Next-Day Press: Newsweek Seems To Think “Friends Of Amanda” Is Radioactive EDIT




Above: Seattle’s media-lawyer Anne Bremner. Referred to in Newsweek’s excellent piece on the Italian reactions she seems to have stirred.

Whatever the outcome, it’s clear that the overzealous freelance defense team in the United States, which has taken up Knox’s cause with fervor, have not helped the defendant””and might even have hurt her standing in the Italian courts.

The Friends of Amanda campaign, led by Seattle lawyer Anne Bremner, has infuriated prosecuting and defense attorneys alike by helping focus extensive coverage by major American news networks on the alleged ineptitude of the Italian investigators and antiquated Italian legal system.

Bremner infuriated Perugian prosecutor Mignini by taking swipes at the work of Italian police on NBC, enumerating ways in which prosecutors may have inadvertently contaminated DNA evidence.

Lawyers for both sides of the case quickly pointed out, however, that Bremner was basing her comments on video footage of an apartment below the crime scene, not the actual crime scene itself.

Further alienating the Italians, Seattle judge Michael Heavey wrote a damning letter to Italy’s justice minister about the potential for injustice against Knox, prompting one lawyer to warn that the Americans would have to send the military to get Amanda out of Italy.

“We are being condemned by a group over nine-thousand kilometers away, without knowing the intricacies of the case or the complexities of Italian judicial terminology,” prosecutor Mignini told reporters outside the Perugian courthouse last week. “I am shocked and scandalized by this attitude. It is the first time I have come across such presumption and superficiality.”

Bremner’s comments, like those made earlier in the investigation by New York attorney Joseph Tacopina, have tended to contradict the strategy of Knox’s lawyers and have even put Knox’s lead attorney Luciano Ghirga on the defensive.

“American lawyers do not represent anyone here,” said Ghirga outside the courthouse in Perugia, “and have never represented anyone here.”

The interference has also angered Knox’s family, who have publicly distanced themselves from those in Seattle. “I have faith in my Italian lawyers,” says Curt Knox. “And I dissociate myself from other initiatives on behalf of my daughter.”

Ooops! With friends like this, seriously, who needs enemies?

Posted by Peter Quennell on 10/29/08 at 05:02 PM in

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Comments

I watched the recent MSNBC report which featured Anne Bremner who embarrassingly analysed the wrong crime scene. It is clear that people working on behalf of Amanda Knox are consistently distorting the truth.

The reporter said that the prosecutor reportedly told the court that Knox slit the throat of the victim in a sex game and satanic rite. Amanda’s friends were talking about a satanic ritual. The prosecutors haven’t alleged Meredith was murdered as part of a satanic ritual or even used the word “satanic”.

The report mentions crucial new evidence which shows Knox may be getting a raw deal without specifying what it is.

Anne Bremner says there is zero evidence linking Amanda to the homicide, so why did the preliminary judge, Claudia Matteini, and the judges at the Italian Supreme Court say the clues against Amanda were serious? An opinion seemingly shared by judge Paolo Micheli who sent Amanda and Raffaele to trial on the strength of the evidence against them. According to a report in Il Messaggero today:

He (Paolo Micheli) seems to have been convinced of Amanda and Raffaele’s involvement in the crime by Meredith’s friends’ testimony. The two suspects are believed to have spoken about details of the body that nobody could have known.

Also Mrs Capezzali’s testimony was considered to be reliable. She said she heard screams from the house in via della Pergola.

Then there’s Amanda’s dna found on the knife, the traces of blood in the bathroom and Raffaele’s dna on the bra clasp. The judge also believed Rudy was an equal accomplice with the other two.

However, what seems to have convinced him most of all is the behaviour of the three; the confusion in their memories, the triple versions, trying to ‘cover’ for each other (at least in regard to Raffaele and Amanda).

Anne Bremner also claims that the police did a sloppy job entering the building. She didn’t explain that the police weren’t actually entering the cottage where Meredith was murdered, but the house below. Anne Bremner is no position to talk about anyone doing a sloppy job after she analysed the wrong crime scene. 

The reporter suggests that the Italian authorities leaked Amanda’s diary. Has this claim by verified? How did Frank from Perugia Shock and Candace Dempsey get hold of the diary?

The reporter says the tabloid newspaper dubbed Amanda “Foxy Knoxy”. The newspapers used the nickname Amanda used herself on her MySpace page. The tabloid newspapers didn’t give Amanda this nickname.

Why don’t these American news channels try get their information about the case from someone other than people directly involved in trying to champion Amanda’s cause? The news channels should cover this tragic murder objectively instead of relentlessly misinforming the public. It’s disgraceful.

Incidentally, the MSNBC reporter NEVER mentioned Meredith’s Kercher’s name.

Posted by The Machine on 10/29/08 at 06:32 PM | #

If Anne Bremner is wondering why she is being marginalized the way of Candace Dempsey, here is a laugh-out-loud clue from TM above that might help:

...she analysed the wrong crime scene.

That for sure never helps. Again and again, she is failing the giggle test.

Posted by Fast Pete on 10/29/08 at 07:23 PM | #

Anne Bremner owes the Italian forensic police a very public apology after she made a complete and and utter fool out of herself on national television. However, I get the feeling she hasn’t got the grace to admit she made a HUGE mistake and that she’ll pretend that her embarrassing gaffe never happened. She has no credibility whatsoever as an expert on this case.

Posted by The Machine on 11/02/08 at 02:30 PM | #
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