The family of Amanda Knox, the American student convicted in Italy of murdering her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, on November 1, 2007 with the participation of her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, has announced their intention to solicit the intervention of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to overturn their daughter's guilty verdict.
While there is certainly precedent, especially in recent decades, for such involvement in the cases of Americans charged with crimes abroad, they have usually involved cases where the accused were perceived to have been used as political pawns by so-called "rogue states," like Iran and North Korea, which have an officially-enshrined enmity towards the United States. The most obvious recent example is the "rescue mission" for Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the television journalists sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea for illegally entering the country. In the case of Lin and Lee, former president Bill Clinton brokered Ling and Lee's release, though it was made clear that it was a private humanitarian mission, not an officially-sanctioned State Department undertaking.
It must be acknowledged at the outset that the family of Amanda Knox is facing an ordeal mercifully unlike any that most parents will ever have to face. The prospect of being away from their daughter for 26 years while she serves her sentence for a murder they are convinced she is innocent of is literally unimaginable. As parents, they deserve sympathy and support, no matter what one's personal view of the case might be.
The murder of Meredith Kercher is a tragedy. If Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are innocent, then the tragedy is further compounded by a grotesque miscarriage of justice.
Serious questions have been raised about the way the trial was conducted and, specifically, the conduct of prosecutor Giuliano Mignini whose shocking, hyperbolic descriptions of Knox as a "she devil" and a "deviant" bore more than a passing resemblance to his lurid, penny-dreadful theories of black magic rituals and Satanism expressed during the investigation of the as-yet unsolved "Monster of Florence" serial killing. According to many American legal pundits, there is little to no physical evidence to connect Amanda Knox to the murder.
In addition, an Ivory Coast native, Rudy Guede, whose DNA was found inside Kercher's body, was convicted of the murder in a separate trial. Guede claims the sex with Kercher was consensual, and that, at some later point later on the night she was murdered, he saw an unidentified intruder stab her to death, and she died in his arms. The fact that Guede didn't call the police, but instead fled to Germany, didn't sit well with the jury. Before being sentenced to 30 years in prison, Guede pointed a finger at Knox and Sollecito, accusing the couple of pinning the crime on him.
Given these and other irregularities, it goes without saying that the standards and practices of the Italian legal system as manifested in the Knox-Sollecito trial (Sollecito, like Knox, was eventually sentenced to 26 years in prison) have raised the ire of many U.S. observers and trial-watchers. In widely circulated statement, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) expressed her dismay, and her intention to take up the verdict with Clinton's office:
I am saddened by the verdict and I have serious questions about the Italian justice system and whether anti-Americanism tainted this trial. The prosecution did not present enough evidence for an impartial jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Knox was guilty. Italian jurors were not sequestered and were allowed to view highly negative news coverage about Ms. Knox. Other flaws in the Italian justice system on display in this case included the harsh treatment of following her arrest; negligent handling of evidence by investigators; and pending charges of misconduct against one of the prosecutors stemming from another murder trial. I am in contact with the U.S. Ambassador to Italy and have been since the time of Ms. Knox's arrest. I will be conveying my concerns to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Still, the efficacy of State Department-level U.S. involvement in the process merits some debate, coming, as it would, into an international political climate tainted in the minds of many Europeans by what they consider eight-plus years of U.S. political and military entitlement: the abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, detainee torture, the "extraordinary rendition" kidnapping and torture of foreign nationals, and especially the continued failure to close Guantanamo Bay. Outside the borders of the U.S., the prison is perceived to be an enduring symbol of Bush-era American disregard for the basic tenets of the Geneva Convention. This view is widely held in Europe, and was doubtless on the minds of many Italian observers of the trial.
One primary currency of high-level diplomacy is the carrot-or-stick approach, which employs a combination of rewards and/or punishment to induce a change in outcome, including offering the opponent a chance to "save face." The question is, what inducement could the Secretary of State bring to bear in this particular case? A segment of Ms. Knox's supporters doubtless envision a hard line approach by Mrs. Clinton's office, such as the one she took earlier this year when she demanded the immediate the release of Iranian-American NPR journalist Roxana Saberi, who was charged with espionage in Iran, and sentenced to eight years in prison (then released when her sentence was reduced to a two-year suspended one.)
