Monday, October 03, 2011

Is The Raffaele Sollecito Defense Team About To Separate Him From A Radioactive Amanda Knox?

Posted by Peter Quennell





Sollecito has at least five advantages over Knox in what may be the final day of court tomorrow.

First, the smartest and most influential of all the lawyers in MP Giulia Bongiorno. Second, a relatively attractive family which has run a low-key smiling campaign. Third, relatively little evidence (the bra clasp and footprint) placing him at the scene of the crime and unlike Knox no alibi that says he was there.

Fourth, no obvious motive for either the murder or the cleanup compared to the many possible motives for Amanda Knox. And fifth, a weak wishy-washy personality on which Bongiorno has already played, casting Knox as the lead player in the drama and Sollecito as either accidentally there or not at all.

The mood does seem to be moving against Amanda Knox now as the extreme arrogance of the million dollar campaign sinks in. And if her “spontaneous” remarks to the court tomorrow follow her usual pattern, they will yet again make her look callous and concerned only about herself.

Several reports are out now in Italian harking on these themes. This report by the Associated Press with a possible nudge from the Sollecito team gives a sense of what the Italian reports are saying.

Even in Sollecito’s native Italy, it is Knox who commands the most media attention. Two prominent celebrity and gossip magazines, “Oggi” and “Gente,” put Knox on their covers during the final week of arguments in the appeals trial, and newspapers characterize him as being in the background.

Not even prosecutors have portrayed Sollecito as the main protagonist in the murder of Meredith Kercher on Nov. 1, 2007. According to their version, Sollecito held Kercher from behind while Knox stabbed her and another man tried to sexually assault her. Ivorian immigrant Rudy Guede was convicted in a fast-track trial and saw his sentence cut from 30 years to 16 years on appeal.

Attention during the investigation focused intensely on the two young female roommates as the world and prosecutors searched for a motive. Knox was portrayed as sexually promiscuous and lacking inhibition, while at the same time working hard to support herself and trying to learn Italian; Kercher was depicted as more serious and studious, who had at the end of her life began to chafe at her American roommate’s sloppiness.

The good girl/bad girl dichotomy drove headlines across the globe, while Sollecito “” the mild mannered boyfriend “” was largely overlooked in a supporting role.

It’s a role that his defense lawyer plays up. Sollecito is the son of a wealthy doctor from southern Italy who hired a crack legal team to defend his son. It’s led by Giulia Bongiorno, who defended former Italian Premier Giulio Andreotti on charges of mafia association.

“It’s not by chance that Raffaele arrived in this trial as the boyfriend. Nothing connects Raffaele to the crime,” Bongiorno said in her closing arguments last week. “With a girlfriend, you usually get a family. Raffaele got a murder.”

She said the few pieces of evidence in the “Amanda-centric” trial relate to Knox, not to Sollecito. “Nothing connects him to the crime,” Bongiorno said.

Comments

The convicted murderers will not confess until everything is on the line in the final appeal, at which point their sentences would be reduced because the Italian system is very defendant friendly especially for those criminals who finally tell the truth. The current court should do nothing to jeopardize this eventuality and should under no circumstances release them. Keep them in prison for their other crimes under any means necessary because Knox will not return for any future appeal otherwise.

Jen in Seattle

Posted by jennifer on 10/03/11 at 04:41 AM | #

I hope the jury isn’t going to believe that Sollecito let his new girlfriend, to whom he’d been attached at the hip, run off with a rival male for the night. Then it just happened that his various alibis all turned out to be lies.

The guilty try to separate themselves from other suspects during interrogation, in order to avoid conflicting alibis. Similarly defense lawyers try to separate their clients from other defendants as an insurance policy in the event one the defendants is found guilty. That is exactly what we saw in this case.

I’ll grant that the Sollecito family has remained somewhat more dignified compared to the Knox family’s xenophobic bullying tactics. That’s not saying much.

As for the motive, just being under Knox’s spell is enough. Add in the drugs and the apparent sexual pervesions and it’s not hard at all to believe that he was a full participant in this murder.

Posted by brmull on 10/03/11 at 04:59 AM | #

Hi BRMull. I dont know if you ever read the transcripts of the secret tapes made of Papa Doc and Vanessa discussing how to subvert justice (on which they will soon face trial).

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php?/tjmk/comments/sollecito_family_trial_on_the_component_about_their_alleged_attempt/

Papa Doc sounded very chilling on those tapes and Vanessa kept blabbing in a way that had Papa frantic. All the nearest and dearest in this case seem to wear two faces.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 10/03/11 at 05:16 AM | #

The convicted murderers will not confess until everything is on the line in the final appeal, at which point their sentences would be reduced because the Italian system is very defendant friendly especially for those criminals who finally tell the truth. The current court should do nothing to jeopardize this eventuality and should under no circumstances release them. Keep them in prison for their other crimes under any means necessary because Knox will not return for any future appeal otherwise.

