Features Dec 10, 2009 at 4:00 am

From What I Know of Her, I Know Amanda Knox Didn't Kill Meredith Kercher—and It's Obvious Who Did

all photos by madison paxton

Comments

1
Swimming in denial.
2
Nice job factoring in her multiple accounts of what happened, the fact that her and her bf's cell phone was turned of that night, conveniently, and that she allegedly enjoyed all the attention from this at first.
3
This article is trying too hard.

Vibrator as a gag gift? Anyone who uses one knows they're pretty personal items.
4
There is way too much doubt to be able to convict Amanda.

Good job Stranger - finally finding some other source to write about Amanda than that disgusting Mudede. Finally.
5
Would it really have been so hard to find someone not personally acquainted with Amanda Knox to write this article?
6
I think I've seen this on The Onion.

"From what I know ..." isn't the most convincing statement. Not sure about the author, but I use it in place "I could be wrong, but ..."

Not saying she is or isn't guilty; I don't think the evidence supports either statement very well, but I'd be willing to place a sizable wager that the only folks who "know" anything in this case are lying or deceased.
7
Supergp, places like Lover's Castle exist because of the gag gift industry. If not for bachelorette parties, who would go there?

Probably, actual women who wanted vibrators. To stimulate their clitorises. Who gives a shit why Amanda Knox had a vibrator?

It's been awhile, but I remember hearing it was shaped like a bunny. I don't know what your experience with sex is, but that has "gag-gift" written all over it. But again though, why does it matter? I didn't like discovering it, but my mom had a vibrator, and it didn't look nothing like a bunny. She still made me mac'n'cheese every time I scraped my knees and had dinner on the table at least three times a week.

Maybe Amanda Knox was totally involved in a satanic, marijuana-fueled hate orgy where she murdered a girl because of jealousy and lust. But probably not. And regardless, what the courts presented was nothing but their OWN reasonable doubt.

By the way, can somebody answer a question for me? Seems like DNA used to be sperm, spit, or blood. How do you get "DNA" on stuff nowadays? Can you really just touch something and- blammo- DNA?
8
I'm really serious about the DNA question. Can somebody help me out here? I'll make it my first foray into Questionland and see what bubbles up.
9
In the evidence and the prosecutor's theory there are holes big enough for a Boeing to fly through - surely enough for reasonable doubt. But I don't know if reasonable doubt exists as a condition in Italy.

In any case, for me it all boils down to two inexplicable oddnesses. Why were Amanda's and Raffaele's cell phones turned off for those particular times? And Who buys bleach twice on a holiday morning (Nov. 2 was a holiday) unless there is something *really* urgent to use it on?

Could be coincidences, but something tells me something is not right.
10
The evidence against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito is overwhelming:

Amanda Knox’s DNA was found on:

1. On the double DNA knife and a number of independent forensic experts - Dr. Patrizia Stenoni, Dr. Renato Biondo and Professor Francesca Torricelli - categorically stated that Meredith’s DNA was on the blade.

2. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the ledge of the basin.

3. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the bidet.

4. Mixed with Meredith blood on a box of Q Tip cotton swabs.

5. Mixed with Meredith’s blood in the hallway.

6. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the floor of Filomena’s room, where the break-in was staged.

7. On Meredith’s bra according to Raffaele Sollecito’s forensic expert, Professor Vinci.

A woman’s bloody shoeprint, which matched Amanda Knox’s foot size, was found on a pillow under Meredith’s body. The bloody shoeprint was incompatible with Meredith’s shoe size.

Two independent imprint experts categorically excluded the possibility that the bloody footprint on the blue bathmat could belong to Rudy Guede.

Lorenzo Rinaldi stated:

"“You can see clearly that this bloody footprint on the rug does not belong to Mr. Guede, but you can see that it is compatible with Sollecito.”

The other imprint expert print expert testified that the bloody footprint on the blue bathmat matched the precise characteristics of Sollecito’s foot.

An abundant amount of Sollecito's DNA was found on Meredith's bra clasp. Meredith's bra was removed some time after she had been killed and Rudy Guede had fled the scene.

The Murder Dynamic strongly indicates that Meredith was attacked by several people.

Barbie Nadeau wrote:

"Countless forensic experts, including those who performed the autopsies on Kercher's body, have testified that more than one person killed her based on the size and location of her injuries and the fact that she didn't fight back—no hair or skin was found under her fingernails."

The fact that the break-in was clearly staged with a number of witnesses testifying that there were shards of glass strewn on top of Filomena's clothes. This proves that the room was the window was broken after the room had been ransacked.

There were no marks to indicate that the somebody had climbed up the wall and no blood or DNA on the broken glass.

No-one managed to the scale the wall and climb through the window when Sollecito's defence team attempted to show that it was possible.

The witness testimonies implicate Knox and Sollecito, especially the testimony given by Antonio Curatolo and Nara Capezalli.

Antonio Curatolo testified that he saw Amanda Knox and Raffale Sollecito watching the gate of the cottage from Piazza Grimana on the night of the murder. Curatolo is regarded as an honest and reliable witness by Judge Paolo Micheli.

Nara Capezalli claimed she heard a terrified scream and then two or more people running away.

Another witness Antonella Monacchia corroborated Nara Capezalli's testimony about hearing a woman's loud scream.

Amanda Knox's and Raffaele Sollecito's mobile activity on the night of the murder was suspicious and highly unusual. They turned off their mobiles at approximately the same time shortly before Meredith was killed.

Police investigator, Letterio Latella, testified that Knox's and Sollecito’s mobile phones were inactive most of the night, and that activity on their mobile phones stopped almost simultaneously.

Knox's and Sollecito's mobile phones were both turned on at 6.02am on 2 November 2007, which proves that they were lying when they claimed they didn't wake up until after 10.00am.

Latella stated that he did not find any evidence of a similar “blackout” of Knox's and Sollecito’s mobile phones in the month before the murder.

Investigators have said that both Knox and Sollecito’s phones were usually on until late at night and would come back on in the late morning.

Judge Paolo Micheli claimed that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito knew precise details about Meredith's murder that they couldn't have known if they weren't involved.

Amanda Knox knew that Meredith had been sexually assaulted before the results of Dr. Lalli’s autopsy report were presented to the court on 8 November.

It was testified that Knox also revealed other accurate details about Meredith’s murder before the results of the autopsy were made public. She told witnesses on 2 November 2007 that Meredith had died “in slow agony”.

Mignini asked Knox on 17 December 2007 how she could possibly have known this if she was not actually there. Knox began to cry, and refused to answer the question.

Knox spoke about Meredith's killers to witnesses at the police station before the scientific police found forensic evidence that three people were involved in Meredith's murder. Knox also admitted she and Sollecito were at the cottage when Meredith was killed.

Knox claimed that she heard Meredith screaming, and screaming was reported by two of the witnesses, Nara Capezalli and Antonella Monacchia. Each testified that they heard a loud scream on the night Meredith was murdered.

Knox also claimed that she was in Piazza Grimana on the night of the murder. This claim is supported by Antonio Curatolo, who testified that he saw Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito in Piazza Grimana on several occasions that night.

Judge Paolo Micheli also pointed out that Meredith's bra had been removed some time after she had been killed and Rudy Guede had fled the cottage.

Amanda Knox voluntarily admitted that she involved in Meredith's murder in her handwritten note to the police on 6 November 2007. This confession contained significant elements of truth.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito both gave multiple conflicting alibis and lied repeatedly. Their lies were exposed by telephone and computer records, and by CCTV footage. Neither Knox nor Sollecito have credible alibis for the night of the murder despite three attempt each.

Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini pointed out that 19 separate judges thought there was a strong case against Knox and Sollecito:

"The case went before 19 judges in the end at various levels from a preliminary hearing, through to three levels of re-examination (bail hearings) and all found in the prosecution's favour."

11
The U.S. and Italian criminal systems are notably different. Apart from the differences in substantial criminal law, those in criminal procedure are pronounced..

In 2006 the highly discussed law n.46 introduced the standard of “proof beyond a reasonable doubt" ( prova “al di là di ogni ragionevole dubbio") in the Italian Criminal Procedure Code. The law does not define the standard but just states it.
12
The evidence against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito is overwhelming:

Amanda Knox’s DNA was found on:

1. On the double DNA knife and a number of independent forensic experts - Dr. Patrizia Stenoni, Dr. Renato Biondo and Professor Francesca Torricelli - categorically stated that Meredith’s DNA was on the blade.

2. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the ledge of the basin.

3. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the bidet.

4. Mixed with Meredith blood on a box of Q Tip cotton swabs.

5. Mixed with Meredith’s blood in the hallway.

6. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the floor of Filomena’s room, where the break-in was staged.

7. On Meredith’s bra according to Raffaele Sollecito’s forensic expert, Professor Vinci.

A woman’s bloody shoeprint, which matched Amanda Knox’s foot size, was found on a pillow under Meredith’s body. The bloody shoeprint was incompatible with Meredith’s shoe size.

Two independent imprint experts categorically excluded the possibility that the bloody footprint on the blue bathmat could belong to Rudy Guede.

Lorenzo Rinaldi stated:

"“You can see clearly that this bloody footprint on the rug does not belong to Mr. Guede, but you can see that it is compatible with Sollecito.”

