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Innocent of all charges except Libel of Lumumba
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Good news for the Knox family of Seattle. She's free. First plane home, anyone?
Slander sentence declared "time served". So... welcome home Amanda!
Effectively? Perhaps as they can't practice there.. but their legal opinions mean a good deal to me, at least. Helluva lot more informed... especially as they are matched by experts in other countries. There was a rush to judgement with faulty evidence and talk about 'Satanic rituals'... no evidence of that either... but it's a small, rural town in a heavily Church dominated country.
Naah. Didn't meet rational criteria, but again... who will ever know because of the Keystone Cops getting a hold of it. I feel for the victim and her family. They might never know closure of any kind. Rankles a good deal.
That's why the prosecutors are appealing the decision. Despite an 'alleged' error in the DNA evidence, they believe they had the right persons for the crime all along. Unfortunately, she has now left Italy and the US will make it exceedingly difficult for the Italians to bring her back before the court, should the appeal be successful, which it very well could be if prosecutors better present their evidence/facts.
Time will tell, but I don't think this is over by a long shot... and what a travesty if the appeal is successful, Knox's guilt is proven and the US Gov't intervenes to save her from serving out the rest of her sentence. Should never happen, but expect it if the conviction is upheld.
You got that right because all the bleeding hearts will cry foul saying that she has been acquitted and that's that.
Thing is, the laws in Italy are different, and those are the laws which apply to this case...
If the boot were on the other foot and the roles were reversed, the US WOULD be crying foul right about now.
That's the trouble, the US wants its cake and eat it too.... which is quite kind, compared to what I've been hearing today.
Reading your posts inspires me to make a suggestion. Try acquainting yourself with the actual facts of the case and then stating a conclusion rather than vice versa. And one more thing. It IS over. Take my word for it. If you are not inclined to do that, because after all I am an American, familiarizing yourself with the facts of the case might lead you to that conclusion all on your own. And that would put you in accord with the 2 Italian judges and 6 Italian lay persons who made the decision in this case.
The whole case was a farce and a blot on the Italian police force.
The case against Raffaele Sollecito hinged on the knife; which contained no DNA of the victim and the bra clasp which was contaminated.
If he was not there the night of the murder then the prosecution case falls apart. In my POV a farcical middle-aged mysoginist fantasy at best.
Meredith Kercher was murdered by an African illegal immigrant drifter. Not exactly unusual; its that simple.
Strange how people always believe their nationals abroad are innocent no matter what the charge, and always assume the foreign legal system is inadequate in some way.
That will only be because your government will obstruct the Italians, regardless of irrefutable guilt should it be proven
Yeah.... nail on the head there, Fuzzy... nail om the head.
However, we have a few nationals in Indonesian prisons, some facing the death penalty over drug smuggling related charges, and our government is not obstructing the Indonesians, nor calling the legal system unreliable, etc, etc.
The difference being, Australia respects the sovreignity of other nations.
Too bad we can't say that of the US. Always wanting to put their noses where they don't belong.
But Gosh and golly, Fuzzy.... US Law NEVER makes a mistake....
...ever.
Interesting. Tried looking up American government involvement in the case and found nothing.... good deal of stuff about the media in all 3 countries, but not the government.
Anyone have a reliable (and relevant to the Knox case) reference on that?
No evidence of that having occurred. As for the future? Would really depend on the Italian Supreme Court's decision regarding the legal reasoning in the Italian Appeals Court's decision when it's fully written up... which could take months according to MSNBC. Why accuse before anything has occurred?
According to what I've read and pieced together, there's a really large body of evidence which points to the two being railroaded (together with some really dumb statements, etc. by Ms. Knox). Dumb doesn't, however, mean guilt or innocence.
Jafo, fuzzy and starkers... mistakes happen everywhere since human beings are involved. As for private and perhaps mis- or uninformed private citizens taking up cudgels, that happens everywhere as well.
Why don't we all relax and watch what develops?
I'd thought that at some point we'd (or anyone) would have differentiated between "Law" and how it's applied.
The possibilities for arguing, anger, rancor, etc. are endless...
No argument there Doc. Where humans are involved emotions tend to reign instead of common sense. Nature of the beast.
Not saying the US gov't interfered in the legals of the case. I am saying, however, that the US government WILL make it exceedingly difficult for the Italians IF guilt is established.
According to a State Department official being interviewed on TV regarding another matter. last year as I recall. "the US does not extradite its citizens". Given that statement, Knox will not face the music if and when the prosecution appeal is successful.
Doc, what you are reading is written by a one-eyed and biased US media putting its own slant on things, and obviously that would be nationalistic, in support of Knox. Take a look, however, at the news and opinions outside the US and you'll get a different perspective... and that isn't one of Knox or her boyfriend being railroaded.
