Continuation Part 3 - Discussion of the Amanda Knox case

[yeti101]

Dear Lord help the judges make a correct decision tomorrow. Give them wisdom and strength.

Amen to that.

Rolfe.

someone back on page 215 said they were praying. Heres more praying on jref. Disturbing.

 

[Rolfe]

Does anyone remember any of Ted Bundy's victims' families complaining that their murdered relatives had been "forgotten" in the media coverage of the trial and execution of Bundy? Can many people even remember the names of a single victim of Bundy or the Lockerbie bomb?

I don't even know who Bundy is, but I can name and give the personal backgrounds of a fair proportion of the Lockerbie victims. I have stood at the memorial and run my fingers over the names engraved there, remembering who each of them was and why they were on the plane that evening (and the personal circumstances of the Lockerbie people killed on the ground), and the people they left behind.

Rolfe.

 

[CoulsdonUK]

It's also abundantly clear from the press conference that the members of Meredith's family present there (Lyle, Arline and Stephanie) all think that Knox and Sollecito were participants in the murder. I feel a mixture of sadness and disgust that they have arrived at that position: sadness because they were probably clinging to certain beliefs at certain times, and those beliefs are now hard to change; and disgust because I'm almost certain that Mignini and Maresca were instrumental in helping to form those beliefs, and they continue to be instrumental in perpetuating those beliefs.

But are you surprised with their position?

 

[Rolfe]

someone back on page 215 said they were praying. Heres more praying on jref. Disturbing.

Awful, isn't it! Almost as if there wasn't a groupthink mentality here....

Rolfe.

 

[monoman]

Some Brits do seem a bit more susceptible to mysticism, astrology, etc., than we more skeptical Yanks. Harry Potter, Aleister Crowley, Jimmy Page, etc.

Hell, at a minimum, Yeats and Page were/are unarguably geniuses. But perhaps such stuff as Theosophy and the Occult should be left to the realm of the aesthetic as opposed to human justice.

Erm.. How do i put th.. er... never mind.

 

[Kaosium]

OJ was one man who killed 2 people. Amanda and friend are two people who killed 1. 1+2=3. 2+1=3. Coincidence?

Keep going Scrut, you can always get to five if you try hard enough. Everything can be related to the number five, even the things that can't be, as long as you approach the endeavor with sufficient rigor.

Now you have OJ on your 'side' too--get to work on it!

 

[Scorpion NITE]

This is most definitely NOT what the CTers want.

CTers.

Guilters.

Call them what you like.

The innocentisti just want an evidence based verdict.

Despite feeble protestations to the contrary.

 

[LondonJohn]

I don't even know who Bundy is, but I can name and give the personal backgrounds of a fair proportion of the Lockerbie victims. I have stood at the memorial and run my fingers over the names engraved there, remembering who each of them was and why they were on the plane that evening, and the people they left behind.

Rolfe.

Oh I know you can. My post was just meant to illustrate the hypocrisy inherent in simultaneously insisting that Meredith Kercher has been "forgotten" while not applying the same standard to victims of other high-profile murders.

 

[Grinder]

Had the Kerchers complained about the media coverage from day one, I'd think today's comments about the media wouldn't be a double standard.

 

[js202]

Erm.. How do i put th.. er... never mind.

Thanks for saving your anti-Americanism. Some things are doubtless better left unsaid.

 

[Teddy2007]

But are you surprised with their position?

I am a little. The gist of the press conference was that the Kerchers just want to get to the bottom of what happened that night, and that they believe the police have done a good job, and it's not just about the DNA, and they can't forgive Knox (no mention of Sollecito). How can you get to the bottom of what happened that night, if you have Maresca in your corner? You have to come out of that protective shell otherwise you will only hear one side of the story. In their defence, the fact that they can't speak Italian could be a factor, and Maresca is no doubt very smooth with them. If AK and RS are freed, I hope they then have it in them to research this case also from the other side.

 

[Scorpion NITE]

Thanks for saving your anti-Americanism. Some things are doubtless better left unsaid.

Even though you were wrong about us British and should not stereotype like that.

You are correct - some things are better left unsaid.

 

[DarkStar2011]

Clouseau really continues to go out of her way to appear unintelligent and illogical:

BLNadeau Barbie Latza Nadeau
Really almost shocking turnout for #meredithkercher presser. People do remember real victim?#amandaknox

Personally, I wish people would stop calling Barbie "Clouseau." Remember, Inspector Clouseau may have been a bumbler, but he was always right in the end.