The other imprint expert print expert testified that the bloody footprint on the blue bathmat matched the precise characteristics of Sollecito’s foot.

An abundant amount of Sollecito's DNA was found on Meredith's bra clasp. Meredith's bra was removed some time after she had been killed and Rudy Guede had fled the scene.

The Murder Dynamic strongly indicates that Meredith was attacked by several people.

Barbie Nadeau wrote:

"Countless forensic experts, including those who performed the autopsies on Kercher's body, have testified that more than one person killed her based on the size and location of her injuries and the fact that she didn't fight back—no hair or skin was found under her fingernails."

The fact that the break-in was clearly staged with a number of witnesses testifying that there were shards of glass strewn on top of Filomena's clothes. This proves that the room was the window was broken after the room had been ransacked.

There were no marks to indicate that the somebody had climbed up the wall and no blood or DNA on the broken glass.

No-one managed to the scale the wall and climb through the window when Sollecito's defence team attempted to show that it was possible.

The witness testimonies implicate Knox and Sollecito, especially the testimony given by Antonio Curatolo and Nara Capezalli.

Antonio Curatolo testified that he saw Amanda Knox and Raffale Sollecito watching the gate of the cottage from Piazza Grimana on the night of the murder. Curatolo is regarded as an honest and reliable witness by Judge Paolo Micheli.

Nara Capezalli claimed she heard a terrified scream and then two or more people running away.

Another witness Antonella Monacchia corroborated Nara Capezalli's testimony about hearing a woman's loud scream.

Amanda Knox's and Raffaele Sollecito's mobile activity on the night of the murder was suspicious and highly unusual. They turned off their mobiles at approximately the same time shortly before Meredith was killed.

Police investigator, Letterio Latella, testified that Knox's and Sollecito’s mobile phones were inactive most of the night, and that activity on their mobile phones stopped almost simultaneously.

Knox's and Sollecito's mobile phones were both turned on at 6.02am on 2 November 2007, which proves that they were lying when they claimed they didn't wake up until after 10.00am.

Latella stated that he did not find any evidence of a similar “blackout” of Knox's and Sollecito’s mobile phones in the month before the murder.

Investigators have said that both Knox and Sollecito’s phones were usually on until late at night and would come back on in the late morning.

Judge Paolo Micheli claimed that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito knew precise details about Meredith's murder that they couldn't have known if they weren't involved.

Amanda Knox knew that Meredith had been sexually assaulted before the results of Dr. Lalli’s autopsy report were presented to the court on 8 November.

It was testified that Knox also revealed other accurate details about Meredith’s murder before the results of the autopsy were made public. She told witnesses on 2 November 2007 that Meredith had died “in slow agony”.

Mignini asked Knox on 17 December 2007 how she could possibly have known this if she was not actually there. Knox began to cry, and refused to answer the question.

Knox spoke about Meredith's killers to witnesses at the police station before the scientific police found forensic evidence that three people were involved in Meredith's murder. Knox also admitted she and Sollecito were at the cottage when Meredith was killed.

Knox claimed that she heard Meredith screaming, and screaming was reported by two of the witnesses, Nara Capezalli and Antonella Monacchia. Each testified that they heard a loud scream on the night Meredith was murdered.

Knox also claimed that she was in Piazza Grimana on the night of the murder. This claim is supported by Antonio Curatolo, who testified that he saw Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito in Piazza Grimana on several occasions that night.

Judge Paolo Micheli also pointed out that Meredith's bra had been removed some time after she had been killed and Rudy Guede had fled the cottage.

Amanda Knox voluntarily admitted that she involved in Meredith's murder in her handwritten note to the police on 6 November 2007. This confession contained significant elements of truth.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito both gave multiple conflicting alibis and lied repeatedly. Their lies were exposed by telephone and computer records, and by CCTV footage. Neither Knox nor Sollecito have credible alibis for the night of the murder despite three attempt each.

Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini pointed out that 19 separate judges thought there was a strong case against Knox and Sollecito:

"The case went before 19 judges in the end at various levels from a preliminary hearing, through to three levels of re-examination (bail hearings) and all found in the prosecution's favour."
13
@8 Look at this article from the London Times, at the end of the article there is an ubiased look at the DNA evidence:

http://www.milforddailynews.com/opinion/…

14
Thanks, @13, but I can't click on your link because you're not registered. I'd like to read it. If you see this, please send it to bradcross at gmail dot com.
15
Took me a while to find the link, but it is worth the read:
http://www.milforddailynews.com/opinion/…
16
5 - you mean Mudede? They already did that.
17
and 5...I think the POINT is that this person can tell us something about her character, from experience. Seems like a good counterpoint for the other extreme, the character assassination supplied by the prosecution.
18
13 - can you READ? Can you comprehend what you read? You call that "impartial?" That article is saturated with opinion and interpretation.
19
@15

Come on man. Wendy Murphy? That cretin is still defending Nifong ALA Duke Lacrosse. She's an idiot. Google her.
20
I didn't read this article. I did note, however, its length and breadth, like a poetry submission to a slam that does not welcome Walt Whitman disguised as Sylvia Plath.

For the life of me, I will never understand the *media's* obsession with pretty blonde damsels as purported news. It's not news to me. And no, I really don't give a shit.
21
I concur; someone, not a friend, should have written this.

Amanda was in a new (and apparently) fun situation. All of us, react differently, behave differently when we are in a new place. Do you act the same when you are on vacation? So Amanda acting out in certain ways is not all that surprising.

Motive is important and the fact that the prosecutor came up with different ones is troubling. However, you do not, even in the States, have to have a motive to convict. You also don't have to sequester a jury (as Senator Cantwell keeps going on about).

You can turn that around and ask why Amanda behaved in what is considered odd/off ways after the murder. Maybe she's so innocent it never entered her head to not do cartwheels in the police station. Or kiss her boyfriend while police were searching her apartment where her roommate was murdered.

The fact that she and her boyfriend can't reconcile their stories of where she spent the night on the night of the murder is troubling. If they were either too drunk or high to know where one person was, how can they know what happened or did not happen?

Why didn't her parents immediately call the American Consulate and request help? Your child is in a foreign country and your child's roommate is murdered and you do nothing? I wouldn't have listened to my child; I would have called the US Consulate and gotten a lawyer for her.

Also, there is a lot of other evidence. The clumsy staged break-in, Amanda's outing of her boss. Why would she do that? Did they suggest to her it was a black man and she named the first one she knew?

I think one thing that would REALLY help that I haven't heard (and I don't know if it happened at the trial) is what the two other roommates had to say. They were not there but they could shed some light on the relationship between Meredith and Amanda. Meredith's relatives made it sound like she did not like Amanda's behavior while the author of this piece makes it sound like they were buddies. The roommates could probably say a lot about that relationship as well as Amanda's behavior and her relationship with her boyfriend.

While I feel that the forensic end was not handled well, there is a lot that doesn't make sense. My feeling is that Amanda and her boyfriend may not have done it but stumbled upon the scene too drunk/high to understand what was happening and ended up lying because they weren't sure what happened or what they did. It's never a good idea to lie when you have no idea about what happened or didn't happen. This may have been the mistake that is their undoing.

Italian appeals are pretty good. My belief is that they will knock it down to less than 10 years, give her credit for time served and she'll be out in 6 years.
23
13 - Yeah, onion is right. I'm not sure you understand the definition of 'unbiased'.

FFS, the second last line of the damn thing says "the facts clearly support Knox's conviction"

The writer also claims that Amanda lacks a conscience and is the ""type" who can kill". Yeahhhhh...
24
Mignini is a freak. He's a serial liar with a pervert's agenda.
25
"Maybe she's so innocent it never entered her head to not do cartwheels in the police station. Or kiss her boyfriend while police were searching her apartment where her roommate was murdered."

I've known people like that. I don't think either point is incriminating in the slightest.

Also, you'd think that if she'd spent her life being an outwardly nice, bubbly girl and "hiding" a dark, murderous side - she herself would be more taken aback after letting that hidden side out.

I personally think she's innocent. Not all killers fit a profile, but there seems to usually be at least something that fits it. I haven't heard anything about Amanda that really strikes me as abnormal.
26
She may not be the one who cut the girl's throat, but she was there and she lied about it.

I'm glad they are all going to prison. This is one mess her daddy won't be able to buy her way out of.
27
@20 with the detached-hipster cartoon icon, perhaps someday someone you love will be have their character and future willfully destroyed in front of the entire world, then put in prison for life for something there's pretty good reason to doubt they did.

Will you give a shit, then?

I bet you think you're so modern, hip, and subversive to dismiss as unimportant a potential miscarriage of justice because its victim is young, white, female, and American. But really you're just dismissing anything that doesn't disturb your navel-gazing. Think of the most selfish conservative douchebag you can imagine. Your actions are no different.
28
@20 with the detached-hipster cartoon icon, perhaps someday someone you love will be have their character and future willfully destroyed in front of the entire world, then put in prison for life for something there's pretty good reason to doubt they did.

Will you give a shit, then?

I bet you think you're so modern, hip, and subversive to dismiss as unimportant a potential miscarriage of justice because its victim is young, white, female, and American. But really you're just dismissing anything that doesn't disturb your navel-gazing. Think of the most selfish conservative douchebag you can imagine. Your actions are no different.
29
Harry Rag's 397 bullet-points for conviction (@12) includes multiple statements that are rooted in fallacy.

