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Amanda Knox: Seattle Newspapers Back Their Girl

by | 19th, December 2010

AMANDA Knox, serving a 26 year jail term for the murder of Meredith Kercher, is back in the news. The defence boils down to one thing: will the Italian judge believe that Rudy Guede killed the British student Meredith Kercher alone? He’s serving 16 years jail for his part in the killing. His sentence has just been upheld. And doesn’t that imply that the judiciary believe he did not act alone?

Knox’s team want the DNA evidence used in the first trial to be examined independently. The court has agreed. The DNA evidence Knox questions concerns marks on a knife said to be the murder weapon, and the clasp of Kercher’s bra.

Her former lover Raffaele Sollecito, 25, who was given 25 years jails, also claims he is innocent.

Knox’s mother, Edda Mellas, says: “There’s hope.”

Also on Knox’s side are convicted gangster Luciano Aviello. He says his brother Antonio murdered Kercher. And there’s child killer Mario Alessi who says Rudy Guede told him Knox and Sollecito are innocent.

So much for the facts. Now, here’s the wonderfully named Seattle PI – Miss Knox is from Seattle – with its version of the events:

Ignoring botched evidence gathering, missing paperwork, and a case built on character assassination and dubious DNA, Judge Giancarlo Massei refused independent testing in the previous trial, saying the court had all the evidence it needed.

The judge is called – and get this – Pratillo Hellman. The Seattle PI’s Candace Dempsey takes a look:

Judge Hellmann is from the north–not tiny, clubby Perugia. He’s said to be independent, even a bit of a maverick.

See that slight on Perugia, venue of the killing and trial.

The trial goes on. And the media have taken sides…

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Amanda Knox, right, listens to her lawyer Maria Del Grosso, at the Perugia court, Italy, Saturday, May 21, 2011. A tearful Amanda Knox said Saturday that being in prison is "very frustrating and mentally exhausting" as the American student convicted of murdering her roommate insisted she is innocent and does not want to spend the rest of her life behind bars. Knox was emotional as she briefly addressed the appeals court in Perugia at the end of the session, her voice breaking at times and her eyes tearing up. She was convicted in 2009 of sexually assaulting and murdering Meredith Kercher of Britain, and sentenced to 26 years in prison. (AP Photo/Stefano Medici)



Posted: 19th, December 2010 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink