The Fourth Appeal Hearing Today Saturday: The Main Items On The Court’s Agenda

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Some of the irrelevant and inaccurate claims made by David Andersen to whom Nick Pisa is giving credence. Andersen was himself a party to a court bungling and is seemingly taking it out on the Italians.

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Knox and Sollecito were subjected to long interviews through the night of November 5, 2007. The police in Perugia were looking for a fast resolution to this horrific crime.

Like Kiszko, Amanda and Raffaele were outsiders. For some reason, the police and prosecutor knew a black man was involved and it was they who, using prolonged interview techniques, got Amanda to falsely implicate Patrick Lumumba.

Many questions surround Rudy Guede, who has also been convicted and was clearly at the crime scene, but it seems to me grossly unfair to blame Amanda for naming Lumumba, if this was suggested to her while deprived of sleep, during extreme interrogation in a foreign language by 12 police officers.

Any doubt over this, as well as over whether Amanda was lying when she said she was hit by a policewoman, could be eliminated by referring to the tape recordings that by law the police were required to make. These we have yet to see.

Neither Italian nor foreign media did the couple any favours. They seem to have triumphantly accepted reported idiosyncrasies in Amanda’s behaviour as confirmation of her guilt. Those photographs that suggested she might be a wronged, frightened victim of appalling circumstance somehow didn’t make it into the papers.

Fortunately, some of the most contentious issues are now being re-examined and I have enough confidence in justice in Italy to believe that Knox and Sollecito will soon be exonerated, their lives doubtless scarred but, it is to be hoped, not ruined, as Kiszko’s was. But we should never underestimate the extent to which people in powerful positions will fight for their professional survival.

As a result of startling miscarriages of justice in England - including the Kiszko case - measures were taken to prevent the misuse of power (‘abuse of process’) by those in authority.

There is now the Crown Prosecution Service, separate from the police, while the United States has rigorous Rules of Disclosure. Under these constraints, in both countries the case against Knox and Sollecito would never have made it to court. Italy, I fear, still lacks such safeguards.

Some good can still come of these young people’s sufferings, if Italy reforms its system, to guard against abuse of process in the future.

Amanda’s psychology has been much discussed but not that of her mother, father and stepfather.

It must be dawning on them, if it had not dawned a long time ago, that the chances of Amanda’s conviction being overturned are slim to non existent and yet they persist with round after round of interviews and engagements, and encouragement to their acolytes, ostensibly in support of the claim that Amanda is innocent.

What will be their position once the appeals have been exhausted? Will they stop seeking publicity? I expect that the answer is no.

So what are they getting out of it? Leave the money aside. What psychological needs and necessities are driving and being addressed by the campaign (waged in the teeth of the evidence) and are these different from those which others might have who find themselves in the position of having a daughter jailed abroad for a lengthy term?

I was much struck by a photograph of Curt Knox looking on approvingly as Judge Heavey, in support of Amanda, and extolling Curt’s character, addressed the local Rotary Club.That was the face of a man who looked contented - as if Heavey’s return to the fold was helping to address the problem of a self image that had been taking too many knocks of late.

Is Bruce Fisher’s book one of those that they would rather not have been written?

Is this all for Amanda, or has it long since been a battle to save egos that have been welded to Amanda’s cause?

Interesting reflection. I come back time and again to the 10-year-long white hot feud between Curt and Edda that might - might - have contributed to Amanda’s seeming messed-up hard wiring. They would not like the impression to be out there that perhaps they should be sitting in the next cells. And so… this.

Hello Peter - do you know where I can read more about the “white hot feud” between CK and EM?  Thanks.

/23/11
I really enjoyed this video. Courtroom vibe before getting down to business felt relaxed, convivial.

It’s good to see the faces of Conti and Vecchioti. Much is now in their hands.

Hi all4justice,

I think Pete was partly referring to the fact that Edda Mellas had to take Curt Knox to court to collect child support on a number of occasions. Barbie Nadeau mentioned it in article for The Daily Beast:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-13/behind-the-co-ed-murder-scandal/

I’ve been reliably informed that Curt left Edda when she was pregnant with Deanna, that Curt was pretty much an absent father and that Curt and Chris Mellas hate each other. I suspect all of the above caused serious friction between Curt and Edda.

I wish Amanda had gotten the help she needed before throwing her life away and ending another. in that regard, I feel bad for her. Please note that this isnt me defending her I want Knox to spend her life in prison

The video is important for showing us an Amanda in performance mode. She may have entered the courtroom “with head bowed,” as elsewhere reported. Yet here she has cast off modesty to give a performance full of allure & erotic charm.

Quite as if the mere presence of her lawyer is enough of a turn-on for Amanda to display her wiles. Apart from the extraordinary animation of her face (going through such a range of expressions) she makes sure to draw attention to herself with conspicuous movements of the hands.

Not the least trace of apprehension or remorse. She enjoys herself in this mode.

Peter’s reference (under knife video) to the post by Giustizia comparing Amanda & Scott Peterson shows well how the amiable & self-gratifying feelings Amanda displays are evidently compatible with psychopathic un-feeling, indifference & a remorseless brutality.

Where next:

Or to next entry Fourth Appeal Hearing: Updates On Today’s Court Hearing Which Is Mainly Procedural

Or to previous entry The New 80,000 Pound Gorilla In The Room Introduced By The Italian Supreme Court