For example, one of his multiple entries on the "staged break-in" remind us that "no-one managed to the scale the wall and climb through the window when Sollecito's defence team attempted to show that it was possible."

Except that there are photographs of them doing just that.

Most of those bullet points read like the end of a game of "telephone." Very few of them contain accepted facts, and many of them play off "eerie coincidences" about mobile phones where specifics are changed or invented just to reinforce the eeriness.

None of them should be taken at face value.
30
@13- sincere thanks again, but that's not conclusive. Also, your assertion that it's unbiased is out of this world. Look at this:

"What "type" of person points the finger at an innocent man to save her own neck?

Maybe the same "type" who lacks a conscience - which is the same "type" who can kill."

I live in a terrible, midsize American city. I work for a newspaper. This is the same kind of thing that would not be published in our letters to the editor precisely because of bias. I'm curious about whether or not she's really guilty, but the article you suggested I read, under the pretense of being non-biased, is biased, tabloid garbage.

Like I was saying, can someone tell me how much DNA you could realistically leave on a bra clasp by touching it? Maybe this case shouldn't take up so much of my time, as someone totally uninvolved, but I am really curious.
31
Wow, who knew that the group of unemployed jagoffs that comment on Slog were all freelance roving Italian/American forensic/criminal pathologist-lawyers.

Guys, I prey that this economy gets better.
32
There was way too much at stake, i.e. very long prison terms, to justify these three clinging to such shoddy, ever-shifting, crap stories about what happened, where they were, what they were doing, and what they were 'too high to remember' (uh, has anyone here blacked out after smoking hash? No? Me neither). A & R were caught by surprise by the police who were investigating the dumped mobile phones, in the act of staging their cover up/framing Rudy as the lone perp. Tho the motive for the killing may be unclear--their motive for perjury is easy to imagine: this was a premeditated act, they knew it, and were trying everything they could think of to make it look otherwise. I think the killing was unplanned, but the three planned to do something unwholesome to Meredith. Someone needed to invite Rudy in, his story of being invited by Meredith is highly unlikely. Either AK grew to dislike her roommate, or thought she was too prudish/judging her, or was simply unraveling--too far from home, etc. This Stranger piece was more or less useless fluff. It tells us nothing about AK's personality, state of mind etc in Nov. 2007. OK, she wasn't decapitating toads as a kid. She could have snapped in this new, foreign environment. A lot of college kids lose it when the pressure's on. She had worked hard to get into this program. What if she was blowing it? How were her studies going?

Ms. Paxton, what else can you tell us about Amanda? She always seemed nice? Quiet, kept to herself, no trouble to anyone at all?
33
Madison,

Since you're her good friend, why don't you address some of the behavior Amanda exhibited here in Seattle before she went to Italy; rock throwing riot party that the police officer reportedly stated looked like a "scene from Bagdad", the "prank" she initiated as an April Fools joke on another UW dorm resident complete with ski masks, then scaring the shit out of the poor girl - Knox and Co. "pretending" to assault her, and, the comments Amanda made to her boss at World Cup Coffee about how funny it was that "her people killed his people" because he was Jewish and Knox, of German heritage.

There is much more, but this would be a start to clear up all of these "rumors."

Madison?
34
Amanda Knox stated today that she thought her trial was fair:

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/AmandaKnox/aman…

Her defense team has also stated on the record that the trial followed procedure. The jury has stated that they decided on the evidence, not the media or the prosecutor's theory of the crime. The US State department has been present at the trial and available to Amanda since her arrest.

There is no reason to accuse the Italian court system or its prosecutor of injustice.
35
stay in America if you want to be protected by American laws!

in Italy, the law says you are GUILTY until proven innocent!
36
My prediction: Amanda Knox will go down as the stupidest Stranger cover and most pointless and under-read article subject in the history of The Stranger.
37
Madison: there's nothing in her past to indicate she would commit heinous crimes, you say....but that scofflaw Amanda is shown here *jay-accordioning*. There's your smoking gun. Accordion music rapes my ears.
38
My name is Sandra La Day and our son Kevin died in Lumberton, TX. here in April of 09 he called me and said that the car went into the ditch and that the police had drove up then all of a sudden we gotten a phone call from our daughter that he was dead but the police stated that he was running from them and the cause of his death was pcp but then our autospy is not showing this so all kinds of bad comments was posted he was not running cause he was on the phone with me and just because he have been to prison several times / jail and who is we to judge this town do not have any Black Afro Americans so this should speak for itself it is just that I, feel sorry for both of put the families in this case but some of these comments is just to awful please read fightingpolicecorruption.com and read Kevin La Day Story, same site see Kevin at work , and read Kevin La Day.com some time the media/ press make things more badly cause they do not put the whole facts kevin was not in a car accident I feel sorry for Amanda as well as the victim it is hard to lose a child no matter what age they are but there are some comments that do not have a heart what if either side was your child prayers is what is needed for both
39
This story by Madison Paxton is so stupid and full of holes. Shame on Thestranger.com for letting this crappy writting be the top story. By the way the entire Italian justice system is not that dumb. Amanda Knox was part of this murder and that is the end of it.
40
literally could not remember the truth anymore.
it's hard to remember the truth, if you keep telling lies.

Amanda recalls that... she was hit by one of the Italian police officers in the back of the head.
if you're going to accuse the italian police of brutality, at least be able to back it up

We know that no lawyer was present, and it seems too convenient that there are no recordings of the interrogation, despite the Italian law that requires both. Why change protocol and not tape this interrogation?
italian law doesn't require a lawyer be present during a witness statement. she wasn't dragged to the station. it wasn't until she lied about those involved and her being at the scene that she became a suspect. and the italian courts ruled that some of those statements would be inadmissible because of the lack of lawyer/recording.

First, the complete and utter lack of proven forensic evidence to suggest Amanda's or Raffaele's involvement.
please stop lying, it's really pathetic.

in his closing statements, he used the fact that she had condoms in her room as a testament to why she wasn't a wholesome girl
what's your point? he's within the law to do so.

Mignini came up with this theory before forensic testing
yes, this isn't unheard of. the testing proves or disproves the theory.

thanks to Amanda's character assassination at the hands of the media
yes, the scary, lying media made up the stories about amanda's writings and past.

Add to that the admission from Amanda and Raffaele that they smoked pot that night and the condoms and vibrator (a small gag gift) he found among Amanda's possession, and his theory arose.
a. amanda dragged a gag gift vibrator all the way to italy?!? when i studied abroad, i hardly had enough room for my sunglasses, let alone a gag gift.

b. you said the prosecutor already had his theory by this point... which is it? stop changing your story (hey, you sound a lot like...amanda!)

There is nothing in Amanda's or Raffaele's past to indicate that they would participate in, instigate, or condone a rape and/or murder.
well, except for some really disgusting 'creative writing' amanda wrote before moving out to italy.

Furthermore, she never once expressed an interest in having any sort of orgy.
lots of close friends and ex-roommates that don't know about the orgies my wife and i participated in.

What about Raffaele in all this? ...no indication he was sexually interested in men, he opted to have an orgy with Rudy?
Um, you can have an orgy with 2 guys and 2 girls, and it can absolutely not have anything bisexual or gay about it... are you really this uneducated?

Mignini's theory of Amanda's motive has changed five times
almost as many times as amandas lies, er - i mean 'story'

Amanda just happens to be a natural-born killer, a naturally violent person.
you don't have to be a killer or violent to kill someone in a moment of passion.

But nothing in her past supports this
psychopaths have to start somewhere...

It is well known that the DNA evidence is being heavily questioned worldwide
thanks to a well-funded PR campaign - hey, they might even have taken some cues from the swiftboat crew. mob rule doesn't mean squat.

if Amanda is guilty, why didn't she flee when she had every opportunity
psychopaths return to the scene of the crime.

Jurors could even mingle with prosecutors, lawyers, and media.
so? if you don't like the italian legal system, don't kill people in italy.

this is a really poorly written PR hackjob. i would expect something a little less... biased in the pages of the stranger.
41
I'm ashamed that the Stranger published this claptrap.

This is absurd! Her DNA is all over the crime scene, her blood is mixed with the victims blood, it's on the murder weapon. What really more do you need? She's more guilty than OJ.

Just because you knew someone as a freshman at UW doesn't mean that they didn't change at all or didn't commit a crime. She was convicted alongside an Italian (whose DNA was also mixed with the other DNA), and there was nothing in the Italian press indicating that the trial was at all motivated by

I know most of you can't read Italian and might not understand their court system, but everything seemed to be pretty fair, and she and her boyfriend had good representation-- a star defense team. Just because the American newspapers are too lazy to actually translate the proceedings into English doesn't make her any less guilty.

I think that a lot of this is motivated by anti-Italian prejudice. A lot of the Nordic/Germanic people in Seattle have a prejudicial distrust of southern european culture... I noticed it myself when I lived there.
42
I lived on the 8th floor of Terry freshman year '05-06 too. I never, ever though she did it.
43
wow y'all. after all these months of Mudede writing his crap about this, one little friend of Amanda with some real perspective about who she is writes one little article and NOW you notice that Stranger bloggers are biased?
44
Don't you all get it? This isn't a "story." This isn't an "article." This isn't "reporting" that is guilty of "bias." This is a character witness. It was posted exactly BECAUSE she knows Amanda. Sometimes this kind of testimony is even sought out during trials, as evidence.
Stop bitching about her being a friend. That's what makes this informative reading.

