The Kercher family is difficult to fathom – they, of all people, must be thoroughly familiar with the facts, and one would assume they would be hell-bent on seeing the real murderer punished.
Nothing much has been heard from them, or about them, excepting the ubiquitous platitude that they “maintained a dignified silence”. But they are, they say, "happy" with the verdict, so presumably they are happy that Knox and Sollicito, who they manifestly can have NO WAY of knowing for sure were involved in Meredith's death, are having their lives destroyed. Nevertheless, they (rather pointedly, it seems to me) avoid expressing any *explicit* belief in the guilt of the two.
Notwithstanding their loss, I’m afraid to say I don't perceive this silence of theirs as "dignified", at all. In my view, they could and should have made an effort to stop this grotesque farce in its tracks long ago, as soon as the prima facae evidence against Guede became known and he was caught while on the run in Germany.
They have, in effect, made themselves complicit in the reduction of Meredith’s killer’s jail sentence from an already lenient 30 years to 14. (I hope this is rectified somehow, and I have to say that I wish Guede all the ill in the world at the hands of his fellow inmates).
As I say, puzzling, but at least one explanation suggests itself.
Westerners are now inured to what is referred to as the 'cult of the individual' (essentially, egoism and self-love), the notion that anyone and everyone is entitled to believe they are 'special', and that any premature death is a 'tragedy'.
One frequently hears about survivors of disasters such as air-crashes expressing feelings of "guilt" for their own survival and that they could somehow have "made a difference" and "done more" to save others.
In fact, they have simply been confronted with the stark reality that they are NOT "special", that any of us can have our lives ended in an instant for no other reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are trying to rationalise their feelings and regain their lost sense of "being in control of their destiny" from which they’ve been so abruptly disabused.
The Italian prosecutions' elaborate and theatrical "narrative" of a "frenzy of drug-fuelled sex and violence" instigated by the charismatic "Luciferina" Knox seems to have hypnotised the Kerchers and served to allow them (and others) to remain in denial of the fact that Meredith’s death was the result of a completely random and meaningless act of savagery by an utter nobody, that she was NOT a protagonist in a tableau resembling a Greek tragedy.
Add to this an undoubted combination of ingratiation and badgering by Mignini (if not his typical bullying), and they simply allowed themselves to become (literally) mute bystanders to the spectacle he was orchestrating.
If this isn’t so, then less charitably, I have to note that if Guede alone had been convicted of the murder, the Kerchers would have had to forget about any financial 'compensation' for Meredith’s death, but with that of two others from relatively affluent families......
If they would come to their senses, they’d put the Italian police in their sights for litigation.
Guede, who by late 2007 had been steadily building a reputation as a drug-using, knife-wielding thief and burglar, should have been arrested before he ever got a chance to be in Meredith's home. The cops’ incompetence and negligence (or worse) had left him on the streets. I'm no lawyer, but I'd say they'd have a good case.
(Guede’s various stories with “some other dude” killing Meredith? Either he cut her throat himself or he FACILITATED IT by taking this “other dude” to her home, and then fleeing to a disco to try and set up an alibi, leaving her to die. Either way, it would make him no less guilty. He remains a God-damned, worthless liar.)
If the Kerchers are able to escape Mignini and his cronies’ (and their own venal lawyers’) ingratiation and distance themselves from them, perhaps this will dawn on them one day.
