Was Amanda Knox Involved In Any Way With Her Roommate's Murder?

Great Debates
1

I know there has been a thread or two about this over the years, but with the re-trial that is currently ongoing, I thought that I would start a new one.

Did Amanda have anything to do with Meredith Kercher’s murder?

I initially thought that she must have, due to the bizarre way that Amanda acted in the hours and days following the crime, really making herself look guilty of something, even if just poor judgment in behavior following the savage killing of a friend that you lived with. There were reports of Amanda and her boyfriend laughing hysterically in the police station, they were shown buying lingerie together hours after being told of the killing, and were apparently not shy about making out in front of the TV cameras whenever they got the chance. I absolutely realize that any of these things, when taken on their own, just aren’t that big of a deal, but when viewed as a whole seem VERY different than how most people would probably tend to act after learning that someone you lived with was just butchered in the home that you all shared together.

As time went on, the physical evidence was flimsy at best, and in a few reports that I watched (20-20, 48 Hours, etc.) the (American) reporters took the VERY unusual step of declaring their personal opinions that she was indeed innocent, something I can’t ever remember in a similar investigative reporting show. For whatever reason, that really made me rethink my assumption that Amanda was involved.

That said, when she was initially questioned, Amanda was very quick to blame an innocent man, throwing someone who was later proven to not possibly be involved under the bus in an attempt to deflect blame away from herself, which is still VERY troubling to me; In my mind, a truly innocent person wouldn’t even think to try to sacrifice some random, innocent stranger in order to escape questioning. There were other things Amanda lied to the Italian police investigators about, which still makes me think that she might well have some level of involvement.

Finally, the victim’s family has heard all about the lack of conclusive DNA evidence and still think Amanda is guilty, and I would hope that if the DNA (or lack thereof) was actually so very conclusive that they would obviously want an innocent woman exonerated so that the real murderer could be sought and hopefully apprehended.

Was Amanda Knox involved in any way in the murder of Meredith Kercher?

2

I don’t know, I wasn’t there.

3

In what way was the DNA evidence conclusive? I don’t know much about this particular case, but it is possible for someone to commit all kinds of crimes without necessarily leaving DNA evidence.

4

I understand this completely, but I think that the lack of conclusive DNA is the main reason that so many are claiming that Amanda can’t possibly be involved and is merely a victim of circumstance.

5

I think lack of conclusive DNA is the main reason so many are saying she shouldn’t have been convicted. It doesn’t speak to her involvement at all, just a lack of reasonable evidence to base a conviction on.

6

I read a recent book on the case that convinced me that:

  1. she is completely innocent and has been railroaded, and,

  2. she is pretty much an idiot who inadvertently did everything she could to look bad

7

The real murderer *has *been caught and *is *in jail: he is a petty crook who had been convicted of other break-ins, and his DNA was all over the place, making this all the more Alfred Hitchcock movie-y.

8

Eve is spot-on. I see what’s going on with this case as an enormous CYA by the Italian court to make up for the abominable way the crime scene and evidence was handled. From what I’ve read, all the DNA found has been contaminated. The prosecution can’t even come up with a motive. I keep hoping for an acquittal as the evidence proving her guilt seems absent.

Bri2k

9

Also worth considering: prosecutor Mignini seems to have a history of dragging irrelevant people into his cases in pursuit of rather elaborate conspiracy theories. Read The Monster of Florence to get a taste of his…er…eccentric thinking. In that case, he took what were (regrettably) common serial murders and tried to turn them into a vast satanic cult conspiracy.

10

Since this is GQ. The factual answer is yes. She was convicted of murder in an Italian court. The results of the appeal will be known later this year.

11

The question was whether she was “involved” in it - not whether she was “convicted”

12

Are they restarting the investigation from (almost) scratch for the appeal?
If not, then I dont see how anyone’s gonna be able to tell what was the truth. The only difference will be in the judge and the jury (I assume it’s a judge+jury set for murder trials in Italy, correct me if I’m wrong).

ETA:I mean it’s an appeal right, not a re-trial (that is first trial considered null and whole process restarting from scratch)?

13

People can act very strange when under duress too, contrary to how they may have behaved before or what we’d judge to be appropriate. The laughter that you mention in the police station, that’s a frequently response for some, bizarre as it may seem. It’s not laughter in the sense that you and I know it but, instead, more of a nervous, coping mechanism.

14

I skimmed the wiki article about this, so I don’t know much, but it doesn’t seem to make sense. One guy is serving 16 years and had a story about attempting to fight off the “real” attacker (yet he didn’t call the police afterwards?). He’s charged with killing the roommate.

Knox and boyfriend are also charged with the crime.

What is the prosecutor’s case, that all three of them committed the crime together?

Maybe I need to go back and read the wiki, but it left me confused.

15

Moving to IMHO from GQ.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

16

I’ve always loved everything Italian but this case is making Italy feel to me a very “foreign” strange country.

17

From what I have seen, which is very limited, she looks not guilty by American standards. The prosecution’s case is very weak and based on making the jury hate her. Where is the physical evidence that she participated? The testimony of accomplices or witnesses? She had a roommate who was murdered. That may make it statistically likely that she had something to do with it, but it doesn’t even amount to circumstantial evidence.

18

You’re not the only one confused–the case makes no sense. They *have *the guy who did it, and he didn’t even know Amanda and her boyfriend. The whole “oh, well, they were playing sex games that got all stabby and, umm, this total stranger housebreaker was involved too . . .” theory is insane.

Problem is, lots of contaminated evidence, and a weak-minded defendant who both “confessed” and blamed an innocent *fourth *party.

19

It definitely is; I laughed nervously through my wedding vows, believe it or not.

20

Has anybody else watched the British detective series “Zen”? It’s about an Italian police detective who is famous for being honest in his work. This is apparently quite an anomaly in Italy where the justice system is rife with politics, conspiracies, and graft. The show may not be a true representation but it sure is a far cry from the police investigations in other western countries. After watching this series I could definitely believe someone wanted to save their tourism reputation by convicting a non-Italian or had some other secondary gain involved in how the case was investigated and prosecuted.