The Murder of Meredith Kercher--The Conviction of Amanda Knox

The Prairie Chicken
December 5, 2009


The internet is full of news of the conviction in Italy of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito yesterday, Dec 4, for the murder of student Meredith Kercher on November 1, 2007. Check out these sites:
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Right: The real victim of this crime, Meredith Kercher
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guardian.co.uk / The Observer
True Justice for Meredith Kercher
Friends of Amanda
CNN--Knox sobs as verdict read


Right: Meredith's parents. Meredith also has a sister and two brothers.

Amanda Knox and ex-boyfried Raffaele Sollecito found Guilty in Death of Knox roommate Meredith Kerchner

The Prairie Chicken
December 4, 2009




Minutes ago, Amanda Knox of Seattle Washington and Raffaele Sollecito of Italy were found guilty in the death of 20 year old Meredith Kercher. The jury of eight, including three judges, sentenced Knox to 26 years in prison and her ex-boyfriend Sollecito will spend 25 years in an Italian prison for the brutal murder on November 2, 2007.

Above, Knox and Sollecito on the day Meredith's body was found.

Right: Meredith shortly before her death.

Read articles here:

From CNN
From the Guardian
Komonews in Seattle

Trial of Amanda Knox in Perugia, Italy--verdict due possibly tonight (tomorrow in Italy)

The Prairie Chicken
December 3, 2009

After a trial lasting a year, the verdict in the case against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito could be announced at any time. Both have been accused of a gang murder of Meridith Kercher, Knox's roommate in early November, 2008. Rudolf Guede, an Italian citizen pleaded guilty to the crime in a fast-track trial and implicated both Knox and Sollecito in the crime.
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This week started with the Prosecution's closing statements followed by Sollecito and Knox's Attorney's closing statements and statements by the accused themselves, which is allowed in the Italian legal system.
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Meredith was a British student and Amanda a student from Seattle who shared space in the same four bedroom house whil attending college. Meredith was found in her locked bedroom on November 2; she had been raped, stabbed and her throat cut with a small knife (2 1/2 in). Amanda and Raffaele called the police later on that morning when they couldn't reach Meredith and there appeared to be blood in several parts of the house.
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For background information from both sides of the debate:
Amanda Knox Pleads With Jury: I'm No "Assassin"
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Leaning towards Amanda being guilty:
True Justice For Meredith Kercher
Meredith Kercher killed 'because sex game went too far' - Telegraph
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Leaning towards Amanda being innocent:
The real Amanda
CBS correspondent: 'Amanda Knox is innocent'

Amanda Knox gives evidence in Meredith Kercher murder trial

The Mirror

June 12, 2009

...Miss Knox was giving evidence for the first time in her trial in the Umbrian hilltown of Perugia, where British exchange student, Miss Kercher, 21, was found stabbed to death in November 2007.

Dressed all in (virginal) white (with a HUGE herpes on her lip), Miss Knox smiled as she walked into a courtroom packed with dozens of reporters, cameramen and photographers from Italy, the UK and the United States.

In the witness box, she said that statements she made to police in the days after the murder, on November 2, 2007, were made under pressure from Italian detectives...

“I was confused,” she repeatedly told the court. "The declarations were taken against my will, so everything that I said was said in confusion and under pressure. "They called me a stupid liar, they said that I was trying to protect someone. But I was not trying to protect anyone," she said...

Miss Knox said she became so confused that after hours of interrogation, which lasted all night, she could no longer tell the difference between her imagination and reality...

She admitted that she and her boyfriend at the time, Italian IT graduate Raffaele Sollecito, had smoked marijuana in his apartment on the evening of the murder. She said she used the drug “from time to time, with friends”... I think even people who don't smoke marijuana now know that it doesn't make people murderous.

Prosecutors claim that Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito murdered 21-year-old Meredith Kercher during what began as a sex game (I don't believe this version either, sex games? come on, why not the satanic cult theory? Both ridiculous.) They deny any involvement but face life imprisonment if convicted of murder...

Answering in Italian questions put by her lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, Miss Knox described how she spent the evening of November 1.

She insisted to the court she went to her boyfriend Sollecito's apartment where they watched a film, she checked her emails on his computer, they listened to music, ate dinner, smoked a joint and made love.
"The next morning I went home and saw the door was open and thought it strange," she said.
"I called 'Is anyone there?' No one answered.
"I went to my room and changed, went to the bathroom and saw spots of blood there.
"I had a shower and on the way back to my room I saw blood on floor. I thought: 'Hm, strange.'
"I put on my clothes in my room, then I went to the other bathroom to brush my hair. I saw traces of faeces in the toilet."
She said she was disgusted by this.
She went on: "I called Meredith, who didn't answer."
She said she then called her flatmate Filomena Romanelli, who returned to the house and found her window had been broken.
"We found Meredith's door was locked," said Knox.
"Filomena was saying 'Mama mia, it's never locked!'. I said that sometimes Meredith locked it when she had a shower or when she went to England."
But she added: "I felt strange, it was a strange situation."
She said she had not seen the murder scene but everyone was talking about it.
"I heard there was a body in there. There was lots of confusion," she said. "I was in shock. I couldn't believe what had happened, couldn't accept it."

The trial began in January and is expected to last at least until autumn.

see complete article here

The Croydon Guardian on the murder of Meredith Kercher

Bloody footprints found at scene of Meredith Kercher slaying

Monday 11th May 2009

Bloodied footprints matched to the murder accused in the Meredith Kercher trial were found at the scene of the crime, a court was told.

Coulsdon student Meredith Kercher was found in her room with her throat cut in Perugia, Italy in November 2007.

Fellow American student Amanda Knox, 21, and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, are accused of Miss Kercher’s murder.
A court heard last week how one print was found on a bathmat and three more leading from Miss Kercher’s bedroom to the room of Amanda Knox.

Police scientist Dr Lorenzo Rinaldi told the court the footprints were discovered with a substance called Luminol which turns blue in the presence of blood.

He said the print on the bathmat and one in the corridor matched prints taken from Sollecito.

He added: “"We also found that a naked footprint found in Knox's bedroom and in the corridor outside, again using Luminol, was compatible with the one taken from her in prison."

Rudy Guede, an Ivory Coast drifter, was convicted of Miss Kercher’s murder last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

It is alleged Guede tried to sexually assault Miss Kercher and then Miss Knox fatally stabbed her in the throat.
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Coulsdon student Meredith Kercher stabbed from behind, Italian court hears

Wednesday 27th May 2009
Croydonguardian.uk.com

Murder victim Meredith Kercher was stabbed from behind while she was kneeling with her face pushed into the floor, an Italian court heard...

Fellow student, American Amanda Knox, 21, and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, are accused of murdering her because she refused to take place in a drug-fuelled orgy.
They deny the charge.

Expert Dr Francesco Camana told the court the blood pattern showed when Miss Kercher was fatally knifed in the throat she was no more than 40cm from the floor. He said: “She was kneeling down facing the wardrobe, her face pressed almost to the floor, with her chest pushed forward and her legs behind her.”

The court in Perugia had been told earlier Miss Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of a kitchen knife while Miss Kercher’s DNA was on the tip. The traces were found on the black-handled kitchen knife, which the court was told is compatible with the murder weapon, after it was found at Sollecito's flat.

The court has also been told Mr Sollecito’s DNA was discovered on a bra clasp belonging to Miss Kercher which was found at the scene.

Defence lawyers claim the DNA evidence is tainted. The trial is expected to last until the end of this year.
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For MUCH detail on this case, check out these websites, one against Amanda and Raffeale, one for their defense, and one seemingly on the edge:

PERUGIA SHOCK
True Justice for Meredith Kercher
Friends of Amanda

It is interesting following the different views of this case. On the pro-Amanda side, and per U.S. forensics standards, the Italians don't have a very good case. Amanda's DNA in her own home is not unusual, nor would her DNA on a knife at her boyfriends house, if she ever cooked there. However, the Italians do not regurgitate evidence like we do in the States, broadcasting every minute detail including autopsy reports, etc.
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But if the truth was completely out, it would be told that Amanda is in up to her cooch in crime, by the fact that a tampon was removed from the box in the bathroom and shoved in the wound in Meredith's neck. That is the reason for the forensic sampling from the "cotton-flock" box in the bathroom.
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For the life of me, I can't imagine that a man would think to do that. Why would a woman, but especially, why would a man? It looks like Amanda will be in her 50's when she is finally able to go home.
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I wonder if the roommates have testified yet about living with Amanda and Meredith.