So why exactly does that not apply to the DNA experts brought in to dispute the original test results; to the judges who upheld Knox's appeal; to the US press in its biased reporting on the matter? Why are the US experts undoubtedly right and everyone else involved with the case is wrong?
You might have heard that in connection with one of the countries mentioned below
From the Wikipedia (using that only because I don't know other legal reference texts):
"The consensus in international law is that a state does not have any obligation to surrender an alleged criminal to a foreign state as one principle of sovereignty is that every state has legal authority over the people within its borders. Such absence of international obligation and the desire of the right to demand such criminals of other countries have caused a web of extradition treaties or agreements to evolve; most countries in the world have signed bilateral extradition treaties with most other countries. No country in the world has an extradition treaty with all other countries; for example, the United States lacks extradition treaties with several nations, including the People's Republic of China, Namibia, the United Arab Emirates, North Korea, and Bahrain. Extradition is the delivery of an accused or a convicted individual by one state to another state on whose territory he/she is alleged to have committed or to have been convicted of a crime.
Failure to fulfill dual criminality - generally the act for which extradition is sought must constitute a crime punishable by some minimum penalty in both the requesting and the requested parties.
Political nature of the alleged crime - most countries refuse to extradite suspects of political crimes.
Possibility of certain forms of punishment - some countries refuse extradition on grounds that the person, if extradited, may receive capital punishment or face torture. A few go as far as to cover all punishments that they themselves would not administer.
Jurisdiction - Jurisdiction over a crime can be invoked to refuse extradition. In particular, the fact that the person in question is a nation's own citizen causes that country to have jurisdiction.
Citizenship of the person in question - some nations refuse to extradite their own citizens, holding trials for the persons themselves (see e.g. trial of Xiao Zhen). In some cases, such as that of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the suspect will not face criminal charges at all.
Such as the British Tabloid media? Naah. The British Tabloids were screaming for blood. The Italian ones too. That's part and parcel of the rush to judgment which seems by your account to be only in the US.
The Italian Appeals Court sought the opinion of whom they wished. There must have been some criteria for that. Why not ask them? Obviously they had some reasons for asking. Fact: The criteria and methods used by the Italian Police/Lab was way out of accepted criteria. They manipulated the test to yield "results" see my comment about Verdi and The Rolling Stones. The test was distorted way beyond what yields reliable results.
If we were using say, fingerprints as the criteria, 12 point comparison yields certain results. If you were to decrease the number of points to say, 6 or 4, you would generate a list of matches thousands long... if the suspect's name is among the thousands or tens of thousands on that list, it would not be correct to say, "Aha! Your fingerprints match! You're the guilty party." OK?
No, the matter I recall was regarding Australia and a US citizen accused of crimes committed while here on holiday. At the time an Australian TV journalist based in the US sought answers regarding the suspect's extradition, and the short sharp response was: "The US does NOT extradite its citizens." The official refused to comment beyond that.
Again, no. For mine, the British tabloid media is a disgrace, and the recent publicity regarding phone tapping and gutter tactics highlight the fact that they cannot be trusted. So no, it's not just the US press/media. My point was that if you only see/hear one view, from a US perspective, you're unlikely to get an impartial, more balanced view. Do I think the British, Italian press has handled it any better? They too have a biased view, which is why I've paid them no heed, either.
No, I have gleaned information regarding the Knox case from the ABC [Australian Broadcasting Commission] News, a no frills news service with no nationalistic, emotional ties to the case, and therefore less likely to be biased or agenda driven. My conclusion? Well I don't know if she's guilty or innocent, but I do believe she should have remained in Italy until the prosecution appeal/case is 100% resolved, one way or the other. Why, because she would get away with murder if guilt is established and the US gov't refuses to send her back to face the consequences.
Again, this is the opinion of so-called experts, those paid to support the Know appeal... and like assholes, everyone has an opinion... including experts. And what makes these experts any more qualified and/or correct than the ones who conducted the original tests? What if a third/fourth/fifth set of independent experts agreed with the original conclusion, that Knox and her then boyfriend were implicated? Would the US press report fairly if that eventuated, or would it hammer them also?
Sounds to me like they all want to be right even if they're not. Lets not forget that newspapers, reporters, are supposed to be impartial. In what world do you live? They're as biased as everyone else is.
Arguing about this is pointless. She's free and I'm happy about it because the process of her trial was so faulty.
You cite anecdotes, but no details. You don't accept the expert testimony... what can I say?
Uvah, I stated the media was biased. It's biased everywhere. It caters to various interests in order to sell advertising.
It used to be rather different, but those days are long gone and unlikely to return.
Totally agree
What can you say? Dunno!
What can I say? Pay enough and you will find experts to deliver the desired result
As for justice, actual and otherwise, well that can be paid for, too.
Anyhow......
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