Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-Oct11)

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 03:14 PM

Murder trials are virtually always referred to by the names of the accused, or some equivalent term. I can't offhand think of any exceptions. That's where they differ from inquests, where the focus is on the dead person.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughte
From: BTNG
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 04:58 PM

Like Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox someone gets away with something, while the rest of us sit, watch and dare not speak

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Wesley S
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 05:07 PM

109 posts on Mudcat = "dare not speak"......

Sit and watch - maybe. Dare not speak? You've got to be kidding.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Wesley S
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 05:28 PM

Yes and some of those were mine. I find it interesting that some people esp in England find it good and proper to trash the entire United States as a culture - often based on the actions of just one or two people. It's as if we were ALL OJ Simpson or Dick Cheney. But to object on a personal basis to the people who make such observations is considered impolite by some.

Tidied that for you, Wes. --mudelf

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 05:39 PM

These are the facts, Knox confessed that she was in the house on the night of the murder and that she heard Miss Kercher scream, identifying a Congolese bar owner, Patrick Lumumba, as the assailant. She told the court during the trial that the confession was made under duress but then repeated the entire account in a five page memorandum the next morning.

The prosecution said the fact that Knox falsely accused Lumumba of being the killer was a sign of her own guilt and an attempt to throw them off her trail. He was arrested in a dawn raid by armed police and spent two weeks in jail. It was only by chance that a Swiss businessman read about the case and came forward to say he had been talking to Lumumba in his bar on the night of the murder — offering him a rock-solid alibi. Lumumba says Knox nearly ruined his life and is suing her for defamation.


Sollecito could not back up Knox's alibi on the night of the murder.
She claimed she spent the evening with him, smoking marijuana, watching the French film Amelie and making love. But Sollecito told police he could not remember if Knox was with him that evening or not.
Even assuming his memory was hazy because of the drugs, it seemed odd that a young man who had just embarked on a new relationship could not recall whether he had spent the night with his girlfriend or not.


Sollecito claimed he used his computer to download and watch cartoons and Amelie. But computer experts told the court that there was no activity on his laptop between 9.10pm on Nov 1, and 5.32am the next morning — the time frame in which the murder took place.
Knox and Sollecito turned off their mobile phones on the night of the murder, from around 8.40pm, and turned them back on at around 6am, inviting further suspicion.


A bedroom belonging to one of Miss Kercher's Italian flatmates was ransacked on the night of the murder, with a window smashed with a rock. But police said the break-in was staged - broken glass from the window was found on top of clothes scattered on the floor, suggesting the window was broken after the contents of the room were messed up. Prosecutors accused Knox and her boyfriend of staging the break-in to make the killing look like a burglary that had turned into rape and murder.

I didn't buy into her little girl lost routine for a minute, some here did. It's like a dog licking it's balls, it is a matter of taste.I think she is guilty of murder.

Make your own kind of music.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 06:11 PM

There are certainly a lot of things that happened that whilst they may not be evidence to convict are enough to allow doubts of innocence. If Meredith Kercher's family are concerned about the acquittals then that is completely understandable in view of what has happened. I have taken the following from here:

The Italian appeals process offers more guarantees to defendants than any other legal system in the world, whereby only the weakest evidence is treated, not the whole case. Knox's team only had to attack the DNA evidence against her to undermine the whole edifice of the original trial. Italy has one of lowest prison populations in the world because of its lenient appeals process.

If the prosecution decide to appeal against the acquittals will the two of them be obliged to return to Perugia? Raffaele Sollecito would seem to be at a distinct disadvantage if that does happen since he lives in Italy.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: TheFamousEccles
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 06:22 PM

Remember this:

Better ten guilty men go free, than have one innocent man be jailed.

Although these days in the states, being innocent is not enough to overturn a guilty verdict.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 06:32 PM

Stop feeding the troll. It sucks the energy right out of the thread if you even give it the time of day.

SRS

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 09:27 PM

Worth reading are the comments in this blog, "Injustice in Perugia."

Interrogation

Also of interest: "The Ridiculous Case Against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito." Talk with FBI profiler John Douglas by Kresta Errickson. Seot. 28, 2011.
http://knoxarchives.blogspot.com

Looking for a transcript of the trial and the appeal is fruitless since much that takes place in an Italian trial is considered confidential.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: TheFamousEccles
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 09:41 PM

I would rather her found not guilty than convicted on bad evidence. Just because you are charged does not mean you are guilty. And if the State's case is so full of holes, I don't want someone sent to jail just to appease the victim's family. I know O.J. did it but if I had been on jury, I wouldn't have convicted because the State's case was a complete disaster. And their lawyers were incompetent.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: BTNG
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 09:51 PM

Being totally focussed at all times, I've already made it perfectly clear (you should really pay attebtion) that I am of the opinion that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito got away with something, maybe not the murder itself, but they got away with something. They're definitely concealing.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Wesley S
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 10:10 PM

Just wondering about the Italian legal system - In America it's up to the state to prove guilt { beyond a reasonable doubt }. In some countries it's up to the defendant to prove innocence. I wonder which system Italy uses?

