Category: The wider contexts
Casey Anthony Verdict Not Guilty Despite Three Years Of One-Sided Media Presuming Guilt
Posted by Peter Quennell
One thing that LA Times headline above means is that media bias against the defendant made not one whit of difference.
The seriously ailing CNN network’s Headline News channel (legal anchors Nancy Grace and Jane Velez Mitchell) have very stridently promoted the notion that Casey Anthony probably killed her toddler Caylee almost nightly for three years, to drive up their viewership ratings.
It had zero effect on the Florida jury. Now Headline News looks like a toothless tiger, and one prone to dangerous mistakes.
The jury studied the evidence and made up its own mind (in 11 hours) and so that is that. Mainstream media is outraged but looking puny. Here is a scathing comment from the defense lawyers saying they got it seriously wrong.
Anthony’s defense attorney, Jose Baez, said this verdict proves, “You cannot convict someone until they’ve had their day in court.”
A second defense attorney for Anthony, Cheney Mason, blasted the media in a statement, saying, “I hope that this is a lesson to those of you who have indulged in media assassination for three years, bias, and prejudice, and incompetent talking heads saying what would be and how to be.”
The few early media reports about “Foxy Knox” are like a candle to the blowtorch of this seeming never-ending pro-guilt commentary.
The usual couple of examples waved around are from the UK. In fact Italy saw next to no anti-Knox commentary, and one of the ways Italy looks rather fine in the Knox case is their media have been so restrained.
Read the Massei Report 10 times and you will be lucky to find one sentence that suggests “The media made us declare her guilty”. It just didn’t happen. The jury studied the evidence and made up its own mind (in a few hours) and so that is that.
In contrast to the Casey Anthony trial, the full spectrum of evidence in the Knox-Sollecito trial is very strong and even redundant, violence obviously was done (no signs of violence were found on Caylee Anthony) and there are no other likely scenarios or perps.
Okay, media guys. For starters, report the facts from Perugia correctly. And do some translation - or read ours. Surely that cannot hurt more than this.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/06/11 at 12:54 AM •
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Archived in The legal followups, News media & movies, Media developments, The wider contexts, Hoaxers: media groups, CNN Network •
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US Kidnapping Victim Gets Justice After 8 Years Despite Defense + Perp Groupies Gaming The System
Posted by Peter Quennell
A 14-year old Mormon girl, Elizabeth Smart, was kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake City on June 5 2002.
On March 12 2003 she was found alive with her abductors on the streets of a town about 18 miles from her home. Her abductors were Brian David Mitchell and his wife Wanda Ileen Barzee.
A couple of weeks ago, Mitchell was finally handed two life terms at trial.
It sure was a strenuous process getting there.
The defense had great success over the years in lining up a number of mental health specialists to say he was not well in the head, and should of course be committed to their institutions rather than prison where, presumably, they would cure him.
Elizabeth Smart and her family and the cops and prosecutors and many or most of the American public never ever bought Mitchell’s insanity act for a moment. There grew to be a small mountain of evidence that he was faking it. He was observed to turn on and off bizarre behavior whenever it served him..
But many others, some naive do-gooders and some very nasty did buy Mitchell’s act. And in the video at bottom you can see how the defense tried to argue that Elizabeth Smart herself was not REALLY affected by her ordeal and so Mitchell should get a break on the length of his sentence.
In this case Wikipedia has an excellent and impartial account of the psychological testimony. The defense portion of the trial, which ultimately failed to convince the jury:
Many stipulations were presented and many lay witnesses where called covering Mitchell’s alleged sanity and his alleged insanity. The defense relied most of all on the testimony of two mental health professionals, Dr. Paul Whitehead and Dr. Richard DeMier. Dr. Whitehead is the clinical director of the forensic unit at the Utah State Hospital and studied Mitchell extensively since his arrest in 2003 and concluded that Mitchell suffered from a delusional disorder which made him both incompetent to stand trial and not responsible for his crimes. Dr. DeMier testified that Mitchell suffers from both grandiose and paranoid delusions which he characterized as bizarre however he offered no opinion as to what Mitchell’s mental health was at the time of the crimes between 2002 to 2003 because he only analysed his mental state as of 2008.
And the prosecution portion of the trial which won the jury over.
