Amanda Knox- Guilty

[OceanAnnie]

American Student Amanda Knox Guilty of Murder in Italy


Two judges and six juror in the Italian city of Perugia have a reached a verdict in the case of accused murderer Amanda Knox: guilty.

After nearly two years in jail, Knox, 22, was convicted on charges of masterminding the brutal murder of British roommate, Meredith Kercher, 21, in a sadistic sex game gone awry in 2007. Alleged to have acted with her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, Knox, a University of Washington student studying in Italy, was portrayed in the European press as an amoral, pot-smoking party girl – an "angel-faced killer," in one headline.

In testimony at her 11-month trial, Kercher's friends described what they considered Knox's bizarre behavior when she was brought into the police station for questioning the day after the murder. Knox began doing cartwheels and handstands and snuggling with Sollecito. "We were all crying, and I didn't see Amanda crying," said Robyn Butterworth. "She and Raffaele were kissing and joking."

But on the stand, Knox explained: "When I feel uneasy or nervous, I act a bit foolish."

According to authorities, Knox gave conflicting statements about her whereabouts on the night of the murder. Yet the prosecution was not able to link her conclusively to the killing through DNA. In a separate trial in October, 2008, Rudy Guede, a 20-year-old drifter from the Ivory Coast in Africa, was convicted of Kercher's murder and sentenced to 30 years.

Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison.


http://www.people.com/people/

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Wow, I don't know how to react over this. Initially I thought she was guilty, but during the trial the prosecution could not really come up with much evidence or motive.

Amanda just seems quirky to me. Something that I don't think the Italian officials understood.

I feel very sorry for her family.

 

[happygirl]

26 years doesn't seem like a very long sentence. I guess If Iwas the one having to serve it I would feel differently

 

[OceanAnnie]

Wow, I don't know how to react over this. Initially I thought she was guilty, but during the trial the prosecution could not really come up with much evidence or motive.

Amanda just seems quirky to me. Something that I don't think the Italian officials understood.

I feel very sorry for her family.

I think you hit the nail on the head. She did come across as quirky. From what I have read, there didn't seem to be sufficient evidence to convict. There was a lot of talk and video (?) of tainted evidence. I don't know. I think possibly she was misunderstood, but there may have also been some anti-American sentiment too.

I don't know what to think of it either.

 

[FireDancer]

I am not sure if she is really guilty or not since I didn't get to hear all of the evidence. The one thing I always found weird is that at one point she claimed she heard the screams yet still went out instead of helping or calling the police. That is just not normal behavior when a house mate might be getting beaten up, even if she didn't think she was getting killed. She told police she had to put her fingers in her ears she was so frightened by the screams I think.

The whole incident was just weird and no one involved seemed to be completely on the up and up.

The burden of proof is also much lower in Italy. During the whole trial I found it sad that so many people expected the Italian judicial system to work like ours. Their way is their way and when in another country you have to submit to their laws and system. When in Rome, so to speak. I thought a lot of our press were pretty arrogant when complaining that their system wasn't like ours.

The only person I really feel sorry for is Meredith Kercher.

 

[SeaSpray]

How can they NOT find a person's DNA in a DNA-and-blood-filled bedroom of the victim and still convict them of a murder???? This isn't the American court system, that's how.

I'm shocked and saddened for her family.

 

[OceanAnnie]

I am not sure if she is really guilty or not since I didn't get to hear all of the evidence. The one thing I always found weird is that at one point she claimed she heard the screams yet still went out instead of helping or calling the police. That is just not normal behavior when a house mate might be getting beaten up, even if she didn't think she was getting killed. She told police she had to put her fingers in her ears she was so frightened by the screams I think.

The whole incident was just weird and no one involved seemed to be completely on the up and up.

Yeah. The account you describe is not normal by any stretch. There were several accounts and none of them made Amanda Knox look good. I think the different accounts she told cast doubts on her innocence. And then there's the cartwheels and kissing in the police station. All very strange.

But I don't know if she was guilty or not.

 

[Rafiki31]

There are so many versions of what happened, and the only one we will never hear is the truth. The whole thing is so odd.

Once people lawyer up, the versions all are skewed. It is such a bizarre case I am really curious as to what really happened. There were so many inconsistent things she said, but it is hard to know if she really said it or not.

One thing is sure, never get arrested in another country! When a guest somewhere else, best be on stellar behaviour.

 

[ogreenlee]

I was completely annoyed by her personality and behavior, but that's not enough to convict someone of murder.

Who is this other guy? Is he still in jail for the murder, too?

 

[SeaSpray]

I was completely annoyed by her personality and behavior, but that's not enought to convict someone of murder.

Who is this other guy? Is he still in jail for the murder, too?

They already KNOW that the other guy committed the actual murder. Amanda apparently was found guilty of "masterminding" it.

