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Amanda Knox Tells Her Story
Daniele La Monaca, Landov / Reuters
"I'm not like that," the accused murderer told an Italian jury after months of salacious and damning testimony about her. Barbie Latza Nadeau reports from the courthouse.
“I am Amanda Knox” were the first words the 21-year-old Seattle native told the court in Perugia, Italy, where she is standing trial for the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher. Knox took the stand for Friday and Saturday as a “communal” witness for the prosecution, civil plaintiffs, and in her own defense. At times she was confident and secure; other times she sounded confused and distracted. She started her testimony in English, but after two hours switched to Italian, relying on the translator for help primarily with slang words like “bummer” and “laid back.”
First, she fielded questions from Carlo Pacelli, attorney for Patrick Lumumba, the Congolese man Knox accused of murdering Kercher during an interrogation shortly after the murder. Lumumba, who spent two weeks in prison because of Knox’s accusation, is a civil plaintiff seeking an undisclosed amount from Knox for defamation of character. In addition, authorities filed criminal charges against Knox for falsely accusing him.
“The declarations were taken against my will. They called me a stupid liar. They said I would go to prison for protecting someone.”
“Did you ever apologize to Patrick?” Pacelli asked. “No,” said Knox, passing up what seemed like a good opportunity to make the apology in front of the court.
“Did you ever offer compensation to Patrick?”asked Pacelli. “Who, me?” she laughed. “No.”
In the five months of this trial, the jury has heard a barrage of damaging testimony about Knox. Witnesses have portrayed her as a strange cartwheel performer with bad hygiene. Jurors learned about her vibrator and her sexual escapades, and her personal emails and handwritten diaries have become part of the prosecution’s dossier of evidence against her.
Knox’s testimony Friday was her first chance to explain both her accusation of Lumumba and her bizarre demeanor after Kercher’s body was discovered. Having suffered a virtual character assassination since she was arrested in November 2007, Knox succeeded in giving the jury a different view of herself as a normal young woman nothing like the shocking things that have been said and implied about her. “They are wrong,” she said. “I’m not like that.”
She has also criticized the police who interrogated her, accusing them of maltreatment and blaming them for making her finger Lumumba. Knox, who originally confessed to being at the scene of the crime and hearing Kercher’s screams, said the police put those ideas in her head. “The declarations were taken against my will. They called me a stupid liar. They said I would go to prison for protecting someone,” she said. “They hit me on the back of the head twice. I was very, very scared.”
When her own defense attorneys questioned her, Knox spoke about her positive relationship with Kercher and the other girls who lived in the house where Kercher was killed. She also described how she had been told that she had tested positive for HIV in the initial weeks of her incarceration. “I cried and cried,” she said after explaining that she had been tested twice for AIDS before being told the results were a mistake. “I kept thinking I was going to die. I was worried I would never have children.”
Knox was evasive when questioned about Sollecito, her co-defendant in the crime. She would not elaborate about their relationship, but she did testify that she relied heavily on him for help understanding Italian and for comfort during the days between the murder and her arrest. For the first time, she explained why she and her then-boyfriend seemed inappropriately affectionate outside the house on the morning Kercher’s body was found. “I was hugging Raffaele because I was cold. I was in shock,” she said. “I didn’t understand what had happened.”
The questions were tough but the day belonged to Knox. Amanda was unflappable on her second day of testimony, first fielding questions from prosecutor Giuliano Mignini and then from the kercher lawyer Francesco Maresca. Again she testified that she was under such pressure the night she accused Lumumba that she became confused and disoriented. It was not lost on those in the courtroom that the same young woman was now under enormous pressure defending herself against life in prison. "I don't know how to deal with difficult situations," she said. "I try to find the normalcy in a bad situation."
Knox will not get another chance to testify in her trial but she will be allowed to make spontaneous declarations as her defense lays out their case. Next week Knox's mother Edda Mellas takes the stand. The trial will break July 18 for a two month break.
Barbie Nadeau has reported from Italy for Newsweek magazine since 1997. She also writes for CNN Traveller, Budget Travel magazine and Frommer's.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Barbie Latza Nadeau has reported from Italy for Newsweek Magazine since 1997. She also writes for CNN Traveller, Budget Travel Magazine and Frommer's.
