Murder in Italy ~ Case Discussion

[Robyn]

A murder had occurred in Italy. The person that was murdered was a British student named Meredith Kercher. The story is still a new so all details are not being released. Meredith Kercher was basically raped and was killed with a possible pen knife to the throat. What is interesting about this case is that it may involve 3 other people, one being her roommate, an American student named Amanda Knox, her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito and some guy named Patrick Lumumba who is a Congolese National and that owns a bar where Amanda Knox works.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,309205,00.html

[InsultComicDog]

This is about to come to trial on January 16.

Background:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Meredith_Kercher

Amanda Knox voted Italian 'woman of the year'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/4076099/Amanda-Knox-voted-Italian-woman-of-the-year.html

[FDInLaw]

Amanda Knox spending 2nd Xmas in Italian jail

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hUwNJptZbnCIsu90VqOzxS7S2fzQD958HJJ00

[FDInLaw]

Judge Giancarlo Massei will begin to hear evidence on Jan. 16, when Knox and 24-year-old Italian Rafaelle Sollecito go on trial. Another suspect, 21-year-old Rudy Guede, has already been convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison at a fast-track nonjury trial in October for his part in Kercher's murder. Chief prosecutor Giuliano Mignini believes Knox and Sollecito are just as guilty. Both maintain their innocence.



http://www.newsweek.com/id/177300





THIS NEEDS IT'S OWN FORUM!!! Gonna ask!

[FDInLaw]

WOO HOO!

Thanks for the forum Deepwater! :seeya:

[Joseph Bell]

'Fast track non-jury trial' means he must have pleaded guilty. The other two I take it haven't come up for trial yet? Meredith Kercher was murdered 2 or 3 years ago? Seems a bit strange you then suddenly have one defendant plead guilty after all this time. I thought he may have been offered a deal but 30 years doesn't seem like much of a deal to me. Do the Italians have the death penalty? I'm going to think no. Anyway, good to see some justice happening.

[FDInLaw]

'Fast track non-jury trial' means he must have pleaded guilty. The other two I take it haven't come up for trial yet? Meredith Kercher was murdered 2 or 3 years ago? Seems a bit strange you then suddenly have one defendant plead guilty after all this time. I thought he may have been offered a deal but 30 years doesn't seem like much of a deal to me. Do the Italians have the death penalty? I'm going to think no. Anyway, good to see some justice happening.
I find the whole "fast-track" option interesting. It states in this video that it involves a judge and a few witnesses and that the defendant, if found guilty, faces a lesser charge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4rFqfB786E&NR=1

[One2Snoop]

I'm reading! :read: :seeya: So how exactly was Amanda Knox tied to the murder other than discovering the body? Did I read they found DNA on the victim belonging to Amanda?

[FDInLaw]

I'm reading! :read: :seeya: So how exactly was Amanda Knox tied to the murder other than discovering the body? Did I read they found DNA on the victim belonging to Amanda?
Still in study mode myself. . . I believe her dna was found on the knife believed to be the murder weapon (mind you, she lived there). Also, at one point IIRC she made a statement that she was there when the murder happened (in the other room plugging her ears).

[FDInLaw]

A blog that is devoted to this case. . . might make a good read.

http://perugia-shock.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html

[SaraSidle]

okay so does anyone think she is guilty?

[SaraSidle]

This is about to come to trial on January 16.

Background:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Meredith_Kercher

Amanda Knox voted Italian 'woman of the year'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/4076099/Amanda-Knox-voted-Italian-woman-of-the-year.html

interesting nic Dog. Welcome to Crime Library!!!!!!!!!! All opinions are welcome!!!!!!!!!

[FDInLaw]

This site looks like it might be another good resource:

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php

[FDInLaw]

okay so does anyone think she is guilty?
Not sure. . . yet.

