Page 77 - Phonebox Magazine March 2011

The Italian Job
by Steve Clark
On Thursday 1st november 2007 Meredith Kercher, a British student from Coulsdon in surrey, was murdered in her flat in the Italian city of Perugia. Following a somewhat bizarre and allegedly botched investigation, three people were eventually charged with murder and various other offences and were subsequently found guilty and sent to prison. One of the three, rudy hermann Guede, opted for a ‘fast-track’ trial following his extradition from Germany. he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but this was subsequently reduced to 16 years on appeal. There was strong forensic evidence at the scene to suggest that Guede was at the scene at the time of the murder, including dna on and inside Meredith’s body and also on her shirt, bra and handbag. There was also a bloody handprint on Meredith’s pillow that matched that of Guede. The two other defendants, raffaele sollecito and amanda Knox, protested their innocence throughout their trial. There was no apparent motive for their involvement in the crime and no credible evidence to implicate them at the murder scene. despite this, the Italian court found them both guilty of murder. raffaele sollecito, an IT student from the university of Perugia, was sentenced to 25 years and amanda Knox, a university of Washington language student from seattle was sentenced to 26 years. amanda and two other girls had been living at the property with Meredith.
victim’s neck. The part of Meredith’s bra strap was retrieved from the floor of the flat some 49 days after the murder and was alleged to have traces of sollecito’s dna on it. during those seven weeks when it was left on the floor it would obviously have been subject to contamination.
The murder and subsequent trials received widespread coverage in Britain, america and Italy. There was a general feeling amongst many americans that the Italian justice system had failed totally and that amanda was the unfortunate victim of anti-american propaganda. Many Italians resented the apparent attacks on their judicial system and felt that justice had been done. Clearly, it was very important that the Kercher family could have some closure and satisfaction that the person or people responsible for the loss of their beloved daughter had been dealt with appropriately. The case resulted in some very polarised opinions and a great deal of publicity for a campaign to establish the innocence of amanda Knox and raffaele sollecito. In april 2010, appeals were lodged both by the prosecution and by the defence teams. The prosecution claimed that the sentences handed out to amanda and raffaele were too lenient and demanded that they should be increased to life terms. The defence appeals related to amanda’s questioning by police and also the dubious nature of the dna and other evidence submitted. The defence appeal began on 11th december 2010 before the appeal Court of assizes. On december 18th 2010 the court announced that it would re-
examine the dna evidence used to convict amanda and raffaele, and appointed two experts from the university of rome to conduct the review.
It was established early on in the process that neither amanda Knox nor raffaele sollecito had put themselves in a very good light when first questioned by the police. neither had a provable alibi to cover their movements on the evening in question. amanda had initially given a statement implicating another individual with the murder, but it was soon established that he had a cast iron alibi. It was suggested that she had given a false statement under
extreme duress and had been assaulted and threatened by the police during many hours of interrogation, and the statement was subsequently withdrawn. It seems highly probable that the contradictions in the defence alibis and uncertainties about their movements may well have been due to their use of recreational drugs. There was also a degree of false reporting in the press during the build up to the initial trial of amanda and raffaele.
The case continues to attract widespread interest. some seven books have been written to date. Four television documentaries were produced, three of which were shown in the usa and a further one on Channel 4 in the uK. There is now a TV film which was released in February 2011. Both the Kercher family and the defence teams have requested that the film be withdrawn from circulation for differing reasons. One blogger, Michelle Moore commented: -
“anyone who knows me knows that I’ve become active in my advocacy for the innocence of amanda and raffaele, but this is not about that right at this moment. For the people passionate about this case there has
been much interest in knowing which side this movie is going to lean towards. I really don’t care about that at this moment. right now what I care about is that ‘Lifetime’ would make a movie and show a scene so extraordinarily inappropriate and graphic – something so painful for Meredith’s loved ones.”
Meredith Kercher’s funeral was held on 14th december 2007 at Coulsdon Parish Church, with more than 300 people attending. she has subsequently been awarded a posthumous degree by the university of Leeds. since the trial, senior prosecutor Giuliano Mignini has been convicted of abuse of office and sentenced to 16 months in prison for illegal phone tapping. a number of support groups have been set up by those who believe that amanda and raffaele are innocent of the murder of Meredith Kercher. Many people are also writing to the two of them as they await the outcome of their appeals. In a recent letter to one of the support groups, raffaelle wrote:
“I am so thankful to receive every day such great support from many people all over the world. after the court decision to review the forensic dna analysis, amanda and I are so happy and much more hopeful for the truth to be revealed than ever. as for me, I am spending my time reading, writing and studying. Prof. alfredo Miliani, my tutor who’s helping me with university exams, now is back from China. he had a long conference period. I’m studying for three exams now about computer systems. I will take the exams in March. Two days ago I changed my roommate because the last one has been released on Monday. My new roommate is kind and polite. he is a 50 year old man who likes to read a lot as well, thus we match perfectly. I hope these new forensic documents will be available as soon as possible. We are following the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Judge Claudio Pratillo hellman commented that the 90 day re-examination of the dna evidence would ‘remove any reasonable doubt’, although a former FBI agent, steve Moore, expressed concerns:
“The methods and the procedures they used were so completely unsound, I don’t know if there is anything you can really have confidence in,” Moore said. “Because of the mistakes, because of the sloppiness, two innocent kids have lost 3 years of their lives.”
now, in a further strange turn of events, amanda’s parents have been ordered to stand trial by a court in Perugia for apparently libelling the Italian police! Curt Knox and Edda Mellas told a newspaper that amanda had been abused by police during their initial investigations. They claimed that following her arrest amanda had been refused an interpreter, deprived of food and water and physically and verbally abused. These allegations are denied by the police in Perugia. The trial is scheduled to begin on 4th July, by which time the eventual fate of amanda and raffaele should be known.
Links:
Email: stephen.clark89@yahoo.co.uk Website:
http://tinyurl.com/km9hdd
steve on Facebook:
http://facebook.com/Tiliacus
support site for amanda & raffaele:
http://tinyurl.com/63d6g75
Amanda Knox
The entire prosecution appears to have been based not on forensic evidence but on a strange fantasy dreamed up by the lead Italian prosecutor Giuliano Mignini. he suggested that amanda Knox had gone to the house on the evening in question accompanied by sollecito and Guede. he further suggested that the three had forced Meredith to partake in some perverted sexual fantasy which eventually resulted in her death. rather than gathering tangible evidence to solve the crime, Mignini appears to have tried to find circumstantial factors to fit in with his fantasy. The main dna ‘evidence’ produced by the prosecution consisted of a knife found at sollecito’s house and a clasp from Meredith’s bra strap. The knife was said to have amanda’s dna on the handle, not surprising given that if was her knife, and tiny traces of Meredith’s dna on the blade. The traces of the latter were said to be so insignificant that they would not have been regarded as admissible evidence in a British court. There was also no trace of blood on the knife. It was, however, possible that the knife could have made one of three wounds in the
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