Amanda Knox, Convicted on the Basis of Cartwheels and Kisses

Consider the case of a 20 something girl just met a young boy and fell in love, had a room mate who had a relationship with another young man living in the flat below, had a single introduction to a young man who had recently been arrested for breaking and entering, and then decided to have a four way sex orgie that led to the death of her room mate? And this was a satanic sex rite? To celebrate Halloween?

You would want to have a lot of evidence that this was the case, right? What if I told you that there was absolutely no evidence?

This is the case of Amanda Knox.

No bleach, no bloody footprint, no blood on the knife, nothing. There is no evidence that she was in the room where the murder took place. Or her boyfriend. Her only crime was being the flat mat of Meredith Kercher, who was raped and killed by Rudy Guede. His bloody handprints were found all over the room and his DNA inside the body of the victim. Open and shut case. You can read here about what happened during the interrogation process that lead the police to arrest Patrick Lumumba, Amanda’s employer, and here about the impossibility of the “staged break in” theory that the police pulled out of thin air to explain the crime scene and here my prior writings about the absence of evidence against Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito in the murder of her flat mate Meredith Kercher. The fact is that Rudy broke into the house, Meredith came home and he raped and killed her.

And then a journalist, Andrea Vogt, writing in a Seattle newspaper of all places, writes an article that says Amanda says “I was there“. Until recently this incredibly misleading (at best) statement went unchallenged. And in a Seattle newspaper, of all places. We’re not talking about Italian or British tabloids here folks!

This was written after all of the Italian courts have determined that she made this comment to her mother while in jail referring to the fact that she was at the apartment of her boyfriend Raffaele the night of the murder, not at the site of the murder. AK was referring to the fact that “I was there” at the apartment of RS, not at the site of the murder. This has already been clarified in the Italian courts. Andrea Vogt’s deliberate misrepresentation of this “fact” is just one of many lies that have been generated in this case and calls into question her credibility as a reporter. She was the only American reporter in a panel on the case last month at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia which makes you wonder. Here are the participants: Sabina Castelfranco CBS, Massimo Mapelli La7, Andrea Vogt seattlepi.com. Last year Barbie Nadeau was also there. She has her own troubles with Italy this year having been charged with libel in a different case. She can join Amanda, the parents of Amanda and Raffaele Sollecito, and about 8 reporters who were writing about the case, all charged with libel by the prosecutor Giuliano Mignini. One blogger, Frank Sfarzo, had the Squadra Mobile burst into his house, beat him up, have him charged with beating them up, attempt to have him committed to a psychiatric hospital for being “obsessed” with the case, and brought charges against him which will go to trial in May.

Edgardo Giobbi, of Italy’s Serious Crime Squad, boasted after the arrest of Amanda and Raffaele:

We were able to establish guilt by closely observing the suspect’s psychological and behavioral reactions during the interrogations. We don’t need to rely on other kinds of investigation as this method has enabled us to get to the guilty parties in a very quick time.

He later said that he knew Amanda and Raffaele were guilty as soon as he saw them eating pizza together. Yum, yum!

He put a picture of Amanda on the wall of his office next to some mafiosi he had bagged. And this is before they even went to trial or analyzed the evidence!

The interview with Barbie Nadeau on the Ron and Don Show in Seattle (radio) was really interesting. Note the word “student killer” is in the title of her book.

“No one knows exactly what happened to Meredith Kercher or how she was murdered. We know she died of multiple knife wounds to her neck and that she was sexually assaulted but until there’s a confession there’s really not going to be any real story into what happened that night. I think, as I said, the purpose of the book is just to give perspective into the trial itself and to investigation and to the situation in Perugia,” Nadeau said.
“Well, if you don’t know what happened,” Don asked, “then how can you call it the ‘True Story of a Student Killer Amanda Knox’. You just admitted that you don’t know what happened.”