The Murder of Meredith Kercher, truejustice.com update

Right: Meredith Kercher, Lower Right, Merediths parents.

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I have to say, Italian forensics are not up to par in by U.S. standards.

While the prosecutor seems a little bit nutso to me, he doesn't seem incompetent either. The 'sex game' story doesn't cut the mustard with me. (what does that mean, to 'cut the mustard'?)

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A sex game with an unwilling participant is not a game, imo. Yet, Amanda

and Raffeale do not seem totally innocent in this whole story. On the U.S. side of the pond many think she is innocent, while most of Italy believes in her guilt.

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If Amanda did in fact steal money from Meredith or owed her money for some reason, that could indicate motive. Amanda had only been in Perugia for two months so it doesn't seem that she would need money already. Maybe towards the end of the school year, but her mother said that Amanda had saved 10K for the trip which doesn't seem enough for rent, utilities and food for the year.

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But at the first of November it seems to me she would still be flush. Meredith had complained about the caliber of men Amanda brought to the house.

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And it could be that although Amanda seems to be a sweet typical college student, she WAS plucky enough to want to go to Italy by herself to study for a year and as we all know, looks can be decieving. She could be a manipulative narcissist.

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I am not taking either side on this one. Just don't know.

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Saturday Morning At Trial: Bloody Footprints Said To Match The Defendants
Posted by Peter Quennell

May 9, 2009

Bloodstained footprints found at the house where British student Meredith Kercher was stabbed to death fit her alleged killers, a court has heard.

Forensic scientists found one imprint on a bath mat and three more in the corridor leading from Meredith’s bedroom to that of suspect Amanda Knox.

The court heard how imprints were taken of Knox, 21, and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25....

Police scientist Dr Lorenzo Rinaldi told the Italian court his forensic evidence was discovered by using Luminol - a substance that turns blue in the presence of blood.

“From our investigations we were able to conclude that the footprint found on the bath mat was compatible with that of Sollecito as was one found in the corridor using Luminol,” Dr Rinaldi said.
“We also found that a naked footprint found in Knox’s bedroom and in the corridor outside, again using Luminol, was compatible with the one taken from her in prison.”

Dr Rinaldi explained to the court how microscopic point to point measurements such as ‘’heel to toe’’ or ‘’toe and arch width’’ were used to identify the imprints.

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ABC Summarizes What Happened On Friday At Trial
Posted by Peter Quennell

May 10, 2009

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There was the showing of the 94-minute forensic-team video in the morning, and then this.
Only one fingerprint belonging to Knox was found in the house she had shared with Kercher and two Italian women. Giuseppe Privitera, a police print expert, testified that a print from Knox’s right index finger was identified on a glass found in the sink.

A total of 61 prints were taken into evidence at the scene of the crime. Of these, all but 13 were identified as belonging to various people who had been in the house. Five prints belonged to Sollecito, said Privitera, two of which were found on the outside of Kercher’s bedroom door.

Only one print belonging to Guede was identified, but it was significant. His bloody palm-print was found on a pillow under Kercher’s body. The blood was Kercher’s blood.

More detailed information on the prints from Adnkronos, with a comment from poster Nicki:

The Adnkronos report lists a total of 108 papillar fragmented prints, of which 61 usable and 48 are for certain attributed to RS (5) AK (1), RG (1) Meredith (17).

The rest have been attributed to the Italian girls and to the victim’s boyfriend (41 altogether). The other 13 prints are unknown.

It’s strange how they only found one print of AK, versus 17 of Meredith, and 41 of the two roomates plus boyfriend. After all, she lived there.

Meredith Kercher murder accused Amanda Knox hides her face from images of scene

Right: Meredith Kercher

29th April 2009
Croydonguardian.co.uk

Amanda Knox, the American woman accused of murdering Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, hid her face from images of the murder scene in court.

Knox, 21 and her ex-boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito, 24, are accused of murdering the Coulsdon student in a sex game that went wrong in November 2007.

Last week the court saw images of the blood-spattered room with Miss Kercher’s face and foot sticking out of a duvet and a bloody handprint on the wall.

Minutes before the scene was aired, Sollecito and Knox had been exchanging smiles and whispers.

Knox covered her face as the video showed Miss Kercher’s face, but Sollecito watched the whole video.

Earlier, Italian police had strenuously denied the murder scene had been contaminated and said they matched the hand print to drifter Rudy Guede from Ivory Coast, who was found guilty of Miss Kercher’s murder in a fast-track trial and sentenced to 30 years in jail.

Amanda Knox’s father sat behind her making notes as the footage was shown.

He later said his daughter is anxious to testify and prove her innocence in an interview with NBC.

The trial continues.

The murder of Meredith Kercher: Raffaele Sollecito… Trapped, In His Own Words

Right: Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito


Sunday, April 19, 2009
Raffaele Sollecito… Trapped, In His Own Words
Posted by TheMachine
on truejustice.org
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When the prosecutors present the forensic evidence, the defence lawyers will do their level best to try and muddy the waters, by claiming that much of the damning forensic evidence is due to contamination.
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Well, good luck with that one. There is a FAR greater danger for them lurking…
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We have already described in among other places here and here how Amanda Knox has boxed herself in with her own words.
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Raffaele Sollecito has done precisely the same. Sollecito has also said things that are demonstrably untrue, and they now seriously haunt him and his team.
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There is no question that Raffaele Sollecito has deliberately and repeatedly lied. He even himself admitted that he told the police “un sacco di cazzate” (a load of rubbish), and the judges at the Italian Supreme Court noted that he had lied and was reluctant to cooperate.
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Lie one. Raffaele Sollecito first claimed in an interview with Kate Mansey from the Sunday Mirror that he and Amanda Knox were at a friend’s party on the night of the murder. It would have been obviously a tad difficult for Sollecito to find any witnesses who had attended an imaginary party to provide him and Knox with an alibi. This alibi was predictably abandoned very quickly.
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Lie two. Sollecito then claimed that he was his apartment with Amanda Knox. This alibi is flatly contradicted by a silent witness: forensic evidence. According to the scientific police, there are six separate pieces of forensic evidence, including an abundant amount of his DNA on Meredith’s bra clasp, that place him in the cottage on Via della Pergola on the night of the murder.
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Lie three. Sollecito then came up with a third alibi. He claimed that he was alone at his apartment and that Knox had gone out from 9pm to 1am. Both Sollecito and Knox gave completely different accounts of where they were, who they were with and what they doing on the night of the murder. These weren’t small inconsistencies, but huge, whopping lies.
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Lies four and five. Sollecito and Knox told the postal police that he had called the police before the postal police had turned up at the cottage and were waiting for them. Sollecito later admitted that this was not true and that he had lied because he had believed Amanda Knox’s version of what had happened.
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He said he went outside “to see if I could climb up to Meredith’s window” but could not. “I tried to force the door but couldn’t, and at that point I decided to call my sister for advice because she is a Carabinieri officer. She told me to dial 112 (the Italian emergency number) but at that moment the postal police arrived. He added: “In my former statement I told you a load of rubbish because I believed Amanda’s version of what happened and did not think about the inconsistencies.” (The Times, 7 November, 2007).
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Lie six. Knox and Sollecito said they couldn’t remember most of what happened on the night of the murder, because they had smoked cannabis.
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It is medically impossible for cannabis to cause such dramatic amnesia and there are no studies that have ever demonstrated that this is possible.
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Long term use of cannabis may affect short-term memory, which means that users might have difficulty recalling a telephone number. But it won’t wipe out whole chunks of an evening from their memory banks.
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Lie seven. Sollecito claimed that he had spoken to his father at 11pm. Phone records show that there was no telephone conversation at this time. Sollecito’s father called him a couple of hours earlier at 8.40pm.
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Lie eight. Sollecito claimed that he was surfing the Internet from 11pm to 1am. The Kercher’s lawyer, Franco Maresca, pointed out that credible witnesses had shattered Sollecito’s alibi for the night of the murder. Sollecito still maintains he was home that night, working on his computer, but computer specialists have testified that his computer was not used for an eight-hour period on the night of Meredith’s murder
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Lie nine. Sollecito claimed that he had slept until 10pm the next day. However, he used his computer at 5.32am and turned on his mobile phone at 6.02am. The Italian Supreme Court remarked that his night was “sleepless” to say the least.
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Lie ten. When Sollecito heard that the scientific police had found Meredith’s DNA on the double DNA knife in his apartment. He told a cock and bull story about accidentally pricking Meredith’s hand whilst cooking at his apartment.
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“The fact that Meredith’s DNA is on my kitchen knife is because once, when we were all cooking together, I accidentally pricked her hand.’’ Meredith had never been to Sollecito’s apartment. Sollecito could not have accidentally pricked her hand whilst cooking.
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It’s highly telling that Sollecito wasn’t surprised that the forensic police had found Meredith’s DNA on the double DNA knife in his apartment. He knew Meredith’s DNA was on the blade, which is why he made up the silly cock and bull story. He was attempting to explain the presence of Meredith’s DNA on the blade, but in doing so, he further incriminated himself and Amanda Knox.
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Manuela Comodi, the deputy prosecutor, explained during the hearings that the prosecution had not called either Knox or Sollecito as witnesses “because there is no point. Every time they were questioned during the pre-trial investigation they lied or tried to derail the inquiry.”
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Judge Paolo Micheli, who presided over Rudy Guede fast-track trial and sent Knox and Sollecito to trial, didn’t believe many of their claims. He noted that they had given triple alibis and had lied in attempt to cover for each other.
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Sollecito’s lawyers claim that he lied out of confusion and fear. However, Sollecito lied from the very first time he spoke to the police when he wasn’t a suspect. His lies cannot be attributed to confusion and fear.
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Like Amanda, he has boxed himself in.