That said, Italy is not Iran or North Korea. Ms. Knox was not convicted in under an hour during a closed-door trial, as Saberi was. Nor does the Italian government have anything gain by thumbing its nose at the Obama presidency, as the North Koreans did with the show trial of Lee and Ling. Flawed as the trial appears, it was conducted transparently, by Italian standards, and in accordance with Italian law. When the United States loudly asserts its right to apply its own laws to foreigners in the form of "extraordinary rendition" flights, or indefinite detention without charge on "suspicion of terrorism," it's difficult to make a case when the shoe is on the other foot.
The Italian press is already making much of the "news" that Clinton's office will involve itself, though there has been no official comment from the State Department to that effect. The newspaper Corriere della Sera commented, "The (US) administration cannot close Guantanamo, yet if finds time to think about Perugia." Furthermore, while there is no doubt that Ms. Knox was the victim of deeply misogynistic characterizations, the charge of anti-Americanism is complicated by the fact that Ms. Knox's co-defendant, Raffaele Sollecito, is an Italian citizen, and Mr. Geuede is a native of the Ivory Coast.
Many Italians, for instance, remain unforgiving of the fact that an American military court acquitted US Marine fighter pilots Captain Richard J. Ashby, and his navigator, Captain Joseph Schweitzer, of involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide when, on February 3, 1998, their EA-6B Prowler military plane cut a cable cut a cable supporting a ski gondola near the town of Cavalese, resulting in the death of 20 people. The two men's acquittal put a strain on U.S. relations with Italy, and was perceived by the Italian people as a case of "might making right," with the military of a powerful, bully nation escaping justice and leaving 20 bodies in their wake.
It's appears essential for supporters of Miss Knox and Mr. Sollecito to continue their media campaign on her behalf, and to take advantage of the fact that, under Italian law, the appeals process is not based upon merit, but upon a guaranteed right to a two-stage appeals process, which, according to an article in the Christian Science Monitor by Nick Squires, could take up to five years.
Whether Mrs. Clinton's office becomes involved or not, it seems that a light touch from U.S. officialdom might secure the most favorable result for Ms. Knox, if for no other reason than to avoid the antagonizing perception of bullying right before a long appeals process even begins. Italian officials involved with the appeals process will be no less aware of the political climate inside Italy regarding this case during the appeals process than they were during the trial, and it would be tragic if outrage towards perceived U.S. dictation by the Obama administration was brought to bear on their decision making.
In the meantime, we should all brace ourselves for this to turn into a political hot potato, one that right-wing opponents of both Mrs. Clinton and President Obama will take full advantage of.
Follow Michael Rowe on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rowemichael
Murder of Meredith Kercher - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
How Strong Is the Evidence Against Amanda Knox? - TIME
Amanda Knox tortured, killed roommate, prosecutor says in closing ...
Amanda Knox sobs as guilty verdict read - CNN.com
Amanda Knox's Parents Investigated for Alleged Defamation - ABC News
Amanda Knox's Trial Has Already Ruined Many Lives | Newsweek ...
Prosecutors: Revenge Was Motive for Amanda Knox - Europe | Map ...
Meredith was allegedly killed on All Saints Day. There's a possibility that this scared Rudy and that's why he fled to France. Amanda and Raffaele can't remember what happened/conflict/changing alibis -
You must google All Saints Day, Nov 1st - the prosecutor may very well be correct with the satanism theories!
in an admittedly foreign land,
a young woman's tortured cold body lies in a grave.
Would the current partisan sideshow have been different if she'd been an American too?
My ideal would be to keep innocent people out of prison everywhere.
We can extradite to Italy the 23 Americans (including 22 CIA agents) convicted in absentia for the abduction of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr from the streets of Milan, a crime of which they are most probably guilty.
You might want to try that one just to prove to us how legal it is.
In case you weren't aware of it: US citizens, including CIA agents, are bound by Italian law when they are in Italy.
The U.S. has no more business second-guessing the Italian justice system than the government of Italy would have in interfering with a prosecution here of one of their citizens. And they have had plenty of high profile chances to do that, haven't they?
The U.S. needs to stay officially out of this matter.
To expend any diplomatic capital the US has on a situation like this would be foolish. We should not forget that due to our heavy handed actions and attitudes toward our European allies over the Bush years, we ought to tread somewhat lightly concerning the internal matters of Italy.
The diplomatic capital is there to protect Americans. We should use it to protect Americans.
