Friday, October 29, 2010
Kercher Family Lawyer Francesco Maresca Confident Appeals Will Fail And Justice Will Prevail
Posted by Peter Quennell
This excellent interview of Mr Maresca by Leonardo Molinelli just appeared in Canada Corriere.
The interview is similar to several others Mr Maresca has just given in Italy. Mr Maresca shows in all of them that he is very confident about the defense appeals not succeeding in any dramatic way.
Justice will be served in Kercher case
“The investigation was carried out very well”: lawyer
By Leonardo N. Molinelli
There’s less than a month to go to the start of the appeal process for the murder of 20-year-old American student Meredith Kercher. The next phase will begin on Nov. 24, which should establish the guilty parties in the death of Kercher, who was killed in Perugia, Italy between Nov. 1 and 2 of 2007.
Charged with first-degree murder, sexual assault, and theft is 26-year-old Amanda Knox and 23-year-old Raffaele Sollecito with whom Knox was having a relationship.
The other person facing charges ““ Rudy Guede from the Ivory Coast ““ will not be part of the process since he has already been condemned to 30 years [reduced to 16 at first appeal] at a summary procedure. He will face the Court of Cassation (appeals) for final sentencing [in December].
All three of the accused have always declared their innocence and the upcoming process promises to be controversial and sensational. The defence for Sollecito and Knox, in fact, has requested access to all forensic investigation from the Court of Cassation.
They’re requesting the analyses of all the principal exhibits, maintaining that the two were not present at the murder scene and thereby placing the blame squarely on Guede.
“The Kercher family has taught the world the dignity of silence.”
With these words, the family’s lawyer Francesco Paolo Maresca outlines the trial that went beyond the usual standards in legal battles in Italy, moving from the courtrooms to TV and newspapers.
Corriere Canadese/Tandem recently spoke to Francesco Paolo Maresca about the trial.
Has there been any new developments since the preliminary sentencing and the appeal?
“No, let’s say that the defence requested the appeals court for a review of all forensic findings, following the defence line in the preliminary trial, in which they contested all the assessments.”
Accusations that were discredited with the preliminary sentencing.
“Yes, so much so that the preliminary sentence is based on all these laboratory results accepted as fully reliable in the presence of the parties, and no one ever contested anything on that basis.”
So what is the defence’s objective in this case?
“They’re requesting, in substance, the detailed analyses of all the main exhibits, therefore the bra hook containing Sollecito’s DNA and the bathroom rug with Sollecito’s footprint.”
Do they intend to demonstrate the non-involvement of the two youths in the murder?
“They’re aiming to demonstrate the total non-involvement, unloading everything onto Rudy Guede.”
So Guede would have killed Meredith by himself while Amanda and Raffaele were in the wrong place at the wrong time?
“Actually, they say they were at Sollecito’s house after having smoked hash, made love, and woken up early the next morning.”
So they would have been connected to the crime scene as part of a conspiracy?
“They got there by coincidence based on test results. They say that the DNA on the bra isn’t Sollecito’s and if it were, it would have been found in other parts of the house, that the footprint on the rug isn’t Sollecito’s), that the DNA on the knife isn’t Knox’s, and so on.”
Instead, what are the facts as pieced together by the preliminary sentence?
“The facts pieced together would be a sexual attempt gone wrong, with a series of progressive and worsening knife wounds, with intimidation and threats and with three very serious wounds to the neck, of which one was fatal. We ““ and the sentencing acknowledges this ““ maintain that the facts cannot be viewed as a premeditated theft but as a crime of violence.
They probably attempted some sort of sexual game, Kercher refused, they threatened her, wounded her, blood spilled, and they panicked. Knox knew everyone so if they had called an ambulance or the police, they would have had to justify their presence, which is why they finished her off.”
So it wasn’t premeditated?
“There’s no premeditation. There is no premeditation. The event needs to be examined using the approach of a contingent situation, of the fear of being discovered, of the fear of making noise. Kercher screamed horribly from the pain, the simulation of a theft was to throw the research on the wrong track.”