Making Amanda Knox’s Timeline Alibi Work

The most concise timeline I've found on this murder so far, and interesting comentary from FinnMacCool...

April 16, 2009

Posted by FinnMacCool

on truejustice.org

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Amanda Knox’s first encounters with police and other witnesses the day after Meredith's murder go to the very heart of her credibility of her truth-telling about events, and of her guilt or innocence... in the crime.

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On Sunday, 4 November 2007, Amanda Knox wrote an email to a student welfare officer at the University of Washington in Seattle.

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Knox related her version of what had happened at the house on Friday the 2nd before the communication police arrived to establish why Meredith’s two mobile phones were tossed into a garden a kilometer away.

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This email was written while Amanda was alone and under no pressure. Copies went to various relatives and friends. For many of her supporters, it represents the essential truth of what happened, before Amanda was interrogated by the police and began changing her story.

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This analysis covers the period from noon to a quarter past one on the Friday, the day that Meredith Kercher’s murder was discovered. It compares the claims in the email with cellphone records for Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for the period.

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The contents of the email

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According to the email, Amanda and Raffaele were initially at Raffaele’s apartment at noon on November 2nd. The email describes how Amanda spoke with Filomena Romanelli and then tried to reach Meredith Kercher by phone.

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It then explains that Amanda and Raffaele returned to the cottage, where they found evidence of a break-in, alongside some bloodstains which Amanda had already noticed. (when?)

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They also observed that Meredith’s door was locked.

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After they tried and failed to break down this door, they phoned the police.

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After that, Amanda claims she called Filomena once again, who said she would return to the cottage.

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Cellphone records do not support this story nor do the police.

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Two police officers arrived at the cottage to investigate Meredith’s two phones, which had been found in a neighbor’s garden.

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The police claim they arrived at 12:25, and video evidence appears to support this.

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Amanda and Raffaele dispute the video evidence. They claim that the police arrived much later, after the call to the emergency services which Raffaele made at 12:55.

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Below, we look first at the scenario described by Amanda, followed by the scenario described by the police, with a view to determining what really happened in that crucial hour between noon and one.

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First scenario: Amanda Knox’s email is essentially true, the police account is essentially inaccurate.

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If we assume that the police are basically incorrect, and that Amanda Knox’s email is basically correct, in their respective memories of what happened on November 2 between noon and 13:15 that leaves us with several puzzling questions. Here are some of them:

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1. Where was Amanda at 12:08?

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At 12:08, Amanda calls Filomena. Amanda claims that she made this call from Raffaele’s house.
In his prison diary, Raffaele describes the same conversation as taking place at the cottage.

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Filomena says that Amanda explained, in that conversation, that she was at the cottage, and was on her way to fetch Raffaele.

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2. Why didn’t Amanda call Raffaele?

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Even though Amanda claims to have walked alone to the cottage, and to have been concerned enough about the bloodstains to want to bring Raffaele to have a look at them, she never attempted to phone Raffaele at all during the whole of that morning.

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3. Why did Amanda stop calling Meredith’s phones?

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Amanda first tried calling Meredith’s Italian phone at 12:07. At 12:08 she calls Filomena, who advises her to try Meredith’s phones. She doesn’t tell Filomena that she tried the UK phone just a minute ago (nor does she mention this in her email).

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In the email, Amanda says she called Meredith’s phones after speaking to Filomena – cellphone records support this claim. But she also says that the Italian phone “just kept ringing, no answer”.

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Her cellphone records show this call lasted just three seconds, and the call to the UK phone lasted just four seconds. (The WeAnswer Call service, which prides itself on how quickly it answers its customers’ calls, boasts that their average speed-of-answer is 5.5 seconds.)

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Next, Amanda claims that she returns to the cottage with Raffaele.

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But why doesn’t she try Meredith’s phones again? If the Italian phone was going to continually ring again – even for just three seconds – she’d now be able to hear it through the bedroom door (assuming Meredith had it with her).

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But this doesn’t seem to have occurred to either Amanda or Raffaele.

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4. Why didn’t Amanda call Filomena back?

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In the 12:08 call, Amanda told Filomena she would try Meredith’s phones and then call her back. .
In the email, Amanda claims that she called Filomena back three quarters of an hour later – after Raffaele’s finished calling the police at 12:55.

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But cellphone records show that Amanda never called Filomena back at all.

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On the other hand, Filomena DOES call Amanda back – at 12:12 and 12:20. It’s not clear whether Filomena receives an answer to these calls, or simply leaves a message, Amanda’s email makes no mention of having received these calls.

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Then Filomena tries a third time, at 12:34, which is when Amanda tells her that Filomena’s own room has been broken into.

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5. Why doesn’t Amanda mention that she called her mother in Seattle?

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Her cellphone records also show that Amanda called her mother at 12:47 – but she makes no mention of this call in her email.

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Edda Mellas claims that she told Amanda to hang up and call the police – but Amanda makes no mention of this advice in describing their decision to call the police.

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The email describes the decision to call the police as something between herself and Raffaele, after she had tried to see through Meredith’s window, and after Raffaele had tried to break down Meredith’s door.

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But in the ten minutes before Raffaele calls his sister (an officer in the carabinieri), Raffaele has received a call from his father (at 12:40:03) and Amanda has made a call to her mother (at 12:47:23) – neither of which calls is mentioned in the email.

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Raffaele’s sister gives him the same advice that Edda Mellas gave Amanda: hang up and call the cops.

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6. How can the tour of the cottage and the arrivals of first Marco and Luca, and then of Filomena and Paola, all take place between 12:55 and 13:00?

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Raffaele makes the successful emergency call (lasting nearly a minute) at 12:54:39.

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Meredith’s UK phone is activated at Police HQ at 13:00 – as part of a conversation which the postal police at the cottage are having about that phone with staff at HQ.

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This conversation mentions Filomena’s arrival, and the information she’s given them about it being a UK phone.

