The failure and the triumph of Amanda Knox's story are both specific to an American woman in a foreign justice system whose framework differs critically from our own. If Knox were homely, or modest, or male, she'd probably never have been charged to begin with. But it's also likely that, once convicted, a different Amanda Knox wouldn't have held the interest of the court long enough to be freed. The passions of the investigators and, arguably, of Knox herself, led to her conviction and, paradoxically, to her acquittal and release.
Yesterday morning, American 24-year-old Knox addressed an Italian jury, in the final phase of her murder appeal. Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted in 2009 of murdering Knox's roommate, British student Meredith Kercher, when the young women were foreign exchange students in Perugia, Italy in 2007. Knox was initially sentenced to 26 years and faced the possibility of serving life. In yesterday's statement to the eight-member appeals panel, Knox spoke with the confidence of someone who has been served well by authority. Of the days-long interrogation that led to her murder confession and conviction, Knox told the panel that "I had a sense of duty before justice. I had a sense of duty before authority which I trusted...I blindly trusted them wholly, completely, absolutely." This has been described everywhere as a veiled attack on the Italian legal system, but that's not really what Knox delivered. Instead, her appeal showed a credulous belief that if she got her story across, justice would be served and she would be freed.
Amanda Knox is not "Hunger Games" heroine Katniss Everdeen, the young adult novels' scrappy rebel leader who, with little to lose, confronts and humiliates her oppressors. On the contrary, Knox had every reason, until her arrest in November 2007, to believe that cops and judges existed to protect her. Why wouldn't she? A gorgeous middle-class white American college student on a study year abroad is someone by whom society has done pretty well. Hers is the passion of a comfortable kid who can't quite believe things aren't working the way they're supposed to. And the most peculiar and riveting aspect of the appeal statement that helped free her is the persistence of that faith. She punctuated her points with respectful, but assertive, gesticulations. It's the way you dream (literally, in nightmares) about appealing to captors. "I'm not escaping truth. I never escaped. I'm not fleeing from justice," Knox said. No, guys, don't you get it? I'm on your side!
It worked. Well, her statement worked, following years of international pressure and a damning report in which court-appointed experts found 54 errors in the original investigators' procedure and handling of evidence. Hours after Knox spoke, the panel -- made up of two judges and six lay jurors -- rendered its verdict, acquitting Knox and Sollecito of murder (Knox was convicted and sentenced to time served for slandering her former boss during the murder investigation).
In Italy, investigators propound a single, supposedly objective story in order to establish the absolute truth of a crime. Their purpose, at least in theory, is to determine truth, not to prosecute a defendant. Defense lawyers' ostensible role is not to present an opposing story, but to support the defendant in the investigation. The judge is not neutral, but is a member of and guiding presence on the jury, which renders its verdict by simple majority. This "inquisitorial" process stands in contrast to the American adversarial system, in which two sides -- prosecution and defense, in a criminal trial -- present competing stories. An impartial jury must reach a unanimous verdict, and a presiding judge approves it.
The single-narrative structure of the Italian system lends itself to the kind of runaway train that was Amanda Knox's legal journey. First she was a Satanic ritual orgy killer; then she was jealous; at one point she was said to have slaughtered Kercher in a marijuana-induced rage. The case stuck because it was interesting to the investigators, and it survived the 2008 conviction of a third defendant, Rudy Guede, because the investigators shifted their version of Knox's (and Sollecito's) role as the evidence changed. They weren't necessarily looking to railroad her, but they couldn't look away from the case that involved a beautiful girl, foreign college kids, and DNA on a bra clasp. Knox's own lawyers notoriously characterized her as "Jessica Rabbit" at one point, to distinguish the sexy and warm defendant from the diabolical murderer the investigators saw.
American litigators are constantly accused of being too aggressive, of picking fights, of acting like pit bulls. Our two-sided system of zealous advocacy has serious flaws. But supposed impartiality has more insidious effects than does frank opposition. Amanda Knox's own zealous participation -- in fun, in adventure, in guileless cooperation with investigators -- ensnared her in legal and personal horror. "I insist on the truth," Knox said yesterday. "It deserves to be defended and acknowledged." She respectfully challenged authority to correct itself and to do its job. An admittedly privileged, American woman expected no less.