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: BTNG
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 10:17 PM

In Italy it's innocent until proven guilty given the number of defendants left free to go because their appeals are still pending

---

BTNG/TheFamousEccles - decide which account you're going to be and stick with it. Talking to yourself in a thread in which a lot of people are already misbehaving isn't helpful. The rest of you, this topical thread should stay open, but the ad hominem attacks need to stop. Bluesman, you're on notice. --mudelf

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 02:39 AM

"I am of the opinion that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito got away with something," The victim's mother was interviewed yesterday and seems to accept the innocense of the accused. She even expressed sympathy for what they and their families have been through in being blamed for something they didn't do. I take it she sat through all the proceedings so must have a fair idea herself - or do you think she is just being incredibly magnaminous?

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 02:57 AM

I think the Kercher family have to try to believe in the Italian justice system because they will still be hoping that if Amanda Knox and Raffalele Sollecito are truly innocent then the person(s) who acted with Rudy Guede (and it does seem pretty certain that he didn't act alone) are eventually caught and brought to justice. There will be no closure for them otherwise. Amanda Knox would have served three years in prison, in any event, for the slander of Patrick Lumumba and the terrible suffering it has caused him and his family.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: akenaton
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 03:51 AM

In my opinion, Miss Knox and her friend have been released on a technicality.
They should be treared by the media as such.
But the money circus has begun.......aren't we a disgusting species?

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 04:24 AM

or do you think she is just being incredibly magnaminous?

Or perhaps being cautious, or perhaps acting on legal advice, etc. Personally, I'd doubt that her private thoughts and feelings would completely match her public face.

My guess is much would depend on what one believed before and if one had believed the pair were correctly found guilty in the original trial, it would be unlikely that this appeal would have cleared every doubt about their involvement. Accepting that the evidence is to weak for a conviction and that an aquittal was therefore the correct verdict is a different matter IMO.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: GUEST,Dazbo at work
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 08:50 AM

This all reminds me of that British nanny (can't remember her name) who was accused of murdering her charge in the USA. It seemed to me at the time that in the USA everyone believed her guilty whilst everyone in the UK thought she was innocent. This is just the other way round: "our" pretty young female can't possibly be a murderer but "your" pretty young female is obviously a callous, cold-hearted murderer.

My instincts from what I have read and seen on TV is that she more involved than an innocent person should be but I hope the Italian police can bring all the guilty parties to justice whoever they are.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: BTNG
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 11:23 AM

BTNG/TheFamousEccles - decide which account you're going to be and stick with it. Talking to yourself in a thread in which a lot of people are already misbehaving isn't helpful. The rest of you, this topical thread should stay open, but the ad hominem attacks need to stop. Bluesman, you're on notice. --mudelf

sorry (actually I'm not sorry at all) whoever is hiding behind the mudelf ID, but The FamousEccles and I are two different people, we both happen to be using computers that operate from the same IP Number, so................

and I'm still convinced that Amanda Knox and Raffalele Sollecito got away with something

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 11:36 AM

released on a technicality.

The "technicality" being that the evidence did not stand up to examination, and the jury believed the conviction should not be allowed to stand. That's an interesting use of "technicality".

Trials are not about opinions as to what might have happened,based on media coverage, they are about a court deciding whether the evidence is strong enough to overthrow the presumption of innocence.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Big Mick
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 11:55 AM

And that is the nut of it, Kevin. The presumption of innocence is critical to those of us who live in a country that made important modifications to the system of laws that were brought here. This isn't a popularity contest or a referendum on what US citizens get away with, it is about a life or death matter, and a tragedy for these families. Some of you are so tiresome in your obsessive need to attack everything about the US. I don't know if Knox is guilty of murder, or at least is complicit. I suspect the latter, but that does not matter. By every international standard the primary evidence used to convict (DNA) was tainted and unreliable. Period. Without it the prosecutors could not overcome the presumption of innocence. Some of the attitudes here are very insulting to the Italian judicial system.

Would that everyone had the grace of the Kercher family. I ache for them.