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This means that we need to fit the following activities into those five minutes, if Amanda’s email is to be believed:

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The postal police arrive later than 12:55

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Amanda and Raffaele give them a tour of the cottage, including the suspected break-in and the bloodstains in the bathroom

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Amanda writes down Meredith’s phone numbers for them, on a post-it note which Luca Altieri notices on the kitchen table when he arrives

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Marco and Luca arrive (and they see the post-it note) and have a conversation with the police about the ownership of the phones

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A few minutes later, Filomena and Paola Grande arrive. Filomena explains to the police about Meredith’s phones (one lent by Filomena, and the other a UK phone)

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The postal police make contact with their HQ

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During this call, Meredith’s phone is activated (at 13:00)

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In addition, at some point, Paola sees Raffaele and Amanda emerging from Amanda’s bedroom – but it’s not clear whether this happened before or after 13:00. It could have been after.

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But even if we move this emergence from the bedroom to after 1300, there simply isn’t enough time for all those other activities to take place in a period of less than five minutes.

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Second scenario: the police account is basically accurate, Amanda Knox’s email is essentially untrue

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Let us take the opposite scenario, and assume that the police are basically correct, and that Amanda Knox’s email is basically incorrect.

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This then provides us with answers to those puzzles above, and also fills in some of the gaps that were otherwise missing from the timeline.

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We also find that this new timeline is supported by evidence from other witnesses.

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1. Where was Amanda at 12:08?

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Amanda was at the cottage, and so was Raffaele.

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Amanda was not telling the truth when she said she was going to fetch Raffaele – since Raffaele was in the room with her when she made the call.

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This matches with the versions of both Filomena and Raffaele, who both believed that the call was made from the cottage.

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2. Why didn’t Amanda call Raffaele?

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Amanda never called Raffaele that morning because they were with each other the whole time – just as they continued to be with each other every moment until their arrest (except when separated for interrogations).

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3. Why did Amanda stop calling Meredith’s phones?

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Amanda called from the cottage in the first place, so there is no longer a question of why she called Meredith only from Raffaele’s apartment.

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Also, she allowed the phone to ring only for three or four seconds because she knew that Meredith would not (and could not) pick up – she knew Meredith was dead.

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The purpose of making these calls was simply for them to appear on her own cellphone record, to help construct an attempted alibi.

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4. Why didn’t Amanda call Filomena back?

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This question can be answered if we accept the hypothesis that Amanda’s intention was for Meredith’s body to be discovered by Filomena and/or Filomena’s friends.

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When the police found the couple outside the property “waiting”, they were really waiting for the one living person that they had called that morning – Filomena.

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Amanda ignores the calls at 12:12 and 12:20 because she wants Filomena to arrive at the cottage and to be the one who makes the “discoveries” of the break-in, and the locked bedroom.

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So that when Filomena arrived at the cottage, Amanda and Raffaele (at the front of the house) could have said, “Oh, we decided to wait for you. Let’s go in together.”

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However, Amanda answers Filomena’s 12:34 call because the police are already at the cottage and have already discovered the alleged break-in.

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So now Amanda needs Filomena to arrive as quickly as possible – and at this point she tells Filomena about the break-in and the locked door.

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Unfortunately for Amanda, however, Filomena decides to call Marco and get himself and Luca to go there first – knowing that they will be able to reach the cottage much more quickly.

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Amanda tries to delay the breaking open of the room by telling the police, and by telling Luca, that it’s normal for Meredith to lock her own door.

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She does this because, when it comes to the breaking down of the door, they want the others to be the first ones on the scene - and we can see that when the door is broken down for real, Amanda and Raffaele withdraw to the kitchen.

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Unfortunately for Amanda, however, she can’t resist boasting later to Meredith’s English friends that she herself was the first on the scene.

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5. Why doesn’t Amanda mention that she called her mother in Seattle?

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Amanda’s email is essentially fictional.

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The police arrived around 12:30, which is when they said, and this is corroborated by the CCTV evidence from the car park (timed at 12:25).

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So the police have been in the cottage for about a quarter of an hour when Amanda calls her mother.

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Amanda is first called away from the police to answer Filomena’s 12:34 call, just as Raffaele is called away a few minutes later to answer a call from his father at 12:40.

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However, it is not until the arrival of Marco and Luca that they are able to escape to the privacy of Amanda’s bedroom, where they make the phone calls first to Amanda’s mother, then to Raffaele’s sister, and then the two calls to the police.

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Notice that Edda and Raffaele’s sister both give the same advice: Hang up and call the police. And that’s exactly what they do, in fact.

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However, in trying to create a fictional backdrop for making the emergency calls, Amanda forgets that she’s already called her mother.

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Now she tries to explain that she and Raffaele called the police because of their panic over the locked room – panic which seems not to exist when Amanda is telling Luca that Meredith usually locks her door.

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(Notice that in this version, we don’t need to believe that nobody can understand what Amanda says.)

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After making these calls, Amanda and Raffaele emerge from the bedroom, as described by Paola Grande.

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Paola’s memory of arriving at the cottage just before one is supported by the activation of Meredith’s cellphone at 1300.

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6. How can the tour of the cottage and the arrivals of first Marco and Luca, and then of Filomena and Paola, all take place between 12:55 and 13:00?

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It doesn’t. The tour of the cottage takes a more realistic fifteen minutes (roughly 12:30 to 12:45).

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The police spend ten minutes talking to Luca and Marco about the phones, and about the suspected break-in, and so on (roughly 12:46 to 12:55), while they await the arrival of Filomena and Paola.

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The girls arrive shortly before one, as the girls said, and as the phone records support, and explain the situation of the phones to the police (roughly 12:56 to 13:00).

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There follows another fifteen minute examination of the house, culminating in the breaking down of the door by Luca Altieri at 13:15.

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Conclusion

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This version may or may not be accurate, but at least it is supported by external evidence, not contradicted by it.

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It is easy to see why Judge Micheli’s report found that the cellphone records do not support Raffaele Sollecito’s claim to have called the flying squad before the postal police arrived.

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It is also easy to see why these timings undermine other stories told by the two defendants – such as Amanda’s December 2007 claim that she thought the postal police were in fact the police that Raffaele had just called.

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Such a claim is absurd, given that Battistelli contacts HQ with a status report less than five minutes after Raffaele’s 112 call was made.

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The bottom line is that this does not look promising for Amanda Knox.

The murder of Meredith Kercher: CBS Reporter’s Bizarre Claims About Prosecutor And Reporters

Right: Meredith Kercher

Saturday, April 11, 2009

posted by Skeptical Bystander

truejustice.org, an online publication

from Perugia, Italy

Peter Van Sant of CBS, in promoting his “48 Hours” report on April 11, which by all accounts seemed intent on equaling CBS’s record for worst report on the case, Mr Van Sant has come out with an interview which is an absolute classic for how not to do such things.

First, consider Mr Van Sant’s remarks about one of the prosecutors in the case.
As for the accusation that Kercher was killed over a sex game, Van Sant cites an Italian blogger for putting that notion into the prosecutor’s mind. Van Sant said the blogger claims that she speaks to a dead priest who tells her what happened at crime scenes.

The blogger told the main prosecutor in the Knox trial, Giuliano Minnini (sic), that this was a satanic sex game and that’s how the theory started, Van Sant said. Sliming of a prosecutor in this fashion has already been strongly protested against by Amanda Knox’s own defense team.

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And the prosecutor in question, one of two (real name: Mignini), many weeks ago made clear that he had NOT listened to the Rome blogger (had locked her up in fact), is NOT especially pushing any particular theory of motive for the crime, is not especially central to the continued momentum of the trial - and has actually started a lawsuit against precisely this kind of libel!

Second, consider Mr Van Sant’s remarks about the reporting of the case. Among the many (actually rather neutral and non-inflammatory) journalists on the case that Mr Van Sant seems intent on sliming is of course Andrea Vogt of the Seattle PI. He all but refers to her by name and it seems rather obvious who he had in mind. (remember, Amanda Knox is from Seattle)

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Ms Vogt is the reporter from the Pacific Northwest who is based in Bologna, Italy and who has been covering this case for the Seattle PI for over a year. Many observers have been impressed with her thorough, objective and factual reporting, particularly since the trial phase began.