Arianna Huffington: Sunday Roundup
Ambi Sitham: The True Injustice of the Meredith Kercher Trial
and that of knox and her boyfriend was refuted..
Karma will meet up with her.
RIP Meredith.
I believe all of their work -- which has had a critical bearing on convictions -- should be sampled. If a pattern of pro-prosecution "mistakes" emerges, then all of their work should be reexamined.
If the police lab has been poorly managed, there's a price Italy must pay.
The Book Deal, The Movie Deal, the Barbara Walters/Diane Sawyer interview, the Oprah Channel Special, Talk Show are Talk Show appearance, magazine covers and photo spreads, selling the photo rights to her weeding photos, tabloid reports of her every move and on and on.
Now compare all that to what the 2 MEN who were just freed from jail in Iran after 2 years in prison will get. THEY WILL GET NONE OF THE ABOVE!
Nobody feels sorry for MEN, so there is no MARKET for all the above.
Women are SUCKERS for a sob story and have an overwhelming need to emphathize with other women who they feel have been wronged and the media exploits that to make millions.
Maybe. There is no denying that if she had not served three years in an Italian prison, her story would not have gotten any attention. If she is not guilty (and I don't believe she is), then I don't have a problem with her getting any compensation for the injustice done to her.
What is sad is the failure of the police to determine the murderer of Meredith Kercher, whose name is mentioned only twice in this blog.
Hint: the person who raped and killed Ms Kercher is behind bars. His DNA and bloody prints - as well as his own actions and confessions after the fact -- prove it.
It's over. Done. Get over the witch hunt.
Meanwhile Rudy Guede, an immigrant from Ivory Coast who had been tried separately and convicted of abetting Knox and Sollecito in their crime, remains in jail. If Knox and Sollecito were not guilty, whom was Guede abetting?”
His bloody hand print was on a pillowcase UNDER her dead body.
He wasn't "abetting" anyone -- he is convicted of raping her and of murdering her.
The only reason ANYONE is talking about him "abetting" anyone is the insane ravings of a conspiracy obsessed prosecutor.
Use your brain to think this one through: how many women are raped and murdered by a lone assailant world-wide in any given year.
When you hear hoofbeats in Perugia, expect horses, not zebras.
I don't see any argumentation in the article that supports this. Maybe I missed it.
I believe the authorities were simply looking for some low hanging fruit.
The head of Perugia's homicide squad Monica Napoleoni testified that all of Kercher's friends were horrified by the news of her murder as they waited to be interviewed at the police station.
"All were terrified except for Amanda and Raffaele. They seemed indifferent. They were making faces and kissing," Napoleoni told the court.
However, except for support of the idea I cite above, this is otherwise one of the best written articles on this subject I've ever read. Well Done Ms. Greenfield.
Of course, when the moment comes, because this was so public, be sure to publicly celebrate the life of Meredith that she lost so tragically, even though you barely knew her.
No one "stole" any years from her life - she served a sentence for a felony.
If Italy has to answer to anyone, it's to the Kercher family, whose sister and daughter was brutally murdered by a pack of animals (not my opinion, but the Supreme Court's opinion in their ruling on Rudy Guede).
ARE You Kidding? The world is not particularly fond of us; they are fond of our President but not us. The news that comes pouring out of here day after day, showing the world exactly what we are, does not make the rest of the world admire us for our sagacity or any other virtues.
But if you were delivering that statement with a wry private smile about the difference of vaunted expectations compared to reality, I am not going to say that she learned her lesson. Because she hasn't. I await the next shoe to drop because it will.
I think that wry private smile was a smile since she's finally home, grateful that she is in america, to see how many people were on her side, to have her feet in the grass. Go through something like that, have people cheering for you and try not to smile. If you didn't, I would be worried!
I watched one interview with an Italian lady who believed she was guilty b/c of her drug use and s*xual nature. Thats no reason to convict someone of murder. DNA evidence wasn't there, what evidence they had was mishandled. Stuff like that is thrown out on a daily basis here.
have you checked to see what the implications are for a standi ng president to intervene
in a matter of international justice?
The prosecution narative made no sense, and if it makes no sense, most of the time it isn't true.
Also, it's not clear at all that the appeals court jury was interested in tourism.