Maybe Knox was innocent, I thought so at first. Heck, maybe she just saw the blood and the body, panicked, and tried to clean up the crime scene so the cops wouldn't think she was involved, and blamed someone she knew was innocent for the crime hoping to save herself.
But you have a dope user, who was at the scene and didn't call the cops. I don't feel too sorry for her.
Right now, Italian soldiers are part of the NATO coalition forces in Afganistan. If we piss off Italian public opinion, they can pull out their troops. That means American troops DIE.
Is it worth it???
She blamed the innocent man because the police coerced her into doing so.
As for NATO, justice is far more important than having other people help us fight.
I suggest you read a summary of Judge Micheli's report. (Micheli was the judge in the "fast-track" trial of Rudy Guede.)
You will see that - although many questions remain - it just isn't a case of Italian authorities framing an American student.
http://www.truejustice.org/ee/index.php?/tjmk/C343/
I freely acknowledge that America's record on such compensation is horrific. I'm furious over that and will refuse to ever serve on a jury because of it.
But if Amanda Knox serves a long prison term (complete with all these people making smug pronouncements of her guilt), and is then proved innocent, if she receives no compensation (or inadequate compensation) I really think I'm going to be inclined to start seeing Italy (or even Europe) as America's enemy.
I know the bar owner that she was forced to falsely accuse received a little bit of compensation. But it seemed to be of the "inadequate" variety from what I could tell.
She would be compensated.
"I really think I'm going to be inclined to start seeing Italy (or even Europe) as America's enemy."
Your train of thought is mind-boggling. By your logic, America is America's enemy right now. Moreover, just because other countries handle things differently than the US makes them enemies, even though they apply the rules to their own citizens? My, my ...
"I know the bar owner that she was forced to falsely accuse received a little bit of compensation. But it seemed to be of the "inadequate" variety from what I could tell."
Ms. Knox will liable for further damages. This is a separate civil case.
Yes, but the degree of compensation is a significant issue. If it is just a tiny token payment it won't be likely to sway my opinion toward Italy.
"Your train of thought is mind-boggling. By your logic, America is America's enemy right now. Moreover, just because other countries handle things differently than the US makes them enemies, even though they apply the rules to their own citizens? My, my ..."
I am extremely unhappy with the state of America's justice system. The statement "America is America's enemy right now" has merit.
I think it's a very safe bet that, given the lack of evidence and the way most Italians don't seem to care about the lack of evidence, if she is proved innocent and is not *adequately* compensated, America and Italy will become enemies.
Not saying I have a flawless knack for predicting the future, but I think that is a safe prediction.
"Ms. Knox will liable for further damages. This is a separate civil case."
I know. That seems obscene to me given the way the police pressured her into making the false charge.
It also is not likely to result in further compensation since she has no money to give.
And if she is proved innocent and then has to get compensation by suing the real murderer (who will likely also have very little money) that isn't going to work either.
Instead of gullible listening to talking heads on CNN and other disinformation networks and believing everything they hear, how about they start by doing what intelligent people would do, i.e., read about and understand the legal system under which this case was tried.
Sorry if my suggestion of war is offensive, but considering the way many Italians seem to be gloating over putting innocent people in prison, maybe it should be considered.
I guess they planned this whole Satanic ritual through some kind of mental telepathy because there is not one shred of evidence that these 3 ever were in the same place at the same time before this and there has never been any evidence ever presented of phone contact, internet messages or anything of that sort between the 3 of them.
I guess this Rudy Guede guy got really unlucky that he was the only one who left a mountain of his physical evidence behind of his presence at the crime scene while Knox left nothing and her boyfriend alledgedly left behind a bra clasp with his DNA (highly disputed by the defense) on it which unluckily for the prosecution was not collected ummmm until 6 weeks after the crime was committed, awesome police work how unlucky for them.
It was just unlucky for the prosecution that they said the "case was closed" after a few days, and then Rudy Guede came on the scene to sort of mess things up for them on that declaration.
But yes that's how it all went down in this Satanic blood sex murder orgy. Yes absolutely.
I can to point understand those that do not accept the verdict, but I must confess to be completely stunned that so many people seem to have forgotten that a young women was brutally murdered.
Surely acknowledging this simple fact is not asking to much.
It is Meredith family that have been given a life sentance without parole, whether your agree with the verdict or not is a FACT.
...still waiting...