Go read Mudede's posts if you want to other side of the "character" story. There are 5 freaking million posts of that sort.
45
The reason this article is meaningless is because someone could write this tripe about almost every killer in the world. Hell you could probably find someone to write this exact article about Christopher Monfort. Which the Stranger won't do unless he magically transforms into the cute little quirky girl from next door.
46
A very, very small amount of DNA can be enough. It used to be they had to have a relatively big sample in order to run the tests; I won't bore you with the details, but there have been technological improvements. There's a process called PCR (polymerase chain reaction) that can amplify (hypothetically) a single molecule into something big enough to run.

Since there's DNA in every cell and we're all constantly shedding cells, voila. Evidence.
47
#38, I am sorry your son passed away. I wish I was able to understand what your story was saying though....
48
Hmm, who do I listen to, dumbshits like 'tal'@41, or the New Scientist? Gee, why does everything have to be so complicated?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18…
49
The Daily Mail in London (not typically the most reliable source) actually published a pretty good summary that raises more than a reasonable doubt about Knox's guilt. The Italian police should be convicted of gross incompetence if this article is to be believed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-…
50
I'm Australian and I lived in Italy
for 2 years with my Italian boyfriend. We were together for 5 years
so I spent a lot of time in Italy even after we moved away.
Italian culture likes a good story and I don't think they are above completely making up stories to satiate their fascination. For example; In Milan, every month, all the women in the six storey building we lived in would comment on my not being pregnant yet. They knew I wasn't because my boyfriends mother would check the bedsheets carefully and broadcast that I'd menstruated. There was the story of a rapist who was let off the charge because the girl had tight jeans on and "must have helped him get them off". After my experiences, I trust Amanda didn't do it over some frenzied prosecutor who has history of creating satanic or sexual motives- IN ITALY!

Last century, the U.S. Told japan to surrender. The Japanese had no word for "surrender", the concept was not part of their reality (so, of course, they didn't).
If you haven't lived outside the U.S. you're missing the understanding for a fundamental part of the story.

51
I don't understand why people can't just see that there is no way the Italian authorities would have pursued Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for this crime without good reason to. One of the most glaringly obvious reasons I believe this is also one of the reasons Ms Paxton gives that Amanda should not have been convicted. Because they already had one guy tried, convicted and locked up - why would they bother to go through 2+ years of courtroom drama if it was as clear cut as just Guede committing the crime - surely having one guy locked up for most crimes is enough, right? But the fact is that the physical evidence points to there being more than one person in that room.

DNA evidence says AK and RS were involved. AND in the bedroom of Filomena, where the break-in was staged, Amanda's DNA is mixed with the victim's blood. That's just a couple of examples of the evidence against them. Before the advent of DNA evidence, many people were convicted on circumstantial evidence ALONE. There is also a plethora of circumstantial evidence against them.

Honestly, I feel for the supporters of Amanda, I do. Because she is quite simply lying to them all. Their support is commendable but it's for a lost cause. Amanda Knox is guilty. So is Raffaele.
52
" The Japanese had no word for "surrender""

Actually they did and do, it's "降伏"

The rest of your pithy observations on Italy are about as informed as your knowledge of Japanese.
53
She was questioned for about 2hrs before she blamed Patrick. She did so at 1:30am (questioning started around the 11pm hour.)

What about the mixed blood on the bidet - Merideth's and Amanda's?

What about the mixed blood in the sink (Merideth and Amanda's)?

What about mixed blood on the q-tip box (Meredith's and Amanda's)?

How exactly did all that blood get mixed together when Merideth never made it close to the bathroom while dying??
54
What about the staged break-in?

What about the bloody footprints (multiple)?

What about all the lies told on the morning of the Merideth's discovery?

The changing alibi's?

Who moved the body and covered it with a comforter after she was dead (no blood transfer to blanket because blood was dry)? Rudy Guede was dancing the night away after the killing according to multiple witnesses.

55
Stop bitching about having a friend write the piece. That's kind of the point. We've read many pieces from journalist's perspectives, so there's nothing wrong with reading one from a friend's perspective.

Don't know what the truth is, but M.Paxton does raise valid questions about the prosecutor's theory simply being absurd. I still don't understand how he actually came up with it. From what I've found, he's never actually explained what evidence led him to believe his own theories...I'm starting to think he's just a perv.
56
To say that she didn't do it because she was a "nice person" is as erroneous as saying she did do it because she was a "nasty person".

Both points are irrelevant to the evidence.

Some questions:

1. Who cleaned the flat (an act conceded by the defence)

2. Where Amanda an her boyfriend found with a mop and bucket in a surprise visit by police?

3. Who put Meredith's clothes in the washing machine the morning after the murder? The washing machine was on when the police arrived.

57
I don't know...this just reminds me of all the stories/interviews I read w/people in the NW after Ted Bundy was arrested in Utah saying "he couldn't have done it..."
58
I'm a German and just wanted to give you an example of the possibility of interpreting or misinterpreting DNA samples.
DNA samples seem to provide a 100 percent safety about who was at the crime scene.
The German police believed 100 percent in the principle, that if you find DNA at a crime scene, there must be the criminal's DNA.
According to this, German police searched desparately for a woman, whose DNA was found at dozens of crime scenes.
For several years, the only explanation for this fact was that there is one woman who is participating in all sorts of crimes (from a cop murder to a theft from a garden shed).
Police authorities searched for years after this one woman and asked the population of Germany for help to arrest this woman, that was soon called "the phantom woman".
For a long time, nearly no one questioned the fact, that there was a very dangerous woman on her way through Germany, commiting all sorts of crime.
It took several years for the police authorities to consider another theory about the DNA that was found all over Germany.
In the end, they found the woman, that they searched for a very long time: she is working in the factory that produces the special q-tips that were used to collect the DNA samples.
Police kept using the q-tips with her DNA for years. For years, nearly no one of highly trained police officials raised the question that there could be another explanation for the DNA samples.
The "phantom woman", the dangerous criminal woman never existed, but police believed in her existence for 15 years.
Since then, I personally am very cautious to believe the interpretation of DNA samples done by police.
This story is true. Most reports about it are in German, but I found this one in English:
ttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7966641.stm
59
I know you really, really want to believe that Amanda is innocent, Madison. But, honestly, read the points outlined by @10 and the link posted by @15 and compare them to what you've written here. Better yet, (and really I'm talking more to the commenters like Fnarf and Max Solomon who have been posting garbage about this case; she's a "normal middle class seattle college student" blah blah blah), please write specifically about these points instead of just glossing over them.
60
Here's my take on the quality of the justice that was
given Amanda. Obviously she's innocent. And the
people who remain in error lack the capacity to be
embarrassed by the totality of the error they have
committed. It's not just that their incompetence led
to this gross error, but that they lack the capacity
to be embarrassed about it. That's how bad it is.
62
I've read a lot about this case both sides of the case. I've also been "questioned" by police as a possible suspect when I was teen. 53 hrs of questioning in five days? 10 hrs a day sitting around in that environment, when you don't know enough of the language to get the basics?

For the cops, it's their day job. The whole point is to get you to say words that they can use against you. They can say things like "Why don't you tell how you'd do it, if you did?" and if you answer, that's a "confession."

Where are the transcripts of the interrogation? Where is the video?

I've personally known people that have been in clear cut situations where the officer on duty mixed up names and wrote it into the report. They're human, they make mistakes with details, and you combine that with sometimes just not giving a fuck, and it's all fun and games until someone is going to jail.

I don't know if Knox was there or not for the killing, but reading both sides of the for and against sites, the prosecution has got a long way to go before they get to reasonable doubt.

Mix that with a legal system that is even more flawed then our nightmare, media statements made by the prosecution and later proved entirely false (the clean up attempt among others) and the motivation of simply saving face when they published their hypothesis and got the wrong man and the holes get pretty wide.

Then there is the whole "satanic panic" thing Mignini is known for and the doubts are even larger.

What it looks like to me is a 20 year old in a strange country (you know the one that invented the Madonna / Whore complex as well as Fascism) where women who are comfortable with their sexuality are whores and pot is the same as PCP and will turn you into a bloodthirsty maniac.

If this had happened in a large American city, Knox and Sollectito wouldn't have been charged, much less convicted.
63
@steveman - it was not mixed blood. It was mixed DNA, some of which was Kercher's blood. About where you'd expect where people shit, piss, brush their teeth, comb their hair, shave their legs, change menstrual pads, share common towels.

In fact it would be really weird if there was not a lot of cellular matter all over the bathroom.

Where Knox's DNA was NOT found an any kind of meaningful way, was the room Kercher was murdered in. Guede's was all over that room, as well as the bathroom where tracked small amounts of Kercher's blood.
64
Ok people need to stop with the dildo bullcrap, people as if all girls are virgins before marriage. You act like she's the only person on this planet that had a dildo.
65
I am sick of people throwing the whole guilty at her and saying DNA is all over the crime scene where this DNA issue has been debated and is highly controversial, where as most of Amanda Knox bashing are pointless and have no real argument (typical trolls). This is because a lot of her supporters and people who at first doubt her, now believe something went wrong in this case. People with pointless arguments should back off.

