Amanda Knox

Italian lawmakers say Knox treated unfairly
(The Associated Press, May 26, 2011)

ROME — Some Italian lawmakers claim Amanda Knox was treated unfairly and are seeking a probe of the prosecutors’ office in Perugia, the city where the American student was convicted of murdering her British roommate.

The request to the Italian justice minister Thursday is spearheaded by a lawmaker who has frequently visited Knox in prison and written a positive book about her. The lawmaker also sent a letter to the Italian president seeking his intervention to avert any controversies arising from the case.

Both the petition and the letter cast doubt on the prosecution’s case, alleging that an appeals trial currently under way has undermined the reliability of evidence originally collected against the former exchange student from Seattle, Washington. They also maintain that Knox, who has been in jail since before her conviction, should not have been kept behind bars.

“These distortions, not without reason, are fueling accusations against the administration of justice in our country,” lawmaker Rocco Girlanda said in the letter, which was given to The Associated Press.

The petition to Justice Minister Angelino Alfano was signed by 11 lawmakers, all members of Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition. It asks Alfano to consider sending inspectors to judicial offices in Perugia — a move that is considered very serious in Italy and is typically read as a sign of discontent from Rome.

There was no immediate response from authorities.

Girlanda is an ally of Berlusconi, who has vehemently attacked Italian magistrates and is seeking to reform the system to limit their powers. Girlanda also heads a foundation that seeks to promote ties between Italy and the United States, and has established what he says is a close friendship with the 23-year-old American.

Knox was arrested on Nov. 6, 2007, four days after the body of her roommate Meredith Kercher was found in the apartment the two shared as foreign students in Perugia. The 21-year-old Kercher was stabbed to death.

Also arrested was Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian who was Knox’s boyfriend at the time of the slaying. Both were convicted of sexual assault and murder in 2009. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito to 25.

The two have always denied wrongdoing.

“Who will compensate two 20 year olds — in the hoped-for case that the appellate trial recognizes their innocence — of the four years of life and freedom that they have been unjustly deprived of?” said Girlanda. “The so-called evidence and testimonies of the prosecution have proved to be at best considered contradictory and unreliable.”

In Italy, many sentences are not served until all levels of appeals are exhausted. However, it is not unusual for defendants to be kept behind bars if they are considered a flight risk, or they might tamper with evidence or repeat a crime. Legal experts say that in murder cases, defendants are often kept under custody during trial.

Knox’s appeals court trial has reviewed some of the claims and witnesses of the first trial, but also admitted some new testimony sought by the defense. The appeals court has granted the defense’s request for a review of forensic evidence, including DNA traces.

The lawmakers’ petition claims the first trial was effectively limited only to the prosecution’s “questionable case” and that the defendants were denied their right to a full defense. The prosecution has denied suggestions of an unfair trial.

The appeals trial continues next month. A verdict is expected after the summer.

Girlanda is an ally of Berlusconi, who has vehemently attacked Italian magistrates and is seeking to reform the system to limit their powers. Girlanda also heads a foundation that seeks to promote ties between Italy and the United States, and has established what he says is a close friendship with the 23-year-old American.

They also maintain that Knox, who has been in jail since before her conviction, should not have been kept behind bars.

In Italy, many sentences are not served until all levels of appeals are exhausted. However, it is not unusual for defendants to be kept behind bars if they are considered a flight risk, or they might tamper with evidence or repeat a crime. Legal experts say that in murder cases, defendants are often kept under custody during trial.

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Girlanda is an ally of Berlusconi, who has vehemently attacked Italian magistrates and is seeking to reform the system to limit their powers. Girlanda also heads a foundation that seeks to promote ties between Italy and the United States, and has established what he says is a close friendship with the 23-year-old American.

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They also maintain that Knox, who has been in jail since before her conviction, should not have been kept behind bars.

Quote:

In Italy, many sentences are not served until all levels of appeals are exhausted. However, it is not unusual for defendants to be kept behind bars if they are considered a flight risk, or they might tamper with evidence or repeat a crime. Legal experts say that in murder cases, defendants are often kept under custody during trial.

Seattle judge wants State Department probed over Amanda Knox case
(Seattle KOMO-TV News, June 10, 2011)

A local judge has sent a letter to President Obama, accusing the U.S. State Department of failure to protect the rights of Seattle student Amanda Knox since her 2007 arrest in Italy after her roommate's killing.

The letter, written by King County Superior Court Judge Michael Heavey in his capacity as a private citizen, also calls on Obama to launch an executive inquiry into the State Department's entire handling of the Knox case.

Knox was arrested in November 2007, four days after the body of her roommate Meredith Kercher was found in the apartment the two shared as foreign students in Perugia. The 21-year-old Kercher was stabbed to death.

Also arrested was Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian who was Knox's boyfriend at the time of the slaying. Both were convicted of sexual assault and murder in 2009. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito to 25.

Knox and Sollecito have always denied any wrongdoing.