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Barbie Latza Nadeau has reported from Italy for Newsweek Magazine since 1997. She also writes for CNN Traveller, Budget Travel Magazine and Frommer's.
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Barbie Latza Nadeau has reported from Italy for Newsweek Magazine since 1997. She also writes for CNN Traveller, Budget Travel Magazine and Frommer's.
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If you only watch her body language, she is guilty as hell. Her story is an obvious snow job like the California Menendez brothers' who killed their two parents with a shotgun.
Sociopaths have a charm and forthright explanations to explain away anything and anyone pointing guilt towards them. Today she is telling the world her confession is not her confession, or whatever it is she wrote on paper and then signed.
There was a Long Island murder case that involved a 17 year old male that signed a confession admitting to killing his parents. It made no sense to me. He did not look the part, he did not act the part. From the beginning I thought he was innocent. He was kept in prison for 20 years and recently won freedom on appeal. He should have never been found guilty.
Amanda's equivocations sound and look a lot like the Menendez brothers con job. The murderous brothers are still in prison, for life.
People give false confessions all the time, especially young people being threatened by the police. Remember this is why torturing prisoners for information does not work. People make up stories to get them to stop.
aspiecelia -- You are so right. The Tankleff "confession" is precise proof of this. Amanda's big problem is she has offered several versions of the event. The prosecution has noted this to point to her guilt. I have no idea how the Italian jury will react to this.
AMEN! I watched her explain those cartwheels and you are sooooooooooo right! She's guilty, guilty, GUILTY! And she's not fooling those Italians either. They are not being swayed by her "charming" explanations even in Italian. Timothy Egan of the NYTimes, wrote a piece on her but you could tell, he thinks she's innocent . . . HA!
And I wonder which one of her parents is secretly saying to themselves, "Honey, we've raised a sociopath in our mist!" Which one sees through her but is trying to justify her behaviour? Sounds like they want her out of jail in Italy, but would they put her in jail in America? If they put her in jail in Italy for life, would there be an exchange for an Italian prisoner, so they could do their life sentence in their respective countries? NOT!
I wonder if now, her parents see that Amanda being *special* at home with her siblings, was her way of hiding her sociopathic behaviour. And that all those differences lead her to this point in time. How sad for them because if they don't recognize this now, they're just lying to themselves.
Females recognize Knox as guilty because we were raised with them or we went to school with them and we usually stayed away from girls like her. They were odd, strange and their reaction to normal behaviour & stuff was just to out there to be friends with girls like Knox.
http://www.lovefraud.com/blog/2007/02/16/when-women-are-sociopathspsycho paths/
But I agree with Piktor on this one. It's just a question of when the 6 jurors and 2 judges vote this fall. GUILTY, GUILTY . . . G-U-I-L-T-Y!!
An innocent person has one story and sticks to it, no matter if they beat you or use a hose. The "truth is bullet proof".
Knox has told a different version so many times, I'm surprise she even remembers her own lies. In the end, those different versions will be her death knell.
"An innocent person has one story and sticks to it, no matter if they beat you or use a hose. The "truth is bullet proof"."
No matter how innocent you are if you are tortured sooner or later the large majority of people will start confessing to whatever they think their torturers would like to hear.
I would suggest, that among other things, you could read http://www.fas.org/irp/dni/educing.pdf information about interrogation and the result (possessive and negative) that can be archived through its various forms. The document is created by the National Defense Intelligence College.
ApresSki -- Talk of keeping to your story, see this video of the Tankleff case. The lying crook here is...THE LEAD DETECTIVE!
Watch how he moves his head and eyes. Hear the cop's lame explanations. Watch Marty's reaction when he is found guilty by the jury. It is an amazing video:
http://tinyurl.com/ml9smc
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How the fuck do you know?
Care to ellaborate on what actually happened in that court room?
Care to base you opinion other than the fact that someone is looking frantic when looking at a dangerous penalty?
Whether she did it or not, I am quite willing to bet that if you were put on the stand for murder yourself, you would not be cool and calm. Few are. That is also irrelevant to the actuality of the case.
Funny that in America we put people in for decades on mandatory minimums for personal drug possession. We let our murderers get away with medals, yet the pot dealer gets a decade? Which we pay for?
Yeah, we really know what justice is in the western world...