Also to add, this written piece is a story from someone who knew Amanda Knox, not a news article or biased piece, so people who hate her should just back off and play with themselves with fire.
66
Thank you for your clear and concise words on behalf of Amanda. Please tell your friends and family that there is a very easy way to raise money for Amanda's Defense Trust. Send $5 and a SASE (checks payable to Free Amanda Knox) to me and I will send you a bumper sticker that says
in bold letters "Free Amanda Knox".

Send to
Corlis F. Carroll
1855 Western Avenue
Albany, NY 12203

All proceeds go toward family and legal expenses.
67
I believe the lab process used in analyzing DNA is called the "graphite process". Meaning, the lab technician pencils in the desired result.
68
I have some doubts about Amanda's innocence, but very reasonable doubts about her guilt. The forensic evidence is spotty even if you don't account for it having been mishandled. I do not think the prosecution was able to establish motive and I do not think they were able to prove anything other than that Amanda and Merideth shared an apartment. It's my hope she'll be freed on appeal. Bullying prosecutors shouldn't be able to get away with this kind of shit, even if it means letting the guilty go free.
69
The article posted on www.milforddailynews.com is incorrect as is states that the DNA of Kercher's found on the blade is from blood. The DNA on the blade is from a skin cell, not blood. The sample of DNA was so small it could not be tested again.
70
What is the big deal about her cell phone being off? Mine is frequently off when it's not supposed to be because I forget to charge it at night and need to do so during the day, because I get tired of fax machines calling me or because it acts wiggy for no apparent reason and shuts off on its own. Is there some law in Italy that everyone must have their cell phones on when the police come calling? And why is someone charged with corrupting evidence in charge of the investigation?

And @30 wrote:
"What "type" of person points the finger at an innocent man to save her own neck?

Maybe the same "type" who lacks a conscience - which is the same "type" who can kill."

---or maybe someone who can't handle the interrogation process, which is VERY common. Are you really so arrogant that you think you can handle 54 hours of interrogation in a language you barely know without cracking? You really think only the guilty crack under the strain? Someone as overconfident as you would probably crack within 6 hours because you have no clue what a police interrogation is like.

There is so much reasonable doubt in this case that it's ridiculous. From what I understand, however, reasonable doubt is not required in Italy for the original trial but that it is frequently used to overturn cases on appeal. And apparently, there are a LOT of cases in Italy overturned on appeal. My prediction is that Amanda will be set free on appeal and a bunch of loudmouths on here will start changing their names on these boards to avoid eating their words.
71
Yes, Diagoras @ 70, what is the big deal about turning off the cell phones? Maybe someone's phone went off the last time they fucked and they didn't want to be disturbed again. And how does it help them get away with the crime more than just leaving the phones at home would have? I don't get it.

As for the "confession," a) the Innocence Project statistics reveal that 25% of the people exonerated by DNA evidence -- proven innocent after conviction and released from prison -- actually confessed to the crimes they were convicted for. And b) The reason she said it might have been Patrick is because the interrogators kept claiming that the two of them had been seen together at the basketball court, that they had PROOF. They were all obsessed by the "See you later" in the SMS. Means NOTHING.

And then Amanda's accusers want to get all obsessed by contradictory statments. well, the police officers are contradicting each other on whether they got Amanda something from the vending machines or sent out for freshly baked brioche. I guess that means that we can't believe anything they say.

You know, I work as a freelancer and have to keep track of my hours, but if I don't write things down, I can't tell you with precision how I spent my time YESTERDAY, let alone two days ago or last week.

As for DNA and evidence, there is NO untainted evidence at all. The police failed to do proper controls throughout. sciencespheres.com has a detailed discussion of the failures to do test protocols. So all their tests amount to "Trust us, we're the police." And how, exactly, does a police department fry three hard drives? Making it again a case of "Trust us, we're the police." A "witness" placing Amanda at the square who described her as gap-toothed. And, of course, no witness ID-ing the pair via anything like a line-up. Eye-witness accounts are notoriously unreliable, but these take the cake.

Faking the break-in? Well, even if it is a fake, why wouldn't Rudy throw the rock through the window? After all, he had met Meredith, maybe she answered the door and he got in that way but wanted to make it look like it could have been anyone?

Body moved? Covered up? Well, the door was open all night, so any local drug addict looking for a warm place to shoot up could have wandered in and looked around. I'd be pretty creeped out by Meredith's open eyes and would have covered her up, too. How about ID-ing other four people whose DNA was on that bra clasp? How about counting up the number of people whose fingerprints were left in that room?

No motive, no forensic evidence, a prosecutor with a track record of abusing his power and, come on, the idea that these two people got together with someone they barely knew for an orgy? Or was it a human sacrifice? And then all three of them just leave one person's hair and DNA evidence in the murder room? And that's supposed to be more believable than the fact that this pretty normal, if slightly eccentric, popular, hard-working, high-achieving girl and her boyfriend had nothing to do with it?

Of course. Because police never lie.
72
dead on @ 40...

aw, gee... another friend/family member with a canned character assasination of the jurors, prosecutor, from the well funded PR firm of 'amanda's not guilty because we say so'

73
just going to say, how many really violent pot smokers do you all know? I am not saying it isn't possible, but if that is all that happened, it sounds like a 1950's anti-pot propaganda. Nice American girl goes to Italy, smokes pot, and becomes a raging sex crazed murderess!
74
And Rudy. Rudy who definitely would know, who said in a wiretapped conversation before he was arrested that Amanda wasn't there. Rudy, the police informer who was put on a train from Milan back to Perugia after the police thoughtfully returned his 10-inch kitchen knife to him.

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy.

No motive there for police to blame the crime on the foreign she-devil to deflect the blame from their informant, is there? Not like anyone might sue them is there? Not like it's just so fucking embarrassing, is it? No, their harmless little informer was turned into a bloodthirsty psychopath after a few minutes in the company of that LUCIFERINA. Otherwise, he would have been FINE. The 10-inch knife was just for show. He'd never actually hurt anyone.

Except for carrying out the occasional robbery by tossing a rock through a window and then making off with a computer, like he was caught doing in the days before the murder.

No motive for a town to try to blame the foreign she-devil rather than the criminals selling doing drugs in the bushes a few meters away from Meredith's house is there? Not like the fact that parents might not want to send their kids to study in a town where they could be slaughtered by criminal that the town is too lazy to lock up. Because if it's the fault of the foreign she-devil, that's one thing. But a random criminal (who, by the way was under police protection), now THAT is bad for bidness.

I don't know whether Amanda is guilty or not. But I know that the case hasn't been made. And I know that when it comes to motive, the police and prosecutors have a much more credible motive to frame Amanda than she has to get together with her boyfriend and an acquaintance to slaughter her roommate, the one who she went to the chocolate festival with and had draw a fake tattoo on her a couple of days before she was killed.

And who are these people who are so invested in Amanda's guilt that they infest all the blogs? Are they working for the Italian Bar Association? The tourist Board? A big media group (the case does sell newspapers)? The Fascist Party? Well fuck off, all of you.
75
@69

The article posted on milforddailynews.com is inaccurate simply because of the fact that Wendy Murphy (NIFONG'S LAST DEFIANT DEFENDER) wrote it.
76
This is a great piece, and I couldn't agree more: there simply was not enough (any?) evidence to convict Knox "beyond a reasonable doubt." And that is beside the outlandish behavior and "theories" of the prosecution. I'm not saying the U.S. has a perfect court system, either, but we're nowhere near the banana republic system Peruggia seems to tolerate.
77
@59: @63.

basically, all my comments boil down to the fact that there is no plausible motive for Amanda and Raffaello. none of her accusers on these posts ever provide one that meets the smell test. there is a motive for Rudy. crimes like this are horrific but banal - the simplest explanation is usually correct: Guede killed her trying to rape her. Mignani went for the most convoluted.

Again, she is a normal seattle college girl, which apparently is a devil worshipping slut in perugia and england. I never knew we were having such hot sex here.
78
taq@46, if you look into how the test was done on the knife, you will see that it is invalid on its face. The person doing broke the seals on the equipment to make it deliver a result outside of its rated sensitivity. Nor was the lab rated clean enough to do LCN testing. It did not have positive air pressure, for example.

The following quotes are all from the Crown Prosecution Service in the U.K. at: http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/prose… This is from an article that supports the use of LCN.

“The FSS LCN test requires an ultra-clean laboratory and so is more expensive and less widely offered than the standard test.... The site of this bespoke laboratory is remote from other DNA Units, operates stringent entry requirements, is fitted with positive air pressure and specialist lighting and chemical treatments to minimize DNA contamination.”

Stefanoni's procedure, in sharp contrast to these requirements, was performed in an ordinary DNA analysis laboratory with other DNA units present. An ultra-clean laboratory, positive air pressure systems, and photo and chemical DNA sterilization are vital techniques to avoid contamination of samples within the laboratory. None of these facilities and procedures appears to have existed for Stefanoni's test. That makes four more technique deficiencies.

And there's more:

Some of the serious issues surrounding LCN DNA profiling, shortened here to “LCN,” were described in Part I of this article. Now we pose the question: How does the test performed by Stefanoni on the kitchen knife blade DNA compare with the techniques called low copy number DNA profiling?

In a nutshell, it was worse.