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Anyone who has been following the case knows how non-objective and pro-defense much of the reporting has been in the US, and how much fluffy air time has actually been arranged by the family-hired PR firm Marriott and company. So the particular focus of Mr Van Sant’s criticism is really surprising.

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After claiming that Italy has the most irresponsible tabloid press on the planet and that local Seattle papers like the Times and the PI can’t afford to send reporters to Italy to cover the story, he explained that they hire “stringers”. Apparently these stringers simply translate articles from the Italian tabloids into English and, via the local newspaper circuit which publishes them, they get recycled and become legitimate news.

Mr Van Sant uses the terms “filtered” or “laundered”, as if he were talking about Mafia money being invested in life insurance policies. The Seattle PI has enough problems without having to deal with this irresponsible and possibly defamatory remark. And Andrea Vogt, who to our knowledge is the only “stringer” working on this case who is filing stories for the PI, has been providing some of the best coverage of this case to U.S. readers...

Foxy Knoxy shields her eyes as court is shown shocking murder photos of 23 injuries on Meredith's body

By Nick Pisa

03rd April 2009

Murdered British student Meredith Kercher had at least 23 injuries, suggesting that several people had been involved in her death, a court heard.

Pathologist Luca Lalli said there were injuries on her hands, face, neck and legs and there was evidence of sexual activity before she died.

It was likely to have been non-consensual sex, based on the many bruises and injuries found on her body, he told the court in Perugia, Italy.

Miss Kercher, a Leeds University student from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Italy to study for one year as part of her European Studies degree. The 21-year-old had only been in Perugia for two months when she was killed in November 2007.

Knox covered her head with her arms as gruesome photographs and video of Kercher's body were shown in court, sources said.

Knox's mother Edda Mellas said during a break in the trial: 'The images upset her too much and she didn't watch them.'

Media and public were excluded as Mr Lalli's evidence was shown.

Francesco Maresca, the Kercher family's lawyer, had requested it be given in private 'out of respect' for Meredith's memory.

Last year images of her body were shown on Italian TV station Telenorba.

Mr Maresca said earlier: 'The evidence will be of a very personal nature and will involve description of her injuries and this will be very traumatic for the family - even though they will not be present.'

'They have already suffered when the images were broadcast on Italian TV earlier this year and it would not be right for them to have to go through that again.

'It was in very poor taste for these images to be broadcast and the family were very upset that's why with them I have made this request to preserve Meredith's memory and dignity.'

During today's closed-door hearings Mr Maresca said it could not be 'ruled out that hasty sexual activity, which would not leave signs of resistance, had taken place after she had been threatened with a knife."

Prosecutors say Meredith's throat was slashed three times because she refused to take part in a drug-fuelled sex game.

The court also heard from lingerie shop owner Carlo Maria Scotto di Rinaldi.

He told how couple Amanda Knox, 21, and 25-year-old Raffaele Sollecito, who both deny wrongdoing, had come in the day after the murder and she had bought a T-shirt and a G-string. He said: 'They were kissing and hugging.

'They were acting like young lovers. They were speaking in English and I picked up a few words.
'I heard Raffaele say that they would have hot sex, good sex.'

He gave police CCTV images from the shop showing the couple to the police after recognising them as suspects in the murder, he added.

The trial continues today, when Rudy Guede, 21, jailed in October for 30 years for sexual assault and murder, is due to give evidence.

The court has yet to hear from other medical experts who will explain the wounds that led to Meredith's death through blood loss and choking on her own blood.

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Amanda Knox's court demeanor in the spotlight

She grins and chats. On Valentine's Day, she sported a T-shirt that read "All You Need Is Love." And one of the first things she said in court was about a rabbit shaped sex toy.

By MARTA FALCONI
Associated Press Writer

PERUGIA, Italy — She grins and chats. On Valentine's Day, she sported a T-shirt that read "All You Need Is Love." And one of the first things she said in court was about a rabbit shaped sex toy.

Amanda Knox faces life in prison if convicted of killing Meredith Kercher, a British exchange student who was her roommate in this picturesque university town. However, her breezy behavior in hearings over the last three months has set tongues wagging in Italy and abroad.

Knox's family insists she has always been respectful in court and knows full well the weight of the charges against her.

The 21-year-old former University of Washington student is being tried with her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the 2007 killing that mesmerized Italy with its tales of sex and drugs. Both deny wrongdoing.

Knox was studying for one year in Perugia and sharing an apartment with Kercher, a 21-year-old student from Leeds University in England, when the Briton was found stabbed to death in the house on Nov. 2, 2007.

Prosecutors allege that Kercher was killed during what began as a sex game, with Sollecito holding her by the shoulders from behind while Knox touched her with the point of a knife.
They say a third man, Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede, tried to sexually assault Kercher and then Knox fatally stabbed her in the throat. Guede was convicted of murder in a separate trial last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The case, and particularly Knox's alleged role, has made headlines in Italy and abroad and media outlets still converge here for hearings held most Fridays and Saturdays.

Photo and TV coverage of the trial has focused on Knox's calm demeanor, her chats with the interpreter during breaks and in one case even her fashion sense, when she wore a bright T-shirt with "All You Need Is Love" scrawled in large pink letters on Valentine's Day.

In contrast, co-defendant Sollecito, 25, has appeared more tense and kept a lower-profile; he faces the cameras only when briefly waving to his family sitting in front of them.
Italian and European reports have buzzed with remarks.

"She is defiant and he, fearful," summarized Italy's respected daily Corriere della Sera the day after the opening hearing.

"The Foxy Knoxy show: Smiling murder suspect makes grand entrance as trial begins," read a title on the online version of Britain's Daily Mail, which also described Knox as walking "like a Hollywood diva sashaying along the red carpet."

Knox's behavior also raised eyebrows before the trial opened, with a witness recently testifying in court that the American turned cartwheels and did splits at the police station in the hours that followed the murder.

Other witnesses have told the court that Knox made faces at Sollecito at the police station, crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out, while also giggling and kissing him.

"Her behavior has never been adequate, given the seriousness of what happened," lawyer Francesco Maresca, who represents Kercher's family, said Wednesday. "I criticize a superficial and inappropriate behavior. There's a girl who died brutally, we could use some respect."

However, criminologist Saverio Fortunato says Knox's apparently carefree behavior could be a psychological "reaction to the pain" of being involved in a murder case.

"It could be a sign of malaise and confusion," Fortunato said. "Facing the wounds of a trial can push you to adopt a certain behavior to fight off the fear, which can be interpreted from the outside as inappropriate."

In recent addresses to the court, Knox spoke in Italian and sounded confident, even in her first public statement when she casually explained the presence of a pink rabbit-shaped vibrator in her Perugia house, saying it was "a joke" and a present from a friend.

In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, Knox's family described the American as "generally a positive person," who tries to "see something positive in everybody and every situation."

"When she comes to the courtroom, she is generally happy to see familiar faces," the statement said. "The media seems more interested in what she's wearing or how she acts for brief moments ... than in the lack of evidence against her or her respectful, attentive manner during the court proceedings."

Indeed, both Knox and Sollecito sit quietly near their lawyers and follow proceedings intently, taking notes and referencing in Italian law books. Two prison guards are stationed behind them at all times.

On Friday, coroner Luca Lalli confirmed his earlier findings by testifying that the Briton died from a stab wound to the neck. He said it cannot be determined if she was raped, though bruises and cuts on her face, neck, hands and legs suggest violence during intercourse.

Maresca said photographs taken during the autopsy were shown during the closed-doors session and Knox "looked away, while Sollecito occasionally looked up."

Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, said her daughter was "upset" and "just couldn't watch."

Later Friday, local shop owner Carlo Maria Scotto di Rinaldi testified he saw Knox and Sollecito kissing and hugging in his lingerie shop the day after Kercher's body was found.

He said Knox bought "a top and a G-string" and the couple talked about having "hot sex" once they got home.

The two defendants have largely ignored each other since the trial opened Jan. 16, but recently they exchanged smiles, whispers and gestured from a distance.

