I believe that different people and different organizations may work toward the same end with different motivations.
I am not indicating in my statement that the police were only motivated by Mignini's obsessions. But the police are legally obligated in Italy to follow the direction of the Public Minister (prosecutor) who is assigned to the case. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable about Italian law than I am could explain if there were some way for the police investigators not to follow the prosecutor's direction.
The police may have been motivated, in my view, by the "convenient suspects" path. That means selecting a "suspect" or victim with a weak alibi who can be accused of the crime on the basis of weak, unreliable, or non-existent evidence. Or perhaps even fabricated evidence, as long as the fabrication is subtle enough not to get the police into trouble. Amanda Knox was the convenient suspect identified by the police; Giobbi IMO states this in his testimony, where he covers his real thinking with behavioral or psychological detection BS.
I can't exclude the possibility that Guede was an informant the police were protecting, but that seems less plausible that the "convenient suspect" hypothesis to me.
Mignini had his own reasons for pursuing Amanda Knox based on his own obsessions, abusiveness, and pathology. I suggest that metaphorically, Mignini is one of the Devil's handpuppets in Italy.
Yes, I pretty much agree with all of this. I highlighted judt to emphasize that these ideas are not mutually exclusive, imo. Guede could well have been an informer, AND, Amanda and Raf convenient & vulnerable suspects.
I'd say its a certainty that there isn't a single mindset or belief operating in any group dynamic.
Fact is though, we don't know how closely Mignini was supervising the investigation. Hands on, or 30,000 foot flyover?
Its pretty clear Mignini had an agenda, to reshape the Kercher killing into the same mold he had chased after in the Narducci Trail, and for which he was just then indicted.
The police who tracked Guede, apparently followed up on Bonassi's mention of Guede on Nov 3/4, about an unflushed turd. That's how they ID'd Rudy. And at that point, Mignini had to integrate these two investigative strands - a coerced staement from Knox on the one hand, and evidence against ONLY guede on the other.
And Mignini's interpretation, suited his professional needs at the time. But the police investigation appeared to run on different tracks, and in a not very well coordinated fashion. But they did find Rudy, and fairly quickly, so that investigative track really performed pretty well. It's Mignini, Giobbi, Napoleoni & Ficarra who screwed it all up by pressuring vulnerable witnesses into false statements.