RSSFoxy Knoxy, Political Football or Slutty “She-Devil?” Part 2
Gene Lalor | December 12, 2009
Politics in general is said to make for strange bedfellows; international politics and antiquated judicial systems can be said to make for strange convictions.
As previously noted, I have no idea whether Amanda Knox 
was responsible for the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy on the night of November 1st, 2007.
I have my doubts that the jury that found her guilty and sentenced her to 26 years in prison had any better idea than I do.
I’ve also waited in vain for 2 weeks for the Italians to throw up their collective hands and admit that the trial and punishment meted out to Amanda Knox were the biggest farces since Galileo Galilei was found guilty of heresy by the Inquisition.
My reasons for that judgement:
. The Jury: Unlike SOP in American courts where jurors are sequestered while they deliberate, this Italian jury was sent on its merry way home. When deliberations were in progress, the presiding judge would be in attendance and their verdict need not have been a unanimous decision.
The purpose of sequestration, especially in major cases such as a very public murder trial, is to insure the jurors avoid external influences on their decision.
Newspapers and broadcast media throughout Europe had sensationalized this trial from the outset with blaring headlines and countless stories which convicted Knox and co-defendant Rafaelle Sollecito long before the presentation of any evidence.
The scandal-loving internet was awash with condemnation before, during and after the trial with bloggers dripping venom over this American “she-devil.”
Are we to believe the jurors went home, read no newspaper accounts, watched no television, read no internet tales depicting Knox as a young Amanda the Ripper, and heard no opinions on her guilt from their friends, neighbors, and families?
Let’s face it, people talk about gory murders, and the murder of Ms. Kercher was very gory. However, these jurors supposedly maintained their objectivity and arrived at their verdict based solely on the evidence and totally independent of any other viewpoints?
If you buy that, I have this nice, little Perugian bridge I’ll sell you for a pittance. It would have gone for a million or so lira in the old days and now you can own it for just a hundred euros.
The juror plot thickens even more when we consider they take breaks in the same bistros as journalists and attorneys and are permitted “to discuss the case and follow press coverage” (http://bit.ly/IpPjg) as well as watch lurid TV features.
. The Evidence: Whether it’s true or not that an American grand jury could be persuaded by the prosecution to indict a ham sandwich, based on the evidence and by our standards of jurisprudence the Knox case would have been laughed out of any American grand jury room.
The evidence against Knox was entirely circumstantial and was gathered by local cops obviously unfamiliar with proper methods of preserving the integrity of a crime scene.
. A critical piece of evidence, the metal clasp of Kercher’s bra containing a minuscule amount of Sollecito’s DNA, wasn’t discovered until 7 weeks after the initial investigation.
. Key to the prosecution’s case, the knife Knox was said to have used to slit Kercher’s throat, was shown by defense experts to be a joke; it didn’t fit the wounds she sustained.
. Then there’s Knox’ contradictory “confession,” her demeanor and actions 
which the prosecution contended demonstrated guilt instead of what is more probable, her confusion after a night of wild sex and pot-partying with Sollecito.
The Judge and the Prosecutor: 
The author of that ham sandwich line, disgraced former Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals in New York State, Sol Wachtler, would have made Knox’ judge look good in comparison.
Judicial misconduct, in a country famous for judicial misconduct and corruption, began shortly after the crime occurred when the jury pool was tainted by Italian jurists.
With no substantive proof, ”A panel of judges . . . said [Knox] should stay in police custody because evidence suggested she had a ‘fatal capacity for aggression,’ as well as ridden with ‘multiple personalities:’ http://bit.ly/4QedUQ
Not to be outdone, Presiding Judge Giancarlo Massei dismissed all defense motions objecting to flaws in the gathering of forensics and failure to furnish said forensics to the defense in a timely manner and referred to Knox in court as “a little she-devil.”
Head Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini isn’t a judge and Amanda Knox isn’t a child although she was damned close at age 20 when she allegedly committed horrendous crimes. Lawsuit-happy Mignini is suing over allegations that’s he’s a nutcase http://bit.ly/4uL4yR and he himself is facing possible imprisonment for misdeeds.
The Motive: The prosecution was all over the field on motive: Money? Sex game gone bad? Fury over Kercher’s refusal to join an orgy? Revenge for some slight? Hatred over Kercher’s alleged criticism of her hygiene and promiscuity? Drug-induced madness? Or just Foxy Knoxy’s agressive, “multiple personalities?”
Point is, the prosecution had no clue as to why Kercher was murdered–or who did it.
Is Amanda Knox, “Foxy Knoxy,” that “she-devil,” responsible for the brutal rape and murder of Meredith Kercher?
Her prosecutor and a jury of her supposed peers evidently thought so despite the non-sequestration of those jurors, despite the tainted evidence against her, and despite the fact the prosecutor had as much integrity as the old Italian lira.
The Politics: This may be the crux of the unfair trial of Amanda Knox.
Before her trial began, Ivory Coaster Rudy Guede had already confessed to the crime and had been convicted and sentenced to 30 years. Why then even continue to pursue Knox and Sollecito?
Politics, pure politics and the opportunity for Mignini and Massei to gain some notoriety.
Everything about this trial was bizarre and “alien,” from the juror collusion with the press to the scant and misrepresented evidence to the vindictive prosecutor and the biased judge to the motive that was never established.
In a sneering swipe at Americans and Knox, the London TimesOnline, made light of the widely-held view that “Amanda Knox was a victim of anti-Americanism and an antiquated justice system” and “an obvious victim of Old Europe corruption:” http://bit.ly/8vcEHd.
Truer words were never printed.
Contributor's website: http://www.genelalor.com/
Content posted by users from other sites is posted for commentary and news purposes under fair use and each author is responsible for their own postings and a particular posting should not be construed as being endorsed by this site or its owner.
Leave a Reply
Loading ...Recommended Reading:
