Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Trial: Judges And Jury To Visit House On The 17th - What Can We Expect? EDIT

Posted by Arnold_Layne

[click for larger image]

Having seen and heard the autopsy evidence, the judges and jury will now see the actual crime scene.  What might we expect from this? 

I think this will have an emotional and lasting impact on them.  Until now, everything has been pictures and talk. Seeing the actual site of the brutal murder right after the autopsy information will cement the enormity of the crime in their minds.

For one thing, they will most likely try to reconstruct the crime in their minds.  When might Meredith have eaten mushrooms?  With whom?  What was the sequence of events in the attack?  What was visible from the park?  Where did the sexual assault take place?  The torturous stabbing?  The final thrust to the neck?

The defense will also have to present images that are more consistent with what the jurors have actually seen.  It will be much more difficult for them to create a fuzzy mental picture of someone breaking in when they have actually seen the window.

A question still for me is where the actual attack took place. 

We know it ended in the bedroom.  But why did Knox and Sollecito seemingly spend the entire night cleaning up the common areas?  And if Guede was voluntarily with Mez, why did he not use the bathroom adjacent to her room?  Why was there so little DNA evidence in Meredith’s room after such an epic struggle?

When the jurors leave this murder scene, they will be very different people.  This crime will be much more real to them, and rendering a verdict will no longer be just a civic duty. 

When they next meet in court, I have to wonder what their impression will be of a smiling, carefree Amanda Knox.

Comments

Good post Arnold. Just a comment on the DNA question if I may. The DNA testimony has not come up yet, so no-one has testified that there was not enough in Meredith’s room. And as there have already been a number of surprises as the evidence is unveiled, there could be another one here. And if there is indeed a minimal amount, Nicki has been over this issue for us before: it is not as easy as some may think to transfer DNA and it does not just shed off us like a dust cloud.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 04/07/09 at 08:57 PM | #

At what point do the defendants get to enter their evidence?  We’ve heard from prosecution witnesses who tell us basically AK and RS tell stories contradictory to defense claims, but when were those defense claims made?  I’m confused because when AK stood up and spoke to the court about the purported abuse she suffered at the hands of the police, it looks like she is going to be charged with perjury because the police stated she was not treated improperly. Well, everything she and RS claim are contradictory to prosecution witness testimony. The question is, why would the prosecution charge one with perjury during the examination phase of the trial?

Posted by tony on 04/08/09 at 05:24 AM | #

I have looked for the mushroom connection.  I have checked Manga comix to see if mushrooms mean anything and nada.  I also looked for murder rituals and this led nowhere.  I don’t think they have established an actual connection with mushroom DNA between the ones in the box in RS’s refrigerator and the ones in Meredith’s throat/stomach.  Maybe a mushroom is just, you know, a mushroom. 

Of course, we could dream something up like AK getting Meredith to leave her bedroom by offering her mushrooms.  However, It doesn’t seem to take us anywhere.

Posted by Easy_Ed on 04/08/09 at 06:42 AM | #

Hi Tony,
AK has not been charged with perjury. Prosecution has asked her spontaneous declaration to be on file, and an investigation has started. Should her claims turn out to be false, she will be charged with slander.

The way trials go in Italy, prosecution goes first, afterwards the defense team will have their chance to present their own truth to the Court.
Cheers

Posted by Nicki on 04/08/09 at 10:55 PM | #

Hello Easy Ed,
I’ve been wondering about the mushrooms myself. If I remember correctly, the mushroom found in Meredith’s digestive apparatus was of the same kind as those found in an opened pack in Sollecito’s fridge, while no mushrooms were found in the refrigerator at the cottage. And since Meredith’s friends testified under oath that Meredith didn’t have any that night, it seems like she could have shared a snack with the murderers- unless there were some mushrooms also in the cottage, and Meredith decided to cook some for herself. But in this case,was a discarded package found in the trash? And most important, why only one mushroom was found in her aesofagus? To me, it looks more like she might have just sampled a tiny bit of someone else’s snack, just before she was murdered.

Posted by Nicki on 04/08/09 at 11:51 PM | #

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