Mick

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: BTNG
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 12:27 PM

Big Mick, I'm not going to explain myself or my belief in their guilt, to you or anyone else, I believe what I believe and that's all you need to know.... Judicial systems are not infallible, there are far too many mistakes in the judicial histories to prove that point, look them up, if you can.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Big Mick
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 12:41 PM

BTNG, your "look that up if you can" comment was uncalled for. I did not single anyone out, nor attack anyone personally. If I had my moderator hat on, and if it were directed at anyone other than me, I would have deleted it straightaway. As it is it stands as a testament as to why you are viewed in these parts as you are.

It is worth noting that in your haste to demonstrate what an unpleasant person you are, you chose not to answer the central contention of my post. Bad form, old sock.

Mick

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Lighter
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 12:46 PM

Rafael and Amanda just spent four years in prison (in her case, a foreign prison), internationally reviled as drug-crazed, perverted, demon-worshiping murderers, while facing the likelihood that they'd stay there, just as reviled, for the next twenty years of their ruined lives.

All for a murder with which the Italian judicial system, including at least two judges, now agrees they were not involved.

What do you suppose they "got away" with?

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: BTNG
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 12:50 PM

Fair enough, as I said I believe what I believe. DNA can be corrupted on transportation or in anyone of many ways, thus it becomes useless as evidence, and thus a case can rise or fall, in this case the prosecution's case fell. It points strongly, I feel, that using the DNA samplings as the primary evidence, was a mistake. In these days of high tech, good old fashioned police work, goes by the boards.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 01:13 PM

A police interrogator slapped Amanda Knox on the head if he didn't like her answers to questions. A suspect can become totally confused and tends to try to satisfy the tormenter in order to make him stop. (see links I gave above). Al this without the presence of a lawyer.
I'm sure the jury (includes magistrates in Italy which has a modified Napoleonic Code) took this into account when they deliberated the evidence and threw out statements not collected properly.

DNA evidence would be difficult to evaluate in this case, since the two women lived together and Sollecito was a frequent visitor. DNA of all three would be all over the place.

It also seems forgotten that a third suspect is serving a sentence for the killing. He had no close connection to either Knox or Sollecito.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 01:33 PM

M'lud and ladies and gentlemen of the jury. The irrefutable evidence is that The Famous Eccles and BTNG post from the same IP address and we must therefore conclude that they are the same person. I ask for the maximum sentence to be carried out...

...time goes by

...

..

.

M'lud and ladies and gentlemen of the jury. The evidence given at the trial of The Famous Eccles / BTNG is gravely flawed. It has now come to light that two different people were using the same computer. I ask that the prior verdict be revoked...

Grrrr. F***ing Mudcat. Get away with murder there, This bastard obviously was the same person. Someone on high has come up with some fancy way of corrupting the evidence. They are obviously guilty of something. Bastard should be hung...

Can someone stop the world please, I want to get off.

DtG

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: BTNG
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 01:37 PM

Now, why didn't I think that approach, DtG...probably because I'm too close to the case....oh, by the way have DNA samples beenn taken and will they be used as the primary evidence?

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 01:56 PM

I have to say, this disclosure and exposure pleased me.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 01:58 PM

Now, wasn't DNA evidence, faulty on review, much discussed in the case and in the press?
Or has B' just been posting off the top of his head but with no knowledge of what has been reported about the case?

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Lighter
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 02:01 PM

The DNA "evidence" was thrown out as worthless. Not only was it almost certainly the result of contamination (the police didn't change their gloves according to procedure), it was present in minimal trace amounts far below those accepted as significant under FBI and various other international standards.

What's more, Guede was identified as the murderer by the fact that his DNA was all over the murder scene, and Knox's & Sollecito's was essentially nowhere. The police took the alleged "murder weapon" from Sollecito's kitchen solely because it was a big knife. There was trace DNA on it but no trace of blood - not even, it seems, at that substandard level.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: BTNG
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 02:08 PM

if there was an exposure, unproven, my opinion of you, bluesman, hasn't nor will it ever change

You are on notice, I seem to remember.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: BTNG
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 02:16 PM

It's not over yet......

In February 2011, Knox's parents, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas, were indicted on charges of criminal slander as a result of an interview published by the Sunday Times in 2009, in which they stated that their daughter "had not been given an interpreter, had not received food and water, and had been physically and verbally abused" by police officers after her arrest. Knox and Mellas had sought to have charges dismissed, on the grounds that there was no intent.[209][210] On 4 July 2011, Judge Paolo Micheli resigned from the case, citing his involvement in the trial of Knox and Sollecito.[208] The trial of Knox and Mellas was adjourned until 24 January 2012

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 04:15 PM

This is just the other way round: "our" pretty young female can't possibly be a murderer but "your" pretty young female is obviously a callous, cold-hearted murderer.

