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Posted

I'm astounded that she was convicted. It seems to me that the only thing she did to incriminate herself was act strange during her interrogation. I'm seeing more fault within Italty's infrastructure more and more.

Posted

I don't know enough of the details of the case to make a substantial comment,but I was genuinely shocked and surprised to hear the verdict.

What I do know of it tells me that something needs to be addressed in the Italian justice(?) system,and for better or worse,I don't think it would've had the same outcome in the U.S.

Posted

You're astounded that Amanda Knox was convicted?

She initally implicated an innocent man as the killer. Her DNA was on the murder weapon handle; the victim's on the blade. It was found at Sollecito's house. Sollecito's DNA was on Meredith Kercher's bra. Though it couldn't be proven 100%, a bloody footprint found near her body was believed to be his. Knox changed her alibi upteen times. Neither Knox nor Sollecito could prove they were at his house, as claimed. And despite claiming he spent the night on his computer, police found no activity on it during the hours in which Meredith was murdered. The window was broken from the inside, to imply a robbery had taken place. The only other person that they verified as being in the house with Meredith was also convicted of her murder. They say he killed her. He says she killed her.

I could go on.

I'm astounded that people could think that she was innocent. Even if she didn't kill her, she was in no way innocent, and acting oddly was the least of it. All three of them deserve what they get.

Linkage

Posted (edited)

by ALLEN SCHAUFFLER / KING 5 News and KING5.com Staff

Posted on December 4, 2009 at 3:05 PM

Updated yesterday at 5:19 PM

SEATTLE - Relatives and friends of Amanda Knox in West Seattle put their heads in their hands and cried when they heard the news that Knox was found guilty in the murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher.

Knox's loved ones were gathered at the home of Janet and Mick Huff, Knox's aunt and uncle.

"Oh God, no," Mick cried when the verdict was announced.

"They didn't listen to the facts of the case. All they did was listen to the media… lies that were put out there," said Janet Huff.

"It's like my heart fell into my stomach. That's where I'm at now. I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight," said Elisabeth Huff, Knox's grandmother.

"She is innocent and I think that a lot of people know that. I just don't think that the people that had the decision to make had the courage to make it," said Janet. "I think that they were scared, that they were intimidated because this person who's doing the prosecuting has put other people in jail for no reason and they're afraid. They're afraid of him."

Knox -- a 22-year-old former University of Washington student -- and her one-time boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were both convicted of the 2007 slaying of Kercher. All three were studying in Perugia in Italy's central Umbria region at the time.

"I am sure (Amanda) is in tears. She's crushed, but she's going to be concerned about how the rest of us are taking it," said Janet. "She'll be more worried about her grandmother than anything else."

Knox was given 26 years in prison. Sollecito received 25 years. They must also pay 5 million euros to Kercher's family – about $7.4 million U.S. Their attorneys plan to appeal.

When asked if she has any faith in the appeals process, Janet replied "that's all we have now."

"Perugians had a chance to admit their mistake and they did not. They chose to ignore it, and it's not going to get swept under the rug. It's going to become worse now. This is going to be even more embarrassing because she is going to be acquitted eventually," said friend D.J. Johnsrud.

Janet hopes the U.S. government will step in.

"They've made promises that, if it comes to this, that they'll get involved and I'm hoping to God they'll keep to their promises now.

Some family members say they may move to Italy to be closer to Amanda and to prepare for the appeal.

king5.com/news/local/Family-of-Amanda-Knox-anxiously-awaits-verdict-78558052.html

Edited by eternal light
Posted

You're astounded that Amanda Knox was convicted?

She initally implicated an innocent man as the killer. Her DNA was on the murder weapon handle; the victim's on the blade. It was found at Sollecito's house. Sollecito's DNA was on Meredith Kercher's bra. Though it couldn't be proven 100%, a bloody footprint found near her body was believed to be his. Knox changed her alibi upteen times. Neither Knox nor Sollecito could prove they were at his house, as claimed. And despite claiming he spent the night on his computer, police found no activity on it during the hours in which Meredith was murdered. The window was broken from the inside, to imply a robbery had taken place. The only other person that they verified as being in the house with Meredith was also convicted of her murder. They say he killed her. He says she killed her.

I could go on.

I'm astounded that people could think that she was innocent. Even if she didn't kill her, she was in no way innocent, and acting oddly was the least of it. All three of them deserve what they get.

