Contest! Choose a New Coat of Arms for PERUGIA, ITALY! (Photoshop, Satire)

Feel free to copy and pass this along.

Mignini's "Keystone Kops" Arrest British Doctor and Wife for Wild Poppies on Property

Giuliano Mignini

Visit Historic Perugia
Get Arrested
Spend Time In Jail

Another tale of the Italian troll posing as a prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini.  This time he arrested a British doctor and his wife for wild poppies growing on their farm near Perugia, Italy.  Apparently, the poppies grew wild and on their own after the doctor had cleared the land during a restoration of the property.  Perugia's "Keystone Kops" arrested the doctor and his wife, both 58, in a dawn raid last Tuesday, sending an overwhelming force of patrol cars to apprehend the two, who spent the next three days in prison.  Apparently, the police believed the doctor to be growing illegal poppies for heroin production.

Clive Gillis, 58, was released yesterday after three days in prison when a judge threw out the case against him and his wife Nina. Mrs Gillis was freed from the hospital ward of a women's jail.

The GP from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, was the victim of jealousy from his neighbours, according to Niclaflavia Restivo, the judge who ruled the case lacked "any serious evidence".

So once again we see how easily it is for innocent people in Perugia, Italy to have their lives upset and their freedom abruptly ended for dubious reasons.  Since the Amanda Knox travesty, however, Perugian judges seem to be on the lookout for such nonsense, well aware that the world is watching.

It is amazing to me just how ready the Perugian police are to arrest first and ask questions later.  Couldn't they have performed an initial investigation first?  Interviewed the doctor, ran a background check?  Discussed a possible arrest with a judge in advance?  But no, the spirit of Mussolini is alive and well and living in Perugia.

Read it all here.

AMANDA KNOX: AN INNOCENT GIRL FINALLY GOES HOME

Steve Moore

I have copied this blog entry in its entirety so it may be read by more people. See the original here.

The article is by former FBI agent Steve Moore.

*******

I met Amanda Knox for the first time a few days ago, following her release from an Italian prison after serving four years for a crime she did not commit. I am grateful that I had not met Amanda before I got involved in the case.

Not meeting Amanda prior to my involvement in the case probably saved me from prison time myself. Had I known her personally, I do not know if I could have waited for the agonizingly slow wheels of Italian justice to free her. Amanda, you see, turns out to be a truly spectacular person; even more intelligent than I had expected, even more empathetic than she had been described, and even more gentle than I had anticipated. More and more, the fact that she of all people was targeted by a malicious, psychologically-challenged rogue prosecutor raises the level of irony to almost absurd levels. So at a time when I should have been feeling only relief and gratitude, I had to fight a seething vicarious anger at four years taken from a good person. Amanda herself seems to bear no malice, and wonders only how anybody could believe she did what prosecutor Giuliano Mignini charged her with.

The events of the last week have washed over me like a tidal wave, and I have not caught up with the emotion, the reality or the impact of what took place. I do not feel that I am ready to write at length about the events in Perugia last week, but I wanted to communicate a few thoughts in the meantime.

The most beautiful part of the “Not Guilty” verdict for Amanda and Raffaele came in the way Italian law demands that a verdict be couched. In Italy, a person can be found not guilty for two reasons (and I paraphrase the language):

1. Not guilty due to insufficient evidence. (Not guilty)
2. Not guilty due to the fact that the person did not commit the crime. (Innocent)

The first option is a passive statement, but the second is a positive declaration of innocence, not simply lack of guilt. It says not that the prosecutors failed to meet their burden, but that the evidence proves that person charged did not commit the crime. It is not simply release, it is full exoneration. That is the verdict Amanda and Raffaele received: Not guilty because the evidence proved that they did not commit the crime.


In a piece in Wednesday’s International Herald Tribune, New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Timothy Egan wrote, “There was no way, based on forensic evidence that was a joke by international standards and a nonexistent motive that played into medieval superstitions, to find Knox and Sollecito guilty….” The claim of the prosecutors that there was a trace of the victim’s DNA on the blade of a knife used by Amanda to cut bread was, “….nearly laughed out of court by an independent panel of [DNA] experts.” The independent experts did find something on the blade, though: Bread Starch. (Rye). Out of nowhere.