~Monk
I am thoroughly intrigued by the jury's reaction to the evidence in favor and against Amanda. I have not followed this case closely but one man, Rudy Guede, has already been convicted to a 30 year prison sentence. This man will not offer testimony in the Knox-Sollecito trial. This alone seems to help the prosecution in a big way.
The jury might be wondering why would an innocent man want to keep silent and not help his chances to be freed by giving as much information about his innocence as would be expected.
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mblips -- The appeal explanation is a convenient cover for Guede. I smell a deal with the prosecution.
BTW, the wrongly convicted Long Island teenager is named Marty Tankleff.
Amanda should have worn a modest skirt and blouse plus covering up the herpes lip lesion to create an innocent youth image. Came across on the ABC clip of her testimony as quite the hardboiled young babe whose seen and done it all.
this is italy, not south carolina.
Indeed. We are stupid media consumers, no doubt.
~Monk
Man, she sure is cute for a cold blooded killer! Just kidding. What's on her lip?
does anyone else think it's funny that she gave her testimony with a cold sore?
that's the first thing i noticed.
Apologizing in court would be one of the dumbest things a defendant could do, especially when claiming coercion. Why then is this described as "passing up an opportunity"? During witness examination, in the US and Italy, you answer the question asked of you. Other than that, interesting read.
Just feel that this girl has had the extraordinary press biased characterisation based on hearsay and Italian and other laymens' prejudices. The evidence seems flimsy; and until it is examined and shown to be damning; I feel this girl is being damned by hearsay and tabloid notions of what constitutes a good story.
Ms. Knox won't be so "cute" after she is convicted and serves 30 years in prison.
asshole ,you obviously have it all figured out . why not do some research!
before ranting and raving Its good to know your shit DIPSTICK!
I think Amanda is telling the truth. There are many cases where people are coerced into signing false confessions. I think the case against Amanda should be based more on the hard evidence like that that implicated Guede, and so far it doesn't seem like a case could really be made against her using physical evidence. How can so many of you be so sure she is guilty? She made a weird face and a photographer happened to capture it? She hugged her boyfriend for comfort in a traumatic time? It would be a double tragedy if she is wrongly convicted.
I have seen zero evidence that says she committed this crime. Remember this is a court of law. Not the court of public opinion. which is all I have seen prosecutors make arguments for.
Anyone who considers body language as a sign of guilt needs a mental exam.
Stick to the facts. In this case there is only one concrete fact. That a young girl was killed. The facts dry up at that point.
The investigation should have continued before this case was brought to trial.
aDCBeast -- I hope you are right and she is found not guilty. If the trial were held in the U.S. she would go free because the police has clearly mishandled evidence. Italian rules seem to be a lot looser on that issue.
On the subject of body language, it is a full-blown field of forensic psychology. Body language experts knew right away Bill Clinton was lying when he said "I did not have sex whith that woman..." The giveaway had to do with the use of his hands and the "with that woman" phrase.
In my particular case, I was right about the Menedez case, I was right about the Tankleff case, I knew Hillary would lose to Obama a full year before it happened, etc.
I hope I am 100% wrong about Amanda. I am wrong about 20% of the time. Ms. Knox is very young and it would be a tragedy that she ends up in jail for this. I do think she has equivocated enough to raise justified suspicions. I do know she is trying to cover something up like the Menendez brothers. But maybe she is trying to cover up a foolish lie that has nothing to do with this murder. Maybe she is trying to snow the world and trying to get away with murder.
No .. there is no such thing a field of forensic psychology devoted to "body language". Your suggestion that there is ... is pure Horse Manure ...
aDCBeast -- Since you put forth the assertion "body language" is not a subject studied in Forensic Psychology, it is your burden to prove "Body Language" is not studied in Social Psychology and Social Psychology is not studied by forensic psychologists.
Wow...I usually never post comments, but I just have to say to piktor: You are a fucking idiotic fool. First of all, this case has NOTHING to do with the Menendez brothers so stop trying to make comparisons that make absolutely no sense at all. And oh my god, you knew that Obama was going to beat Hilary?! That must mean you are an expert on foriegn murder trials...Right...Second of all, you contradict yourself repeatedly. For a person who admits that they "have not followed this case closely," meaning you obviously have no idea what the actual evidence/lack of evidence in this case is, you sure are quick to rush to a judgement of "she is guilty as hell." This world would be so much more pleasant if uneducated, ignorant people like yourself would just go away and stop burdening the rest of us with your stupidity. She's innocent. Period. End of story.
shocked -- So, the use of expletives announces some sort of radiantly omniscient and verbose paragon. From silence to expletive to denounce the idiot ignorant fool.