Linkage

This is basically everything I've heard/read about this case. If you're an accomplice to a crime, whether you've physically committed any acts is irrelevant. If she didn't kill Meredith Kercher, but stood idly by while the other person DID, and she didn't make any attempts to stop him, call the police.....anything at all to save her life, she's a murderer just the same. The same as if you and a buddy drive down to the liquor store and while you're sitting in the car, he holds the place up and jumps in the car and tells you to speed away - the minute you drive away, you're now the getaway driver in an armed robbery. It doesn't matter if you didn't know what your buddy's intentions were before he got out of the car.

She deserves to sit in prison. If she or her family doesn't like that, maybe she shouldn't have been complicit in someone's murder.

Posted

This is basically everything I've heard/read about this case. If you're an accomplice to a crime, whether you've physically committed any acts is irrelevant. If she didn't kill Meredith Kercher, but stood idly by while the other person DID, and she didn't make any attempts to stop him, call the police.....anything at all to save her life, she's a murderer just the same. The same as if you and a buddy drive down to the liquor store and while you're sitting in the car, he holds the place up and jumps in the car and tells you to speed away - the minute you drive away, you're now the getaway driver in an armed robbery. It doesn't matter if you didn't know what your buddy's intentions were before he got out of the car.

She deserves to sit in prison. If she or her family doesn't like that, maybe she shouldn't have been complicit in someone's murder.

That's exactly it.

I get that her family want to believe that she's innocent - no parent wants to believe that their child is capable of murder - but the evidence was against her. There wasn't much to prove any of them were innocent, and too much of it to suggest that they weren't. If she didn't do it, she let it happen, and if she tried to stop it, she still tried to cover it up. A crime that heinous sickens you. It shouldn't give cause to support the perpetrator and/or hide the evidence.

Posted

That's exactly it.

I get that her family want to believe that she's innocent - no parent wants to believe that their child is capable of murder - but the evidence was against her. There wasn't much to prove any of them were innocent, and too much of it to suggest that they weren't. If she didn't do it, she let it happen, and if she tried to stop it, she still tried to cover it up. A crime that heinous sickens you. It shouldn't give cause to support the perpetrator and/or hide the evidence.

Hi LDW, BTW great to see you posting again,

Could you please direct me to any credible source where i can see the evidence that the prosecution used against her because at the moment i havent found any on the internet?

Kind Regards, Danny

Posted

Hi LDW, BTW great to see you posting again,

Could you please direct me to any credible source where i can see the evidence that the prosecution used against her because at the moment i havent found any on the internet?

Kind Regards, Danny

Hey, Dan.

Here's the BBC link that I read from Linky-poo

There's also the Independant article on the prosecution, too.

Independant

Hope that helps you.

Posted (edited)

Hey, Dan.

Here's the BBC link that I read from Linky-poo

There's also the Independant article on the prosecution, too.

Independant

Hope that helps you.

Hi LDW,

Thank you very much, just what i wanted to see, much oblijed. :beer:

Kind Regards, Danny

PS, seems a lie detector might be in order, for all of those involved, Mr Kyle where are you?

Edited by BIGDAN
Posted (edited)

Watching televised reports last night, one alleged witness to the trial said that she observed members of the jury sleeping during defense testimony.

Another person stated that some of the evidence against Amanda Knox was reported falsely, that she was not an enemy of the victim, but rather they were friends who got along well with one another.

Another person claimed that the prosecutor had made serious errors in pursuing the case, and made false allegations against Amanda Knox to preserve his career and save face.

All of that was on the televised news last night.

by LINDA BYRON / KING 5 News

Posted on December 5, 2009 at 5:37 PM

Updated today at 5:39 PM

PERUGIA, Italy - Amanda Knox's family had been hoping to bring her from Perugia to Seattle in time to celebrate Christmas. They were stunned by her conviction, but within hours had moved from sadness to anger, and were planning her appeal.

"This is a travesty of justice, and it needs to get fixed," said Amanda's father, Curt Knox.

"We had to kind of yell that we love her, and we could hear her when she left the door, literally break down," he said.

The Saturday headlines across Italy screamed out the news. Amanda Knox, guilty, condemned to spend 27 years locked behind bars.

Judgment day was harsh and swift. The jury spent just one day deliberating in a case that began with Amanda's arrest more than two years ago.

