Increasingly The Good Lawyers Are On One Planet And The PR Shills Are On Another



[Prominent lawyer Wendy Murphy reflects many in saying the evidence is very strong] 


In the post below Jane Velez Mitchell of CNN can be watched staking her legal reputation on Sollecito.

This may surprise you. Jane Velez Mitchell is not herself a lawyer. In fact, she has only a possible journalism degree awarded by New York University.

She claims she was hooked after she “read his book until 2:30” and encountered him in some elevator - we have been puzzling over which elevator and when, for if it was an elevator in the Time Warner building in New York why was he not right there in the studio?

Of the three lawyers she had on the show, the two who did know the case (Wendy Murphy and the crime blogger Levi Page) came down very decisively against Sollecito. The third (Joey Jackson) knew nothing about the case, though even he thought the book was terribly timed.

In effect, Jane Velez Mitchell was carrying on like another PR shill. She really wasn’t any less amateurishly invested than Saul Kassin. Another non-lawyer - Saul Kassin is actually a psychologist.

Where ARE the lawyers for Knox-Sollecito?

All of them seem to have gone awol. Our main poster James Raper, himself a lawyer, sent out this invitation to speak up. In the five months since he posted that, not ONE lawyer has come forward.

Well, except for one strange burble from Anne Bremner, about RS and AK watching Amelie and that being their alibi - though the watching of Amelie took place three to four hours earlier. Even RS and AK didnt claim that.

Knox family legal advisor Ted Simon sounds rattled every time he talks, which he hasnt done since late in 2011. And poor lost Michael Heavey still can’t get to grips with the facts.

In contrast, we now have two of the foremost legal talking heads in the US - Wendy Murphy (a former prosecutor) and Nancy Grace (a former prosecutor) - saying the evidence is overwhelming.

In Italy the Sollecito lawyer Giulia Borngiorno, in face of the Galati appeal and possible legal trouble of her own over Aviello and judge-shopping, has become seriously silent. And Sollecito lawyer Luca Maori just had to distance himself from Sollecito, in conceding that Sollecito in his book had been lying.

Where are the PR shills for Knox-Sollecito?

Though they seem to have shadow-written much of the Sollecito book ostensibly shadow written by the real shadow writer, Andrew Gumbel, Curt Knox’s hatchet men have become so nasty and so distanced from the real facts that they now repel classy media company.

To her great credit, a week ago Katie Couric was repelled - and she showed it. 

However there are still a few out there shilling for Knox and Sollecito. We would include in the active shill group Andrew Gumbel, Sollecito book agent Sharlene Martin, and maybe the publisher’s own promoters (if any).

Also Jane Velez Mitchel of course now. Saul Kassin (a flagship shill who may have gone silent). And the shrillest of all the shills, David Anderson, Bruce Fischer, Frank Sforza, Nina Burleigh, and Candace Dempsey.

They all seem to have big chips on their shoulders, and of course financial stakes. Maybe that is what it takes to be a shill here? Sort of the opposite of a degree in law?


[Below Two Sollecito shills: ghost writer Andrew Gumbel and literary agent Sharlene Martin]

Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/24/12 at 03:43 PM in News media & movies,  Excellent reporting,  Hoaxers from 2007,  Knox-Marriott PR,  Raff Sollecito PR,  Heavey, Bremner,  Francesco Sforza,  More hoaxers

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Comments

The gap in legal expertise that has opened up is like the distance between Mars and Pluto.

In addition to those mentioned above who clearly see guilt (Murphy, Grace) there are a number of lawyers posting on this site and other sites, and they are in tune with the prosecution lawyers and Judges Micheli and Massei and Dr Galati and the Supreme Court.

Quite an army of the qualified.