When I am called an ignorant idiot I say how wise!
When an expletive is used I think of degradation, violence, sadism, fear projection, anger, self-righteous hatred, intellectual laziness, unoriginality, conformity, disrespect, and on and on.
The use of expletives connotes a feeble mind, a sort of decrepit self esteem, finding the easy way out, giving up without even trying. Can conquest be made by self-defeating proxy? Is violent language a concession to the worst demons lurking? Can foul words mitigate the stench?
Does the use of expletives affirm anything other than the low path that boomerangs back to its agency. It is wrong. It is the opposite of good.
I say how truly dumb.
well said ! some people mostly assume what they hear is what the facts are . total morons ! kangarro tactics "i" say.!
I've tried to find the link, and it appears that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has since deleted the article, but Amanda Knox has a history of violent behavior. A party at her off-campus apartment led to mayhem, and responding police were pelted with debris when they tried to break up the party. If I remember correctly, the local SWAT were called in and Knox and several of her friends were briefly arrested.
That said, Amanda Knox is a sociopath/psycopath, and I don't buy her parents assertions of her demure and innocent nature. Knox lied to the police from the beginning of the investigation into Meredith's death, and it is for that reason that the police treated her with something less smooth than kid gloves (and I don't believe for a moment that the police beat her confession out of her -- so bemusing to see hger trotting out an American-style cliched defense). Amanda Knox and her parents have spent a fortune on PR and marketing to sell the idea that Amanda is an innocent victim in her roommate's murder. I hope the Italian court is not nearly as gullible as are some of the "Amanda's Innocent!" posters here.
And does anyone here remember the lovely picture of her at a Holocaust Museum in Europe, bent down as if firing the tripod-mounted machine gun, with a huge laughing grin on her face? That very same gun likely mowed people down, and yet she's enjoying a good giggle whilst posing for a snap. Chilling and vile.
The whole Ameican thing about proclaiming her innocence based on her friends and famly is ridiculous.
There is so much tying her and that strange boyfriend to the crime that she cannot possibly avoid a gulty sentence.
And yes her parents have a lot of soul searching to do rearding how their young daughter could turn out to be this bloody sociopathic.
Thanks for that one.
Yes her casual laughing countenance at the Holocaust Museum in Europe is chilling.
From wanton rabid hate to murder a young innocent rommate---it was quite a slippery slope.
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Think witch trials. So here we have a young woman who smokes pot, has sex with her boyfriend(s), and y/day had a cold sore. One of the keys to witch trials is that nubile young women look guilty as hell (of anything) to warped minds. The prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, has an obsession with "Satanism." This is what he has accused Amanda Knox of -- "Italian prosecutors today accused Amanda Knox of fatally stabbing her British house mate in a Satanic rite" (reported by AP Oct 18 2008). Let's hear more about him and his fantasies. Remember how the the Inquisition got people to "confess." Knox has guts to say in open court that they hit her and called her a stupid liar. And how about terrorizing her with a false-positive on an AIDS test - has any reporter checked to see what the first result actually was? For prosecutor Mignini's decades of involvement with accusations of Satanic ritual murder, and his colleagues' repression and goaling of skeptical reporters, see John Bakers' April 2006 blog entry on "The Monster of Florence":
http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/the-monster-of-florence/ and "The Monster of Florence" in July/August 2006 Atlantic magazine.
Hello reader,
I visited Mr Baker's site as you suggested, but was left perplexed, having read Monster of Florence and noted a series of grave errors during my reading sessions, being quite aware of the case myself. In his letter on Mr. Baker's site, Mr. Preston claims many bonafide journalistic credentials, yet his book was based much on information provided by another journalist whose objectivity is questionable. In the author's defence, I thought the book was quite an engaging read, but unfortunatey labeled as a "true" story. In NY they call that false advertising, no? My son is a journalist, therefore I notice these things: the Associated Press report you cited paraphrases one defence counselor's take on the prosecutor's case, not the prosecutor himself. Perhaps you might review your media reports more carefully. I think it does take courage for this young lady to tell openly of her police experience in Italy. But it has nothing to do with the Monster of Florence case and continuing to mention it simply reveals how insensitvely the author is utilizing this tragic murder case for his own gain.