It was not the news the family was ready to hear.

"They didn't have the courage. They failed their legal system," said Curt Knox.

"We just lost it and we just broke down because we saw her crying and it just broke our hearts," said Amanda's 11-year-old sister, Delaney.

Mixed reaction as prison vans raced through the crowded streets. some onlookers cried; others yelled "assassin."

The shell-shocked Knox family fled through the streets of historic Perugia, pursued by relentless cameras.

But within hours they were at the Capanne prison, telling their daughter their plans for an appeal, encouraged that the jury didn't deliver the life sentence prosecutors were asking for, and by signs of political pressure at home.

"We will find a way," said Curt Knox. "She's not going to be left here alone. I mean it's just not going to happen and we'll do whatever it takes to bring her home."

The defense team is now waiting for the jury motivations. These are the explanations of how they reached their decision. But the Knox family has been warned it could be next September before the official appeals process would begin. By then Amanda would have been in prison for nearly three years.

www.king5.com/news/local/Knox-family-78612487.html

Edited by eternal light
Posted (edited)

That's exactly it.

I get that her family want to believe that she's innocent - no parent wants to believe that their child is capable of murder - but the evidence was against her. There wasn't much to prove any of them were innocent, and too much of it to suggest that they weren't. If she didn't do it, she let it happen, and if she tried to stop it, she still tried to cover it up. A crime that heinous sickens you. It shouldn't give cause to support the perpetrator and/or hide the evidence.

I would question whether the evidence was tainted before I rushed to judgement, even if I didn't like Americans.

The issue here is whether an American like Amanda Knox can receive an unbiased trial in that kind of court where the evidence is questionable and people are so interested in summary judgement. Let's face it, they don't like her because she is an American.

Relatives, friends say Knox was 'railroaded from day one'

Saturday, December 5, 2009 9:52 AM PST

By Sara Jean Green and Craig WelchThe Seattle Times

Amanda Knox's grandmother and a handful of Knox's closest friends crowded into Mick and Janet Huff's tiny living room in West Seattle, where the TV was tuned to CNN.

Knox's grandmother perched on a corner of the couch, and a foursome of college friends — who'd lived in the same dorm with Knox as freshmen at the University of Washington — took up positions in front of the TV.

Also invited were at least a dozen members of the media, who — outnumbering the family and friends — were there to catch the reactions of Knox's loved ones when they heard the jury's verdict.

As the clock atop the piano inched closer to 3 p.m. Friday, the Huffs — Knox's maternal uncle and aunt — and grandmother Elisabeth Huff grew increasingly tense, fidgeting and hugging Knox's friends.

Then, at 3:10 p.m., the room suddenly quieted as a CNN correspondent delivered the news they'd all been dreading: Guilty on all counts.

"Oh God, no," Mick Huff said.

The family was prepared for the worst. Italian acquaintances, they said, had warned them that no one is ever acquitted at trial. But the news still came like a body blow.

Elisabeth Huff's head drooped as she fought unsuccessfully to hold back tears. Janet Huff gasped and clamped a hand to her mouth.

Then the phone rang — and kept ringing — as friends and supporters called to talk with the family.

"I'm just stunned. It's like being clobbered over the head," said Elisabeth Huff. "... She's been railroaded from day one."

Said Janet Huff: "I'm sure she's in tears, crushed. But she'll be more concerned about how the rest of us are taking it."

Knox's friends quickly moved into the kitchen to console each other, away from the crush of journalists.

"It's definitely shocking, but our support of her is unwavering," 22-year-old Alexandra McDougall, a UW senior, said as she leaned against the kitchen sink. "She's not the first innocent person behind bars, and she won't be the last, unfortunately. We're not going to stop fighting till we get to bring her home."

Knox's family and friends are pinning hopes on an appeal to overturn both her criminal and related civil convictions, a process that could take two years.

In Perugia, not a visiting day has gone by without someone seeing Knox at the jail. Every family member has made at least one trip, her aunt and uncle said.

Now, relatives are discussing plans for at least some family members to move to Italy while the appeal process plays out. A cousin from Germany donated a clunker of a car, and relatives are already looking for jobs and an apartment, Janet Huff said.

"It's an absolute necessity that someone is there at all times," she said. "... The only alternative is to leave her there alone, and that's not an option."

Other friends, too, grappled with what to expect next.