Out of 18 people contributing, I can only find 2 (or possibly 3 if got off on a technicality counts) of the "definitely a murderer" opinion. The rest seem to be divided between "don't know/have some doubts" and "definitely innocent".

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 04:53 PM

Amanda Knox's parents unfortunately gave interviews stating what their daughter had told them; this was relayed round the world by the press and has also been quoted as if it is fact in this thread. It would have been better if they had left accusations against the police for the lawyers to deal with especially since their daughter appears to be able to lie at the drop of a hat with or without police interrogation.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Lighter
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 05:55 PM

What's funny is that if a foreigner had made those accusations against an American police force, half of Mudcat would assume they were *obviously* true. No further investigation needed!

If A & R are guilty, then a pair of perfectly normal appearing college kids decided to murder the roommate of one of them, for no particular reason, right there in the house. The fact that a known drug-dealer and drifter has been proved scientifically to be the killer (or at least "a" killer) apparently doesn't matter. A & R then somehow mopped up all their own DNA from the crime scene, carefully leaving the other DNA, blood, etc., intact. Then, instead of dumping the "murder knife" into the river, they placed it in Rafael's kitchen.   

I don't claim to know just what happened, but I'll take the opinion of the independent DNA analysts, the Italian appeals jury, and the two judges who were part of it, over that kind of conjecture any time.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: BTNG
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 06:00 PM

I simply cut and pasted that paragraph, what the parents did or did not do will be up to the courts to decide, whether anyone here considers it to be "truth" well that's rather up to them isn't it?

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 06:32 PM

Any time anyone confesses to a crime, and subsequently retracts that confession, the possibility arises that they did so because of police pressure. That is reflected in the fact that in many countries there are laid down procedures for ensuring that interrogations are videoed, or independent witnesses present etc.

Italy is one such country. However the laid-down procedures do not appear to have been complied with.

If a retracted confession does not indicate that the person making it knew things about the crime that only a guilty person could have known, it should be given very little weight indeed, especially if it is not accompanied by hard evidence.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 06:56 PM

This is an interesting report.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: BTNG
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 07:08 PM

aye and perhaps she should have mentioned it during the trial, rather like the so-called split personality defense., after the fact

you have to watch it with so called confessions and statements made by the defendant, they can get the said defendant into all sorts of trouble, ask Timothy Evans who was hanged in 1950 for murder. The police investigation in that case was marked by a lack of forensic expertise, with key evidence missed or ignored

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Mayet
Date: 06 Oct 11 - 05:43 AM

Yesterday Guest Dazbo wrote
"This all reminds me of that British nanny (can't remember her name) who was accused of murdering her charge in the USA. It seemed to me at the time that in the USA everyone believed her guilty whilst everyone in the UK thought she was innocent. This is just the other way round: "our" pretty young female can't possibly be a murderer but "your" pretty young female is obviously a callous, cold-hearted murderer."

The nanny was a local (to me) girl, Louise Woodward, a rather overweight teenager from a small village not really cast in the 'Foxy Knox' image

It is true that many people in the UK thought her innocent of the second degree murder charge brought against her and, in fact, Judge Hiller B. Zobel at a post-conviction relief hearing reduced the conviction to involuntary manslaughter adding: "I am morally certain that allowing this defendant on this evidence to remain convicted of second-degree murder would be a miscarriage of justice" and her sentence was reduced to exactly the amount of time she had already served in the US.

At the time British newspapers reacted cautiously to her release Although some had campaigned against the original murder charge the Daily Telegraph, for example made it clear in its editorial comment that Woodward's release should not be celebrated and some made strong references to the comments in the appeal judgement that Woodward should not profit from her experiences.

The parents of the victim Matthew Eappen also filed a civil lawsuit to prevent Woodward from earning any profits from selling her story under legislation designed to keep criminals from profiting from the publicity of their crimes, often by selling their stories to publishers.

As Amanda Knox has been found guilty of "defamation," for falsely accusing her former employer Patrick Lumumba
SHOULD THIS NOT APPLY TO HER ALSO?

Throughout Louise has protested her innocence and on her return to the UK said that she would be giving an interview to the BBC Panorama programme for no money
Transcript

However American media remained convinced of her guilt and she was named the most "notorious criminal convicted in Massachusetts" by Boston law magazine Exhibit A 10 years after she was released.!

