It's over, not officially of course, but it's over none the less. The prosecution's case against Amanda Knox has crashed as the court appointed DNA experts have turned in a 144 page report which completely destroys the the so-called 'evidence' against Knox. The DNA was the last foothold for the prosecution and they lost big-time on that one. The experts Carla Vecchiotti and Stefano Conti have stated that the DNA testing of the knife and bra clasp was "unreliable" and possibly the result of contamination. They further stated that the investigators/police handling of the evidence was not acceptable, and that the testing of the low copy number DNA did not meet minimum international standards. The DNA could not be retested because there was nothing to test so, as ordered by the court, the experts turned their attention to the collection of evidence and the DNA testing procedures.
For anyone wanting more information on the expert's report just google it- it's all over the news.
Amanda Knox has unofficially won her appeal with the long awaited DNA report. There is now zero evidence against her, and all that is left is some expected fussing from the prosecution. People everywhere should now ask themselves how the wrongful conviction of Amanda Knox could have happened in the first place, and what should be done about it. Yet all of that is best left till after Amanda and Raffaele' are free. I think at this point in time, with Amanda being clearly innocent, the court should have her placed under 'house arrest' in Perugia, rather than continuing in prison, until the appeal is over. The same should go for Raffaele. And why not? They are at this point clearly innocent with nothing to merit a continued stay in prison. They have been locked up for over 3 and a half years and are clearly innocent- enough is enough. What I am suggesting is nothing special. Prosecutor Mignini himself is out walking around a free man while waiting for his own appeal after he was convicted of abusing his office and bugging the phones of journalists. I think it is time to show some compassion to these two victims of a crass rush to judgement from the original trial. Of course the prosecution could object to their release from prison but they could not do so for any rational reasons. Like I said, Mignini himself is out walking around, and I find him a much more dangerous person than Amanda Knox. Just an idea. In any case (unofficially of course) it's over- and the good guys win.
5 comments:
So now there are those who say DNA evidence is only a part of the "big package" and that contradictory statements by the two defendants are more significant. (I don't know for what, certainly not for murder, perhaps obstruction of justice if true.)
This brings me to say that I at first underestimated the extent of "misinformation" that is out there. There is misinformation in the form of "big" claims which are slowly being struck down, this I knew. But there is also a more subtly dishonest and insidious type, usually "analyses" that seem carefully done, but the little unsuspected details that are critical never seem to check out. This points at best to sloppiness or at worst to intention to sow confusion and doubt.
For example I at one point read a fairly long analysis that portrays Amanda and Raffaele as "lying" in their descriptions of sequences of events based on how the Postal Police arrived at a different time than the two claimed and how they didn't pick up phone calls at suspicious times, etc. These seemed well argued. (Of course the author then goes on to give his fantasy of what "really" happened that to him is more plausible.) Until I went to fact-check in the motivation report where it showed the Postal Police arrived pretty much when our defendants said they did, not when the author says (surprise, surprise) and they did indeed pick up their phone calls, rather than were busily staging a "break-in." (surprise again, not)
It just gets to the point where, if people don't want to have an honest discussion (much like the prosecution in the first trial), then it gets frustrating even to entertain their arguments. I don't like to not hear what others have to say but there is not much choice.
That has always been the big problem with this case- misinformation and outright lies. Awhile back anyone looking for the truth had to sift through tons of information- much of it published to mislead. The main culprit was the prosecution before and during the original trial- leaking misinformation to the press. Then there were the hate groups who (if they knew better or not) continued to spread the lies and misinformation around like it was straight from the Bible- so no wonder many people were confused. But that was then and this is now and there is no stopping Amanda Knox from winning this appeal. Thanks to Judge Hellmann the truth has entered the courtroom. And as for the so-called 'motivation report' it was nothing more than outright nonsense- that report also had a lot of people confused. Thanks for commenting.
Very heartening news. I very much hope you are right and their acquital is only a matter of time.
Reasonable people here in the UK who have kept up with this case are disgusted with the endless character assassination, baseless speculation and contempt for due process that was carried on by the media in the UK and elsewhere, particularly in the early stages of the case. This problem seems to get worse in the UK every year, and has been evident in so many cases apart from Miss Knox's.
I hope the Knox and Sollecito families will be able to rebuild their lives after the nightmare of the last few years.
Sorry - and the Kercher family of course.
It was a cruel blow to everyone concerned but once this is over I think there will at least be closure to this nightmare. The saddest part is of course that Meredith is still gone but at least two other lives were salvaged. Heartbreaking all the way around. Thanks for commenting.
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