The Florida law mandates that all public records be freely available on request. This includes anything surrendered to (or from) a defense team through discovery, all recordings of suspect or witness interrogations, all jail recordings including visits from parents, all requests from the jail commissary ... you get the idea. Only very specific exceptions can be made under extremely limited circumstances, and a finding by a judge is required for each such exception.
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This could truly become pure theatre if it isn't already.
Although it pains me to say this, and I ask for forgiveness in advance, just watch an episode or two of Nancy Grace.
I did watch one episode a while back because someone mentioned her at the PMF. Apparently she'd had someone on associated with this case. The episode I watched didn't have any lurid CCTV on it but featured the disappearance of two women somewhere in the LA area. She lets people phone in but talks right over them for a minute or two non-stop, then asks the caller to agree with her, and thanks them for calling.
It was a little unusual.
The only thing I can compare it to is my own conference call training sessions at work. I like to talk a lot, too, and the phones don't allow the listener to respond if I don't stop talking. At one session, we finally heard a beeping noise from the phone, which I discovered was one of those at the other end trying to get my attention. They asked me if I ever breathe when I talk because (apparently) I'd talked non-stop for fifteen minutes.
Maybe I should have my own true crime call-in show. It doesn't really seem that hard!
We've had that for years now. It's called Nancy Grace, and airs at 8:00pm Eastern Time every night on HLN (HeadLine News).
Nancy (may her shriveled, coprolitic substitute for a heart rot, burn, and freeze for all eternity in every Hell ever imagined by humankind) delights in taking full advantage of Florida's "Sunshine Law", which brings the thrust of this trend to its pitiful conclusion.
Jailhouse video of Casey Anthony visiting with her parents, complete with scary color saturation effects and weird strobe lighting are regular fare, as are learned discussions with "experts" in body language and pop psychology. Her consumption of snacks and her toiletry orders from the jail commissary are the subject of extended ridicule. The balance on her commissary account is analyzed in painful detail, and colorful suppositions about the motives of anonymous donors to that account are fruitful comedy territory. Each court appearance is good for a second-by-second commentary of her hairstyle, weight, and couture, with occasional brief references to the proceedings themselves.
Every night.
For nearly a year and a half it was almost the only content on her program.
Every night.
The cast of the Haleigh Cummings saga is mined with even more unrestrained glee, since they appear to be godsent caricatures of Central Casting white trailer trash....
The fun isn't limited to Florida cases, although they provide the most in contributions from the state. Halides1 might have some choice comments on the Grace creature's rendition of the Duke Lacrosse case.
When Knox defenders complain of the treatment she supposedly received in the Italian press, and wax philosophical about the shortcomings of Italian justice and the innate superiority of the American WayTM I can only think of the old adage "Be careful what you wish for. ..."
She could have been busted in Florida.
It is. Very bad, tasteless, offensive theater which is almost an incontrovertible argument against judicial transparency.
Although it pains me to say this, and I ask for forgiveness in advance, just watch an episode or two of Nancy Grace.
Keep a barf bag close at hand. Remove all objects which might serve as projectiles from the vicinity of your TV screen or monitor.
Be prepared to seek anger management counseling afterward.
He didn't need a lawyer by that point, the police were done with him.
Rubbish. If Rudy's lawyers wanted to 'persuade' him it wouldn't have taken them months to do it.
And it's worth noting, if Amanda and Raffaele were truly innocent, Rudy had EVERY reason from the get-go to say it was them he saw there. The only reason he'd have had to not say they were there is if they actually were, for then they could say things to damage him in return. Omerta.
And what is that alibi exactly Mary? Would that be the alibi where the time she had dinner changed at least 3 times?
It took Rudy 4 months to add in a couple of little details? That's all that changed.
We've been over this and nobody is buying your 'police suggested Patrick Lumumba' rubbish.
The police never said Raffaele's pocket knife wasn't involved. In fact, Massei says that it was. But it is a fact, you may not like it, that Meredith was stabbed with at least two different knives.
And really, are you an expert on the history of murder and know through some specific research that no murderer has ever kept a murder weapon in some rather ordinary place in their home?
While I can certainly agree with you guys about the barf reflex and other adverse feelings and reactions while watching a nancy grace episode, I would like to point out that that is pretty close to the feelings and reactions many of us get when reading the pmf discussion board. There does seem to be an inordinate amount of time and space dedicated to Amand'a wardrobe, smiles (or lack of), hair and looks with a huge dose of non-expert opinions about her psychological makeup.
Aren't most posters and commentators on the case a bit despicable from this perspective? It's not just Amanda that has been picked apart and had all her movements and utterances criticised and been speculated about all over blogs, the TV and newspapers.This is true and very funny, quadraginta.I laughed aloud; I'm sure many people would agree with you, as Nancy Grace is often spoofed in popular culture..
Chinese take-out around 6:30/7pm (pepper steak, white rice, sprite). McDonalds around 1/2am (2 Big Macs (only ate one, gave the other away in the break room at work), large fries, Dr Pepper). (I work nights, thus the late night McDonalds...was the only thing open...f'n Taco Bell turned off their lights as I pulled in to the drive-thru)Big deal. What time did you have dinner four nights ago? She spent the night at Raffaele's, as she has always held.
We've already established that Rudy is a mostly unreliable witness. What exactly are we still debating here? Are you still attempting to prove that Rudy's statements were influenced by the Media/Police? We've already agreed that is a possibility. So what, exactly, are you trying to argue?I printed those excerpts from the Times (and the links) so you could see that it was not just "a couple of little details." It went from a complete denial and saying Amanda was not there, to witnessing an unknown stranger whom he could not identify, to claiming that maybe he could identify the stranger after all, to full out claiming Raffaele and Amanda were the ones who committed the murder. I doubt the defendants would call those "a couple little details."