Jen in Seattle

Posted by jennifer on 10/03/11 at 06:59 AM | #

Reading the report again, it seems clear that the DNA found on the bra clasp was Sollecito’s and what explanation can there be for it to be there?  There didn’t at that time and the testing seemed to be thoroughly done.  It is strange that they didn’t find any other DNA of his in the apartment although they did not test every inch.  As stated, they took 400 some samples and tested them.  Perhaps the budget does not allow for testing of every ince of the villa, Rafa’s apt and Rudy’s apt.  I had forgotton they found a mixed sample in a Luminol detected place in front of Amanda’s door for both her and Meredith.  What explanation could there be for that?  Spilled fruit juice that they both touched?  In re-reading the report, I do not see how the judge and jury could let them go but we will see in a few days.  Especially the suspicious actions when the police arrived, the fact that Amanda did not even inform the other roommate that she had already tried calling Meredith and acted like she had no idea where she was, her email saying she panicked at the locked door before police arrived but then acted like it was all normal for it to be locked when the others got there (roommates, boyfriends)?  That is very suspicious too.  It would not be normal to be pointing out that the door is usually locked if she stated in the email that she had panicked about it.

Posted by believing on 10/03/11 at 07:09 AM | #

@Peter: I take back what I said about the Sollecito’s being dignified.

@believing: I have reached the exact same conclusions, though it is not surprising that more of Sollecito’s DNA was not found at the cottage since he hardly spent any time there. Knox was at his place every night.

Posted by brmull on 10/03/11 at 08:17 AM | #

Live feed from Perugia courtroom:

http://www.kirotv.com/video/29369035/index.html

Posted by Vivianna on 10/03/11 at 10:43 AM | #

Another live feed with English translation:

http://www.rentadrone.org/cnn-international/

Translation is sporadic and somewhat difficult to understand, but manageable.

Posted by Vivianna on 10/03/11 at 11:04 AM | #

Better translation via BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15147260

Posted by Vivianna on 10/03/11 at 11:21 AM | #

reading tweets from andrea vogt and barbie nadeau of knox and sollecito’s statements…it’s still all about “me” mentality through both of them—are they playing to the jury or their respective home teams?

Posted by mojo on 10/03/11 at 11:45 AM | #

Didn’t realise there was a live-feed and have just missed it. Was there any video footage of the speeches of the defendants?

Posted by janeelisabeth on 10/03/11 at 12:24 PM | #

Hi Jane,

Yes there was live coverage with a voiceover in English (both speeches) - I watched it on CNN.

You didnt miss much to be honest, Sollecito said that he did not accuse Amanda as it has been claimed and thats about the only important thing that came out of their mouths IMHO. They complained about how miserable their lives are in jail…bla bla
no factual explanations, except Sollecito who said he was with Amanda that night… other than that they did not give any explanation of what they were actually doing during the murder timeframe.

Judge then said that this wasnt a ball game and that he wanted respect and silence when the jury come back to deliver the verdict (after 8pm Perugia time)

Posted by Giselle on 10/03/11 at 12:50 PM | #

Hi Jane,

Yes there was live coverage with a voiceover in English (both speeches) - I watched it on CNN.

You didnt miss much to be honest, Sollecito said that he did not accuse Amanda as it has been claimed and thats about the only important thing that came out of their mouths IMHO. They complained about how miserable their lives are in jail…bla bla
no factual explanations, except Sollecito who said he was with Amanda that night… other than that they did not give any explanation of what they were actually doing during the murder timeframe.

Judge then said that this wasnt a ball game and that he wanted respect and silence when the jury come back to deliver the verdict (after 8pm Perugia time)

Posted by Giselle on 10/03/11 at 01:38 PM | #

7 hours and counting…

Posted by Spencer on 10/03/11 at 02:12 PM | #

I posted about the same topic, although a slightly different take.

http://maundygregory.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/raffaele-sollecitos-wager/

It’s maybe not easy to make predictions about the detail at this late stage, but I’d say that Raffaele’s failure to clarify in court where he was at the time of the murder tells us that his lawyers believe Amanda, at least, is likely to be found guilty.

Posted by Maundy Gregory on 10/03/11 at 02:13 PM | #

Muandy I didnt think of it like that, I found it hard to make sense of him actually probably because the voice over was not continuous. But that is confirmation at the very least that he is still not providing Amanda with an alibi…will the jury see this?

Posted by Giselle on 10/03/11 at 02:29 PM | #

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