Brett Lither, who met Knox in grade school, visited her in jail. If Lither found the money, "I'd go there for as long as it took," she said. "This girl has no business being in prison."

In the University District, Richard Kirsten, who owns an art gallery where Knox once worked, had convinced himself she'd be set free.

He heard the news on the radio and "totally broke down," he said by phone. "I had to leave the building. There were customers."

Hours later, Kirsten felt helpless. He recalled the day weeks earlier when Knox's mother had come by.

"She was hurting, and we all just said it's going to be OK," Kirsten said. "And now it's not, and I don't know what to do."

tdn.com/articles/2009/12/05/breaking_news/doc4b1a9c98a67c2353963454.txt

Edited by eternal light
Posted (edited)

...apparently agreeing with the rest of the world about Americans.

And that hardly guarantees that her trial was unbiased.

So if you don't like Americans that makes it okay to provide a false witness in a murder case? That is the allegation against the prosecutor in this case. So it doesn't matter if she is innocent, only that the world doesn't like Americans so that makes it okay for them to be biased.

But if there is an Italian on trial in the United States, they can expect a defense that will protect them from bias, even in a murder trial.

We have rules of evidence in the United State that allow us to disregard tainted evidence, and prevent malicious prosecution. I question whether Italian jurisprudence meets American standards of quality.

And you all from England and Canada can expect to have your rights protected by the defense in the United States because in the United States you have a right to a fair trial, thanks to our founding fathers who had already witnessed plenty of miscarriages of justice before they fled Europe for America.

Edited by eternal light
Posted (edited)

I would question whether the evidence was tainted before I rushed to judgement, even if I didn't like Americans.

The issue here is whether an American like Amanda Knox can receive an unbiased trial in that kind of court where the evidence is questionable and people are so interested in summary judgement. Let's face it, they don't like her because she is an American.

I'm sorry?

Firstly, I never suggested that there was a particular bias with regards to nationalities. Secondly, you think the court and jury sentenced Knox because she was American? I guess it's irrelevant that the two other's sentenced were Italian and from the Ivory Coast... Knox gained notoriety because she's pretty, couldn't keep her mouth shut, and acted irrational throughout. And she was guilty. Her being American had no more relevancy than it did for Kercher being British. She committed a crime. Aside from that glaring biased report with an 'alleged' witness, how exactly was the case biased against Knox? Because she got sent down? Because American's can't commit crimes, but Italians and Ivory Coast nationals can? There was enough to suggest all three were implicated in Kercher's murder. Like I said earlier, even if she did not kill her, she stil did enough to cover it up. You don't do that if you're innocent.

Believe it or not, the whole world isn't out to get you because you're American. For some of us, you're not that important.

Edited by longdistancewinner
Posted (edited)

I'm sorry?

Firstly, I never suggested that there was a particular bias with regards to nationalities. Secondly, you think the court and jury sentenced Knox because she was American? I guess it's irrelevant that the two other's sentenced were Italian and from the Ivory Coast... Knox gained notoriety because she's pretty, couldn't keep her mouth shut, and acted irrational throughout. And she was guilty. Her being American had no more relevancy than it did for Kercher being British. She committed a crime. Aside from that glaring biased report with an 'alleged' witness, how exactly was the case biased against Knox? Because she got sent down? Because American's can't commit crimes, but Italians and Ivory Coast nationals can? There was enough to suggest all three were implicated in Kercher's murder. Like I said earlier, even if she did not kill her, she stil did enough to cover it up. You don't do that if you're innocent.

Believe it or not, the whole world isn't out to get you because you're American. For some of us, you're not that important.

Except if some of you need a distribution deal for records. Yes, I can see where we don't matter unless you are exploiting our markets, or Hitler is bombing London or something important. I get it, we're expendable.

There is an issue of whether the allegations were false, the evidence tainted, and the prosecution malicious. There were allegations that the prosecutor erred and made false statements against Amanda Knox in order to preserve his reputation and career.

And so there is still a question of innocence and whether the verdict is a false one, and in any jurisdiction that provides a fair trial, these issues will be examined on appeal.

Especially if the jury slept through the defense's testimony.

Edited by eternal light
Posted

Except if some of you need a distribution deal for records. Yes, I can see where we don't matter unless you are exploiting our markets.