Prosecutors say Knox's DNA was on the handle of a knife found at Sollecito's house that might have been used in the slaying and the victim's DNA was found on the blade.

It's not clear how, if at all, Knox's behavior will influence the eight-member jury, which is expected to reach a verdict after the summer.

"Juries can be influenced by the media, but there is also the presiding judge," who as an expert should be able to see through a defendant's behavior in court, Fortunato said. "I don't think that the trial should revolve around this frivolity."

Murder case brings Amanda Fox, 'Foxy Knoxy', infamy in Italy

From Hada Messia

CNN Rome Bureau

March 27, 2009

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The Italian media call her "Foxy Knoxy" and portray her as a "devil with an angel's face," and there are 11 Facebook pages dedicated to her, all in Italian.

Amanda Knox, 21, is an American college student from Seattle, Washington, who is on trial for murder in Perugia, Italy. The case has given Knox almost pop star status there...

Seven of the 11 Facebook pages champion her innocence; four seem convinced that Knox is pure evil. A sampling of comments: "No to Amanda. No to her superstardom" ... "She's a sociopath" ..."Everyone is not sure if she is guilty or not and that she will lead us to a new existential awareness. Please shout with me your anger. ... Let's say no. Let's say Knox."

Knox and former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, are charged with murdering and sexually assaulting one of Knox's roommates, British exchange student Meredith Kercher, on November 1, 2007. They have pleaded not guilty.

Knox and Sollecito are due back in court today. The last time Knox appeared before the panel of eight judges, she wore a T-shirt quoting The Beatles: "All you need is love."

Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini alleges that Kercher, 21, was killed because she refused to participate in a drug-fueled sex game played by Knox, Sollecito, and a third man, Ivory Coast native Rudy Hermann Guede. In court papers, prosecutors stated that Sollecito held Kercher by her wrists while Knox poked at her with a knife and Guede sexually assaulted her.

The case is being tried in Perugia, a university town about 115 miles north of Rome that is better known for its chocolate than for its scandalous murder trials.

Witness undermines the alibi
Courtroom packed as trial starts

According to the prosecutor's office, Kercher had been in Italy for two months as part of a year-long course with Leeds University, where she was working toward a degree in European Studies. She shared a house with Knox, a University of Washington student in the same exchange program, and two Italian housemates.

The crime scene, which has become a tourist attraction, has been broken into twice, police say.
Knox and Sollecito were arrested November 6, 2007, and were kept in prison while an investigation continued. The judge overseeing the investigation found both were capable of committing the crime again, fleeing the country or tampering with the evidence.

Police sought charges in July 2008, and they were ordered to trial in October. The trial began January 16 and has been held mostly on weekends. I don't understand this--is this common in Italy?

Italian newspapers assigned their top crime reporters, and the case has received unprecedented international coverage. Knox has appeared on the cover of People magazine, which shares a corporate parent with CNN.

A random sampling of women on the streets of Rome showed that all of them had heard of the case and most believed Knox and Sollecito were at the very least implicated in the slaying.
The superheated publicity surrounding the case helped make Knox a household name in Italy.

Italian journalists also have plastered their newspapers with photos they found of Knox on the Internet, especially images that showed her as a "wild girl." They pounced on the "Foxy Knoxy" they found on her MySpace page, even though her parents later explained the high school moniker came from the way Knox played soccer, quick like a fox.

Although Italian law limits the publication of court and police records, the media ban is less strict than in many European countries. While it is not exactly legal to publish police investigative reports, no journalist has gone to jail in Italy for doing it.

Among the items leaked: Knox's diary, various police interrogations, photos of Kercher's body, video of Kercher's body (which wound up on YouTube but has been pulled), and video of the Italian forensic police carrying out their investigation. Eventually, even the leaks made headlines, leading to more speculation.

Knox can do no right in the Italian media. If she appears reserved and timid in court, she is portrayed as someone with plenty to hide. If she smiles or laughs in court, she's called disrespectful. As far as the Italian media is concerned, Knox is the mastermind who manipulated those around her and seduced her Italian boyfriend and led him astray.

While Knox and Sollecito's preliminary hearings were being held in October, Guede was convicted of murder after a fast-track trial. His lawyers had hoped that the speedy resolution of the case would give him a break at sentencing. He got 30 years in prison.

According to testimony at Guede's trial, his fingerprints were found in the house, and his DNA was linked to Kercher's body. He has never denied being in the house the night of the slaying but insists he didn't kill her. He says he had an "appointment" with her that night and was in the bathroom when she was killed.

Sollecito and Knox say they weren't at the house the night of the slaying. They say they both were at Sollecito's house. But the alibi has been contradicted by witnesses at the trial.

Eighty-six media outlets sent 140 journalists to cover the opening of the trial in January, but publicity has waned since then. The Italian 24-hour news channel TG24 no longer breaks into its programming with multiple updates. Knox, for now, has been relegated to the pages preceding the sports or weather report.

But Italians love their murder cases, and attention has shifted to other crime news. A mother is accused of killing her toddler son, a husband and wife are accused of multiple killings. Their courtrooms are now filled with spectators who wait in line an hour or more.

The Perugia courtroom still is packed, but the long line is gone. That is likely to change, however, as testimony draws to a close next month.

Amanda Knox's family discuss emotional and financial toll of murder case

By Jonathan Martin
Seattle Times staff reporter
JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Amanda Knox's family believes in her innocence... For the past nine months, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas, of Seattle, have split the rent on a very non-lovely apartment in Italy's lovely Umbria region. Tiny, with bars on the windows, a balky overhead fan, sweltering in the summer, freezing in the winter. But it is close to the Capanne prison, where their daughter, Amanda Knox, has been held since Nov. 6 for her alleged role in a lurid murder case that has become an Italian true-crime soap opera.

Convinced she is innocent, her parents have spent themselves to the brink of financial ruin on her defense. But they also are reluctant to harshly criticize the investigation, afraid of angering Italian prosecutors. "What we can say publicly versus what we really feel are oftentimes totally different. We just have to leave it at that," Curt Knox said in a recent interview in Seattle, while his ex-wife, Mellas, and younger daughter, Deanna, spoke from Italy. "It makes the stress level in this thing, it makes it huge."

It was the family's first in-depth interview with a U.S. newspaper. Knox, her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and another man, Rudy Guede, are accused of sexually assaulting, brutally murdering and stealing money from Knox's British roommate in Perugia, the ancient learning hub near Rome where Knox was spending a year abroad from the University of Washington...

Views of the case — and of Knox — flip on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Here, the case is seen by legal experts who've examined the evidence as deeply flawed. Equally alarming to them is the fact that the lead prosecutor is himself under indictment. But in Italy, Knox is viewed as harboring a secret dark side, and she's largely presumed guilty.

The difference, Curt Knox believes, is his 21-year-old daughter's inaccurate portrayal in news accounts as a drug-addled nymph who acted strangely after the murder.

"We don't have a choice but to believe in their legal system," he said. "We will take this as far as we have to take this, because she is walking out of there totally free of anything related to this."

"They found a body"

Amanda Knox had a middle-class childhood in West Seattle, running between the homes of her parents, who divorced in 1989 but continued to live near each other after both remarried.
After starring in soccer at Seattle Prep, she made the dean's list at the UW and gravitated toward writing and foreign languages. She worked three jobs to save $10,000 for a year abroad.

"One of the things Edda and I talked about with Amanda before she even went to Italy was, what happens if something goes wrong. Your parents are now 6,000 miles away from you. What do you do?" said Curt Knox, 47, a vice president for finance at Macy's. "At that point, we were thinking about, you know, medical."

Instead, Mellas, an elementary-school math teacher in Highline, was awakened before dawn on Nov. 2 by a call from Knox in Italy. "She said, 'Mom, I'm OK, I'm home, but I think somebody might have been in my house,' " Mellas said.

Knox told her mother she'd just come home after spending the night with Sollecito to find the front door ajar, droplets of blood in her bathroom, feces in a toilet, and the bedroom door of housemate Meredith Kercher locked. Knox took a shower, then left to fetch Sollecito, who then called police.