A total of seven lay witnesses were called to testify on December 3, 2010 regarding Mitchell’s cruelty and religious beliefs including his two former step daughters who testified that Mitchell abused them long before he claimed to be “Immanuel” or a prophet… A US Marshall who escorted Mitchell into the courtroom each day testified that Mitchell only sings inside the court room. The officer also said that Mitchell spent his time in the nearby holding cell following proceedings, napping or exercising. Mitchell’s behavior outside the courtroom changed only when his wife Wanda Barzee testified with Mitchell standing as close as possible to the monitor, not moving during the duration of her time on the stand….
The prosecution’s last witness was Dr Welner, a forensic psychiatrist from New York City, who spent more than 1,600 hours working on a report on Mitchell…. Dr Welner testified that Mitchell does not suffer from a mental illness, but rather pedophilia, anti-social personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder adding that to know Brian Mitchell is to be fooled by Brian Mitchell. Amongst other things he testified that Mitchell would abandon his revelations when it suited him which showed they weren’t sincere and that Mitchell used blessings to control his wife and used threats and force as a way to control Elizabeth Smart.
A life sentence eight years in the making. Nice to see a prosecution stick to its guns and achieve justice, despite such strenuous attempts to derail it.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 06/11/11 at 03:21 AM •
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Archived in The judical timeline, The legal followups, The wider contexts, N America context •
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Similarities Between Amanda Knox And A Teenage American Drug Addict Just Murdered In Mexico
Posted by Peter Quennell
Pretty, popular 18-year old Elizabeth Mandala (half Mexican, half Italian) was from Sugar Land, a rich outer suburb west of Houston in Texas.
That Fox report above of her very violent death was broadcast three months ago, when Elizabeth Mandala was found beaten to death with two unnamed Mexicans in a very dangerous part of north Mexico.
It appears she was already very deeply into addictive drugs. To support her addiction, she had secretly worked as a stripper, and she was secretly seeking to become a “mule” or “coyote” to move drugs or illegal immigrants across the Mexico border into Texas.
Although very under-reported by an American media that wants to give her every possible break, Amanda Knox was a KNOWN drug user back in Seattle.
And around Perugia, the perception of people who encountered Knox and Sollecito is that she was close to becoming or was already a cocaine addict. The same with Sollecito. They are still both referred to as coke-heads.
Possessing and using drugs both in the US and in Italy is of course a crime. It often results in stiff sentences. Prior to Meredith’s death, Knox seems to have already broken the drug laws of two countries, and quite possibly of a third (Germany).
And this possible drug addict was already down to her last $5,000 or so, and she may have already lost the waitress job which she desperately needed.
This could have been making her desperate and dangerous. Prosecutor Mignini and Judge Micheli both seemed to think it was she that stole Meredith’s rent money which went missing on the night of the murder.
Here now is a long and well-investigated report in last Wednesday’s Houston Press on the circumstances of Elizabeth Mandala’s death. It is well worth reading in full.
You can bet your bottom dollar this story was read in full by a million anxious Houston-area parents, who in turn leaned a little harder on their own little darlings to keep them as far as possible away from drugs.
Paul Knight’s report makes it very clear that EVEN IF THEY WANT TO and it seems they very rarely do, the US State Department and the US Embassies and the FBI will NOT get involved in foreign crimes involving Americans when drugs are one of the factors.
Along with the mountain of evidence, this would help explain the cool attitude toward Knox’s case of the American Embassy in Rome, of Hillary Clinton and the State Department in Washington, and increasingly of that muddled Senator, Maria Cantwell.
Edda Mellas, if you or Curt Knox knew Amanda was on drugs, common knowledge in her circle in Seattle, you REALLY should have stepped in and stopped her. Stopped her drug-use, stopped her going to Perugia and in effect stopped her from killing Merediith.
So. Why didn’t you?
Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/27/10 at 10:02 PM •
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Archived in Various hypotheses, The psychology, Defendants in court, Amanda Knox, The officially involved, The legal followups, The wider contexts, N America context •
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Strange Tale Of Ex New York Times Reporter Who Christian Longo Impersonated On The Run
Posted by Peter Quennell
In follow-up to Lilly’s raw truth of a post on Christian Longo and the similarities with Amanda Knox.
Two things really stand out in this five-minute CBS interview - which sets things up nicely for a longer CBS 48 Hours report, by the way, it seems they don’t always get things wrong.
First, there is the fascination some people have for psychopathic narcissists who have killed. Especially those people who seem themselves not quite right and morally a bit untethered.