There is an issue of whether the allegations were false, the evidence tainted, and the prosecution malicious. There were allegations that the prosecutor erred and made false statements against Amanda Knox in order to preserve its reputation and career.

And so there is still a question of innocence and whether the verdict is a false one, and in any jurisdiction that provides a fair trial, these issues will be examined on appeal.

Especially if the jury slept through the defense's testimony.

You're special, you know that? Being American doesn't dictate whether or not I want your company because your country distributes music. That doesn't mean shit to me.

Whilst the prosecution can be argued questionable, there is also enough to suggest that all three of them were present at the time of Kercher's death. Guede blames Knox. Knox and Sollecito blame Guede. Now, why would they blame the other if the other weren't present at the time of her death? Why not just blame the other two housemates instead? Sollecito lied about using his computer all night - police found that to be false. Knox's DNA was on the weapon. Guede's DNA was on Kercher, her pillow and bedding. Sollecito's DNA was on her clothing. At this point it doesn't matter who did it, and where they came from. They're all guilty as sin.

Posted

You're special, you know that? Being American doesn't dictate whether or not I want your company because your country distributes music. That doesn't mean shit to me.

Whilst the prosecution can be argued questionable, there is also enough to suggest that all three of them were present at the time of Kercher's death. Guede blames Knox. Knox and Sollecito blame Guede. Now, why would they blame the other if the other weren't present at the time of her death? Why not just blame the other two housemates instead? Sollecito lied about using his computer all night - police found that to be false. Knox's DNA was on the weapon. Guede's DNA was on Kercher, her pillow and bedding. Sollecito's DNA was on her clothing. At this point it doesn't matter who did it, and where they came from. They're all guilty as sin.

I'm not the special type, sorry to disappoint you.

It may mean nothing to you, but it did matter to Peter Grant and Jimmy Page.

There is also a question of whether the evidence is false.

Posted

I'm not the special type, sorry to disappoint you.

It may mean nothing to you, but it did matter to Peter Grant and Jimmy Page.

There is also a question of whether the evidence is false.

That you are linking Peter Grant and Jimmy Page with the argument that you're an important country to me just tells me how special you really are. No, really, I insist.

Alright then, answer this: It Knox really is as innocent as you want her to be, how come she implicated an innocent man for Kercher's death in the beginning? She knew he was innocent and she accused him of killing Kercher. Why would she do that?

Posted

That you are linking Peter Grant and Jimmy Page with the argument that you're an important country to me just tells me how special you really are. No, really, I insist.

Alright then, answer this: It Knox really is as innocent as you want her to be, how come she implicated an innocent man for Kercher's death in the beginning? She knew he was innocent and she accused him of killing Kercher. Why would she do that?

As I said, I'm not the special type. Sorry to confuse you. And obviously the United States would not matter to you. All the United States ever did was allow the opportunity to Ahmet Ertegun to build the record company that gave the worldwide distribution deal to Led Zeppelin that allowed it to earn wealth. I can see why that would not matter to you, you who now post on their official website.

I would need to review the facts more carefully rather than take your word for it, since you don't seem to care if the evidence is tainted or not. I would not trust your judgement. I hope that answers your question.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1904571,00.html

Posted

As I said, I'm not the special type. Sorry to confuse you. And obviously the United States would not matter to you. All the United States ever did was allow the opportunity to Ahmet Ertegun to build the record company that gave the worldwide distribution deal to Led Zeppelin that allowed it to earn wealth. I can see why that would not matter to you, you who now post on their official website.

I would need to review the facts more carefully rather than take your word for it, since you don't seem to care if the evidence is tainted or not. I would not trust your judgement. I hope that answers your question.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1904571,00.html

Well, no that doesn't answer my question, but you've never been a straight shooter, anyway. I don't know how it goes in your country, but in mine we knew from the beginning, back in 2007/8, that Knox was implicating an innocent man. If you want to 'review' the facts, reading the links I provided would be a good place to start.

As for Zeppelin, their record label, and this website - you're right. America is so important to me because of those three things that I thank God nightly for Amerigo Vespucci and Thomas Jefferson. Fuck the political/climate/cultural/social changes you've contributed to the world, it was always only ever about the band, the record label and this website. But, hey, that's the value you placed on your nation.

And with that I'm done.