Amanda called again a few hours later, this time with panic her voice. "They found a body in Meredith's room," Mellas, 46, remembers her daughter saying. "I gotta go, the police want to talk with me."

Kercher's throat had been slashed three times, leaving her to slowly drown in her own blood. Crime-scene video shows her room awash in blood, including bloody fingerprints on a wall. Her purse was missing at least 250 euros.

Mellas quickly made plans to fly to Italy, believing her daughter needed moral support. By the time she landed, Knox was in jail.

Holes in the case

The evidence initially presented by police seemed overwhelming: a spot of Knox's DNA mixed with Kercher's blood on a faucet; a kitchen knife from Sollecito's house with Knox's DNA on the handle and Kercher's DNA on the blade; and a surveillance video putting Knox at her house near the time of the murder.

Knox also appeared to incriminate herself with a rambling statement — signed at 5:45 a.m. after a 14-hour interrogation — that put her at the crime scene and implicated her boss, a Perugia bar owner. She admitted smoking hashish with Sollecito, clouding her memory.

Soon after, the lead prosecutor, Guiliano Mignini, said Knox and Sollecito had "given the strong impression of contradiction and absurdity" in their statements.

But the case has slowly crumbled. The Italian supreme court threw out Knox's statement because she'd been denied a lawyer. Knox said she was repeatedly hit by interrogators.

The surveillance video was also tossed, too grainy to be useful. And Knox's defense experts have found that the knife could not have caused Kercher's fatal wounds, and they will soon show that the alleged spot of Kercher's DNA on the knife could match half of Italy's population, according to Curt Knox.

The bar owner implicated by Knox's statement was released. That created animosity among Italians and supported the impression the "typical American girl is secretly some kind of monster," said Maria Rossi, a public-opinion expert in Rome.

But police still lack a credible motive for Knox's involvement, and there is no evidence putting her at the crime scene, said Joe Tacopina, a high-profile New York defense attorney who vetted the case for ABC News. In fact, Knox's wet footprints at the crime scene confirm the story she told her mother, he said.

The evidence instead points toward Guede, Tacopina said. The young Perugia man has a criminal history, admitted having sexual contact with Kercher just before her death, and left fingerprints and DNA in Kercher's blood and on her purse.

"Where is the evidence to keep this girl in jail for a year?" he asked.

Pressure from the press

Curt Knox joined Mellas in Perugia shortly after Amanda Knox's arrest. At a brief news conference in a regal Italian piazza, Mellas said she was nearly stampeded. "They came at us like a frickin' herd of elephants," said Curt Knox.

It was wild back home, too. Reporters staked out their houses. A letter sent by Amanda from prison was stolen and turned up in a British tabloid, Curt Knox said. They stopped putting their garbage on the curb after it was pilfered. Knox's former classmates were offered up to $20,000 for interviews.

Tabloid headlines proclaimed "The Dark Angel of Seattle" and "Amanda Was a Drugged Up Tart," following the story line of an American girl who lost her head in Italy.

Most recently, media reports in Europe, based on leaked information, said Knox admitted having sex with seven men in less than two months in Italy. But the stories were wrong: Knox, told by a prison doctor she had tested positive for HIV, actually had listed all her life's sex partners.

Please oh please let it not be true," she wrote in her diary. "I don't want to die." It turned out to be a false positive. Despite the deluge, Knox's parents stayed quiet for months on the advice of their Italian lawyers, fearful of angering the prosecutor on the case.

"Conspiracy theories"

The lead prosecutor, Mignini, has pursued a theory of an orgy involving Knox, Sollecito and Guede having gone awry when Kercher declined to participate, and accused Knox and Sollecito of staging a burglary to throw off police. An autopsy found no evidence Kercher had been raped or had sexual contact with anyone except Guede.

The theory resonated with Doug Preston, an author in Maine who has followed the case. He was interrogated by Mignini in 2006 — and his co-author, an Italian journalist, was briefly jailed — after publishing a book critical of Mignini for pursuing an elaborate theory in a serial-killer investigation. Mignini's theory in that case involved a secret satanic cult that commissioned farmers to steal female sex organs for their rituals.

Soon after jailing Preston's co-author, Mignini was indicted on charges of leaking confidential information and for wiretapping judges, police and other journalists critical of his handling of the serial-killer case. He has proclaimed his innocence. The case is pending.

In the Kercher case, a single killer "would be way too simple" for Mignini, who favors "conspiracy theories," Preston said. "His career depends on convicting Knox of murder."

But Mignini is admired in Perugia for his theories, said Frank Sfarzo, a film professor in Perugia whose blog, Perugia-shock.blogspot.com, is devoted to the Kercher slaying.

"It is good when the prosecutor doesn't pick the simplest solution. It's intelligent to think what is unthinkable," Sfarzo said. "He went deeper and imagined something wider. But he has to prove this is true."

"We'll have nothing"

In the middle of a recent three-hour interview for this story, as Curt Knox criticized the "shoddy" crime-scene investigation, the cellphone connection to Mellas, who was speaking from Perugia, suddenly went dead.

They assume their cellphones, their rental house and their car in Italy are bugged and their e-mails read. They avoid talking about the case in prison visits, which usually end, Mellas said, with Knox clinging to her arm. "Walking away is the hardest thing I've ever done," she said. "Unbearable."

The family has drained their home equity and retirement funds to pay for a defense team of lawyers, forensic experts, investigators and a media adviser in Seattle. They decline to say how much, except that "it would be an extremely nice house in the Pacific Northwest."

"It's called being leveraged to the hilt," said Curt Knox. "Literally, we'll have nothing. And we'll do whatever it takes." Curt Knox and Mellas have tested the patience of their employers and had to accept money from extended family. They're clearly exhausted, angry and stressed, but they deflect questions about themselves toward a defense of Knox.

"I can see how hard it is on them," said younger daughter Deanna Knox, a 19-year-old college student. "They're drained of all energy. My mom just can't stop thinking about Amanda."
Her parents are both relieved and haunted by one thought: It could have been their daughter killed instead of Kercher. "We have a second chance. They don't," said Curt Knox. "I can't imagine the pain that family is going through," said Mellas.

In Preston's book, he quotes an Italian count who decries the methods of the Italian justice system: tapped phones, doctored conversations fed to the press, prolonged detention, "and finally a trial that lasts many years ending in the acquittal of a ruined man." Curt Knox nodded in recognition, tears welling up. "I just hope it doesn't take years."

The Murder of Meredith Kercher

Right: Meredith Kercher, English student studying in Italy. Roommate with Amanda Knox and two other young women.

Anyone following this? sorry I'm late. The murder trial began a month ago, but is expected to last at least another month. The fate of an Seattle woman lies in the wake.

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This is eleventh-hour news, but interesting nonetheless. To get caught up with the case in Perugia, Italy see the case as detailed on Wikipedia:

Murder of Meredith Kercher

Those charged with Meredith Kercher's murder are American Amanda Knox, Italian Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Hermann Guede of Ivory Coast. Guede was tried first and has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing his sentence.

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Inmates beg Amanda Knox to ‘Let It Be’

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Richard Owen

Rome

Cellmates of Amanda Knox, the American student suspected of involvement in the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia last November, have pleaded with prison authorities to stop her repeatedly singing the Beatles' song Let it Be at the top of her voice.

Father Scarabattoli, the prison chaplain at Perugia, said that Ms Knox, 20, from Seattle, had asked for a guitar so that she could play the song as well a sing it, but this had been refused. Inmates have complained that Ms Knox sings the song all day long, with one jailer reported as agreeing with them that it "drives you mad".

However, Father Scarabattoli said that she sang the song only at exercise time, in the open air, and he insisted that it had a "spiritual dimension" since it referred to the intercession of the Virgin Mary. Ms Knox, who attended a Jesuit school, has been receiving religious instruction from the chaplain and reading the Bible.

The lyrics to Let it Be run: "When I find myself in times of trouble / mother Mary comes to me / speaking words of wisdom, / let it be. / And in my hour of darkness / she is standing right in front of me, / speaking words of wisdom, / let it be."