It must be pointed out that Amanda’s exoneration did not come from an American court. The U.S. State Department (God knows) didn’t do anything to help her. The U.S. government abandoned her in a despicable, cowardly way, frankly. No, the exoneration of Amanda and Raffaele occurred in an Italian court. A court in the same Italian city in which they were first convicted by a judge who, if he is not corrupt, has not even a basic understanding of evidence and the rule of law. The kids were exonerated in the same courtroom in which the first trial was held. By a jury of Italians, not Americans. Jurors who wore sashes in the colors of the Italian flag. They were once again prosecuted by the same prosecutor (who is still appealing his own prison sentence for corruption). Only the judge was different. And this judge demanded evidence. And this judge demanded justice. Judge Pratillo Hellmann made Italy justifiably proud. I have been in more Federal Courtrooms in the United States than I can count. The controlled, careful and fair manner in which Judge Hellmann conducted this trial was, if anything, superior to what I have come to expect even in a U.S. federal court.

In Italian law, after a not guilty verdict, a defendant already incarcerated in prison obtains their release several hours later at the prison. Only very rarely will a judge order that a defendant be “released immediately.” On those rare occasions that this occurs, according to Italian attorneys I spoke to, it is considered a ‘slap’ at the prosecutor(s). Judge Hellmann ordered that Amanda and Raffaele be “released immediately.” The immediate release was an obvious signal of the judge’s extreme dissatisfaction the prosecution.

Following the verdict, a crowd of over 1,000 Italians formed around the courthouse, and a cheer went up when Amanda’s sister Deanna spoke of her release. Many times in Perugia, I experienced an indication of the overwhelming Italian sentiment of Amanda’s innocence. Italians would learn that I was involved in the case, and I would find that my drinks had been paid for, unrequested desserts came to the table, and strangers came to encourage or to hug me. People who spoke no English would walk past and cross their fingers in the “good luck” sign, smiling. The Italian public had figured this one out. At the end, the Italian (legitimate) press was vociferously in Amanda’s corner. Immediately following the verdict, I looked over at two of my newfound friends in the Italian television media, and tears were rolling down their smiling cheeks. The prosecutor Mignini tried to couch this trial as racism (the actual murderer was black), and then as nationalism (big, bad America trying to step on poor little Italy). But in doing so, he only managed to prove the truth of Dr. Samuel Johnson’s immortal 1775 quote: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Insightfully, the judge, the jury and the Italian public chose to disregard his attempts at jury nullification and decided this case on fact rather than jingoism and prejudice.

Sadly, the vindictiveness of a corrupt local system is not easily escaped. About half an hour after the initially popular verdict, a “spontaneous” anti-Knox demonstration began outside the court. In a striking bit of serendipity, the “spontaneous demonstrators” just happened to have megaphone with them that night, and all knew what they would chant. Though in jeans and polo shirts, the demonstrators (all men between their middle-20’s and late 40’s) bore startling, almost eerie individual resemblances to the dozens of policemen who had originally signed the warrants against Amanda and Raffaele, and who had been in court that night in a “show of solidarity.” Many of those officers are the same ones suing Amanda for claiming that she had been slapped in her interrogation. (The required tape of the interrogation of prisoners in Italy is inexplicably absent. Go figure.)

After the ‘impromptu’ demonstration, the men began individual fist-fights with Italian Amanda supporters, (I counted at least five such fights) and generally shamed the town of Perugia at a moment when the city deserved to be basking in the glory of the world spotlight. I want to point out here that the people of Perugia are good, honorable people, by and large. The Carabinieri (military) police in the town are honorable and professional. But the local police and the local prosecutor ruthlessly run the town. As an example, while we were in Perugia, five people were arrested---in the courtroom---by the local police. All for criticizing the prosecutor in some way or another. My wife was one of those arrested, and awaits a decision as to whether she will be charged with “contempt” which carries with it a possible three-year prison sentence.