Nobody who's honestly open-minded in regards to the evidence. Only those who want to believe what you've asserted deny what Amanda herself stated happened.Nobody?
Notably, the Forensics team disagrees. I would say that since they studied the body, not just pictures, their opinion is most relevant.The Times reported the police found no DNA on Raffaele's flick knife. "Detectives had said that a flick knife that Mr Sollecito carried around with him was “compatible” with the weapon used to slash the British student’s throat, but that that knife had yielded no DNA"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2878243.ece
The prosecution alleges the murder was committed with two different knives; others disagree.
Speculation.No. As a person with some life experience, however, I would guess that the criminal who would be likely to do that would be practiced and maybe into keeping elements of his crime as trophies. Two young people who have never committed a crime would be completely horrified with the outcome of their "sex game" and would work immediately to hide all evidence.
Hi Bobthe Donkey,Falling asleep on the toilet =/= forgetting to flush. Do you have any actual evidence that Rudy habitually forgot to flush?
Regardless, as I stated - that is my belief. However, we'll never know the truth unless all any one of the three stop lying and begins to tell what really happened that night. I'd like to add, as I have before, that my scenario in no way exculpates Rudy of guilt in this. He is as guilty as Amanda and Raffaele.
You are either being intentionally obtuse or lying. I have already posted plenty of evidence, from Raffaele's own prison diary, that Amanda was lying from the start - and that he was lying for her at her bequest. On top of that, apparently 1:45 in an interrogation room is enough to cause her to blurt out the first name that is presented to her and develop elaborate false memories that persist for weeks. If false memories are so easily implanted in her mind, then she is an incredibly unreliable witness.
So he was in contact with his lawyers from the start? And you're going to now claim that his false memories were implanted by himself?
When were the samples collected? The knife was collected early enough for Sollecito to have written about it early in his prison diary.
This argument of yours just doesn't fly. It requires a conspiracy of massive proportions, and there's just no reason to believe that's the most likely explanation for the evidence.
This is true and very funny, quadraginta.I laughed aloud; I'm sure many people would agree with you, as Nancy Grace is often spoofed in popular culture..
I see very little difference, however, between the behaviors you describe and the behaviors of some of Amanda's zealous detractors, especially in this paragraph: "Her consumption of snacks and her toiletry orders from the jail commissary are the subject of extended ridicule. The balance on her commissary account is analyzed in painful detail, and colorful suppositions about the motives of anonymous donors to that account are fruitful comedy territory. Each court appearance is good for a second-by-second commentary of her hairstyle, weight, and couture, with occasional brief references to the proceedings themselves."
Who can forget the famous cold sore incident? And the insistence that Amanda's supporters in the blogs are paid?
What little coverage I have seen of the Casey Anthony case includes video of shrieking bigots holding signs of protest on the sidewalk in front of Casey Anthony's parents' home, sticking their noses into a case that does not concern them.
How is this significantly different from the guilters calling for justice for Meredith?
I do see a difference in the way the two cases have been treated in the press. In the United States, coverage of the Casey Anthony case is primarily relegated to the Nancy Grace Show and similar tabloid-style TV. One very rarely reads about it in the mainstream news.
In Italy, the story of Amanda Knox was covered in every publication known to the culture.
In that sense, one might say Amanda was busted in the Florida of Europe.
Hi Bobthe Donkey,
In reply to your post, I put forth a few words that I have read about a former Los Angeles Police Department officer named Raffaele Perez, whose work habits resulted in over 100 arrests or convictions being over turned due to police misconduct here in L.A. a few years back.
"Arrested and facing the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence, Perez cut a deal with prosecutors and, in the course of 35 interviews, began to unspool a story of widespread police misconduct ("believe me when I tell you, if there was 15 officers in CRASH, 13 of them were putting cases on people").
At his sentencing in February, 2000, Perez marketed his version of what went wrong. He offered apologies and accepted blame. But, he also blamed the "intoxicant" of police power. "The us-against-them ethos of the overzealous cop began to consume me. And the ends justified the means," he told the court. "We vaguely sensed we were doing the wrong things for the right reasons. Time and again, I stepped over that line. Once crossed, I hurdled over it again and again, landing with both feet sometimes on innocent persons. My job became an intoxicant that I lusted after."
The original link is here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/lapd/scandal/eyeofstorm.html
More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Pérez_(police_officer)
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Anyways, the point of my rebuttal is that it only takes 1 or a few bad apples to spoil the whole bunch. If any part of the evidence were indeed "tainted", how would a judge or jury know? Or much less you and I, curious bystanders?
The story behind the convictions of Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox do not add up to me, and many others. Is their an over-zealous prosecutor in Perugia, as there was a short time ago in Durham, during the Duke Lacrosse case? I do not know, or have proof of any mis-conduct going on in Perugia, for how could I? But in my opinion, something seems strange in this particular case.
RWVBWL
Hi 43degreesNorth,Exxxxcuuuuuse me!!!
What about walking away from a job placement in Germany... what about a hookup with a stranger on a train with younger sister in tow...
Hi 43degreesNorth,Disappearing from a job without informing people is irresponsible and rude and immature. Hooking up when being responsible for a younger sister is also irresponsible. Just ask her parents what they think about this. Ask her uncle how he felt about her leaving the job without the courtesy to inform others.