One interesting footnote to this case was reported in the New York Times
'Just a week after Ms. Woodward was convicted on Oct. 30 of murdering the baby in her care ……a bill to restore the death penalty came up for a crucial vote in the state's House of Representatives.
''One of the long-lasting fallouts from the au pair trial is the defeat of the death penalty in Massachusetts,'' said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, in Washington'

But,to return to the subject of the thread, the search for 'justice' in the murder of Meredith Kercher has not ended here.
Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini is reported to have confirmed he would appeal to Italy's highest criminal court after publication of the reasons for the acquittals, due within 90 days.
"Let's wait and we will see who was right - the first court or the appeal court," Mr Mignini said. "This trial was done under unacceptable media pressure."
The highest court's remit is to rule on whether any procedures were violated and the hearing generally takes one day in Rome. Defendants are not required to attend.
If the highest court overturns the acquittal, prosecutors would be free to request Knox's extradition to Italy to finish whatever remained of her sentence.
It will then be up to the Italian government to decide whether to make a formal extradition request.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 06 Oct 11 - 06:30 AM

I always felt Louise Woodward was guilty of murder. I still think government intervention occurs quietly in cases of nationals found guilty of crimes in other countries.

In answer to an earlier question, yes I do think miscarriages of justices do occur. One being the conviction of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter and John Artis in America. It was blatantly racist.

Others were the convictions of the Birmingham 6 and the Guilford 4, in Britain. The police officers who beat the confessions out of them should have faced lengthy prison sentences, but got off with early retirement and a nice pension.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 06 Oct 11 - 08:00 AM

Judge presiding over acquittal says Knox may well be guilty

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Lighter
Date: 06 Oct 11 - 08:26 AM

The link to the Guardian says:

"Speaking just two days after he and his fellow judges handed down a full acquittal on appeal, Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann, said the court's verdict 'is the result of the truth that was created in the proceedings. But the real truth may be different. They may be responsible, but the evidence is not there.'"

This may sound like a bombshell to someone who knows nothing about how human courts of justice work. Otherwise, not so much.

"The evidence is not there." Period.

That means real evidence, not speculation about how it *might have* happened, based on the vigilante theory that if they weren't guilty they wouldn't have been accused.

Case closed.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 06 Oct 11 - 08:38 AM

I found Mayet's post very interesting.

As Amanda Knox has been found guilty of "defamation," for falsely accusing her former employer Patrick Lumumba
SHOULD THIS NOT APPLY TO HER ALSO?

Yes, I think it should apply to her. Also, apart from the money that she and those who pay for her interviews will make out of this, there seems little point because I find it hard to believe that everything she will say will be the truth anyway.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 06 Oct 11 - 08:47 AM

Lighter, the judge has said means he remains open to the possibility that the pair were in fact involved in the crime.

I don't know whether this is just his personal feeling or whether this was feeling was shared by others on the jury but we now know at least one (and a judge at that) would appear not to be fully satisfied of their complete innocence.

As one of those with a "have some doubts" view point, I agree with him.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Big Mick
Date: 06 Oct 11 - 09:08 AM

Mayet's post is an example of a false predicate. The two cases are not similar, were tried under different judicial systems, and the evidentiary processes were entirely different. The only similarity is the USA-UK connection. Another false predicTe is the contention is that since they were both convicted Knox shouldn't be allowed to profit from writing, etc. Woodward was convicted of the death, Knox was convicted of slander, but was ruled not guilty of the murder. Remember the option was there to rule that there was not enough evidence to convict which is quite different from not guilty.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 06 Oct 11 - 09:12 AM

I think an investigation should be launched into why the BBC gave so much air time to this case. The world is imploding around us, the Amazon Rainforest is about to be decimated by mega dams..and the BBC gave nearly ALL their News time, morning, afternoon and evening, to this story.

It is NOT major world news.

It is only really important to the families concerned..and Meredith's family were hugely overlooked by the BBC.

Whoever it was at the BBC who ordered this immense amount of coverage to happen should be brought out from the shadows and asked to explain the reasons behind it....

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Oct 11 - 09:31 AM

an investigation should be launched

And then they could devote masses of time to covering the investigation... I can't see the point.

.........................

The significant things in common between this case and that of Louise Woodward were that there was a media circus, and this fed into a mob mentality on the part of many people. And nobody knows exactly what happened. In these circumstances the actual facts of the case, insofar as they are known, get buried in the mass of comment, prejudice and speculation.

They are planning to allow TV cameras into trials in England. I dread the day.

Subject: RE: Murder/Manslaughter-Amanda Knox acquitted(3-10-11)
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 06 Oct 11 - 09:35 AM

So do I....