Prosecutor Mignini's criminal case theory comes to him from a psychic, Gabriella Carlizzi, who claims to get her information from a charismatic priest, Padre Gabriele, who died in 1984. Carlizzi claims that Amanda Knox in Seattle and Meredith Kercher in Leeds belonged to the same international satanic cult. To do with red roses and Masons. On Carliizi's view The Masonic Order of the Red Rose is to blame not only for the notorious Tuscan serial killings (The Monster of Florence) and the murder of Meredith Kercher but is also to blame for 9/11. For more see the blof "Perugia Shock" (not mine).
I sure would not want many of the posters here on a jury, although I do wonder who some of your really are.... friends of the prosecution perhaps? Just a tad to vicious to be believable. The trial is in the early stages yet many of you have already convicted Amanda. Maybe she is guilty but facts should determine the outcome of this trial, not the impressions of observers. Impressions that are based on short news clips or brief print stories. The devil is always in the details. If we imprisoned or executed people on the basis of how they looked or how they sounded, we would truly be barbarians. We in America are have proven time and again that without careful objective consideration we can get it very wrong. The problem with this trial is that some of the evidence is suspect, the prosecution has a prior history of taking short cuts/manipulating evidence/abusing suspects all of which it is accused of doing in this case, and the tabloid press has had a field day.... thus poisoning the air. What Amanda deserve is a fair trial!
The DB's coverage of this case leaves a lot to be desired - in fact it's sickeningly devoid of key facts.
For those of you who are ready to condemn her, check this out:
http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/international/italian-exch ange-student-murder
Here are a few excerpts but the key idea is that the Italian police is not keen on objectivity in solving crimes and in fact are very focused on making foreigners face the brunt of 'justice' (the prison she is in is 70-80% foreigners). They had to throw someone in jail quickly because parents were threatening to take their kids out of the university with an unknown murderer out on the loose.
"After the interrogation, Amanda and Raffaele were sent to jail but not charged...This, despite the fact that the only DNA traces found on Meredith's body came from Rudy, who had not been seen since the night of the murder. His bloody fingerprint was also found on her pillow."
"Three days after the murder, the senior police investigator on the case sought out Amanda and Raffaele to question them. When he discovered them casually eating in a pizza restaurant, he grew suspicious. Soon after, they were arrested. "That was how it started," says Paul Ciolino, an American forensic examiner who was the primary investigative adviser for the Innocence Project, which has helped exonerate more than 215 prisoners jailed in the U.S. He has independently studied the facts of Amanda's case in Italy, and says the senior officer told him Amanda should have been "wrapped in grief in bed, crying, not eating" at a restaurant. "I was stunned that this was why he suspected Amanda and her boyfriend were involved in the crime," he says. "These two kids, never in trouble, classic middle-class college students - it's ludicrous that they were implicated."
"Through it all, Amanda kept a cool head, which only fueled more doubts about her. "Amanda isn't the type to be hysterical," says her mother, explaining that her honors-student daughter is even-keeled and calm by nature. "When Amanda was angry with us, she didn't throw tantrums. Instead, she wrote long letters to us expressing how she felt."
Why do I think of Casey Anthony?
What did we learn from Ms Knox that we did not already know? What went on in the courtroom? Why was it important to apologize to Mr Lumumba? Who cares about him. He will have his day in court soon enough. This is a case of murder in the first degree and nothing in this article tells me anything substantive about what Ms Knox said or did on the night in question.
As seems to be the case in most articles and posts by professional journalists, the comments section has an abundance of angles and factoids the original author could not dream collecting. This from NYTimes:
"In any case, the evidence here - and despite what Preston claims - there is evidence; it has been examined by no fewer than a dozen different judges. Last September, in a 105-page document, Judge Paolo Micheli set forth his reasons for indicting Knox and Sollecito. It makes for compelling reading.
It is also important to note that the Kercher family supports the prosecution's case and has faith in the Italian system of justice. Since they have access to the 10,000 pages filed by the prosecutor, it is fair to assume that they are not basing their support on "no evidence".
comment #22 by Peggy Cougan......http://tinyurl.com/lnkngb
In Italy ... this means so little .... the Italian system of law is governed by POLITICS .. not FACTS ...