Posted

Well, no that doesn't answer my question, but you've never been a straight shooter, anyway. I don't know how it goes in your country, but in mine we knew from the beginning, back in 2007/8, that Knox was implicating an innocent man. If you want to 'review' the facts, reading the links I provided would be a good place to start.

As for Zeppelin, their record label, and this website - you're right. America is so important to me because of those three things that I thank God nightly for Amerigo Vespucci and Thomas Jefferson. Fuck the political/climate/cultural/social changes you've contributed to the world, it was always only ever about the band, the record label and this website. But, hey, that's the value you placed on your nation.

And with that I'm done.

That's okay, as I said I can't rely on your biased judgement, so I will look at the wider variety of links that you have not hand-picked.

As far as your personal remark about me, sorry to disappoint you, but I have no idea what you are talking about.

And as for my nation, we are here because England did not treat people justly a few centuries ago, and those people fled injustice in Europe.

Happy now?

Posted (edited)

Just in time for Christmas.

How Strong Is the Evidence Against Amanda Knox?

By Tiffany Sharples / Seattle

Sunday, Jun. 14, 2009

An attractive American student on trial for murder can count on support 6,000 miles away in her native Seattle. There, one of Amanda Knox's most vocal backers is attorney Anne Bremner, who has offered her counsel pro bono to the accused's family and is a spokeswoman for Friends of Amanda. On Friday, she sat down with TIME to go over the case against Knox, who took the witness stand on Friday in her murder trial.

Video footage from the crime scene of British student Meredith Kercher's murder flickers on a laptop screen as Bremner points out what she deems critical flaws in the collection of evidence. After placing rulers on the sides of a bloody shoeprint, for example, a blue-rubber-gloved hand reaches down with a piece of white cloth and scrubs the bloody mark off the tile floor before putting the cloth into an evidence tube. This happens three times for three separate footprints. In film footage taken at least a day later, another team of investigators attempts, using photographs, to place where the footprints had been. "They should have lifted the tile," Bremner says, shaking her head.

time.com/...world/article/0,8599,1904571,00.html#ixzz0YsnYf87R

Edited by eternal light
Posted

It is pathetic beyond belief to bring the anti-American argument into this. Just completely ridiculous.

They're all guilty - and not all American.

Get over it.

Posted (edited)

So if you were on trial for murder and the jury slept through the defense testimony, the prosecutor made false statements against you, and the investigators mishandled the blood evidence, would you just get over it?

How in the world could she ever expect to get a fair trial?

I think it is fair to say that with all the anti-American sentiment in the world today, they just couldn't wait to convict her, guilty or not. They have to have someone to hate, and no one will blame them if it is an American.

After 2 trials, murder case still a mystery

By John Hooper

4:00 AM Monday Dec 7, 2009

Of all the millions of words written about the marathon trial for the murder of Meredith Kercher, some of the most revealing appeared in a dispatch from Italy's leading news agency, Ansa, last Thursday.

"Certainly, the decision facing the [judges and jurors] will not be an easy one," wrote Ansa's reporter, Matteo Guidelli, as he looked ahead to the final phase of the trial of Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito.

"Sentencing to life imprisonment two young people, aged 22 and 25, would mean destroying their lives forever," he continued, "but letting them off would mean gainsaying not only the entire investigation, but also the judges who have reached decisions before them."

It hardly needs to be said that the "danger" of contradicting police and prosecutors would not exactly weigh heavily in the deliberations of a British or American jury. But Italy is not Britain or the US.

For the "Anglo-Saxon" reporters who followed the trial, it was about bloodstains and DNA, contradictory statements and suspicious omissions. So it was for their Italian counterparts. But for them, as for their readers, there was always a further dimension.

AE0.gifItaly is a country in which the preservation of "face" is of enormous importance.

In this case many people had reputations at stake: the detectives who investigated the murder; Perugia's prosecutors, who oversaw their inquiry; and the judges who indicted Knox and Sollecito and decided that the evidence was sufficient to keep them locked up for more than two years.

Since the case attracted worldwide publicity, the images of Perugia and Italy were at stake, too - Italy's standing as a country that can find and punish murderers, and the city's reputation as one to which the parents of overseas students attending its university for foreigners can entrust their children without qualms.

The question being asked - if only half-openly - yesterday was how much weight the judges and jury had assigned to the factors cited by Guidelli before deciding that Knox and Sollecito were murderers.

The centre-left daily La Repubblica said the outcome was "surprising, and has a certain [Pontius] Pilate-like quality".