Here is the account given of Stefanoni's work by Frank Sfarzo in his Perugia-Shock blog at http://perugia-shock.blogspot.com/2009/0…

“But the substance was minimal and if she took it to test the blood than nothing would remain to test the DNA. So she said O la va o la spacca, make it or break it, and took a 20% of it to test it for blood: negative.

The test failed but Dr Patrizia wasn't discouraged and she took what remained, about 20 microliters, she dried it to 10 and tested it for DNA. It didn't sort anything but Mrs Stefanoni didn't give up and started to amplify and amplify until the first peaks appeared. The machine was not allowed to go beyond, but something there was and had to be taken out. The goodwill scientist broke the seals and kept amplifying and amplifying and amplifying until, in a forest of background noise peaks, some alleles emerged. She decided which were the stutters, the false ones, and which the real alleles, et voila! The genetic profile of Meredith Kercher was served to Renato Biondo who could deliver it on a silver plate to the one who hired him, the prosecutor.”

This is all from sciencespheres.com

So when we talk about the "double DNA" knife, we are talking about a procedure never used before, using a machine outside its limits, in a lab that wasn't rated for low copy number testing in the first place.
79
Again, she is a normal seattle college girl, which apparently is a devil worshipping slut in perugia and england. I never knew we were having such hot sex here.

You never knew? You obviously haven't been browsing Lustlab like I have. I'm considering moving from Europe to Seattle just for the hot sex. You lucky devils.
80
i love the stranger's readers comments! so much more entertaining than cnn!

great article, i'm happy this venue allowed the writer's strong voice to be heard. i hope we all take her points into serious consideration before villifying Amanda in the court of public opinion.
81
i have no idea or opinion as to the outcome of the case. frankly, this is the first piece i've ever really read about it and everything else i've heard has just been rumor/gossip. but i have this to say about the interrogation: i'm living in germany, with one year of german at the university of washington under my belt, can speak it ok, but not outstandingly and still managed a major fuck-up in one of my experiments (i'm here as a researcher) because the german/english communication wasn't so hot. and that was in a relatively laid-back environment where i was comfortable with all the people. so i can totally envision being intimidated/saying the wrong thing in an intense interrogation conducted in a language in which you are a beginner. for that reason, i would pretty much throw out all the information from the interrogation.
82
Any person who owns a dildo is guilty on my book. Amanda is a crazy over sexed slut and needs to pay for her crimes in jail.
83
Amanda Knox gets to sip wine and watch Italy win the world cup from a front row seat for the next 24 years. Sounds pretty good to me.

Considering that she's ya know, guilty.

way to pepper the article with your photography. What a sham piece.
84
Any person who owns a dildo is guilty on my book. She is so dirty I cannot believe she owned a dildo. Dildos are for dirty people who go to all those sex shops that are full of perverts. Amanda is a crazy over sexed slut and needs to pay for her crimes in jail.
85
Seattle: We're Crazy About Crazy Girls!

Amanda's innocent. If that's not obvious to you from looking at these gorgeous warmhearted pictures then you are probably in the process of becoming cryogennically frozen. Good luck with that.
86
My friend went to prep with Amanda and he remembers her as very weird. Maybe the stranger will ask him to write a refuting account of Amanda and her character.
87
Tootles, ALL theatre people are very weird. It goes with the territory.
88
There's a common denominator here: The police destroy evidence that could be reexamined by the defense and ask that the jury just trust them.

--Meredith's DNA on the knife? So sorry we used up the whole sample on our own test. Trust us.
--Computers show no activity after 9pm? So sorry, one of our guys surfed the internet for a few hours on Raffaele's computer. And we fried the hard drive. So sorry, but you'll just have to trust us.
89
FREE AMANDA KNOX!!!!!!!
90
I've known people who were accused of things falsely, and people who tried to cover up things they did, and everything I've read about Knox's post-arrest behavior suggests she's squarely in the second category.
91
hahaha... honestly. you people are blind. you don't want to believe a girl who looks like that can do something so horrible. delusional!! there is no point in trying to speak logically to the 'she's innocent' camp... they don't want to see what is right in front of them.
93
I wish I was biased. I also wish I was having hot sex.
94
"For example, one of his multiple entries on the 'staged break-in' remind us that 'no-one managed to the scale the wall and climb through the window when Sollecito's defence team attempted to show that it was possible.'

"Except that there are photographs of them doing just that."

Link, please?

This is a serious question. My understanding is that they were able to climb up to the bottom edge of the window but no one was actually able to climb through it because there just weren't the necessary footholds or handholds or something like that to do it. I've seen those photos of defense representatives trying to climb up to the window. Do you have a link to one showing someone able to actually "scale the wall and climb *through* the window"?
95
53 hours of questioning, that's a new one. The number of hours keeps getting larger and larger--actually, it was a little over 2 hours before she confessed to being there.

I feel for Amanda's friends and family, and I would insist upon her innocence too if I knew her, but because I don't I have perspective. To me, it's obvious she's guilty.
96
Everyone I know that knows Amanda said she probably did it.
97
Please anyone who considers that Amanda might be innocent, don't give up on her case for however long the appeal(s) may take. In the words of Greg Hampikian, director of the Innocence Project at Boise State University, "the biggest difference between people who get out (of prison) and don't are a group of supporters who stick with it."
98
Someone should have been doing homework instead of getting high and playing dirty sex games with near strangers.

You're only supposed to do that with people you know and trust...
99
Dirty, do you really know people who know Amanda? Interesting that those close to her even think she may have done it. I've always wondered how her family/friends can ignore all the evidence, although I'm sure if I were in that position I'd have my blinders on too.
100
Sorry Harry rag, your long list is full of major errors. I will rebut each one in turn
Your assertion that the evidence is overwhelming is not supported in the least.

"Amanda Knox’s DNA was found on:"

"1. On the double DNA knife and a number of independent forensic experts - Dr. Patrizia Stenoni, Dr. Renato Biondo and Professor Francesca Torricelli - categorically stated that Meredith’s DNA was on the blade."

Those “experts” are wrong… the lab was not certified at the time to do even regular DNA tests and was not properly equipped or designed for LCN DNA…. No experience, no proper protocols or procedures for LCN tests… those experts are obviously lying or ill informed. They should be professionally ashamed.

The knife was picked at random from a kitchen drawer by police who had an “intuition” that it was the right knife. It was forensically mishandled for 3 days that left if open to contamination and finally was tested and naturally Amanda’s DNA was on the handle… she cooked at Raffaele’s and used the utensils there. As for Meredith’s DNA… they did not find any DNA on the blade to start with so they pushed and tweaked and extended beyond the reliable limits of the equipment and finally came up with a very weak result that “could” be consistent with Meredith’s DNA but it was NEVER shown to be blood. The rational conclusion was contamination. See these links for details.

World experts have noted that the lab was not equipped to do low copy number DNA tests.
http://www.sciencespheres.com/2009/10/lc…
http://www.sciencespheres.com/2009/10/me…
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18…

2. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the ledge of the basin.
3. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the bidet.
4. Mixed with Meredith blood on a box of Q Tip cotton swabs.

All three of these are MEANINGLESS. Amanda’s DNA would have been there regardless of any crime or blood. There is no way to make a case that this proves anything at all other than people leave DNA in bathrooms and everywhere else for that matter.

5. Mixed with Meredith’s blood in the hallway.

The hallway Luminol trace was not tested to see what it was. Luminol does not prove blood it only reacts to many things one of which is blood. A further test must be done otherwise it is just something that reacts to Luminol And again… Amanda’s DNA would have been there and a couple of feet over… a few inches the other, actually all over the place except as it happens Meredith’s bedroom. Just what you’d find if someone lived in the house but did not go into Meredith’s room before during the Murder.
http://www.friendsofamanda.org/luminol.h…

6. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the floor of Filomena’s room, where the break-in was staged.
http://www.friendsofamanda.org/luminol.h…
Flat out lie or misinterpretation. Again an untested Luminol trace and again Amanda’s DNA on the floor of a house she lived in.

And the “staged break”-in theory is deeply flawed. Everything about the window and the break in is consistent with an ACTUAL break in not to mention that climbing in windows is Rudy’s modus operandi in his burglary career.

7. On Meredith’s bra according to Raffaele Sollecito’s forensic expert, Professor Vinci.

Based again on the deeply flawed forensic discovery and testing of the bra clasp which was like the knife and yielded strong results for Meredith and several very weak trace results only one of which was cherry picked as being compatible with Raffaele’s DNA.
The links above have all the details. The Collection video of the bra clip is laughable and doubly suspect in that it happened 47 DAYS after the murder…. It had been lying on the floor mixed up in a pile of clothes and other items.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMaTI0Siu…
and this link (also above)
http://www.sciencespheres.com/2009/10/me…

A woman’s bloody shoeprint, which matched Amanda Knox’s foot size, was found on a pillow under Meredith’s body. The bloody shoeprint was incompatible with Meredith’s shoe size.

No again, All the foot and shoeprints are either compatible with Rudy or rule out Meredith and Raffaele. Your information comes from earlier prosecution claims and all have bee shown to be incorrect.

Two independent imprint experts categorically excluded the possibility that the bloody footprint on the blue bathmat could belong to Rudy Guede.
Lorenzo Rinaldi stated:
"“You can see clearly that this bloody footprint on the rug does not belong to Mr. Guede, but you can see that it is compatible with Sollecito.”
The other imprint expert print expert testified that the bloody footprint on the blue bathmat matched the precise characteristics of Sollecito’s foot.