Nadeau said, “Well, nobody knows what happened. I don’t think Amanda Knox knows what happened even if perhaps she was even there in that room that night. I think the story of how she was convicted is the story I’m telling, and the story of the investigation and what happened. You know, Meredith Kercher’s murder is one of the great mysteries, I think. If you look at true crime stories, it’s one of those stories that nobody really knows ….”

Don interrupted, saying, “So what you’re saying, Barbie, is there’s a possibility that Amanda Knox didn’t commit this murder?”

“Well, uh, Amanda Knox is one of three people who were convicted of the sexual assault and murder. No one is saying she committed this murder alone. You know, uh, I think there’s a lot of evidence that shows that she was complacent in some way and I lay that out in the book. I think very clearly that what the jury heard and what was used to convict her of this crime. Her appeal will probably be very interesting. They will present some new evidence that will most likely bring out a new witness or two here and there,” Nadeau said.

You can read my rebuttal of Nadeau’s book Angel Face here.
I have spent some time recently looking into the case of Amanda Knox, who was convicted along with Raffaele Sollecito, her boyfriend, of killing her room-mate Meredith Kercher, and I have come to the realization that she and Raffaele are innocent. Many others who are reading the judicial report from the case and are reading the many excellent websites with reports from individuals with scientific, legal, and forensic expertise who are posting photographs, reports and detailed analyses, are coming to the same conclusion as me. This video has a convincing panel showing the absence of evidence agains Amanda and Raffaele. As the father of two wonderful children and a wife who are Italian citizens I am very concerned about the fact that we get this case right.

I have been criticized for saying that Perugia may not be safe for Americans, but I stand by my statement that Americans should be concerned about sending their children to study in Perugia, and possibly other Italian cities, for the reasons I will detail below. The fact that there is the death penalty and there are higher crime rates in the US are red herrings. The topic at hand is can an innocent American student get rail roaded in Italy, and if her parents try and help her will they get dragged into the legal morass as well. This is what we will address.

This case is very much like the Duke Lacrosse Nifong case. Except that unlike that case where they realized that they were wrong and tried to change it, in this case they dug in their heels.

Start out with prosecutor, Giuliagno Mignini, who has been convicted of abuse of office for his hit list of journalists and others who were ‘against him’ in the prosection of a prior case, creating investigative files and wiretapping with the sole purpose of intimidation. He is now waiting for appeal with a one year plus suspended sentence but allowed to continue working. He also harrassed Douglas Preston, author of the Monster of Florence (Mignini also thought that case was due to a satanic cult! On no evidence! Sound familiar?) and co-author Mario Spezi, whom he had jailed.

Enter the Amanda Knox case. There was a very high profile murder in Perugia and the Mignini team wanted to find the perpetrator right away. They found an African hair in the hand of the victim and a text message to Amanda’s employer that said “ci vediamo”. To Italian that would mean they had a date later, hence they hit her on the head until she could “imagine” a scene involving an illegal interrogation. You can read my thoughts about that interrogation here.

Serial murderers are rare in Italy and most murders are committed by people that know the victim. Going on that logic they first focus on people in the flat. Laura and Filomena were out of town so they had alibis. They also got lawyers right away. The only flat mates without an alibi are Amanda and Raffaele whose alibi is that they were with each other. Amanda also naively hung around to “help out” and did not get a lawyer. She was naive about the Perugia police.

Related Posts:

Amanda Knox Convicted on the Basis of Cartwheels and Kisses

Amanda Knox and the Coercive Interrogation Tactics of the Perugia Police that led to a False “Confession”

My Thoughts on the Amanda Knox Case

More Tabloid Trash Coming Out of the UK on the Amanda Knox Case

My Rebuttal to “Angel Face” the Book about Amanda Knox

Forget Everything You Ever Knew About the Amanda Knox Case

Does Italy Have Freedom of Speech? Perugia Blocks Blogger Critical of Amanda Knox Prosecutor Mignini

Murder Abroad: Drew Griffin Reports on the Amanda Knox Case in CNN Video

Not Enough DNA and Key Witness Changes His Testimony in Amanda Knox Case