Amanda Knox Missing Piece

One news report recapping this four year saga of the trial of Amanda Knox said that not only was the DNA evidence faulty, but there is a man already serving some other jail sentence who confessed, or such??? Just wondering if the SDopers heard this, too, and might know more about this other person? Is it not credible?

I am not at all qualified to respond to your inquiry. That said, she’s a hottie. Don’t know that I’d turn my back on her, however.

On a more serious note, and perhaps unfairly, her attractiveness probably works to her advantage.

A jailed Mafia mobster said last year that his brother was the murderer: 'Amanda Knox is innocent, my brother killed Meredith Kercher', claims Mafia supergrass | Daily Mail Online

I kind of lost track of this story though but I seem to recall reading that his claim had been discredited.

A guy named Rudy Guedé (I think that’s how it’s spelled, can’t be assed to look it up) is serving a jail sentence for having participated in the murder. He denies any involvement, of course, but that’s not surprising.

From what I read about the case last year: The theory by some press reports is that some random African illegal immigrant was responsible for the murder. He apparently confessed, or told some cellmate awhile after the Knox trial, and was convicted for also being involved; in return for not contradicting the prosecutor’s story, he was given a lesser sentence than he would have gotten if he were the only perp.

The prosecutor apparetly is some self-important pompous a****le who latched onto the theory that Knox and her boyfriend did it, and does not want to hear that there are serious holes in the story (especially motive). He has also apparently been convicted of abusing his office in other cases, and the government is not happy with the image he has given he world of Italian justice.

When it became apparent they had found the real killer, the prosecutor instead made up some story that this guy had participated with Knox and her boyfriend, rather than admit he made a mistake. In return for a guilty plea on that story, the guy got a much reduced sentence.

Really very poor quality of replies so far.

The Wikpedia page for the Murder of Meredith Kercher has the summary of the events surrounding and subsequent to the murder. Essentially Knox and Sollecito called the police the morning after the murder, and were questioned themselves. In that interview Knox claimed that she had seen the manager of the bar she had been working in at the time - a man called Patrick Lumumba - entering Kercher’s room. He was arrested and held for two weeks, but he had a solid alibi and he was released without charge (he later sued Knox over the false accusation and was awarded 40,000 EUR in compensation).

A couple of weeks later fingerprints from the scene were matched to a man called Rudy Guede, whose fingerprints were already on the system for a previous crime. There was a manhunt for him and he was eventually arrested in Germany. His DNA was found on and inside Meredith Kercher, a bloody handprint matching his hand was found on the pillow underneath her body, and he admitted he had been in her bedroom that night; although he claimed it had been for a date and that a “shadowy figure” had killed her while he was in the bathroom with iPod headphones on. He opted for a fast-track trial and was convicted of murder.

The prosecutors, however, argued that Knox and Sollecito had also been involved. The evidence against them wasn’t as clear-cut as against Guede: Knox’s fingerprints were found on a kitchen knife in a different house which supposedly had Kercher’s blood on it; Sollecito’s DNA was supposedly found on Kercher’s bra strap; it was argued footprints made in blood through the house matched both of their feet; a witness claimed he saw them in animated conversation on a basketball court near the house in the small hours of the night of the murder, although there are questions over that witness’s reliability since he was a homeless heroin addict who had testified in murder trials before; and their actions and testimony, particularly Knox’s, had been strange and inconsistent. Sollecito claimed they had watched a movie on his laptop together that night but investigators found it had not been used all night. The investigators also argued that the window into Kercher’s room had been smashed from the outside after the struggle had taken place since glass was found on top of the clothes strewn around the room. All of this evidence was hotly contested and, today, the jury deemed it too weak and acquitted them.

Well, he’s definitely guilty of not being a pretty white girl so I think we can rely on him taking the sole wrap from this point on.

More that the guy couldnt afford a defense and went for a fast track trial. The white pretty girl aspect is far less relevant that the social classes they belong to.

I guess you must be an expert on the Italian legal system. :rolleyes:

[bolding mine]. Just out of curiosity, was it a true jury, or a Magistrate who overturned the 2007 prosecution?

She’ll be home in time to jump into the republican run for the white house.

Not a true jury, at least by Anglo - American standards. We’re talking about the “Corte di Assise” and “Corte di Appello di Assise”, which hear the more serious cases.

They are made up of a panel of “real” judges (that is to say professional judges)and lay judges, these last being ordinary citizens who get called up to participate in trials. So, the lay judges are not jurors, nor do they decide questions of fact, the way common law juries do.

In the sentencing yesterday, Knox was held accountable for that claim:

How could she leave Italy without paying the fine? Or did she pay it, and we weren’t told about it.

Details…

Are you suggesting that unattractive black men are not inclined share the last tortilla-based sandwich with everyone else?

I know there was a jury of some kind; it wasn’t just a single judge making the decision. “Six jurors and two judges” is how it was described in the media reports, which said they had to go into a private room and conduct lengthy deliberations to come to a verdict as with normal juries. Who the jurors were or how the system worked, I don’t know.

Unlike in the American media, the British and Italian media’s coverage of the case was not generally favorable to Amanda Knox. Apparently the Italian media were quick to cast her as being guilty to some extent, and while the British media were more restrained than they can be, I’d say the coverage generally leaned towards implying she was guilty. Since her acquittal the coverage in the UK has generally just been fairly objective and dispassionate. I’d certainly say the tenor was never slanted in her favor.

See? Justice is colour-blind. The “all black people look the same” defence didn’t work.