Barbie Nadeau is not a crime reporter. That's a problem. Her bio at Newsweek, where she is a travel reporter, states: "Barbie Nadeau has lived in Italy since 1996, enjoying la dolce vita and reporting on politics, culture and travel ."
I challenge Ms Nadeua to explain which is more probable, a house invasion by a drug addict known to carry a knife and previously convicted for petty crime, which this time went wrong and turned ugly with attempted rape on a victim who fought back; or the Hallowe'en fantasies launched in Prosecutor Mignini's brain by the date of the crime and evidence of a Harry Potter book (in German) found in these language students' rental?
According to news reports, "DNA tests show that Mr Guede, whose fingerprint was found in bloodstains on Ms Kercher's pillow, had sex with Ms Kercher the night she died, according to investigators. He has never denied this, but maintains they had agreed to have sex." He fled Italy immediately after the crime.
Guede left a quite typical home invader's calling card by defecating in the toilet (without flushing) before leaving the house -- more DNA.
This and other evidence indicates a home invasion, by an armed drug-user, which turned to opportunistic rape and -- when the victim fought back valiantly -- murder.
But there were special circumstances of interest to the prosecutor. The night was Hallowe'en. Meredith Kechner had dressed up as a vampire for the occasion and she was still wearing traces of her makeup when last seen alive. The prosecutor is avid for satanic conspiracy theories involving Masons. And he has a widely publicized grudge against an American crime writer who scoffs at his theories.
I doubt this case was ever RATIONALLY investigated. The 10,000 pages filed by the prosecutor are no measure of genuine analytic capacities. Prosecutor Mignini has been indicted for abuse of power, evidence rigging and bullying of suspects. His approach to this case fits his pattern.
The Daily Beast can hire Barbie Nadeau to tweet about la dolce vita in Umbria. But please, on this and any similar stories, replace her with a crime reporter.
reader1941 -- There is a CNN video report where the U.S. anchor asks the reporter based in London "Does the prosecution have evidence?" The London reporter answers that the prosecution evidence is "fairly strong".
I am guessing it will be easy for the jury to convict and leave the problem to an Appeals Court. You have to remember that Italian culture and expectations are very different from American Court rules.
Watch today's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hOIhQ44_cM
Actually you show your ignorance here ... again ...
the Italian culture ... whatever the F that means ... thinks the true story is not being told by police ....
Italy is still a corrupt police state ... where money can buy guilt or innocense.
aDCBeast -- Amanda is in a pickle because of this. That is the issue here. She is being tried in a court of law with local mores and expectations.
It does not matter what the true story is, really. Amanda is on her third version of events and she might still go on a fourth, after she said she was at Sollecito's when there is photo proof she entered her building at the time she was supposed to be at Sollecito's.
Then she said on her latest version that she left Sollecito at 10:00 AM and police have physical proof that she bought 2 bleach bottles around 7:45 AM. The store owner said in court he recognizes the female that was at the store that early morning as Amanda Knox. The store's receipt for the two bottles was recovered by police at Sollecito's. It has the date and time of purchase.
Am I an ignorant? Are not we all.
Correction -- I meant to write, the night BEFORE the crime was Hallowe'en.
Veronicaxy: MarieClaire is not a legitimate source of unbiased reportage - they are known for accepting stories that are written by advocacy groups and PR firms. They'll create doubt and scandal for whomever is willing to pay for it. I know too many people in journalism to believe in their stories!
All sorts of intriguing aspects in this case:
1. That a PR firm has been hired by her family to counter the "bias" online.
2. That the family admits to having spent nearly $1 million supporting her case.
3. That pro-Amanda views tend to be rather jingoistic (US justice is superior, Italian justice is crap)
4. The subtext that a young pretty American woman can't *possibly* be a murderer.
5. Even 20/20 has done a hatchet job along the lines of "poor Amanda is badly misunderstood and the Italian police messed up".
6. The murdered young woman - Meredith Kercher - (remember her?) seems to be getting short shrift in all this spin. In my opinion *she's* the young woman this trial should be focused on, not the cardboard cutout iconic "all-American girl".
The fact is that the killer of Meredith Kercher plead guilty .. Rudy Guede .. is in jail now .. who plead guilty based on on DNA evidence
the Italian police have presented zero evidence to convict Knox ...
