Why “Buyer Beware” Re Amanda Knox Could Be A Very Good Idea For The Innocence Project

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It won’t do any good since a drowning man/woman will grasp at straws. On another point though it would be interesting to find out just where the money has gone? I would suggest not all of it has gone to the lawyers but a good chunk has gone to some off-shore account. Perhaps the IRS would be interested in seeing if Chris Mellas has paid his taxes. Of course, as Chis Mellas goes so does Curt Knox.

“For Barry Scheck and genuine justice and REAL victims everywhere, distancing themselves from Knox would be the smart outcome.”

But then they don’t seem to be very smart themselves, do they.

Knox is now turning up at this Portland, Oregon Innocence group conference to find new ways of exploiting the system. She has found a club of friends all of whom seek to wriggle out of some murder conviction. They hope to trade success stories.

Ryan Ferguson the darling of this club has filed a $100 million civil rights suit against 11 people and Boone County, Missouri and the City of Columbia for his improper conviction.

About Ferguson’s actual guilt there is great ambivalence. In my opinion he is most likely a stone cold killer whose loyal daddy pushed and shoved for him, while the weak case against him leaves just room enough for doubt.

However, pointing to Ryan’s guilt is the deposition of his friend since junior high school, Chuck Erickson, who was high on cocaine, Adderall, and alcohol the night Chuck claimed they both murdered Kent Heitholt as he walked to his car late at night. It was November 1st, same as Meredith’s murder. It followed a police bust of a Halloween party and a night of heavy drinking.

Chuck said Ryan wanted to rob someone to continue drinking. Chuck felled Mr. Heitholt with a tire iron. He claimed Ryan put his foot on Heitholt’s back and pulled his head back to strangle him with the belt. We know Meredith was hit in the head and strangled among other things.

Chuck Erickson lost memory of the events due to his altered state on substances. Fear and friendship kept him silent for two years. Then his conscience drove him to confess to police using a “dream” scenario, saying he’d been seeing the murder in dreams. No wonder Knox is a moth to this flame.

Ferguson’s case failed because of unreliable eye witnesses who changed testimony, and no DNA of Ferguson.

Ferguson’s case was not nearly as strong as the case against Knox. Knox is doing anyone who is truly innocent or wrongly convicted a huge disservice by attaching her guilty cause to theirs, but when did a sociopath ever care?

Knox is seeking support among practiced liars and criminals. They are the only people she can relate to or respect. Honest people are chumps to her.

It’s those who have deceitfully gamed the system she wants to learn from.

Her accusations of police brutality pale in comparison to Klupperberg who claims he was beaten until his kidney was bruised and he urinated blood.

The horror stories of the wrongfully convicted stress the value of clear video recordings of interrogations. These could salvage true confessions. Without proof of their words, the perps often recant. Then a judge orders the illegal or “coerced” confession suppressed.

Also the weakness of eye witness testimony is a big problem. People have been bribed with cocaine or money to change official records or to recant pivotal testimony. Later they claim they and their children were threatened if they didn’t recant.

The prisoner may through his lawyer file post-conviction petitions for relief. He attacks all evidence against him as junk science, clamors to introduce “new evidence”. (Alessi, Aviello) This is the dirty tricks list that Knox wants to memorize, every possible dodge that worked for this or that killer, arsonist, rapist.

Knox’s conviction did not rest on one single eyewitness who had an axe to grind like a jealous wronged friend who had cut a deal with the prosecution for time off his own sentence.

Toto had no incentive to lie against Knox. Neither did Quintavalle.

Luminol proved Knox’s footprints in the victim’s blood. Her DNA was mixed with Meredith’s blood. She had no alibi.

The evidence goes on and on. She is hardly a proper rep for an Innocence project. 

But Knox wants the Ryan Ferguson connection and the Innocence banner over her for positive media attention. Her aim: go big or go home, stay in the news, keep spinning. The narcissist basking, finding tools. Got stars in her eyes at the audacity of Ferguson’s big bucks lawsuit, craves that for herself.

Edda is as addicted to press coverage as Amanda, grinning like a mule eating briars at a table of former felons that she would never have deigned to sit with at a dinner table before her daughter went bonkers. They all deserve each other. Curt Knox is nowhere in sight. Perhaps he wouldn’t attend without a stun gun, pepper spray and an ankle holster.

Amanda after meeting exonerees who spent decades in prison says it makes her feel like one of the lucky ones.

It comforts her to know she only spent 4 years behind bars compared to Ferguson’s 9 while some of the exonerees languished for over 20 years. Knox might feed on their stories simply to make herself feel better about eventually serving her time. Her 28 years are for a crime she did commit.

