Saturday, November 28, 2009

The Summations: Lawyer Luca Maori Sums Up All Day Today In Sollecito’s Defense

Posted by Peter Quennell


This first report translated by Tiziano is from the news-service AGI.

The trial before the Court of the Assizes of Perugia of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, accused of the murder of Meredith Kercher, has resumed this morning at the Palazzo di Giustizia , with the address of one of the lawyers for Raffaele Sollecito, Luca Maori. The two accused are present in court.

“Defending an innocent person is always more difficult than defending a guilty one” lawyer Maori said “Raffaele has been described as the worst of young men, he has been insulted and wounded in his dearest affections.” Maori continued,

“Raffaele is the second victim in this event. He is twenty-three years old and he has spent two of these years in prison. They have wanted to tailor him “a suit of clothes” which does not belong to him, he has been described as a fellow addicted to drugs, porno films and the search for strong emotions. His past has been morbidly delved into and that of his family, as has the premature death of his mother.”

The lawyer continued, “There is one fact that must not be forgotten in this trial, and that is that there is already a guilty person: Rudy Hermann Guede, condemned to thirty years for the crime.” Lawyer Maori played in the court room the audio recording of a conversation via Skype between Rudy Hermann Guede, who was at that moment in Germany, and the friend of the Ivorian, who was speaking from an office in Perugia police headquarters.

Mr Maori included the hope that Sollecito’s other lawyer, Ms Giulia Bongiorno, who apparently has an appendix problem,  would be well enough on Monday to argue her part of the summing-up.

And this is from Ann Wise’s report for the ABC website.

Maori placed the responsibility for the crime squarely on Rudy Guede, and then spent six hours rebutting the evidence presented against Sollecito by the prosecution.

“We already have the guilty person,” Maori told the court, “and that is Rudy Guede. The DNA is his, as are the fingerprints, and the footprints,” Maori said.

Maori defended Sollecito’s character, saying he is a person friends describe as a “quiet, shy and romantic” young man. Sollecito “is the second victim in this affair,” Maori told the court.

Sollecito’s lawyer meticulously reviewed the evidence and witness testimony presented by the prosecution, including the two main pieces of evidence investigators say put him on the scene of the crime: his DNA on the victim’s bra hook and a bloody footprint police say is compatible with his foot.

He reiterated what was said repeatedly in the course of the trial: that the DNA on the bra is probably due to contaminated evidence, and the footprint, according to Maori, belongs to Guede.

Maori also introduced a new bit of evidence he says defense experts discovered: a biological substance visible on the pillow found in the victim’s room, which Maori’s experts believe to be semen. He said the substance was never tested by the forensic police.

“Why were the two spots visible on the pillow found under the victim not tested?” Maori asked when speaking to journalists outside the courtroom. “The crime against Kercher was sexual,” Maori added, “but no one tested those stains.”

In the course of the trial, investigators said no semen was found on the scene of the crime, though injuries to the victim, and the fact that she was found naked from the waist up, indicated she had been sexually assaulted.

Rudy Guede’s DNA was found on Kercher’s body.

And this is from Nick Pisa’s report on the Daily Telegraph website.

“Despite what has been claimed Sollecito is a calm, quiet and reserve young man. He was just 23 when arrested and he is now approaching his 26th birthday.

“He is the second victim in all this - someone has wanted to sew him a suit which just does not fit him. He is not as the prosecution say a man looking for a strong experience.

“He is a young man of little sexual experience and who had just met a young lady and was in the first week of their relationship.”

Comments

Nobody has forgotten that ‘A’ guilty party has been convicted Mr Maori, nor have they forgotten that ‘A’ guilty party does not preclude there being ‘OTHER’ guilty parties.

Nor are they going to be fooled by the selective use of Guede, suddenly to be seen as entirely honest, forthright and trustworthy but only in part of a single conversation. A conversation made at a time when it was not in his interests to point a finger at either AK or RS. Outside of that conversation he is to be seen as utterly dishonest, selfish and ruthlessly dangerous.

If RS’s defence relies on this doubletalk and flummery then it really is hollow and in deep trouble. Perhaps it might help if his lead lawyer turned up to court more often. Perhaps she thinks it will not and would rather not be there to crash and burn quite so publicly. She has other obligations of course and now a spot of health problems but the suspicion remains.

She has made time for other commitments. Why take the case if she could not give it full attention? A high profile case for a woman who is no stranger to controversy now looking like a bad embarrassment.

Maori seems to have stuck to rhetoric and avoided uncomfortable hard facts instead of explaining them away. While painting RS as a second victim, insulted and wounded he appears to have failed to mention that his ‘romantic’ young client admited lying to the police and has consistently refused to say anything meaningful to explain his whereabouts or actions thereafter. What has been claimed, parties, computers etc has been disproved.

Emperor Maori has no clothes.

Posted by Faustus on 11/29/09 at 12:09 AM | #

What I find interesting is this “second victim” thing… It seems they are trying to make some distance between him and Amanda, as she is not mentioned as a third victim.

Honestly, because I am sure they are at least involved in a very bad way, I wish they will be found guilty. But also, I am already curious of all we will find out when they appeal, as this time, they will certainly not as a team anymore. Did not work well fro Raffaele, did it?

Posted by Patou on 11/29/09 at 12:16 AM | #

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