It concludes: "And when the night is cloudy / there is still a light that shines on me / shine until tomorrow, / let it be. / I wake up to the sound of music, / mother Mary comes to me, / speaking words of wisdom, / let it be."

Ms Knox, her Italian former boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito and Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast immigrant with joint Italian nationality, all remain in prison in Perugia pending charges. They can be held for up to a year before a trial is held.

Ms Knox's parents have started a campaign to counteract what they say is the distorted image presented by the media of their daughter as a "cold-eyed killer with the face of an angel" who indulged in an orgy of sex and drugs once in Italy and free of parental control. They have retained Joe Tacopina, a leading Italian-American lawyer, to try to demolish the case against Ms Knox.

Italian reports said that if the case came to trial Ms Knox's defence would argue that the crime scene had been altered by police, with objects such as Ms Kercher's mattress moved, and that while the kitchen knife found in Mr Sollecito's flat that is presumed to be the murder weapon had Ms Kercher's DNA on it, it could not be proved that the DNA came from her blood.

Giuliano Mignini, the chief investigator, has re-interviewed British friends of Ms Kercher who, like her, were on an Erasmus EU exchange programme in Italy and who have returned since the crime to complete their studies. Reports said that they had confirmed their earlier testimony, in which they said that Ms Knox appeared "proud" to have discovered Ms Kercher's body and had given details of the crime scene that only someone who had either witnessed the crime or committed it could possibly have known.

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Amanda Knox to face slander charge over police brutality claims

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Richard Owen, Rome

March 17, 2009

Amanda Knox, the American student charged with the murder and sexual assault of Meredith Kercher, faces an additional charge of slander for claiming that police struck her while she was being questioned.

At the latest hearings in her trial in Perugia, Ms Knox claimed that police had put her under psychological and physical pressure to admit that she was present at the murder.

Ms Knox, who has the right to address the court at any time during her trial, was reacting to evidence from Anna Donnino, a police interpreter who claimed that Ms Knox had behaved "as if a weight had been lifted from her" when she admitted that she had been at the scene of the crime and accused Patrick Diya Lumumba, a Congolese bar owner for whom she worked part-time, of the killing. Ms Knox told police that she had covered her ears in the kitchen to block out Ms Kercher's screams.

Ms Donnino said that when questioned after Ms Kercher's body was found, Ms Knox walked up and down nervously at the police station, "hitting her head with her hands". She had denied responding to an SMS message from Mr Lumumba telling her there was no need to come to work because there were few customers, leaving her free for the evening. But she broke down when police said phone records showed that she had done so, Ms Donnino said.

"She showed extreme emotional involvement – she was crying and visibly shocked, saying 'It was him, it was him. He's bad'," Ms Donnino added.

Ms Knox, speaking in fluent Italian, said police had called her a "stupid liar" during "hours and hours" of questioning during which she had stuck to her story that she spent the night of the murder at the flat of Raffaele Sollecito, her former boyfriend and co-accused.

She said that Ms Donnino had suggested to her "that probably I didn't remember well because I was traumatised, so I should try to remember something else". There had been an "aggressive insistence" on the text message she had received from Mr Lumumba, Ms Knox said. She insisted she had been slapped on the head by police, adding "I'm sorry, but it's true".

Ms Donnino said that Ms Knox had been "comforted" by police, given food and drink, and had at no stage been hit or threatened.

The newspaper Corriere dell' Umbria said that Giuliano Mignini, the prosecutor, would bring an additional charge of slander against Ms Knox, since all police officers and interpreters who have given evidence at the trial have testified under oath that she was at no stage put under pressure or physically mistreated.

Ms Kercher's semi-naked body was found under a duvet on the floor of her bedroom in November 2007, at the hillside cottage in Perugia she shared with Ms Knox and two Italian women. She had been stabbed in the throat.

The prosecution accuses Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito of murdering and sexually assaulting Ms Kercher with Rudy Guede, an Ivory Coast immigrant who was given a 30-year sentence last October for the crime under fast-track procedures. He began his appeal last week, claiming Ms Knox had killed Ms Kercher in a row over stolen cash.

The all-night interrogation in which Ms Knox accused Mr Lumumba and described blocking her ears was ruled inadmissible by Italy's Supreme Court because no lawyer was present. However a voluntary statement written by Ms Knox in English repeating this scenario has been accepted as court evidence despite defence protests. The defence claims Ms Knox was not at the cottage during the murder but at Mr Sollecito's flat.

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Mr Lumumba, who was arrested but later released without charge, is suing Ms Knox for defamation. He is also seeking damages for wrongful imprisonment.

Aida Colontane, another police interpreter, told the court that she had noticed a red mark on Ms Knox's neck which "leapt out" from her "extraordinary pallor". Laura Mezzetti, one of the Italian flatmates of Ms Knox and Ms Kercher, has also testified that Ms Knox had a red mark on her neck. Curt Knox, Ms Knox's father, has suggested the mark was a love bite.

Fabio D'Astolto, an English-speaking police officer who helped to question Ms Knox, told the court that she and Mr Sollecito had behaved strangely, kissing and cuddling and talking together in low voices. A number of other witnesses have given the same testimony.

Mr D'Astolto said he had ensured that Ms Knox understood procedures and questions at all times. Daniele Moscatelli, another police officer, said officers had confiscated a long knife from Mr Sollecito, who had explained to them that he collected knives as a hobby. Mr Sollecito appeared confused and nervous during questioning, he said.

At the last hearings two weeks ago the court was told that Ms Knox had done cartwheels and the splits while waiting to be questioned by police. However Chris Mellas, her stepfather, who is attending the trial, said that his stepdaughter was doing yoga exercises and a police officer had asked her to do gymnastics, remarking "You look rather flexible".

Oreste Volturno, the police officer who led a search of Mr Sollecito's flat, said he had been struck by "the powerful smell of bleach". The prosecution says the kitchen knife found at the flat which is presumed to be the murder weapon had been scrubbed with bleach in an attempt to erase blood and DNA traces.

The court was told that police investigating Ms Knox had tapped her phone calls and intercepted her correspondence before and after her arrest, including an email to friends in Seattle in which she claimed that she had found Ms Kercher's body. She had written and received around 600 letters over a six-month period, all of which were intercepted and then translated by a team of four police interpreters. Her conversations with prison visitors were also recorded.

Francesco Maresca, the lawyer for the Kercher family, said that the suspects' alibi that they had spent the night of the murder at Mr Sollecito's flat had collapsed after Marco Trotta, a police computer expert, said that tests on Mr Sollecito's computer showed that nobody had used it on the night that Ms Kercher was stabbed to death. Mr Sollecito claims he was at his flat working on his computer at the time of the murder.

Mr Trotta said tests his team had carried out on Mr Sollecito's computer showed "no human interaction" between 9.10pm on November 1 and 5.32am on November 2, 2007. Ms Kercher's body was found in the late morning of November 2 but she is believed to have died between 9pm and 11pm the night before.

Mr Sollecito says that he downloaded and watched the film Amelie during the night. However, Mr Trotta said that the film had been watched at around 6.30pm. Ms Kercher returned to the cottage she shared with Ms Knox at about 9pm.

Ms Knox's Italian language teacher in Perugia, Antonella Negri, told the court that as a class exercise Ms Knox had written a letter to her mother, after the discovery of her flatmate's body but before her arrest. "In it she said she worried and confused and she wanted her mother to travel to Perugia so she could distract herself and they could go shopping together," Ms Negri told the court. She said Ms Knox had referred to the murder at the start of the class. "She leaned forward on to the desk and lay her head in her arms."

The trial resumes next Friday, when the six jurors are expected to tour the murder scene in an inspection requested by lawyers acting for Mr Sollecito. The prosecution claims Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito broke a window at the cottage to simulate a burglary, but the defence contests this.

The court was shown grainy CCTV images said to be of Ms Kercher returning to the house shortly before her death. The images were taken by a surveillance camera at the car park above the cottage. Defence lawyers said that the footage was of such poor quality that it should not be admitted as evidence.