patrizia Stefanoni, the police forensic scientist who found Knox's and Kercher's DNA on a kitchen knife at Sollecito's house and identified DNA belonging to Sollecito on a torn bra clasp found beside Kercher's semi-naked body.

The report claims Stefanoni ignored international DNA protocols, made basic errors and gave evidence in court that was not backed up by her laboratory work, rendering the knife and bra strap worthless as evidence. But Stefanoni has vowed to fight back during three hearings devoted to the DNA reviews.
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Soon after she was chosen to review Stefanoni's work on the Knox case, Vecchiotti claimed that documents had been withheld from her. The final report, co-authored with Stefano Conti, bemoans the scant detail Stefanoni used to back up her findings.

After discovering there was no DNA left to check on the knife or the bra clasp, the experts retraced the steps taken by Stefanoni, concluding that the DNA trace of Kercher on the blade was so weak it could not be reliably matched – or was at best the result of contamination – and quoted Stefanoni admitting in court she should have double-tested her result to be more convincing.

Stefanoni claimed she had no need to repeat tests since the experts for the defence were on hand to witness her work. "And it was good enough to show it was Kercher's DNA," she said. "A small amount, but good quality."

Turning to the bra clasp, the report concludes that since it had been at the crime scene for 46 days before being collected, it was vulnerable to contamination. Stefanoni's testing was in any case full of errors, the report adds – a charge she said was "simply not correct", adding she was "very keen" to defend her work in court.

The experts quote numerous US police and FBI experts on the risk of low DNA results and poor evidence handling, prompting one Italian police source to claim they were being fed information by Knox's defence team.

"We followed the guidelines of the ENFSI, theirs is just a collage of different international opinions," said Stefanoni.

The three days of DNA hearings, tomorrow, 30 July and 1 August, will be followed in September by final arguments, with the appeal verdict now expected around 25 September.




 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.smh.com.au/world/a-sexual-predator-or-victim-of-a-witchhunt-20110723-1hu1z.html?from=smh_sb
A sexual predator or victim of a witch-hunt?
July 24, 2011

[MuffyBee]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8658035/Amanda-Knox-appeal-DNA-evidence-to-be-rejected.html
Amanda Knox appeal: DNA evidence to be rejected
Critical DNA evidence used to convict Amanda Knox of the murder of her British flatmate, Meredith Kercher will be rejected by two forensic scientists as the American's appeal against her conviction reaches a key phase.
July 24, 2011

[MuffyBee]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/scientists-cast-doubt-on-evidence-in-knox-trial-2319931.html
Scientists cast doubt on evidence in Knox trial
July 25, 2011

Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito return to court in Perugia today for what could be a crucial turning point in their appeal against their convictions for murdering the English exchange student Meredith Kercher in November 2007.

There has never been any forensic evidence placing Amanda Knox at the scene of Ms Kercher's murder. But at the original trial, the prosecution argued successfully that the DNA of Sollecito found on Ms Kercher's bra clasp at the scene and the victim's DNA found on the tip of a knife in Sollecito's flat proved the pair's involvement.

They said that the knife – identified, as the detective concerned told the original trial, by his "investigative intuition" – was the murder weapon. Taken together, they were deemed sufficient to prove the pair's involvement in the murder of the 21-year-old student from Coulsdon, Surrey, who was Knox's flatmate.

But a report filed by two of Italy's most eminent forensic scientists, which the court will begin considering today, rubbishes that evidence. The bra clasp was taken from the crime scene 46 days after the murder, and the defence has long argued that whatever evidence it bore was unreliable because of that lapse of time.

The new report confirms that claim, and says the alleged DNA on the knife is equally unreliable. The two forensic experts from La Sapienza University in Rome found that the forensic team in the original trial failed to follow correct procedures, both at the crime scene and subsequently in the laboratory. Now the appeal hearing will begin to consider the mass of new evidence presented over the past months. Closing arguments will begin on 5 September, and Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman is expected to deliver his verdict before the end of September. 
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[MuffyBee]

http://blog.seattlepi.com/dempsey/2011/07/24/will-eexperts-knox-out-dna-evidence-against-amanda-knox/
Will experts knox out DNA evidence against Amanda Knox?
July 24, 2011

Article and Video at link

[MuffyBee]

http://www.westseattleherald.com/2011/07/24/news/court-appointed-forensics-experts-testify-tomorro
Court-appointed forensics experts testify tomorrow in Knox case; results expected to embarrass prosecution
Report already released casts doubts on key evidence that imprisoned Arbor Heights student
July 24, 2011

[trimmonthelake]

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/
Amanda Knox Appeal: DNA Evidence to Be Re-Examined
American accused of killing her roommate receives big legal win in Italy.
7/25/2011
Video at link.

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/25/earlyshow/main20082825.shtml
July 25, 2011 8:22 AM
Amanda Knox investigation, DNA challenged

(CBS News)

Amanda Knox is back in court in Perugia, Italy, challenging her murder conviction and her 26-year prison sentence. Now, two DNA experts are telling judges why they believe some of the key evidence in this case is worthless.
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[trimmonthelake]

http://www.politicolnews.com/unreliable-dna-evidence-amanda-knox/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=unreliable-dna-evidence-amanda-knox
Unreliable DNA Evidence-Amanda Knox
By politicol
Unreliable DNA-Evidence-Amanda Knox 07/26/2011
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Forensic Experts Testify the DNA Evidence Unreliable

Two DNA experts Stefano Conti and Carla Vecchiotti appointed by the court re-evaluated the evidence and reported the DNA evidence is unreliable and should be rejected.

Forensic expert Stefano Conti showed that police entered the crime scene coming into contact with objects without proper masks or hair caps.  He showed that evidence was kept in plastic bags instead of paper which increased the risk of contamination.

The bra clasp of Kercher was found to be lacking DNA evidence, was rusted and deteriorated so no re-testing was possible although the prosecution contended that Sollicito’s DNA was on the object. The handle of the knife (which was not proven to be the murder weapon) does not contain DNA and was found not to match the wounds on Kercher’s body.

The DNA and evidence gathering process conducted by police and the prosecutor’s office did not follow forensic standards and was determined to be actually contaminated.

Appeals Process and the Future

Amanda Knox’s mother Edda Mellas who is in Italy now said that If this Italian appeal process should fail, a third level of appeal is available in the court system. If that should fail, her parents will go to the European Union appeal process to gain her freedom. She was pleased with the testimony given by the experts and “confirmed by independent experts is very powerful”. In the USA, the media has termed the case a miscarriage of justice, especially now that the DNA evidence shows no possible connection of Knox and Sollicito to the murder of Meredith Kercher.
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[MuffyBee]

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/9959913-prosecutor-challenges-new-dna-report-in-amanda-knox-plea-trial
Prosecutor challenges new DNA report in Amanda Knox plea trial
August 14, 2011

A prosecutor in plea trial of Amanda Knox and her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, has challenged the forensic experts who reported that no DNA had been found on the knife that is supposed to be the murder weapon.
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(Lots of photos at above link)