 

[LondonJohn]

But are you surprised with their position?

Not necessarily surprised. But I think they do show clear signs of a blinkered belief in this position (e.g. Stephanie said just now that "nothing had changed" between the first trial and now). And when Arline Kercher repeats that things should be judged on the evidence alone, I do wonder what evidence she (and the family) are looking at if they think that Knox and Sollecito participated in her daughter's murder.

I suspect that many grieving families would have found themselves in a similar position to that of the Kerchers: a justifiable need to find out who killed their family member, combined with a zealous prosecutor and family lawyer who both convincingly told them that they had solved the crime, led to a strong emotional attachment to a certain belief in who was guilty. As I've said already, I sincerely hope that the Kercher family are not overly distressed by tonight's acquittals, and that it doesn't take them too long to come to terms with the likely truth about what happened to Meredith: that she was sexually assaulted and killed by Rudy Guede, acting alone, when she returned home to interrupt him in the midst of a burglary.

 

[DarkStar2011]

I am a little. The gist of the press conference was that the Kerchers just want to get to the bottom of what happened that night, and that they believe the police have done a good job, and it's not just about the DNA, and they can't forgive Knox (no mention of Sollecito). How can you get to the bottom of what happened that night, if you have Maresca in your corner?

More to the point, how do you "get to the bottom of what happened" while claiming you already know "what happened?"

 

[Chris_Halkides]

Diogenes with his lamp

Watching the press conference now. The Kerchers don't seem very focussed to me. I'm not quite sure what the point of all this is other than to "remember Meredith", which seems a good thing to do during this limbo period.

Oh dear. Arline has just said that Amanda murdered Meredith because she was all that Amanda wasn't.

Stephanie has just said that the evidence hasn't changed at all since the first verdict. But that they'll have to accept a not guilty verdict if it happens. Nobody knows what happened until somebody comes forward and says "I did it". Maybe she needs to have a little chat with Rudy.

Lyle has just been asked about the million-dollar media campaign. He says if the family believe Amanda and Raffaele aren't guilty then of course they would want to support them but it made it difficult for them.

Important that Meredith isn't forgotten.

It's hard to hear the questions, but the answers are well miked. Stephanie just wants the verdict to be based on the evidence and not the media hype. And so say we all.

Rolfe.

I did not hear that Arline said that, but I was not listening to every word. There is not one scintilla of evidence to support her assertion. I think that Lyle mentioned the PR campaign but did not himself use the phrase "million dollar." The questioner must have. There was a bowling fundraiser in Seattle a few months ago. There is likewise no evidence of a million dollar PR campaign, and I would argue that there is counter evidence.

It is unfortunate that the family does not seem able to assimilate new evidence, such as the C-V report, but it is not unexpected based on other cases, as commenters here have noted previously.
EDT
It is difficult to reconcile Arline's comments above with her insistence that the evidence is all one has.

 

[LondonJohn]

I have a strong feeling that I know exactly what the rationalisation will be after the acquittals are announced: I think the line will be that a combination of sloppy forensics work and a concerted PR campaign have conspired to allow two murderers to walk free.

 

[Ammonitida]

So members of the jury cried while Amanda spoke!!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/03/501364/main20114632.shtml

I really hope that's true. I doubt Hellman cried because he's a guy and that's taboo, so that leaves the women jurors. Very good news. My hopes for acquittal have just raised significantly.

 

[Paninaro]

There is no "real" victim here,

Meredith Kercher is the victim of the sexmurderer Rudy Guede.

Sollecito och Knox are victims of a grave injustice.

Patrick Lumumba is the victim of the Perugia police and their stupid and ineffective interrogation technique.

There is no point in measuring one persons suffering as less in comparison with anothers. And for the sake of justice it is extremely dangerous.

 

[js202]

Even though you were wrong about us British and should not stereotype like that.

You are correct - some things are better left unsaid.

American skepticism can be embodied in someone as foolish and simplistic as George W. Bush, or someone as brilliant and complex as Ralph Waldo Emerson. Yet it persists. As a general rule, our traditions do not tend toward mysticism or the occult in any meaningful way, whatsoever. A different argument could be made for the British.

I say this as an American who is proud of his Irish heritage, and who considers William Butler Yeats one of his greatest heroes, not to mention one of the two or three greatest artists of the 20th century. Yet, Yeats might well have made something of the synchronism of dates between the Simpson and Knox cases. In this I would consider him mistaken and non-rational, but would simultaneously lose no reverence for his Cuchulain Comforted, which I have had memorized for more than a decade.