She gets energized by the outrage of the truly wrongfully convicted. She can study their body language and voice inflections to build her repertoire.

She finds comfort in this group understanding her. No doubt the guilty ones among the bunch who were released on technicalities are her heroes. They understand her. They know exactly what she’s all about, high-five her while they laugh at her self-deceived mother.

Mistakes and wrongful convictions are all too real but so are lies from criminals.

As Peter emphasizes, the lenient Italian approach to punishment joined with the assurance of guaranteed appeals might secure more justice in the long run and prevent unsound convictions. 

Exoneration Project at University of Chicago Law School works to fight wrong convictions.

TJMK calls for the same justice, which is the opposite of injustice or locking up the innocent.

Maybe Barry Scheck needs $$$$..kinda late in the game..

Pete, thanks for bringing this Portland conference to our attention. I agree with you that the Italian system is less prone to false convictions.

I also think the Italian system is way more humane in how they treat prisoners. I hope you’re right that it is becoming a model for the world, as the U.S. could learn a lot from it!

Lately, I’ve been hearing about U.S. prison programs that allow prisoners to take care of homeless pets and build and maintain gardens. These are wonderful programs, more along the lines of the Italian system, and I hope they become more common.

Hopeful, as always, you are extremely perceptive. Your ideas would probably help Barry Scheck understand the situation better than listening to FOAKers!

I agree with you about Ryan; he’s more likely guilty than not, but the system just cannot prove it. So it’s appropriate he was released, but let’s not raise him to the status of hero.

Those who are looking for the truly innocent who have been sorely treated and railroaded by the system (which does happen in the U.S., especially among minorities, the poor, and the mentally deficient) need to look elsewhere than at Knox.

Hi, Pete

The ‘drooling academic’ certainly’s giving a presentation at the conference

http://www.innocencenetwork.org/conference/program/2014DetailedBreakoutAgenda_v7.pdf  (Saturday, April 12)

2:15pm-3:15pm (PST): Breakout Sessions Advanced DNA: Single Cell, Next Gen, and More (Pavilion East):  Presenters: Greg Hampikian, Andrea Borchardt-Gardner

“Andrea Borchardt-Gardner, Supervisor of Forensic Casework at Bode, and Dr. Greg Hampikian of the Idaho Innocence Project will share highlights from the annual meetings of Forensic Biologists and Forensic Scientists, as well updates on the newest technologies for re-investigating old cases. Topics will include single cell profiling, mixture analysis, next generation sequencing, and questions solicited from participants before the conference”

I don’t know if herself was introduced at the gala dinner for exonerees since she ain’t, but, she was posing with them anyway.

http://instagram.com/p/mobS5OnEqC/
http://instagram.com/p/mqYMzlnEh_/

See the images also below. I don’t know that she’s there in any other capacity except as an attendee though likely she’ll have been featured in today’s Professor Hampikian presentation.

But there is an interesting presentation here:

Litigating Outside the Courtroom: Using the International Courts (Broadway Iⅈ):

Presenters: Thomas Antkowiak, Janis Puracal, Jason Puracal

“A three-person panel will discuss how the international courts can be used as part of the overall litigation strategy to fight a wrongful conviction. Two attorneys on the panel will focus on when and how to invoke the international courts, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. They will discuss practical tips for practicing in this area and how the focus in the international arena differs from the domestic courtroom. Finally, one international exoneree will identify ways attorneys can better communicate with clients about their international rights both during and after incarceration.”

May I suggest, keep your mouth shut, do what your lawyers tell you, and don’t hire a PR agency and sock puppet social media as good advice to give anyone that commits a crime, locally OR internationally?

_

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Thanks for the images Ergon.

Blimey - looks like the annual convention of Murder Inc.

Were there any injuries at this bash or did they all manage to keep their psychopathic tendencies in check?

Hi, Odysseus, I didn’t get the images, just brought over as originally posted on PMF, but you’re welcome.

I have no opinion on the other people or cases there, some doubts maybe, but they were for the most part released because they didn’t receive a fair trial. Knox is the only one there wrongfully acquitted, that I know of for sure 😊

What interests me is the Innocence Project appears to be moving in a DNA-centric direction. Sounds sexy, but not good for justice, as many ‘experts’ with magical DNA machines jump on the bandwagon.

Ergon

Yes you’re right, I was being facetious and unfair on the others in the picture.

DNA - acronym for “don’t need always”?

DNA has always been the favorite of the defense since they always wish to poke holes in anything remotely to do with science.

They do this because (at least in the US) juries are woefully subjective towards anything that does not contain a thirty second sound bite.