[SaraSidle]

Not sure. . . yet.

you are so cute with your new avatar I just want to hug you. IMO

[FDInLaw]

The Many Faces of Amanda

As the defense lawyers prepare to make their clients' cases, Knox remains a contradictory and enigmatic figure. Mignini's dossier presents her as a cold-blooded killer. Her lawyers have leaked prison diaries that portray her as a romantic who writes poetry and love stories and who learned to play guitar ballads during her incarceration. Many who know Knox believe she's incapable of committing such a crime. Her parents have lately said that her much-publicized nickname of Foxy Knoxy was given to her for her soccer moves in high school, not her sexual prowess. Her sister Deanna recently said that Amanda only lost her virginity at the age of 19 and Knox's mother says she had no boyfriend in Italy before Sollecito. But her family may not have known the real Amanda. Investigators say that at least two men they interviewed testified to having had sex with Knox the month she arrived in Italy. And by her own account in a prison diary leaked to the media, she details her sexual escapades with at least seven men she'd been with in her three months in Italy before her arrest. She even wrote that she might have HIV and then she uses a process of elimination to narrow down who might have given it to her. The diary is part of the collection of evidence and could be damaging to Knox in a court trial. Recently leaked segments of her continuing tome paint a disturbing picture of her state of mind. In one entry, she writes: "I think it's possible that Raffaelle went to Meredith's house, raped her, then killed her and then when he got home, while I was sleeping, he pressed my fingerprints n the knife." In another entry, she wonders if she would be getting so many letters from men if she weren't so pretty. "If I were ugly, would they be writing me wishing me encouragement? I don't think so," Knox writes. "Jeez, I'm not even that good looking. People are acting like I'm the prettiest thing since Helen of Troy."

Shortly after her arrest, Knox admitted to being at the Perugian villa when Kercher was murdered. The confession was later thrown out of the body of evidence because of allegations of police brutality and coercion, but much of what she said in that original statement coincides with known elements of the case, including evidence gathered by CCTV footage from a nearby parking garage. Since recanting that statement, though, she has testified only that she was "very confused" about what happened. And in the days after the murder, numerous press accounts portrayed her as detached and uninterested in her roommate's brutal death, telling one reporter that she had been the one who found the body. Francesco Bruno, a criminologist who is studying this case and acts as an unpaid consultant for the Sollecito defense team, believes that the perception of Knox's role is complicated by her behavior both before and after the crime. On her Facebook and MySpace pages she wrote about rape and fantasy and posted pictures of herself in compromising positions, including one video where she appears drunk. "This is a murder committed out of fear," Bruno says. "Amanda is depicted as a black widow, she is seen as a dangerous and murderous woman who has caught all the members of the crime scene in her erotic coil."

What's likely to happen next? Guede's attorney Walter Biscotti has indicated that his client will seek to separate himself from his co-defendants. Guede is the only suspect who has admitted to being in Kercher's bedroom the night she died. He also admits having consensual sex with her, but denies murdering her. His DNA is in her room, but not on the alleged murder weapon. Knox's DNA is on the weapon, but her attorneys will argue that other DNA on the blade is less than a 100 percent match to Kercher's—which Knox's attorney says it is not enough to convict his client. Because Knox lived in the house, her DNA in the dwelling will not prove guilt and because Sollecito was her boyfriend and spent time there, his DNA in the house proves nothing, says her lawyer. But Sollecito owns the knife in question and, in fact, it was confiscated from his apartment nearby. His DNA has also been found—on the back of the bloodied bra that was cut off Kercher's body. Sollecito's father offered the defense that perhaps the girls had traded bras, but investigators believe that it proves Sollecito's involvement. His defense team has asked for CCTV camera footage of the morning of November 2, presumably to prove their client's whereabouts.




http://www.newsweek.com/id/146214

See link for complete article.

[FDInLaw]

you are so cute with your new avatar I just want to hug you. IMOThe mole's name is Krtek. . . a popular Czech cartoon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPNVWX0rYcI&feature=related


I think he is a cutie too. :)