America insists there were leaks in the Italian justice system, a conspiracy against Amanda, and so on. What impression did you get during this trial? Are there any deficiencies in this trial?
“The investigation was carried out very well, and forensic science and the police did a good job. There was just the one deficiency ““ and un-influential ““ of this blessed (bra) hook that was left behind and discovered 40 days later, but it was proven that it could not have been contaminated, using a series of technical valuations.
One must consider that 368 exhibits were gathered if I’m not mistaken, and above all we made an enormous commitment of deliberating for about a year (Editor’s note: January to December, 2009), which was very quick for Italian trials. Rudy Guede was examined with a summary procedure within a year of the act, and the other two to three years from the act, but with a deliberation that involved 170 witnesses and technical consultants.”
An exemplary trial considering that Italian justice system is often blamed for being slow.
“It gets blamed because they have completely different parameters and have juries and courts that dedicate themselves to a single trial ““ they begin and end that trial over three-to-four consecutive months, doing nothing else. In our system, the criminal court does this while the judges concurrently do another 20, 30 or 40.”
A difference in systems that could be the reason for these accusations.
“They were astounded because we didn’t have daily hearings. We pointed out that having weekly hearings on Friday, Saturday, and Monday ““ that is three days out of six ““ is a very unheard of commitment. We all risked our families because we couldn’t see them anymore”¦”
The defence for this case is reminiscent of the one used for the Cogne case, with the victim who disappears from the media, and the likely murderer who becomes a celebrity of sorts.
“From a theoretic interpretation, I’d say that’s justice, and I must say that Meredith Kercher’s family taught the elegance of silence to the entire world. Because as the families of Knox and Sollecito organized foundations, associations, sought funds, gave interviews, requested political help, Meredith Kercher’s family remained under the radar screen notwithstanding the offers, including financial (ones).”
Posted by Peter Quennell on 10/29/10 at 02:50 PM in The officially involved, Victims family, Trials 2008 & 2009, Hellmann 2011+, Amanda Knox, Raff Sollecito
Comments
Words of wisdom by Francesco Maresca here. How refreshing and straight to the point.
We all know the reason Guede chose a fast track trial, it was because he and his counsel knew Knox and Sollecito were conspiring to hang all the blame on him. Same thing now and nothing has changed. How can Knox and Sollecito know for absolute certain it was Rudy Guede if they wasn’t there?
Lovely words about the Kercher family and so true. It is refreshing when someone who is actually involved in the case just talks straight with no nonsense and scythes through all the rubbish spewed out by the ill fated PR machine and naive journalists.
Francesco Maresca doesn’t say much, but when he does…
Posted by Black Dog on 10/29/10 at 06:21 PM | #
Hi Black Dog,
I wish Francesco Maresca would speak more to the media. Out of all the lawyers involved in this case, he has impressed me the most. He is calmly authoritative, eloquent and intelligent.
When the defence lawyers were clamouring for another independent review of the DNA evidence, Maresca pointed out that all the test results were indisputable because they and their consultants were notified of the time and date of these tests and they didn’t turn up.
Posted by The Machine on 10/29/10 at 07:14 PM | #
Machine, perhaps he will after the appeal is finished…i haved wondered about the possibility of maresca writing his own book perhaps WITH the kerchers about their whole ordeal…especially since Meredith’s dad is a journalist
Posted by mojo on 10/30/10 at 10:00 AM | #
By Storm Roberts (Innai)
Seeing Mr. Maresca’s calm, reasoned and rational words on this case is so very refreshing. In one way I too would like to see him speak up more, however I think his words have more power because he does not regularly speak out.
His attitude seems to reflect Meredith’s family’s quiet, dignified respect for the Italian legal process; a process that must be so very painful for them to endure.
Mr. Maresca says: “Meredith Kercher’s family taught the elegance of silence to the entire world.”
This is so very true, but it is only the tip of the iceberg with regards to what we can learn from Meredith’s family.
Posted by Nolongeramember on 10/31/10 at 11:10 AM | #
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