Laughable, see for yourself It is plain to see why they backed off from this.
http://www.friendsofamanda.org/footprint…

the bathmat footprint is incomplete but the big toe obviously rules out Raffaele and overall it is not inconsistent with Rudy’s footprint. And that is scarcely surprising since all the shoeprint/footprints in the bedroom were eventually matched with Rudy. None are now identified as Amanda’s or Raffaele which is scarcely surprising considering that there is also ZERO DNA of theirs in Meredith’s Bedroom.

An “abundant” amount of Sollecito's DNA was found on Meredith's bra clasp. Meredith's bra was removed some time after she had been killed and Rudy Guede had fled the scene.

No, abundant is not the word that can remotely describe the alleged amount of DNA that could be Raffaele’s.
As above 5 people’s DNA traces were allegedly found on the clasp which lay on the floor moved and mingled with other items and then not collected as evidence till 47 days later.
The same type of faulty Low count number DNA test was done on it as the knife blade and again the expert’s that Mignini induced to declare this a reliable and definitive result have completely embarrassed themselves.

The Murder Dynamic strongly indicates that Meredith was attacked by several people.
Barbie Nadeau wrote:
"Countless forensic experts, including those who performed the autopsies on Kercher's body, have testified that more than one person killed her based on the size and location of her injuries and the fact that she didn't fight back—no hair or skin was found under her fingernails."

Funny, others including those who think the prosecution has a plausible case describe her as fighting for her life. She has multiple injuries bruising and abrasions that are exactly what she would have received in a struggle. She was not tall and Rudy was over 6 feet tall and played a lot of basketball. He was more than strong enough to overpower her. And he had a knife. I say he because he is known to carry a knife and had used it in other burglaries not long before Nov 1st. And again all the DNA and fingerprint and hair and fiber and sweat and saliva found in the room was either Meredith’s or Rudy Guede so he is beyond doubt the person who was there and who killer Meredith. The “experts” who claim a group attack… the “Countless forensic experts” were all recruited by Mignini and they contradict the first coroner who Mignini fired since he did not like the conclusions they reached. And that is pretty much the Mignini method. Reject or suppress any evidence that conflicts with his pre-conceived scenarios. He shapes reality to fit his suppositions. Not the other way round.

The fact that the break-in was clearly staged with a number of witnesses testifying that there were shards of glass strewn on top of Filomena's clothes. This proves that the room was the window was broken after the room had been ransacked.
There were no marks to indicate that the somebody had climbed up the wall and no blood or DNA on the broken glass.
No-one managed to the scale the wall and climb through the window when Sollecito's defence team attempted to show that it was possible.

Wow a direct contradiction in fact. There are photos of actual people proving that is not hard to do. And tellingly the landlord has now added bars to the window so that a potential tenant will feel more secure.
And to top that there has been later evidence showing that there was a break in and even a shoe print on the window sill that matches Rudy’s shoes

The witness testimonies implicate Knox and Sollecito, especially the testimony given by Antonio Curatolo and Nara Capezalli.
Antonio Curatolo testified that he saw Amanda Knox and Raffale Sollecito watching the gate of the cottage from Piazza Grimana on the night of the murder. Curatolo is regarded as an honest and reliable witness by Judge Paolo Micheli.

And yet both of their testimony has been shown to be unreliable or at least questionable

Nara Capezalli claimed she heard a terrified scream and then two or more people running away.
Another witness Antonella Monacchia corroborated Nara Capezalli's testimony about hearing a woman's loud scream.

That would be the same people whose windows do not look out in the direction of the house. It was November, their double glazed windows were closed and reconstructions show that not only could they not have heard the screams and running feet, they admitted under cross examination that they could not remember what night it was… it seems more likely that Halloween night with plenty of rowdy college kids celebrating made the noises and that is what they remember. No there is no way they could have heard a scream…from inside a room with a closed window in a house way below and around to the side of the “Witnesses” apartment and their windows were closed as well. Highly dubious. Not possible and there is a video of the reconstruction as well

Amanda Knox's and Raffaele Sollecito's mobile activity on the night of the murder was suspicious and highly unusual. They turned off their mobiles at approximately the same time shortly before Meredith was killed.

Police investigator, Letterio Latella, testified that Knox's and Sollecito’s mobile phones were inactive most of the night, and that activity on their mobile phones stopped almost simultaneously.

Knox's and Sollecito's mobile phones were both turned on at 6.02am on 2 November 2007, which proves that they were lying when they claimed they didn't wake up until after 10.00am.

Latella stated that he did not find any evidence of a similar “blackout” of Knox's and Sollecito’s mobile phones in the month before the murder.

Investigators have said that both Knox and Sollecito’s phones were usually on until late at night and would come back on in the late morning.

All the phone evidence is mumbo jumbo to the average person and an inexact science as to nailing down the details the prosecution claims. I lose connection to my mobile phones from time to time for no reason at all. And other times I get a text that was sent a day ago.
As for the alleged times they were turned off or on or were active even the phone company could not be completely sure of any of it. Three attempted calls to Amanda’s phone that the phone company did not show records of. Raffaele’s phone showed activity when a text from his father came at 6:02 in the morning of Nov. 2nd It proves nothing about anything.

Judge Paolo Micheli claimed that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito knew precise details about Meredith's murder that they couldn't have known if they weren't involved.

No and this is ridiculous. They only knew what they could see on the day Meredith’s friends broke down the door. Once inside and he had lifted the cover, a police officer gestured with his hand to the other officers that her throat had been cut. The “inside knowledge” was allegedly that she “knew” that Meredith had bled to death… DUH… that is what happens when people’s throats are cut. And that is the origin of her “inside information”

And incidentally, did you know why the police did not break down the door? After looking around they did not see anything in the apartment to be alarmed at and did not want to needlessly breakdown the door fearing that the landlord would sue them. So they got Meredith’s friends who were there also to do it.

Amanda Knox knew that Meredith had been sexually assaulted before the results of Dr. Lalli’s autopsy report were presented to the court on 8 November.

It was testified that Knox also revealed other accurate details about Meredith’s murder before the results of the autopsy were made public. She told witnesses on 2 November 2007 that Meredith had died “in slow agony”.

(Sigh) again as above she knew from what the police signalled to each other about the throat being cut and because people who have their throat cut die that way slowly bleeding to death… as above she only repeated the obvious fact based on seeing the officers gesture.
And as for it being a sexual assault there is no evidence that a rape was completed. The only DNA from Guede inside her was not from sperm and could have been no more than traces from his fingers. And what would be surprising would be that nobody else surmised that Meredith’s death involved a sexual attack. And equally unsurprising is the fact that the prosecution made a big deal about nothing with this just like most of the rest of their case.

Mignini asked Knox on 17 December 2007 how she could possibly have known this if she was not actually there. Knox began to cry, and refused to answer the question.

Not surprising that reliving that awful day . She became hysterical after the door was opened and Meredith’s body was found. She was on the phone with her mother at the time and don’t forget that her phone was tapped. The memory of that horrible moment making her cry makes only makes sense and coupled with the feeling at times that that the relentless Mignini would ensure that no one believed her and that she would end up being punished for something she did not do.
I do not lend much significance to her not answering and unless I or anyone can see the video of that days court proceedings and what led up to this. On some days Mignini was an overbearing and bullying relentless monster. He can get very emotional and carried away very theatrical with self righteous hate and anger spewing out of him … well I wonder that she did not cry more often or had the courage to speak at all. He purposefully browbeats and seeks to terrorize. He presumably sees himself as a crusading firebrand serving a higher truth. But in truth he is an evil and obsessed egomaniac.

The stuff below is all BS. There is no forensic evidence for 3 people full stop.
The scream was not heard by the witnesses since later reconstructions ruled out them being able to hear ANYTHING… November, cold, windows closed, facing the wrong way and in the end not sure of the day or time.

All of the “results” of the all night final interrogation are not in any way credible. The police refused an interpreter, refused a lawyer, withheld food and water, denied bathroom breaks, and spent most of 14 hours becoming progressively more aggressive and threatening, ass a sizable group of police circled her yelling at her, calling her names slapping the back of her head. They told her multiple outright lies to frighten and confuse her and suggested that she imagine things…and those imaginings had to include Raffaele who they said now admitted things, horrible things and implicated her. The imaginings had to include the owner of the bar where Amanda worked part time. Why? From a small sample of African hair clutched in Meredith’s hand and to that the police added a text from Nov 1st that told Amanda the bar was not busy and not to come in to work Amanda texted back see you later, good night in Italian. The police ignored the Good night part and demanded that she admit see you later was a code that meant they were going to get together later to Murder Meredith.

Amanda said later that she had never been as frightened in her life as during that nightmare interrogation.
Was it really that bad? Yes.
Watch the prologue to this CBS show 48 hour mystery in which Doug Preston describes his own experience being grilled by Mignini, the same crazy prosecutor as in the Amanda case.
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/48_hours/vi…
And in Amanda’s own words:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_qaiMmfw…

and why the night of the final interrogation were the police and prosecutors now trying to get a quick result? The were listening in on Amanda’s phone calls and they knew her cousin in Germany had almost conviced her to come to Germany and that her mother was coming and that she advised that Amanda go to the US embassy for advice. All of this panicked the interrogators. Amanda might get actual legal advice and counsel or even leave the country and they could not keep her there yet. They needed to get a statement that would allow them to arrest her. They had maybe another day at most.