This is not a criticism, far from it. It’s just that the US populous due to the ongoing onslaught of commercialism and the media have gotten used to instant gratification. Other countries where TV and cell phones and computers have not invaded every strata of society people seem to have more time to be introspective. 

Best case in point though. “If the glove does not fit You must acquit.”

With that handy dandy phrase the entire OJ Simpson trial went out the window, with the jury only zeroing on that .

Such are the pro Knox bunch who are incapable of seeing all the evidence but are only able to see a small part of it at one time. So therefore US commercialism is a detriment to US society in general and the rest of the world eventually. plus and far more important, the seekers of truth a-la Knox and Sollecito’s guilt in particular.

Incidentally, just as with Jody Arias, Knox, without the asset of the CNN makeup department, is looking decidedly librarian. Guilt will do that.

Susan Smith looked innocent as well, as did Karla Hamolka, but looks can be deceiving. After all, beauty is skin deep, but ugly goes straight to the bone.

😊

Good advice and good medicine- the bitter they are the better they are.

I watched the 2 minute video of her at the Innocence Project and she says, ‘these are real people with real hearts, real minds who deserve to be saved and recognized.

Want to get away with murder I think she means.

Yet she can’t recognize (and pay damages to) the man she falsely accused, Patrick Lumumba.

And in an unintended note of irony, she sang “lean on me” arm in arm with a group of other attendees, many of whom were er, black.

Graham Rhodes makes a really important point about American juries and their increasing inability to keep up with science (and business) especially as an increasing minority are anti-science altogether.

Anyone well off or smart who ends up with jury duty in the US can expect quite a lot of humor poked at them by their colleagues. (Italians have no way to wiggle out - and dont seem inclined to.) Take a look at this.

http://www.shayne-michael.com/myjokes.php?myID=25&mType=column

We’ve had various posts on the CSI Effect and how many US juries have been placed way out of their depth. Then they can spend years hiding, as the OJ Simpson and Casey Anthony jurors are doing.

Italy is mostly in sharp contrast, except for Judge Hellmann’s absurd mishandling of the DNA issue (nothing was proven contaminated).

Many lawyers who know the REAL Italy and Italian system think Italy’s two-layer expert-jury fact-finding system achieves substantially more accurate outcomes.

Alan Dershowitz of Harvard is one.

The Innocence Project seems a fragile affair which really needs to be careful. It can ill afford to get things wrong. It needs to figure out which are real victims - Meredith Kercher in this case here.

Four months ago Greg Hampikian’s arm of the Innocence Project in Idaho lost its federal funding from the Federal Department of Justice. So much for his attempting to dazzle the Boise State University co-eds.

http://www.truejustice.org/ee/index.php?/tjmk/comments/why_buyer_beware_could_be_a_very_good_idea/

His self-promotion is notorious. On that occasion, Hampikian made yet another inflated claim for himself:

Hampikian worked with the Georgia Innocence Project before he moved to Idaho, then established the Idaho Innocence Project at BSU in 2005. “We work on cases all over the country, because I’m the only DNA expert that’s heading one of these projects,” Hampikian said. “Almost all of this is volunteer work.”

“I’m the only DNA expert.” Sure. Hampikian got the DNA in the Knox case seriously wrong and misled millions. How does THAT help Barry Scheck and real victims?

Smart move, Federal Departments of Justice.

One Innocence Project buyer who did not “buyer beware” Knox at the conference was Justin Brooks, a professor at California Western School of Law.

He is also the Director of the California Innocence Project, and is to be seen here in a photo thrilled to be hugging Amanda Knox in Portland.

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2014/04/10/launch-of-oregon-innocence-project/

His email if anyone feels it is only fair to nudge him towards common sense and adulthood is given as .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

The email of the Oregon Justice Resource Center (a tax exempt arm of the University of Oregon) which will host Barry Scheck’s project is given as .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Tax exempt. Hmmm. The Federal Government already yanked the Idaho Innocence Project’s funding.

Why glorify Amanda Knox of all people at this important inaugural? Nothing on why is being reported.

Seattle is in Washington State, the one next door to Oregon to the north. The Washington State arm of the Innocence Project is “buyer beware” when it comes to Knox. They have not lifted a finger.

That should have been a big red flag right there to smart Oregonians. And here should have been another one.

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php?/tjmk/comments/oregons_david_wu_another_opportunistic_american_congressman/

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php?/tjmk/comments/strange_story_of_congressional_knox_supporter_apparently_becoming_over/

The obvious conclusion has nothing to do with whether Knox is innocent or guilty but has everything to do with “How can I use her notoriety to further my own agenda.” These people are quite willing to use any means at their disposal in order to protect any government funding they may receive. Hampikian is such a person who hides behind his refusal to release his own findings claiming “Trade Secrets” This of course is nonsense because if he did it would be shown that he has as much believability as “Phlogiston” chemists.