This isn't the first time Heavy has injected himself in this case far from his jurisdiction. He is from West Seattle, Knox's neighborhood. One of his daughters was a classmate of Knox's at Seattle Prep.

He declared her "100 percent innocent" in a speech in April to a Bellevue Rotary Club.

A year ago, he got in trouble with the state's Judicial Conduct Commission for sending letters to three Italian judicial officials on Knox's behalf.

The commission accused Heavy of having sent the letters on official stationery while using court staff to type them. Heavey was also accused of speaking publicly on the case in an attempt to influence the proceedings.

The commission ultimately found that Heavey violated ethical rules by lending the prestige of his office to advance a private interest. The commission filed an admonishment against Heavey, essentially telling the judge not to engage in similar conduct in the future.

In a statement issued following commission's decision, Heavey apologized for using his office to aid Knox while continuing to advocate for her.

Heavey's letter to Obama cites seven violations of Knox's rights under Italian law that he says "should have set off alarms at the Embassy in Rome" since the earliest days of her arrest and incarceration.

Yet Heavey says consular officials did nothing. The seven violations, according to Heavey:

• Knox was arrested at about 5:45 a.m. after an all-night interrogation by a dozen police officers who operated in "tag-team rotation" and refused to allow Knox to get any sleep all night. The police and prosecutor then espoused a theory about a drug-fueled sex orgy gone wrong that was never supported by any evidence, Heavey says.

• Knox was denied a lawyer after she was detained, even though Italian law says a detainee is entitled to legal counsel and Knox specifically requested one.

• Italian law requires audio or video recordings to be made of all interrogations in any criminal case, yet the interrogation of Knox was not recorded. "This violation of Italian law should have set off alarm bells with consular officials," Heavey wrote.

• The Italian constitution requires an interpreter to be provided to suspects if they are not fluent in the Italian language. Amanda spoke little Italian at the time, yet was not allowed to have an interpreter, according to Heavey.

• Giuliano Mignini, the Italian prosecutor, was under investigation for abuse of office stemming from a previous murder trial when he took over the Kercher case. Yet U.S. consular officials raised no objections, says Heavey.

• In a preliminary hearing before Knox's trial, Mignini said the crime "was a sexual and sacrificial ritual in accordance with the rites of Halloween" - a groundless conjecture that equated Knox with being a witch, Heavey writes.

• The local Italian police repeatedly fed "false leaks" to the press that had no basis in fact, in violation of Italian law.

Heavey wrote to Obama that the "profoundly unjust process" has had a detrimental effect on U.S.-Italian relations.

He also points out that the maltreatment of Knox since her arrest has compelled protests from many people who have no personal stake in the case.

"Yet, our State Department, at home and abroad, knew nothing and did nothing," Heavey wrote. "The ongoing neglect of American consular officials in Rome to address this injustice sends a high-profile message - our government officials are too busy taking care of business to take care of our people."

"Mr. President ... I plead for your attention to this matter."

Heavey's request for a State Department probe comes just three weeks after a group of 11 Italian lawmakers called on the Italian justice minister to investigate the prosecutor's office in Perugia and its handling of the Kercher murder case.

A local judge has sent a letter to President Obama, accusing the U.S. State Department of failure to protect the rights of Seattle student Amanda Knox since her 2007 arrest in Italy after her roommate's killing.

The letter, written by King County Superior Court Judge Michael Heavey in his capacity as a private citizen, also calls on Obama to launch an executive inquiry into the State Department's entire handling of the Knox case.

...

This isn't the first time Heavy has injected himself in this case far from his jurisdiction. He is from West Seattle, Knox's neighborhood. One of his daughters was a classmate of Knox's at Seattle Prep.

He declared her "100 percent innocent" in a speech in April to a Bellevue Rotary Club.

Completely unseemly for a sitting judge to be doing. He should be removed from his position.

I wonder if the US government could be persuaded to set up death squads

During this evidence, somebody else (other that Guede) has been fingered for the crime...by his brother.

Having seen her in court again, I think she'll walk this time.

Guede left his DNA on the purse that the victim's money was stolen from.

Guede had a history of breaking in through windows (alone, without a partner), and he always carried a big knife during his breakins.

The MO of at least one of Guede's previous breakins exactly matches the breakin that occurred here.

One way or another. If necessary we'll have the military shoot up Italy (and hopefully cause a lot of collateral damage) in order to break her out.

The really cool thing though is, you guys' efforts to frame innocent people got Guede's sentence slashed from "LIFE modified to 30 years" to "24 years modified to 16 years".

With good behavior, he is up for day-release parole after half his sentence, and full release after 3/4 his sentence.

And with the more than three years he's already served, he is less than five years away from day-release parole.

When he gets out I'm going to buy him a BIG bowie knife.