It was typical Mignini. He was there that night orchestrating the interrogation and made sure that the officers kept at her adding pressure till they got her so rattled frightened and confused that she would stop telling the truth as she knew it and produced the lies that Mignini wanted to hear that fit his own ever-changing scenarios. And why is a prosecutor running an investigation and interrogation of a case that he will also argue? Prosecutors do that in Italy. Unlike the US and other places that have the police investigate a suspected crime and after gather evidence and properly take statements they hand it on to a public attorney who decides via grand jury whether to indict and then go on and they then handle the prosecution. They are separate from the Judges in the case and certainly do no have meals together with the judges and Jury but in Italy that apparently is just fine… and no wonder then that the Jurists gave interviews before the trial even began saying they thought Amanda and Raffaelle were guilty… BEFORE THE TRIAL…

Knox spoke about Meredith's killers to witnesses at the police station before the scientific police found forensic evidence that three people were involved in Meredith's murder. Knox also admitted she and Sollecito were at the cottage when Meredith was killed.
Knox claimed that she heard Meredith screaming, and screaming was reported by two of the witnesses, Nara Capezalli and Antonella Monacchia. Each testified that they heard a loud scream on the night Meredith was murdered.

All distortions of elements in the coerced “statement” that she was induced to provide on the 6th.
As for the Scream…Coached witnesses to corroborate the induced statement in which Amanda was pressured to imagine what she would have heard IF she had been in the house… they got a scream to put in the statement she signed. All that was needed was to get some suggestible witnesses who lived nearby who could be coaxed into remembering something. All too easy. Never mind that they lived in a place with Double Glazing, it was a cold night with the windows closed and that reconstructions show it highly unlikely they heard anything and in court the admitted that they were not even sure of the day they “heard” the scream…. And the night before that was Halloween in a College town…

Knox also claimed that she was in Piazza Grimana on the night of the murder. This claim is supported by Antonio Curatolo, who testified that he saw Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito in Piazza Grimana on several occasions that night.

A lot of the “Amanda Claimed” are from the illegal interrogation made under duress.. a process that can make anyone end up doubting their own sanity. It is well documented that an experienced unrestrained interrogation team can make anyone admit to just about anything and this has been documented occurring over and over again all over the world. In Italy they are big on spontaneous statements…place a lot of faith in them sort of Perry Mason confessions on the stand… stuff that does not happen in real life. Stuff that they make happen behind closed doors. Antonio Curatolo? Oh yes the homeless man whose alleged sightings of Amanda and Raffaele were demolished by the defense.
“in his original statement Curatolo spoke of other people in the square wearing masks, which points strongly to date being Halloween, 31 October.”

Judge Paolo Micheli also pointed out that Meredith's bra had been removed some time after she had been killed and Rudy Guede had fled the cottage.

This is unproven and improvable… the police do not have a clue not one bit of proof of this. They don’t even know the time of death. Why?? Because they flunked crime scene 101. Meredith’s body temperature was not taken the day she was found. Temperature must be taken as soon as possible to be able to approximate the time of death. So how can they know when she died and the bra removal? That was probably part of the prosecution’s clumsy attempt to add the bra clasp into the case a lot later when they realized they did not have enough plausible evidence against Raffaelle at least.

Amanda Knox voluntarily admitted that she involved in Meredith's murder in her handwritten note to the police on 6 November 2007. This confession contained significant elements of truth.

Voluntarily?? You must be joking. It was from the illegal interrogation and was made under duress. There is no recording that the police will admit to even though by law they had to have made one. And this is the same team that tapped all their phones and even eavesdropped on them in public and yet somehow the only thing that they by law were definitely supposed to record they did not? Even the higher court ruled out admissibility of the second statement that she signed. They still allowed the first one from earlier which did not have enough of what they wanted in it. And yet both were released to the publid and used to try and make Amanda out to be a liar.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito both gave multiple conflicting alibis and lied repeatedly. Their lies were exposed by telephone and computer records, and by CCTV footage. Neither Knox nor Sollecito have credible alibis for the night of the murder despite three attempt each.

You repeat yourself - this is all flim flam and even direct lies on the part of the prosecution who cut pasted, erased destroyed and overlooked evidence entirely to suit their pet theory. CCTV?? Did you know that the best camera to have captured who came and went from the house was in front of a nearby bank branch? Did you know the police NEVER went to gather it as evidence? Well they eventually did but it was after the surveillance tape was taped over with new footage… that is how those machines work as the police should know. Were they inept or did Mignini think there would be exculpatory evidence in it and did not order it collected till after he knew it was too late?

Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini pointed out that 19 separate judges thought there was a strong case against Knox and Sollecito:
"The case went before 19 judges in the end at various levels from a preliminary hearing, through to three levels of re-examination (bail hearings) and all found in the prosecution's favour."

All pals of Mignini… the Italian justice system is an old boys network and they all stick up for each other. They usually favour prosecution cases and figure if there are any problems the automatic appeals process takes care of it within a few YEARS… very laid back approach. We never make mistakes… and we make sure that our buddies help out.

101
The DNA is not the evidence that for me proves her guilt.

What does:
1)Her bloody footprint, found on a pillow UNDER Meredith's body.
2)She bought bleach at 7:30 in the morning. That huge knife from her apartment was found in her boyfriends stinking like bleach with deep scrub marks on it.
3)Bloody footprints had been cleaned off the bathroom floor, but didn't come off the bathmat. If Guede had somehow killed Meredith and then decided to clean the murder scene, why did he leave a massive shit in the toilet?
4)Knox changed her story several times and in a note describes hearing Meredith scream.
5) There cell phones were off during the whole period of the murder. Phone records showed they never turned off their cells like that.

My questions:
1)She claimed that the bleach was bought because of a busted pipe at Sollecito's. Was this pipe ever investigated or was it made up?
2)If she lied originally because of her poor Italian, what about her spectacular academic career prior? Eight weeks of full immersion intensive Italian lessons and she couldn't understand? An Italian boyfriend is like a golden ticket for learning the language.

The author wants to know why Knox didn't flee. Because that would have been evidence of her guilt. She didn't flush Guede's turd, though she claimed to take a shower there that morning, because she wanted the black guy to take the fall.

Finally, was Meredith's key in her room? If it was, then that seals it for me.
102
Even if she didn't kill her, she violated several of the rules you MUST follow if you don't want to go down for a crime:

A.) Don't be verifiably present when people are murdered

B.) If you are verifiably present, don't lie about it

C.) Don't act like a fucking weirdo when you're interviewed

Pretty simple. I hope she does all 26.
103
Thanks questor @101. I've been really disturbed by this since I started to pay attention to it a few days ago. I'm glad the prosecution's case is even worse than I thought. As horrific as the crime is if it was only Rudy, it's the stuff of nightmares the way Mignini describes it.

El Oso Renoso, all of the evidence you site is either debunked, questionable or tainted. See questor @ 101, scienspheres.com or my previous posts. Let me ask you. Doesn't it seem odd that the prosecution doesn't have ANY evidence that is not tainted in some way? An eyewitness who describe a scene on the 31st instead of the 1st. Another eyewitness who says Amanda has a gap between her teeth. Another eyewitness who was not in a position to hear what she said she heard. DNA results that came from a machine operating beyond its rated limits in a lab not equipped to handle LCN DNA testing via a procedure never before used in any other case.

If even one of these had happened in a normal case it would cast into doubt the truthfulness of the prosecution in building the whole case.

And let me ask you this. What does it say about the strength of the prosecution's case if it relies on:
--an illegally gained "confession" after hours of pychological pressure
--poisoning the jury pool through character assassination and massive leaks of prejudicial statements before the trial
--tainted or falsified "evidence"
--inflammatory statements throughout the trial and especially during the summation (Luciferina?!! WTF?!!!)

And what is the deal with the cell phones? Who cares if they were switched off? Maybe they wanted to watch a movie or have sex or smoke some weed without being interrupted. Maybe they did it because the last time they were having sex Amanda's mother phoned and interrupted them at a crucial moment. Were they even switched off? with my old cell phone company I had dead spots all over my house. If I put the phone down on the kitchen table it was out of network. Who knows? Who cares? How does it aid them in the commission of the crime?

What I see in the comments by people who believe the prosecution are people who, in general, believe the prosecution in any case. You need to surf on over to the Innocence Project and read up on wrongful convictions. This case has some characteristics that are so egregious it could only happen in Italy, but wrongful prosecutions and wrongful convictions happen everywhere. The U.S. in fact just executed someone in Texas for burning his house down and killing his daughters when it was afterwards shown that the fire wasn't caused by arson at all. And the governor of that state, a Republican, is replacing all the members of the board in charge of investigating this with his own hand-picked cronies.

In fact, it is safe to say that there are a lot more prosecution frame-ups than there are cheerful, fun-loving stoner girls who make the Dean's list while holding down three jobs and then suddenly go psycho on Halloween and demand violent group sex or commit a ritual sacrifice with their boyfriend, a roommate and some guy she barely knows or get into a murderous rage over cleaning habits.

Use your common sense.

    Please wait...

    and remember to be decent to everyone
    all of the time.

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