 

[dalt01]

i thought she was a goner from the beginning, whether guilty or not, whether we admit it or not we are still "the ugly american"

 

[FireDancer]

i thought she was a goner from the beginning, whether guilty or not, whether we admit it or not we are still "the ugly american"

Only if you act like an ugly American. I've traveled to Italy and while I was there I honored their customs, attempted to speak their language (sometimes terribly), and obeyed their laws. I had no one treat me poorly because I was American.

When Americans go to other countries and expect them to all speak English, do things just like us, get loud and belligerent in cultures that are more subdued, or change the way their courts work because ours work differently they are acting like ugly Americans.

Same goes for people traveling here.

 

[ogreenlee]

that girl acted like an idiot and embarrassed herself.

it doesn't mean she's guilty, but i, too, have traveled abroad with no issues and know many people who live abroad with no issues. this girl attracted trouble. you can't blame italy. granted, their court isn't the same as ours, but that's why you behave yourself.

 

[dismom2]

Only if you act like an ugly American. I've traveled to Italy and while I was there I honored their customs, attempted to speak their language (sometimes terribly), and obeyed their laws. I had no one treat me poorly because I was American.

When Americans go to other countries and expect them to all speak English, do things just like us, get loud and belligerent in cultures that are more subdued, or change the way their courts work because ours work differently they are acting like ugly Americans.

Same goes for people traveling here.

I agree! I've done a lot of traveling and I try to blend in and be respectful towards other countries and their people. Not everyone thinks American's are 'ugly'.

As for Amanda Knox-- She's not telling everything, and why would someone change their story if they didn't do anything wrong?

 

[disykat]

What I heard is that they spent hours badgering her and forcing her to answer questions like "what would you have done IF you heard your roommate screaming..." etc. They then took her answers and released them to the press as fact. This led to a lot of confusion about what the actual facts of the case were.

I don't feel like I have any idea what the facts were.

I certainly do agree that it speaks to keeping your behavior above reproach, especially in a foreign country. It is hard enough to "prove innocence" when you haven't been behaving in a way that makes you look guilty.

 

[RadioNate]

She is definitely an odd egg. I'm not sure she was a murderous mastermind though. If course I didn't hear all the evidence but by most media legal analysis the US system wouldn't have convicted.

 

[RadioNate]

What I heard is that they spent hours badgering her and forcing her to answer questions like "what would you have done IF you heard your roommate screaming..." etc. They then took her answers and released them to the press as fact. This led to a lot of confusion about what the actual facts of the case were.

I don't feel like I have any idea what the facts were.

Did they interrogate her in Italian with no lawyer or translator present? I think I read that somewhere and that she may not have known enough Italian to understand the details of what they were asking.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

When Americans go to other countries and expect them to all speak English, do things just like us, get loud and belligerent in cultures that are more subdued, or change the way their courts work because ours work differently they are acting like ugly Americans.

Who EXPECTS anything of the sort? I never met a person, or heard of a person, who went to another country and EXPECTED them all to speak English. ??????



Anyway...regarding Amanda Knox and the way the case was handled...imagine that...we ugly Americans...thinking that there should be EVIDENCE in a case, that a jury shouldn't be allowed to read the accounts of the case outside the courtroom, that weeks or months shouldn't go by between court dates, that there should be higher standards for jurors and judges and prosecutors,and yes, even the press. JUST LIKE in America? Surely our judicial system isn't perfect, and I'm not saying they should be "just like us". But there is a ton of corruption in the Italian so-called judicial system...excuse the ugly Americans for thinking so. Obnoxious behavior isn't murder. Whether she actually MURDERED that girl or not, or took part in it in some way, I don't know, but the "evidence" is so tainted and so lost in the drama and fiasco of the trial in Italy, no one will ever know. That trial was not a FAIR trial...YES, OBVIOUSLY it's the way IT IS in Italy...OBVIOUSLY. But it was wrong, in and of itself, and without comparison to the American judicial system.

The end of my discussion. You've said what you've said FD, and no doubt you'll say plenty more, and I've had my say. But I'm not going to debate legalities and right and wrong with someone who so matter-of-factly stated on the DIS that your pet dog is your property and if you want to skin it alive, that's your "right".

 

[Sheree Bobbins]

I honestly can't say if she's guilty or not. I don't get an impression either way. I think it's terrible what it's done to her family. I'm really sorry it ended this way.

 

[1957]

Saddened, but not surprised. Foreign jurisdictions do not necessarily adhere to US standards, nor should they. They have their own. Independent countries (like the USA and Italy) are within their rights to establish their own laws, and if an incident like this occurred within our country, the results could have been quite different. I feel badly for Amanda Knox and her family! I'm just not surprised at the verdict. There are quite a few countries in the World besides the USA.