For those of you who don’t know what that is. It was a theory postulated in 1667 that as element called “Phlogiston” was responsible for the eventual element of oxidization released by anything that burned. Whoopee!

Such is Hampikian and his ilk. The only difference being that the original chemists of Phlogiston were serious whereas Hampikian is just a hack protecting his ever diminishing reputation and government funding. He is obviously in the same class as Steve and Michelle Moore, in other words no class whatever, just another sorry parasite hanging onto Knox to further his own agenda.

I was just asked by increasingly curious and friendly media to explain Knox’s precise legal status as there has been so much smoke deliberately blown by her and her hired help over this.

Knox’s current legal status

First, Knox was charged with 2 sets of crimes back in 2007 and she chose to be tried for both simultaneously. They were for (1) calunnia for the framing of Patrick and (2) murder with sex elements for the murder of Meredith.

She was found guilty of both at the end of the trial at the end of 2009. For (1) she got 3 years, which she has already served, and damages (unpaid); for (2) she got 26 years for which she has so far served four years.

It was HER appeal that was heard in 2011. The defenses secretly went shopping for a judge they could corrupt and found one: a business judge called Hellmann (now in effect fired and may be charged).

He duly bent the appeal outcome and released Knox at the end of 2011 though her status was (and always has been) provisionally guilty until the Supreme Court signs off.

But the Supreme Court knew the Hellmann outcome was bent. The outcome was also declared incompetent on multiple grounds. So (very unusually) in March 2013 they totally annulled it; wiped it off the face of the planet.

It was HER appeal that was heard in 2013. Knox’s status was still provisionally guilty. So she appealed to the Appeal Court in Florence. Her appeal was heard from late 2013 to January 2014, when the 2009 verdict was confirmed.

Very foolishly, she chose to skip it. She skipped her own appeal! Probably because her book frames 1/2 of Italy and so she cannot look anyone in the eye.

ALL that remains now is the rubber stamping by the Supreme Court of the Florence outcome. There really are no more appeal possibilities, though Knox is widely misleading people that there are.

Extradition should be automatic. The law is extremely clear and the US government has never given her one ounce of help.

I didn’t even recognize Amanda Knox in those photos - she is looking nearly anorexic now, compared to her cute chubby cheeks youthful 20 year old photos.  It really is all so strange.

Am waiting to hear what Raphael’s next move is going to be after the new trouble with his book.  It should be very soon that the report from the last conviction is issued right?  His family must be putting a huge amount of pressure on him right now.

Hi Believing

Thats been called the librarian look. It seems partly intentional, partly what price one pays when ones team corrupts opinion and a court of appeal and the system hits back. She played cards badly since 2007.

For us the biggest plus of the official nailing of the lies in his book is that it will show how many lies there were, how bad (they make informed people gasp), and how widely believed. And what a bad idea is runaway PR.

Hi Peter
All true. Old boxing axiom. You can run but you can’t hide. Incidentally my email has developed a bug and I can’t open it, therefore I will probably have to create a new email address. Will keep you posted.

Hi Peter email fixed itself…..... I HOPE

Sad but true, injustices do happen. We are not perfect. But our greatness is that we admit and we strive to correct our mistakes. We do make sincere apologies.

The idea that the total number of wrong convictions are rather less, if we look at them as a percentage of the total. But this is not any consolation for the individual who knows that a grave injustice has been done.

Using Amanda Knox as a model for the injustice is a shameful act and a plain slap on the face for the real victims of the injustice. Most have suffered silently. Most did not have any recourse to a million dollar PR.

I do not understand what the party for. Celebrating the celebrity?

As Peter said elsewhere, they should stop digging.

The simple fact remains that, as of now, Amanda Knox is not an ‘exoneree.’ She stands convicted of the murder of Meredith Kercher. If it weren’t for her, Sollecito, and Guede, we would not all be here, and Meredith, happily unknown to us, would be enjoying her life.

Hi, Grahame. Phlogiston is so 17th Century. 21st Century astrophysicists have discovered a previously unseen subatomic particle : the Quirk.
It behaves as if it were the center of the known universe.
Very much is made of it, and although it is strongly negatively charged, it irresistibly attracts hordes of pot-bellied, middle aged men. It also seemingly possesses the ability to make water flow uphill. It’s useful applications are being studied, but funding is severely lacking.