Probably too much to expect for him to end up at Stephanie Kercher's doorstep, but considering the extreme brutality of what he did to Meredith (she was raped after her throat was cut, then locked in her room without her phones to bleed to death while he went dancing), Guede will inflict some amazing horrors on the Italians if he gets his hands on the right sort of knife.

i hope that ms knox is found not guilty

i hope that someone charters her a private flight home

i hope the plane crashes right into a building hosting the oralloy family reunion killing everyone in the plane and on the ground

i hope the plane crashes right into a building hosting the oralloy family reunion killing everyone in the plane and on the ground

boy, being a sick **** is fun, isn't it

I've been hoping for some while that another prisoner kills Amanda Knox purely because then Oralloy might shut the f u c k up.

1-It’s not proven that the trace was blood.

2-It was a Low Copy Number and it should have been treated according to the recommendations indicated by the scientific community.

3-Because the operating standards indicated by the scientific community haven’t been followed the profile can’t be attributed to Meredith Kercher.

4-The collecting, the handling and the recording of the exhibit didn’t follow the international protocols.

5-It can’t be ruled out that the profile of the trace B may result from a contamination occurred in any phase: collecting, manipulating or during the analysis.

The results obtained are NOT RELIABLE for the following reasons:

1-Not proven the presence of cells on the exhibit.

2-The electroforetic curve of the autosomic STRs [the DNA profile, partially attributed to Raffaele Sollecito], was wrongly attributed.

3-The electroforetic curve of the Y-chromosome [attributed to Raffaele Sollecito] was wrongly attributed.

4-The international procedures for inspection, collecting and recording of the exhibit haven’t been followed.

5-It can’t be ruled out that the result may come from phenomenons of contamination occurred in any phase: collecting, manipulating or during the analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the considerations explained above, we are able to respond as follows to the inquiries posed at the assignment hearing:

"Having examined the record and conducted such technical investigations as shall be necessary, the Expert Panel shall ascertain:

1. whether it is possible, by means of a new technical analysis, to identify the DNA present on items 165b (bra clasp) and 36 (knife), and to determine the reliability of any such identification"

- The tests that we conducted to determine the presence of blood on item 36 (knife) and item 165B (bra clasps) yielded a negative result.

- The cytomorphological tests on the items did not reveal the presence of cellular material. Some samples of item 36 (knife), in particular sample "H", present granules with a circular/hexagonal characteristic morphology with a cental radial structure. A more detailed microscopic study, together with the consultation of data in the literature, allowed us to ascertain that the structures in question are attributable to granules of starch, thus matter of a vegetable nature.

- The quantification of the extracts obtained from the samples obtained from item 36 (knife) and item 165B (bra clasps), conducted via Real Time PCR, did not reveal the presence of DNA.

- In view of the absence of DNA in the extracts that we obtained, with the agreement of the consultants for the parties, we did not proceed to the subsequent amplification step.

2. "if it is not possible to carry out a new technical analysis, shall evaluate, on the basis of the record, the degree of reliability of the genetic analysis performed by the Scientific Police on the aforementioned items, including with respect to possible contamination."

Having examined the record and the relevant documents, we are able to report the following conclusions regarding the laboratory analyses performed on Item 36 (knife) and Item 165B (bra clasps):

ITEM 36 (KNIFE)

Relative to the genetic analysis performed on trace A (handle of the knife), we agree with the conclusion reached by the Technical Consultant regarding the attribution of the genetic profile obtained from these samples to Amanda Marie Knox.

Relative to trace B (blade of the knife) we find that the technical analyses performed are not reliable for the following reasons:

1. There does not exist evidence which scientifically confirms that trace B (blade of knife) is the product of blood.

2. The electrophoretic profiles exhibited reveal that the sample indicated by the letter B (blade of knife) was a Low Copy Number (LCN) sample, and, as such, all of the precautions indicated by the international scientific community should have been applied.

3. Taking into account that none of the recommendations of the international scientific community relative to the treatment of Low Copy Number (LCN) samples were followed, we do not accept the conclusions regarding the certain attribution of the profile found on trace B (blade of knife) to the victim Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher, since the genetic profile, as obtained, appears unreliable insofar as it is not supported by scientifically validated analysis;

4. International protocols of inspection, collection, and sampling were not followed;

5. It cannot be ruled out that the result obtained from sample B (blade of knife) derives from contamination in some phase of the collection and/or handling and/or analyses performed.


ITEM 165B (BRA CLASPS)

Relative to Item 165B (bra clasps), we find that the technical analysis is not reliable for the following reasons:

1. There does not exist evidence which scientifically confirms the presence of supposed flaking cells on the item;

2. There was an erroneous interpretation of the electrophoretic profile of the autosomic STRs;

3. There was an erroneous interpretation of the electrophoretic profile relative to the Y chromosome;

4. The international protocols for inspection, collection, and sampling of the item were not followed;

5. It cannot be ruled out that the results obtained derive from environmental contamination and/or contamination in some phase of the collection and/or handling of the item.

THE EXPERTS

Prof. Carla Vecchiotti

Prof. Stefano Conti