[Author’s Note: On the odd occasion interest in one of my commentaries is such that my webmaster prevails upon me to run it for two-consecutive days. It will probably come as no surprise to any of you that this is one of those occasions. The commentary below was originally published yesterday, Tuesday, at 5:28 am.]
[A]nti-Americanism was so pandemic when Amanda was arrested in November 2007 that reporting on her case in many European countries evinced this palpable lust for a pound of flesh. And nowhere was it more palpable than in England, the home of the girl she was convicted of murdering…
I am far more troubled by the fact prosecutors produced woefully scant evidence to support the sensational claims they made during this trial… On the one hand, they argued that Amanda is a spoiled American girl who killed her British roommate, Meredith Kercher (21), in a fit of jealous and petulant rage for treating her like a messy, thieving slut. While on the other, they argued that she is a dope and sex fiend who killed this “prissy” English girl in a depraved and premeditated scheme to teach her a lesson…
Amanda testified that the police beat conflicting statements out of her. She claimed that they even forced her to falsely implicate local bar owner Patrick Lumumba – who was probably the only black man she could think of under duress to finger for the crime…
Meanwhile, the only forensic evidence prosecutors submitted to support their charges against her was a knife the police took from Raffaele’s apartment, which they claim had traces of her DNA. But defense experts testified that the blades on this knife were inconsistent with wounds Meredith suffered.
Moreover, Amanda’s lawyers argued that the only credible evidence placed only one person at the scene of this horrific crime, and that that person was not Amanda the American, but Rudy the African.
Not to mention that Rudy had already confessed to raping and killing Meredith alone, telling the police, at least initially, that he had never even met Amanda Knox…
It’s instructive to note that, when he filed charges in this case, Prosecutor Mignini was already under investigation for proffering “bizarre and lurid psycho-sexual homicide theories” in his attempt to win convictions in another murder case.
Notwithstanding this verdict, however, it smacks of an unseemly mix of arrogance and hypocrisy for everyone from pundits to politicians in the U.S. to be hurling self-righteous indignation at the Italian justice system. After all, one would be hard-pressed to find a judicial system that is guilty of more egregious miscarriages of justice than America’s…
Therefore, instead of criticizing the jurors and condemning the Italian justice system, Amanda’s supporters would be well-advised to just pray that Italy’s appellate courts do in this case what they do in many other cases, namely, overturn guilty verdicts that offend all notions of justice
(American student Amanda Knox found guilty of murder, The iPINIONS Journal, December 9, 2009)
The above are excerpts from the commentary I wrote when Amanda Knox was found guilty of murder two years ago – after having already spent two years in jail awaiting trial.
This explains why I was not at all surprised when forensic experts commissioned by the appellate court testified a few weeks ago that the DNA evidence prosecutors relied on to convict Amanda and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito was wholly unreliable.
Nevertheless, I am far too cynical to have thought that this testimony would lead to her immediate release.
I also feared that her defense lawyer did not help the appeal when she countered the prosecutor’s condemnation of Amanda as a sex-obsessed “she devil” by claiming that like Jessica Rabbit, the voluptuous cartoon character who was more inclined to give some TLC than a BJ, Amanda was not bad, she was just drawn that way.
Indeed, far from releasing her and Raffaele, prosecutors conveyed unbridled contempt for their appeal by asking the court to increase their 26 and 25-year sentence respectively to life in prison.
In the end, though, justice prevailed yesterday when the appellate court overturned her conviction and ordered her immediate release. Amanda broke down in tears of joy.
As happy as I am for Amanda and her family, though, my heart really goes out to the family of the victim, Meredith Kercher. But I am convinced, as I’m sure the appellate judges are convinced, that Rudy Guede acted alone when he committed this heinous crime.
Therefore, as difficult as it might be for them to do so, I hope they find some consolation in the fact that two innocent people are no longer serving veritable life sentences for the crimes that led to Meredith’s untimely death.
Finally, as I alluded to in the commentary I quoted from above, Americans are fond of boasting that theirs is the best justice system in the world.
Yet, in addition to all of the well-documented miscarriages of justice in the annals of American jurisprudence, this is the system that just, on the one hand, acquitted (white) Casey Anthony on murder charges despite clear and convincing evidence of her guilt; while on the other hand, executed (black) Troy Davis on similar charges despite clear and convincing evidence of his innocence.
Not to mention the farce that attended the arrest and release of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
So clearly, if the putatively best justice system in the world could produce such incomprehensible results, I saw no reason why the Italian justice system could not have found some way to rationalize a denial of Amanda’s appeal.
Of course, that the appellate court overturned her wrongful conviction reflects well on the Italian justice system. By contrast, given the Anthony and Davis cases cited above, perhaps this outcome for Amanda might give Americans pause before perpetuating the jingoistic fallacy about the American justice system being the best in the world.
Related commentaries:
Amanda Knox found guilty…
Judge frees Dominique Strauss-Kahn…
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