In contrast, beyond those mentioned above who are wanting to make a case for non-guilt but who are awkward or tongue-tied or totally at sea on the hard facts:

Curt Knox is not a lawyer.
Chris Mellas is not a lawyer.
David Marriott is not a lawyer.
Donald Trump is not a lawyer.
Steve Moore is not a lawyer.
Michele Moore is not a lawyer.
Greg Hampikian is not a lawyer.
Chris Halkidis is not a lawyer.
Mark Waterbury is not a lawyer.
Doug Preston is not a lawyer.
Joel Simon is not a a lawyer.
Judy Bachrach is not a lawyer.
Linda Byron is not a lawyer.
Maria Cantwell is not a lawyer.
Steve Shay is not a lawyer.
Timothy Egan is not a lawyer.
Patrick King is not a lawyer.
Jim Lovering is not a lawyer.
Ron Hendry is not a lawyer.

If I have this right (please advise) this is quite an army of the non-qualified. And Judges Hellman & Zanetti normally hear cases in civil law, not criminal.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/24/12 at 07:27 PM | #

Maresca is my favorite lawyer. Staunch, powerful guy, fearless as a bulldog. Tenacious for the truth for Meredith. His every word thundered with accuracy.

Posted by Hopeful on 09/24/12 at 09:39 PM | #

Pete, the Cook will be really disappointed she never made your infamous list!!

Good article, and very telling.

Jeffski

Posted by Jeffski1 on 09/24/12 at 09:43 PM | #

Hi Jeffski. She did better! She made it into the text of the post.

Along with those other non-lawyers Jane Velez-Mitchell, Andre Gumbel, Sharlene Martin, David Anderson, Bruce Fischer, Frank Sfarzo, and Nina Burleigh.

You want a masterlist of all of them? Okay. See below. There is a Jane Velez-Mitchell award for excellence in journalism, by the way. Go figure.

Curt Knox is not a lawyer.
Chris Mellas is not a lawyer.
David Marriott is not a lawyer.
Jane Velez-Mitchell is not a lawyer.
Andrew Gumbel is not a lawyer.
Sharlene Martin is not a lawyer.
David Anderson is not a lawyer.
Bruce Fischer is not a lawyer.
Frank Sfarzo is not a lawyer.
Nina Burleigh is not a lawyer.
Candace Dempsey is not a lawyer.
Donald Trump is not a lawyer.
Steve Moore is not a lawyer.
Michele Moore is not a lawyer.
Greg Hampikian is not a lawyer.
Chris Halkidis is not a lawyer.
Mark Waterbury is not a lawyer.
Doug Preston is not a lawyer.
Joel Simon is not a a lawyer.
Judy Bachrach is not a lawyer.
Linda Byron is not a lawyer.
Maria Cantwell is not a lawyer.
Steve Shay is not a lawyer.
Timothy Egan is not a lawyer.
Patrick King is not a lawyer.
Jim Lovering is not a lawyer.
Ron Hendry is not a lawyer.

Dr Galati must be terrified. Terrified! Again, any corrections to the list are welcome.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/24/12 at 09:58 PM | #

@Hopeful,

Follain writes that Maresca once had a dinner with a Mafia leader who took out the gun and kept it on the table.

Bounapetito!

Seriously speaking, I am losing faith on our own selves. What a mess we have made in the name of justice and fairness. In some sense we are not really progressing, we are actually moving backwards!

A student of mine (many years ago) left science and joined law (and is now practicing in Boston) but when I expressed my surprise at his choice he simply exclaimed that he is helping the poor!

Justice was always elusive but now is a mirage only!

Posted by chami on 09/25/12 at 12:46 PM | #

Hi Chami

Not one of your “glass half full” days?!  You may be right to be pessimistic, but here are a few quick thoughts.

The extreme wing of the Republican Party here is not likely to win the election (or any in future) as enough people see the attempted manipulation by the very rich and their “useful idiots” those in economic areas way behind with plenty of catching up to do.

It is becoming a mantra in Europe and here that growth must be made to work again, the race to the bottom aint good, and among other things growth depends on innovation on a very broad front by many millions who need to be properly rewarded.

In our exercise here for Meredith we are showing that official systems & people in Italy are actually pretty good and other countries could learn a thing or two to improve the systems of their own. (We are also see ways the Italian system could do better.)

Also that paid PR and profiteering from crimes can be pushed back against, virtually at no cost, by informed people on the web. This is not the only pro-victim site, and there will be others and better.