The paper noted that last year the third accused, Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede, was sentenced to 30 years. Yet Guede had opted for a fast-track trial, which would normally secure him a lighter sentence.

What is more, the prosecution in the trial that ended on Saturday, whose version of the killing was upheld, maintained that Guede was not the material killer.

He was claimed to have sexually assaulted Kercher while Sollecito prodded her with one knife until Knox delivered the lethal, final blow with another.

Yet Sollecito was given 25 years and Knox 26 years.

A theory voiced by defence lawyers and court reporters was that the court that tried the two former lovers had deliberately constructed a self-detonating judgment whose internal contradictions made it, in the words of La Repubblica, "eminently changeable on appeal".

Defendants in Italy are allowed two appeals. One view was that Saturday's judgment could thus be revised on the first appeal and overturned altogether on the second. That would allow all concerned to save face.

The overturning of the verdict and sentence would be widely ascribed in Italy not to any flaw in the investigation or trial, but to the foreign pressure that was already building up on the other side of the Atlantic.

The decision facing the two professional and six lay judges was scarcely an easy one.

And it was made even more difficult by the way investigations and trials are conducted in Italy.

In theory, the police's findings are secret until the moment at which the prosecutors ask a judge for the indictment of some or all of the suspects. In practice, everything of importance in a high-profile case like this one ends up in the media.

But what, in the heat of the chase, can seem like a vital clue or damning admission can later be shown to be untrue or misleading.

The six lay judges - effectively jurors - were faced with the near-impossible task of disentangling what they believed they understood of the case when the trial opened from what they subsequently learned in court.

Not that what they heard in court was all fact. The presiding judge, Giancarlo Massei, made a broad interpretation of what constituted evidence.

Witnesses were allowed to repeat hearsay and to give their subjective assessment of people's attitudes and emotions. This was particularly important for Knox, because a key element of the prosecution's case was that her apparent lack of emotion after the discovery of her flatmate's corpse was an indication of her hatred of Kercher, and that her hatred of the British student had led her to murder her.

Yet very little evidence was produced to sustain that argument.

Witnesses who knew them suggested relations between the American girl and her flatmate had cooled as they found new friends in Perugia. But no one claimed to have witnessed anything more than a contretemps between them.

Just what was the motive for the killing was never made clear. At the pre-trial hearing, Giuliano Mignini, who led for the state, hinted at satanic ritual, but that idea was dismissed by the judge in his report on the reasons for indicting Knox and Sollecito.

Other factors poured into the mix by the prosecution included cash belonging to Kercher that was found to be missing from the flat she shared with Knox.

According to Mignini in his summing-up, Kercher was the victim of "an uncontrolled, unstoppable build-up of violence and sexual play", involving Knox, Sollecito and Guede. But for what reason?

"We do not know with certainty what intentions they may have had," were his exact words. "But it is possible that there was an argument, which then degenerated, between Mez and Amanda over the money that disappeared. Or perhaps the British student was upset by Guede's presence."

Possible. Perhaps. These were scarcely firm grounds on which to base 26-year and 25-year prison sentences. They were arguably sufficient, though, if the forensic evidence had been conclusive. And it was not.

The defence maintained that the traces of DNA linking Kercher to the supposed murder weapon were inconclusive. The British student's bra clip, which bore a trace of Sollecito's DNA, was not bagged by police until 45 days after the initial forensic inspection.

And no evidence of any kind was produced to show Knox had been in the room where Kercher's half-naked body was found.

The room did, however, contain an all-important clue - one which was not there. In Kercher's bedroom there was not a single fingerprint belonging to either Knox or her boyfriend.

Could they have wiped them away? Impossible, said Sollecito's lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, in her summing-up.

Had they done so, they would have removed Guede's, too. Yet "that room was awash with Rudy's prints", she told the court.

Quoting the head of Italy's forensic experts, Bongiorno added that "only a dragonfly" could enter a room without leaving a trace. And, she added, "since they are certainly not dragonflies, it means these two young people are innocent."

Yesterday, as the scaffolding holding the television cameras outside Perugia assizes court was being dismantled and the radio vans were preparing to edge out of the parking spaces they have occupied for more than a week, one of the few certainties in the case was that it had yet to run its full course.

- OBSERVER

By John Hooper

nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10613888

Edited by eternal light

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