Saturday, February 12, 2011

Sollecito Defense Team Breaking From Knox Defense Team On Legal Measures To Stop Lifetime Movie

Posted by Peter Quennell


The Amanda Knox team of Ghirga and Delle Vedova were ready to stop by legal means the showing of the Lifetime movie in Italy.

We presume they were only willing to go that far and no further because there are various signs that Edda Mellas and Curt Knox had a hand in the generation of this movie - not least that they have never denied it or decried it. Chris Mellas confirmed that they were helping out in his candid announcements that he tried to get Panettiere face to face in Capanne with Amanda Knox.

But there is already a huge separation between the Knox and the Sollecito defense teams - Giulia Bongiorno and Luca Maori (image above) have no liking at all for the runaway train of xenophobic conspiracy theorists.

And of course Raffaele Sollecito STILL does not confirm Amanda Knox’s attempted fifth alibi for the night that she was at his place all along.

We have already warned that the fact of this movie could make things very much worse for Amanda Knox.

Now it looks like this is happening. Giulia Bongiorno and Luca Maori want the movie delayed worldwide on the basis that it could SERIOUSLY damage their client’s prospects. 

The large Italian news service ADNKronos is now reporting that if Lifetime do not confirm by this next Monday that the movie is to be held back until after the appeals are over, they will file suit in New York Federal court in Manhattan (image below).

If there is a Federal court session on this, we should be able to report from the front lines, hopefully with some shots, on the Lifetime producers trying to defend their bizarre movie.

Looking forward.


Comments

Somewhat surprising to me because implying that public opinion, influenced by a film, can impact a jury’s decision.

That, in turn, seems the very premise of the Curt Knox publicity campaign. While as you have also pointed out, Peter, the Knox people, Curt & his divorced first wife stand to be given an hour’s TV time after the film’s showing.

Ugly, ugly, ugly, but what to think? You have also said more than once, Peter, that a separation of sorts, a fissure, an open break “could” happen between Sollecito’s team & Amanda’s.

I am all in favor of an open break. Sollecito, the weakling, was drawn into this rape & murder scheme by the initiatives of the far more energetic Amanda. (And so too Rudy G.)

Not that this excuses Sollecito, but it makes a difference. Given his psychopathic passivity, his sentence could be reduced while Amanda’s would be maintained (or even increased.)

This would be a kind of justice which puts, deservedly, an inconceivable pressure on Amanda—the pressure of despair—to force her consideration of a Truman-Capote-like (very extensive & conscientious) confession.

Without that, no redemption. So I say, let divisions & fissures come! Sollecito stands to benefit & his lawyers ought to see it.

Posted by Ernest Werner on 02/12/11 at 10:58 PM | #

beautifully put, mr. werner.

Posted by mojo on 02/13/11 at 08:46 AM | #

2/13/11

This case keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Knox and Raf defense divided? a crack in the foundation? The split command between army and navy forces destroyed cohesion of Suleiman’s Turks at Siege of Malta.

If Lifetime generates worldwide or merely American interest in this case, many will flock to TJMK for the facts. This site is an island of jewels for people doing research on Meredith’s murder. TJMK has accomplished great things already as a lighthouse of knowledge. It’s the epitome of complete case coverage, all in one easily accessed spot. It has steered journalists, book authors, lawyers, Dornhelm, thousands of others we don’t know about yet. It set off lightbulbs in minds like Mignini, John Kercher, Garafano, Lalli, Stefanoni, Tom Cruise, Judge Hellman along with millions of unknown readers.

This site and PMF will soon get a lot more traffic (not that TJMK isn’t already perfect!), but it may grow even more important if this movie alerts the masses. This site will pay back with dividends the time and effort the founder, Peter Quennell, lavished on it.
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Some questions, may be dumb

If Bongiorno and Maori sue Lifetime to stop the movie going worldwide, to delay it till after appeals,

#  Is it just a bluff to get money from out of court settlement?

#  Would $$ paid by Lifetime go to Raf?

#  If Lifetime is owned by AOL or Disney or whoever, that could be big payout to Bongiorno but doesn’t it also mean an impossible battle against such deep pockets that they can’t win?

# Won’t it dangerously distract Bongiorno from the more important matter of Raf’s appeal? She seemed distracted during his trial, rushing to her limo to speed back to Rome on other business, sick once, later had a baby. I felt Raf should have fired her long ago and gotten a fresh lawyer, but it’s hard to change horses in midstream, his family is banking on her big name and they know what flies in Italy. I never thought she was very effective other than strategy of female to defend him to blur image of him killing a woman.

__________

Bongiorno looks radiantly happy in red coat, Maori in profile seems cheerful. Glow of success, less stress? Why not, the cameras are rolling. It’s red carpet season as they go after Lifetime. Baby take a bow.

Posted by Hopeful on 02/13/11 at 08:44 PM | #

Mid morning Tuesday, and this is the day Sollecito’s defense team will file suit in New York to ask to stop the movie being aired until after the appeals.

I’m going to head for the courts in lower Manhattan at lunchtime, to see if the clerk there has any news. The suit would have to be filed by a New York lawyer admitted to the bar here.

Only the Italian media appear to be aware of this unfolding story. We have not spotted a single mention of it so far in any English language media.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/15/11 at 05:37 PM | #

WPIX New York have a video of Panettiere still promoting the movie this morning.

The one hour “documentary” to follow the movie is described as below.

Reads to us like strong signs of bias. There is no mention of the Massei Report with its voluminous evidence or the fact that the Supreme Court of Cassation has already accepted that all there were party to the attack.

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Immediately following the movie at 11pm, Lifetime will premiere the hour-long documentary, Beyond the Headlines: Amanda Knox. The program features Amanda’s mother and father, as well as friends, investigators, prosecutors and legal scholars who take viewers inside the Italian justice system and reveal what it’s like to be a foreigner locked up and convicted in another country.

Set in the town of Perugia, Italy, and Amanda’s hometown of Seattle, the documentary will unravel the legal evidence and allegations to look at what really happened to Meredith Kercher on November 2, 2007 – and what Amanda Knox’s role might have been.

Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy poses the question of whether Knox (Panettiere), the Seattle honors student accused of murdering her college roommate Meredith Kercher (Amanda Fernando Stevens) in 2007 with her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito (Paolo Romio) and acquaintance Rudy Guede (Djirbi Kebe), actually committed the crime or was herself a victim.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/15/11 at 06:57 PM | #

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