Here’s a thing that most people dont know. Personal computers began to come in in the 1980s (the first Apple and the XT and AT series PCs) but it was not for twenty years that they finally broke even, and began paying for themselves and adding to productivity gains.

I think the same thing is happening to the web and after a lot of time and resources “wasted” throwing things in the air to see what flies, in many ways it is maturing and paying its way and emerging as a pretty big plus.

Traditional media are struggling and doing some terrible things to pay their bills, but overall the flow of news and the spotlights on things that need correcting seem to me to be going up and having some corrective effect.

In sum I see mostly pretty good people, and systems being made better by those people outnumbering those who gain from the status quo by voting in elections, and with their mice.

And as you know as I claimed it a few times here it is only in the past several years that after 20-30-40 years of trial and error ALL the tools matured that are required for much faster managed growth. Adopt them all and we’re home and dry. I hope!

Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/25/12 at 02:42 PM | #

Another huge disadvantage is the ‘instant’ society in which we live.  People want answers immediately, for those answers to be correct [preferably without inconvenience to their lives] and for everything to move on as fast as an episode of 24.

The west has become more detached from the reality that life takes time to unfold.

Posted by TruthWillOut on 09/25/12 at 03:40 PM | #

Hi TruthWillOut.

Yes we have all become junkies for crisis and this pushes aside the long-term good.

Of course there really ARE crises out there and some could get a lot worse.

Plus things have got so complicated and difficult for most people to understand.

The best answer really is for everybody everywhere to understand how growth really works.

This is immensely empowering in terms both of understanding trends and also what one can personally do.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/25/12 at 04:23 PM | #

Pete, these discussions get better and better! 
Your ” Plus things…....” comment is spot-on!

Posted by Cardiol MD on 09/25/12 at 06:47 PM | #

It seems that the craziness (in the form of lies) from Seattle is keep coming:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/dempsey/2012/09/26/raffaele-sollecito-i-spent-that-night-with-amanda-knox/

I find these lines really “interesting”:
- RF
“She didn’t have her own key, so if she’d gone out alone, she would have had to ring the doorbell and ask me to buzz her back in.  Even if I’d been stoned or asleep when she rang, I would have remembered that.  And it didn’t happen.”

“Describe that interrogation, which he says took 10 hours. Why did Raffaele “crumble” and say Amanda went to work on Nov. 1, the night of the murder?
He was exhausted. He’d been in and out of the police station for three days. He arrived sometime around 11 p.m. and Amanda was with him because she had no other place to go. She was sitting and waiting. He was quizzed over and over again about his memory of the night of the crime. In his own head he got confused between Halloween and the next night. He asked to see a calendar so he could get the dates straight, but they refused. When they asked if she went to work, he was confused. He just forgot what had happened a few days earlier.”

- Andrew Gumbel
“In Italy, the prosecution decides what to investigate. What are some loose threads they didn’t tie up?
They claimed Amanda and Raffaele left his apartment on the night of the murder. There were surveillance cameras between the two houses. The family asked to see the footage on those cameras and the prosecution didn’t want to go there. They never did have the footage released.”

“His first day of freedom is described in the last chapter of the book, where he describes his wonder at something as simple as iced drinks out of a refrigerator.  He went back to his friends. He started a relationship, which is now over. He was thinking about his future, resetting his goals. It was only after he came to the U.S. and worked on his book that he decided to go to graduate school in Verona, where he’s now enrolled. He’s getting an advanced computer science degree. He wants to be a video game programmer.”

“Since you’re a British journalist, have you met John Kercher, Meredith’s father, who also writes for British papers?
Never met him or spoke to him. But one of things that became very clear to me, in reading the case files, is that the Kerchers were not correctly informed about what was happening in court. I think their lawyer, Francesco Marcesca, did them a disservice. The Kerchers, in their public statements, appear to be confused about what happened and I don’t think their lawyer did a good job of informing them. Instead, the direction he led them was into getting as much money as possible by suing Raffaele and Amanda and their families. And the way to do that was to portray them as being as guilty as possible.

I didn’t reach out to them. They didn’t reach out to me. I know Raffaele and his family have reached out to them but they haven’t been interested.”

Posted by Hungarian. on 09/28/12 at 08:41 AM | #
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