While Irish jails seem to be safer than American ones (assuming the portrayals of automatic butt-rape by a big black guy named ‘Bud’ are true), prisoners in parts of Mountjoy prison have to shit in a bucket, then slop out.
Not all European prisons are lovely, but on the whole they sound better than yours, but that could just be the media’s take.
After just reading a bit more on the verdict, I want to finally say that IF Amanda Knox was indeed guilty of participating in this brutal murder, I hope the next 26 years of her life is a living hell on Earth-----Both for commiting such a senseless, evil crime and also for destroying her entire family in trying to evade justice.
I just saw that her parents (divorced) are in debt over $1,000,000 total between them, due to lawyer fees, travel expenses and assorted other costs. Her siblings are fucked, with any college funds they may have once had coming spent on big sisters defense. If guilty, she should have at least had the decency to plead guilty, which may have allowed her parents to accept it as the truth, saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars and maybe gotten herself a reduced sentence in the bargain…
What a bullshit waste, and all for nothing.
I was thinking the same thing for the opposite reason.
As part of the guilty verdict she and her boyfriend now jointly also owe 5 million Euros restitution to the victim’s family and she alone owes another 40,000 Euros to a man she falsely accused of the killing.
Yep, criminal and civil trial all wrapped up into one package, with neither the judges nor the jury sequestered.
What about Amanda’s alleged behavior during the trial. The accounts that I have read said she was openly laughing, blowing kisses to her boyfriend, etc? Was there any truth to that?
Meredith Kercher, rest in peace.
Let me just ask this:
Is it possible that this is like some believe the problem was with the OJ trial - that the police framed a guilty party?
IMHO, no, they’re innocent and they’ve been convicted because people are more interested in judging facebook photos and alleged courtroom behavior rather than the actual evidence.
I think the media interest in the case has been so high that there’s a lot of conflicting reports - I read the exact opposite for example, that they’ve barely exchanged a glance throughout (reported in the Guardian).
I’d err on the side of guilty myself, for reasons others have already set out. That said, I don’t understand the separation of the Ivorian guy’s trial with this one. He’s already been found guilty of the crime under a ‘fast-track’ trial, and now two others have been found guilty of the same crime? Was some sort of comprehensive version of the facts presented that involved the three of them, or do the two trials not need to communicate with one another, so to speak?
A fast-track trial is an unfortunate piece of terminology - doesn’t make one think of a weighty, deliberate movement of justice. Son, we’re really busy, and seen as you’re a broke-ass African drifter, we’ll just send you down for 30 years if that’s OK.
:eek:
My opinion is just based on what has been shown on the Italian media here so its as valid as anyones not sat on the jury I suppose. I don’t think she did herself any favours. She was quick to throw an innocent guy under the bus. And she didn’t deny her bizarre handstands and splits at the police station. Or her going out to buy sex toys and underwear the day after the murder. Although she did say that the underwear was necessary because the police had sealed her apartment.
Her lack of consistency or signs of anymutual testimony with her co accused is puzzling but her other room mate’s testimony Romanelli I think did her the most damage.
My gut feeling is that she probably did not kill Meredith personally but I do think she is complicit.
I’ve been reading several British news sites. The family of Meredith Kercher feel they received justice.
The American press has done a very poor job of covering the trial. We got several interviews of Amanda’s family swearing she’s innocent. No surprises there. I’d like to hear reporting about Amanda’s childhood and high school years. There’s usually a pattern of behavioral issues that can be traced.
It’s always disturbing to see women commit violent crimes. It’s not what we normally expect. Women are traditionally mothers and nurturers. But, the world is changing. We’re seeing more and more cases where women like Amanda Knox and Casey Anthony are doing horrible twisted things.
As unwise as it may have been, my mind boggles that, on such flimsy evidence, she was convicted and now faces a sentence not much less than what Susan Atkins and Leslie Van Houten got.
So…these links only say (a) she’s been convicted, as we know; and (b) the family of the victim believes that justice has been served, as we would expect. There’s nothing there, and I haven’t seen anything anywhere else to convince me that she’s really guilty.
Amanda Knox may not be a nurturer. But that she is, or was, anything worse than a hard-partying girl-gone-wild university student isn’t clear to me at all. I’d like to hear about her childhood and high school years too, but I doubt there’s a red flag there. You mentioned possible behavioral issues. With the caveat I’m not an expert here, it just doesn’t make sense. The kind of background behavioral issues we usually see in violent criminals include utter rejection of societal expectations. The person drops out of high school, or if they haven’t dropped out, they are constantly in trouble for fighting, substance abuse, disrupting class, and truancy. College is rarely if ever in the picture for them. They certainly don’t go on to the University of Washington, become honor students in foreign languages, and live the dream of a year’s study abroad in another country. Is it absolutely impossible for her to have actually done it? Of course not, but I’m sure not convinced that she did.
Sweet, Tom Wolfe finally started posting!
11 months of courtroom evidence reduced to a feeling. And I am sure you are absolutely earnest in believing in the correctness of your view.
I always enjoy the presumption many Americans take that foreign courts are all marsupial, and that any time someone from this country is charged with a crime abroad they get railroaded, convicted on emotional evidence, or that the foreign judicial system is corrupt and/or unjust.
I always enjoy the presumption many from “insert name of country” take that American courts are all marsupial, and that any time someone from “insert name of country” is charged with a crime in the U.S. they get railroaded, convicted on emotional evidence, or that the U.S. judicial system is corrupt and/or unjust.
Do we ever get to know what the jury’s vote was? Was it unanimous, or split down the middle or what?
Personally, (and yes as an American), I see the majority vote jury as being the biggest issue with the Italian system. You can always get a certain number of people, perhaps a majority of the people, to go along with whatever the prosecution says and making it be unanimous helps assure that there will be at least one person on there with a conscience and also forces the jury to actually work out the issues. If this case were held in the US, do you really think it only would have taken them 11 hours to get a guilty verdict?