Update I (3:15PM): GUILTY ON ALL SIX COUNTS. Knox and her ex-boyfriend face a life sentence which, in Italy, amounts to 30 years in jail. In Knox’s case it will be 26 years of incarceration. (Update II below).
1:06 PM: Due any minute is the verdict in the case of “Foxy Knoxy” (Amanda Knox), an American college student, aged 21, from Seattle, Washington, who is on trial for murder in Perugia, Italy.
To repeat the post of June, “The case is instructive in what it says of a deep-seated pathology infecting American society, where reality takes a backseat to some self-serving parallel universe. You see it again and again … Something else that’s worth noting and is not forthcoming from the American media, paragons of pity that they are: Meredith Kercher, the forgotten victim, whose throat was cut with a pen knife during the sexual assault, died an agonizingly slow death.”
With O.J.-type evidence in support of their case, Italian law enforcement agencies are alleging Knox murdered and sexually assaulted one of her roommates, British exchange student Meredith Kercher.
Ann Coulter is right about very many things; it’s a shame she doesn’t always writes about the things she’s right about. On Knox, Ms. Coulter wrote the definitive column covering the crime that is America’s news coverage of the case.
I’ve watched the case unfold and have had similar thoughts as those Ann Coulter expresses in “NYT: DUKE LACROSSE PLAYERS KILLED MEREDITH KERCHER:
“The evidence includes:
— a large kitchen knife, believed by forensic investigators to have caused at least one of Kercher’s three wounds, found at Sollecito’s house. Despite having been thoroughly washed, the knife had Knox’s DNA on the handle and the murder victim’s DNA on the blade.
— a bloody footprint at the crime scene that matches Sollecito’s. The floor had been cleaned so that the footprint was invisible to the naked eye, but was revealed with Luminol (just like on “CSI”).
— Knox’s bloody footprints, mixed with Kercher’s blood, were found in another roommate’s room, where a window had been broken to make it look like there had been a break-in — a theory discounted immediately by investigators. Knox’s footprints, too, had been scrubbed but were discovered with Luminol.
— Kercher’s bloody bra strap at the crime scene that had abundant amounts of Sollecito’s DNA on it.” Read on.
Update II: A procession of rabid women talkers on CNN has been rubbishing the Italian legal system, claiming that the case against Knox is completely fabricated; that the evidence above doesn’t exist; that the prosecutor is a crook; and that the jury and the Italian people at large convicted this innocent American youngster for her bold life style.
The problem is this: The likes of Lisa Bloom and the scary Stacey Honowitz don’t
offer any evidence to support their case against Italy—for that’s what it is.
Both women, and another Vanity (un)Fair feminist, fulminated becasue Knox’s promiscuous, repulsive life-style was the subject of court briefs. Well, the prosecution made the case that the victim was killed in the course of some kinky acts. It makes sense to show how inclined the perps were to engage in said activities, no?
This is American chauvinism at its ugliest.
Look, as an outsider—a relative newcomer—who has been observing American culture, and who has come from a more conservative society (South Africa), I can say that the effects on America’s youth of a progressive upbringing are dire. The lack of generational boundaries and the leveling of necessary hierarchies that preserve civil society—those dictated by authority, age, wisdom, intelligence—this affects the youth. I find American young people, women especially (with exceptions, of course), narcissistic, oversexed and over indulged. (Girls behave sexually even with their fathers. Yuk!) This mindset can easily breed all manner of corruption and invincibility.
Update III: Lisa Bloom has changed her tack slightly while on Anderson Cooper 360°. Earlier in the day she screamed bloody murder: Knox was wrongly convicted. The evidence was insubstantial. Now she contends that indeed Knox’s confession and her “damaging behavior” after the murder, as well as the blood evidence, are enough to bring down a conviction in an American court as well. I guess Bloom is worried about the damage to her credibility her previous dogmatic position might engender.