Your lame contention that Amanda must be the killer .. after Guede has already taken a PLEA DEAL of 30 years ... is another Oswald didn't do it or a US or Israeli govt 9-11 conspiracy fantasy.
@
aDCBeast
I agree!
This guy's DNA was everywhere!
His bloody foot print was beneath her body his semen was inside...
He could have pinned the crime on Amanda and her boyfriend...because that was what the cops wanted...but he didn't..
He also fled..
Amanda and her boyfriend were just hanging about
they called the police...
@
tamcho
"That pro-Amanda views tend to be rather jingoistic"
in America we have people on death row and more people
imprisoned than any other western country (sad to say)
point being
We're not squeamish about finding people guilty
That pro-Amanda views tend to be rather jingoistic
========
This is horse manure ... and you know it ....
OJ has nothin' on this woman, nothin'! And just like OJ, she'll get off.
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito had no motive for killing Meredith Kercher. The couple were 2 weeks into a relationship with one another. Perhaps only a fling but they shared cultural interests (classical music and movies), they ate together, smoked dope together, went shopping together, and had sex together. With Raffaele (a urologist's son with maid service and an Audi), as an away-from-home boyfriend, Amanda gained a place to hangout and sleep over in addition to the hillside house. The couple had no motive for hooking up with Rudy Guede to kill Meredith.
Since Meredith's death, some of her friends have trotted out things about Amanda that Meredith found irritating -- including loudness, possession of condoms and a vibrator, and failure to deal with toilet skidmarks -- and 2 of Meredith's male friends have suggested that Amanda was insecure whereas Meredith was much more worthy of male attention. But nothing in Amanda's behavior, letters or diary suggests that she was aware that catty remarks might be aimed at her. She expressed no hostility toward Mereith and seems to have harbored none. Nor is there any sign that she was sexually attracted to Meredith. One of Meredith's complaints was that Amanda did not want to hang with her and her English friends, she preferred to hang out with Italian-speakers (she only had 3 months there to learn the language).
Meredith was known to Rudy Guede through her boyfriend in the downstairs section of the hillside house. The prosecutors' obsession with satanism blinded him to the obvious. Meredith was murdered by one person, a male, who also rifled her purse and stole 250 euros. This was nothing like the orgiastic crime painted in the press -- more like the East Side Rapist in Manhattan. Judge Micheli's notion that to gain access a rapist would have to be let in by an accomplice (Amanda) is ludicrous (ask victims of the East Side Rapist or of any "push in" home invasion).
Meredith, trained in karate, fought back hard and the thief/would be rapist used his hands to strangle her before using his knife (one theory says the strangling was accidental). Rudy Guede is 6 ft tall and was an athlete, a basketball player. He failed to penetrate Meredith except with a finger or possibly orally. He didn't full undress her. But his DNA (not his semen, no semen was found) is the only DNA found on her body.
I think sectors of the press and public are virulent toward Amanda (far less so toward Raffaelle) partly because political correctness rightly bans anyone from hinting that Meredith attracted the attention of her killer. Yet possibly, quite unwittingly, she did. There's been a huge denial of Meredith's attractiveness and an orgy of virulent sliming of Amanda for liking sex, practicing safe sex (with condoms), owning a vibrator, and so on.
These 2 attractive and accomplished young women both had high aspirations and a sense of adventure. One has been made to pay for her attractiveness and independence by losing her life in a brutal murder. I think we should do everything we can to prevent the other from being made to pay for living in the same house as the murder victim.
reader1941 -- I hope you are right and the jury values these elements you describe for their worth. This case has been reviewed by several judges that ruled there was sufficient cause for Knox to go to trial.
Knox's photo entering her residence building the night of the murder- when she said she was at Sollecito's- is worth noting.
Why did she go out early the morning of Nov. 2 to buy two bottles of bleach and not mention it to police.
Are Italian judges crazy. The parents of the slain victim are also playing to this judicial conspiracy?
A CNN reporter based in Europe that calls evidence against Knox/Sollecito "fairly strong" is also prejudiced against Knox?
A young man with a maid will not commit a crime?
My base theory is that Knox/Sollecito are hiding something. Perhaps a chain of errors that makes them look complicit when all they were trying to do was erase evidence that puts them at the crime scene, however serious, misguided and dumb this turned out to be.
Thank you.
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