Mimi
Love it

One of the attendees at the Oregon conference, Brian Banks, is really innocent. His accuser withdrew her allegations, no evidence against him, etc.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/7986979/redemption-brian-banks

Does the Innocence Project realize how toxic Knox is to their cause?

Thank you Mimi lovely comment.

@mimi on 04/16/14 at 10:49 AM

I beg to differ.

Blame it on the hormones.

(quark is a MGM- Mury Gell Mann- invention- see more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark - quarks are responsible for hard ons- any many other charms)

Which man you have seen won’t gravitate to a heavenly body?

This post does seem to be resonating. Serial hoaxers like Knox must be of real concern to those who volunteer for the Innocence Project, which needs its credibility and its real successes to keep winning.

The next two posts are actually set up and the first is waiting the nod of Yummi. It is a humdinger for those who like to drill down into the evidence, and has probably more images than any but a couple of posts previously.

On an upbeat note. I have noticed that the pro Knox sites seem to be in disarray with regard to regurgitating old arguments. That is not to be complacent though, because I’m sure the Knox tribe have something up their sleeve. Desperation will bring about mistakes after all. Senator Cantwell and others such as Heavey seem to have gone off the radar. (sorry for the spelling) However vigilance is the key to eventual success. Will keep you posted if I find anything of a salacious nature.

Was reading this article again with interview with Andrew Gumbel (thought he was American but he’s British, but apparently living in Los Angeles).  Some interesting aspects about his collaboration with RS and the involvement of the family in the writing of the book.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/dempsey/2012/09/26/raffaele-sollecito-i-spent-that-night-with-amanda-knox/

“The decision to publish had been made before I got involved. Raffaele and his family are understandably nervous about the high court, but all informed legal opinion suggests it will be very hard to overturn the case at that point. Given the way the prosecution’s case fell apart on appeal, especially the DNA, it’s hard to imagine that the high court could argue that the decision to exonerate Amanda and Raffaele was procedurally incorrect.”

Hi Believing

Thanks. “...all informed legal opinion…” Meaning Bremner & Heavey? No other lawyers were lining up to take that angle.

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php?/tjmk/comments/does_any_competent_lawyer_actually_believe_rs_and_ak_are_innocent/

It just wont fly as a reason for RS and Knox and himself to set out to frame 1/2 of Italy.

Frankly, he was too naive and ignorant of legal matters and the facts of the case and the nature of the family and Sollecito divine that the Hellmann court he was so in awe of had been corrupted.

There is one born every minute… One of the great ironies is that he wrote that the RS team came out AGAINST corruption when Mignini sought a deal.

What deal was that again, Gumbel? The court will be eager to know.

her participation to this conference is an insult to innocent people accused by witnesses who lied maliciously. She, as a witness, lied and ruined an innocent man’s life.

Those who say she gave a false confession disregard entirely her words against Patrick “I am scared of Patrick, it is him, it is him who did it” a “scena madre” that incriminates her much beyond any reasonable doubt and that was repeated twice that night, first and second show.

Then, just to muddy the waters, she put the same concept in writing pretending it was a dream but she stood by her statements. A few hours later she coldly admitted to her mother she knew Patrick was innocent.

later, not happy of the calumny against Patrick, she committed the crime of calumny against the people who were interrogating her when she accused Patrick.  She said they committed the crime of touching violently a witness.

The testimony of the interpreter Anna Donnino proves inequivocably this statement was false.  Her mistifications and tendency to lie have been proven beyond doubt in Court. It is proven she lied on her whereabouts, on the time she woke up, it is proven she was at Quintavalle shop, she was in Piazza Grimana, seen by Curatolo, it is proven she organised a staged break-in, she cleaned up the scene and left many traces of her crime, footprints, mixed blood and mixed DNA.

  She cannot avoid her additional 25 years in jail.  Her case will remain in history as a case of mass brainwashing operated by public relations in a murder case and of the worst example of amateurish behavior of the press of an entire nation blinded by prejudice.

Those who cannot see the truth are fundamentally prejudiced, ill informed and at times became her accomplices in the above crime of calumny, which extended to the Supreme judges, to the prosecutor of first instance, an average man crucified by a criminal, and sometimes, this is completely unacceptable, to the family of the girl she atrociously murdered.

@Popper
Thankyou for these two comments- I am going to make a copy of them, and keep them, especially to show anyone who needs a succinct summary, - they sum it all up so well.

Where next:

Or to next entry Innocence Project: Seven Years Clutching Knox And Trashing Italian Justice To Joy Of Mafias #1

Or to previous entry How America’s Premier Justice College Misrepresents Italian Justice - To Global Audience