And second, there is the cold preening cynicism of the killer himself, who apparently even admitted to Finkel after the trial was all over that, yes, he did kill his wife and three little tots.
But he claims he did that to “save” them. Being bothered about it just isn’t his thing. In prison, Christian Longo’s highly attention-seeking antics, self-pity, and strong public denial continue.
Even Longo has his several white knights. “Such a nice guy.” Yeah. Right.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/19/10 at 03:14 PM •
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Archived in Various hypotheses, The legal followups, News media & movies, Media developments, The wider contexts •
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Wow! Seems A Spreading Epidemic Of Lone Wolves, Now Being Claimed On Two Continents
Posted by Peter Quennell
While in Santiago Chille before he was extradited to Lima Peru (above) this is what Van Der Sloot reportedly told police.
Van der Sloot gave a different account of events while in custody in neighboring Chile, where he was captured after the killing and quickly extradited.
In the version offered to Chilean investigators, Van der Sloot said he and Flores were surprised in the early morning by two robbers in an apparent assault.
“A man came out of the bathroom blocking the access door with a knife in his hand. On the bed was another man with a gun,” the Spanish-language report quotes him as saying. “The man with the knife said to be quiet, but Stephany began talking in a loud voice and he hit her in the face, making her nose bleed.”
It also says Van der Sloot told Chilean agents that the previous day, he and Flores had been extorted by apparent police officers who demanded $4,000 and a wristwatch he brought from Thailand.
Two lone wolves! Apparently he then got some advice from Seattle that that one is copyright, and and that he could not use the “14 hours without food or interpreter or lawyer” line, not right now.
However. it could soon become available. Along with a cheap Spiderman act..
After weighing how absurd all this was sounding, he was overwhelmed with the truth.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 06/13/10 at 09:00 PM •
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Archived in Various hypotheses, The legal followups, The wider contexts •
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The Charging Of The Stephany Flores Murder Suspect In Lima Peru This Morning
Posted by Peter Quennell
Posted by Peter Quennell on 06/11/10 at 10:35 PM •
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Archived in Various hypotheses, The psychology, The legal followups, The wider contexts •
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“An American Student Kills 62 Years Old Retired Bankteller”
Posted by Nicki
[click for larger image]
Corriere reports that this crime took place yesterday.
The American student was under the effect of psychotic drugs. He was wandering through the streets of Florence. He tried to force entry through a garage door while the victim was in the process of locking it.
The student attacked the retired bankteller and cut his throat with a mirror sliver. He covered the body with a piece of cloth and then left.
Police found him sitting on a bench nearby, a few hours after the murder was discovered. He has already confessed the murder.
Posted by Nicki on 05/07/09 at 02:20 PM •
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Archived in Various hypotheses, Pondering motive, The psychology, The legal followups, Italian related, The wider contexts, Italian context, Hoaxes against Italy, Hoaxes Knox & team, 13 AK persona hoax, 18 No drug use hoax •
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Destructive Partying Of American Kids Leaving Italians Seriously Baffled
Posted by Fiori
George Lesser reports on a wild student scene. Click above to read his report
1) One incident: a callous and unexplainable death
In a bizarre incident, criminal charges have been filed against an American student in Florence. According to the police, she and a friend tried to trespass onto the grounds of a large, private villa.
A guard tried to stop them. There was a scuffle, and the friend received a knife wound in the leg. There was no firm indication whose knife it was.
The student and her friend walked a short distance to a public bench. He laid down, and she sat beside him. He slowly bled to death, with her sitting beside him with an unused cell phone.
Apparently she made no effort to help him, and she now claims she was so drunk she cannot remember anything.
The Italian authorities don’t know how to deal with her. Her inability to aid in her own defense is something they have not experienced.
2) And one insight into what might be going on:
A lawyer in Florence for one American college is asked about the problem.
The answer: “You think alcohol is the problem? I’ll tell you what the real problem is. They’re all on [prescription medications].
They’re all on Ritalin, or lithium, or anti-depressants, and they stop taking them, or they take them erratically.”
[And] they neglect to follow up on their referrals to local psychiatrists, raising liability concerns.
Smartening up over liability concerns? Yes, that might save some American parents some very big bucks.
And have them riding herd on behavior….
Posted by Fiori on 03/24/09 at 06:02 PM •
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Archived in Various hypotheses, Pondering motive, The psychology, The wider contexts, Italian context, N America context, Hoaxes Knox & team, 13 AK persona hoax, 18 No drug use hoax •
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