Update IV (Dec. 5): Larry Auster, usually highly critical, appears to have been swayed by the American media’s advocacy for Knox. Auster admits that in the programing he watched the prosecution’s case was missing. “The Dateline program is suspect because it never presented the prosecutors’ actual case,” he concedes. Despite not hearing anything from the prosecutors’ team, Auster accepts that Knox was subjected to “extreme police interrogation” and to “a kind of torture and psychological manipulation” that culminated in a “false confession which she subsequently withdrew.”
How does he know that this transpired? Because Knox, a habitual liar, said so after the fact and after advice from her lawyers?
Via “View From The Right,” I reached this sober comment on the NYT:
[BEGIN QUOTE]
Maria
Milan
December 3rd, 2009
1:14 pm
From True Justice For Meredith Kercher – http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php
The forensic evidence is enough to convict both Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.
Amanda Knox’s DNA was found on:
1. On the double DNA knife and a number of independent forensic experts – Dr. Patrizia Stenoni, Dr. Renato Biondo and Professor Francesca Torricelli – categorically stated that Meredith’s DNA was on the blade.
2. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the ledge of the basin.
3. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the bidet.
4. Mixed with Meredith blood on a box of Q Tip cotton swabs.
5. Mixed with Meredith’s blood in the hallway.
6. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the floor of Filomena’s room.
7. On Meredith’s bra according to Raffaele Sollecito’s forensic expert, Professor Vinci.
Amanda Knox’s footprints were found set in Meredith’s blood in two places in the hallway of the new wing of Meredith’s house. One print was exiting her own room, and one print was outside Meredith’s room, facing into the room. These bloody footprints were only revealed under luminol.
A woman’s bloody shoeprint which matched Amanda Knox’s foot size was found on a pillow under Meredith’s body
The significance of the woman’s bloody shoeprint in Meredith’s room is considerable. By itself it debunks the myth that some had propagated for a while, that Rudy Guede acted alone. The bloody shoeprint was incompatible with Meredith’s shoe size.
An abundant amount of Raffaele Sollecito’s DNA was found on Meredith’s bra clasp, and Dr. Stefanoni has excluded the possibility of any contamination.
Alberto Intini, the head of the Italian police forensic science unit, pointed out that unless contamination has been proved, it does not exist:
“It is possible in the abstract that there could have been contamination, but until this is proved, it does not exist.”
Please note that the bra clasp wasn’t kicked around the room for 46 days. Your comments were very misleading.
The bra clasp was found under the pillow on 2 November 2007, during the first search, and collected on 18 December when the second search was carried out by a different team.
During this entire time, the clasp was lying on the floor of what has been testified to have been a completely sealed crime scene. So when and how could any contamination occur?
Excluding a spontaneous migration of Sollecito‘s DNA on the clasp from some unidentified location in the murder room or in the cottage, it could have only taken place during either the first or the second handling of the sample, so the fact that the clasp was recovered weeks later really bears no relevance.
Furthermore, where could any abundant amount of Sollecito‘s DNA have come from, if besides that on the bra clasp, the DNA corresponding to his genetic profile was only found on a cigarette butt in the kitchen?
Raffaele Sollecito’s bloody footprint on the blue bathmat will be important evidence.
Two independent imprint experts categorically excluded the possibility that the bloody footprint on the blue bathmat could belong to Rudy Guede.
Lorenzo Rinaldi stated:
““You can see clearly that this bloody footprint on the rug does not belong to Mr. Guede, but you can see that it is compatible with Sollecito.”
The other imprint expert print expert testified that the bloody footprint on the blue bathmat matched the precise characteristics of Sollecito’s foot.
You won’t find a better example of witnesses who aren’t reliable than Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.
They have both given multiple conflicting alibis and lied repeatedly.
Their deliberate and repeated lies were exposed by telephone and computer records, and by CCTV footage.
One question Judge Massei and Judge Cristiana and the six members of the jury will now be asking themselves is: if Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are innocent and had nothing to hide, why did they lie so deliberately and repeatedly?
The answer really isn’t very difficult to work out.
If you are still not sure what the answer is, this sentence from Amanda Knox’s handwritten note on 6 November 2007 should help you:
“Everything I have said in regards to my involvement in Meredith’s death, even though it is contrasting, are the best truth that I have been able to think.”
[SNIP]