The relief I feel at Amanda and Raffaele’s release is indescribable. I also feel additional relief that on-line Amanda-haters are by and large a thing of my past. We had dealt with them until now only to counter their hateful propaganda in front of an uninformed public. Now, it’s not even important to answer them because truly, nobody cares about what they say anymore.

They and others who refuse to accept this Italian court verdict (while arbitrarily accepting the first court’s verdict) are already receding into insignificance, and even the echoes of their hateful diatribes and death threats are fading into the ether. I do not think that they will ever be convinced of Amanda’s obvious innocence, nor do I think they are done spewing propaganda. Frustration produces anger, and like an infant who throws a tantrum when put down for a nap, I assume they will make a lot of indiscriminate noise that does nothing but irritate those around them. But they can now be grouped by society with those who claim to have been kidnapped by UFO’s, doubters in the moon landings and 9/11 conspiracy theorists. As one of my favorite philosophers, Stan Marsh of “South Park,”once said to Eric Cartman about such conspiracy mongers: “25% of society is crazy.” This is truth, and it is truth that the anti-Amanda crazies will continue to validate. But now they have been refuted by the same justice system they touted for years, and eventually, like the child put down for a nap, will become distracted and move on to other things. They will soon be looking for new things and people to hate. (Though those of them who crossed the lines of civil and criminal behavior will soon find that they have not been forgotten and that legal redress waited only for Amanda’s repatriation.)

What remains is to ensure that this does not happen again. As Egan said, “Perhaps the tide from Perugia will lift other boats.” For this to happen, though, pompous prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, forensic perjurer Patrizia Stefanoni, and mind-reading detective Edgardo Giobbi (and others), must be prosecuted for their corruption. The judge who rubber-stamped the lies in the first trial, Massei, must also be called to the bar of justice—or back to law school. That is what will occupy some of my time for the next few years, I’m sure. But for right now, I am in the mood to bathe in the warmth of the freedom of Amanda Knox. The sunshine of the justice she obtained should warm the entire world.

At this moment, I find that the word “elation” is woefully inadequate to describe my emotions. Euphoria might be a closer word, but euphoria eventually fades. As long as I live, I will remember that late night in the courtroom when two innocents were rescued from a cabal of evil men.

The U.K. Independent: The strange ideas and enduring mysteries of the Kercher case

The U.K. Independent has printed the fairest account yet of the Amanda Knox case and her acquittal by an appeals court.  The article says:

Yet, if we must accept Mr Hellmann's [the appellate trial judge] insistence that we cannot really know what happened, we can at least re-construct the steps by which Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito found themselves in the frame – because those steps, too, were the product of prejudice and imagination, not knowledge.

On the face of it, they were the least likely people to be suspected of involvement. It was Mr Sollecito who called the police from Ms Knox's flat when the two of them found Ms Kercher's bedroom door locked, drops of blood and a broken window; both were present when police battered the door open, and they fled outside in shock and horror. Ms Kercher's British girlfriends flew home soon after their friend's dead body was discovered; but Ms Knox, who could have flown to Berlin to stay with her uncle, insisted on staying in Perugia to help the police.

And this:

Tomorrow, Amanda Knox will mark a week of freedom. There are those who continue to paint her, if not as some Jezebel, then as an unfeeling woman anticipating the paydays ahead. It is a curious way to think of someone unjustly imprisoned for four years.

Read it all here.

Nancy Grace: Farts, Exposes Herself on "Dancing With the Schmucks"

Up until very recently, I did not know who Nancy Grace is, nor did I wish to.  I became aware of her when she expressed her worthless opinion that Amanda Knox's release from an Italian jail was a "great miscarriage of justice."  What did Nancy Graceless base her opinions on?  Nothing much.  She may have seen the headlines on a tabloid in the checkout line at the supermarket.  She may have overhead some gossip in the coffee room at work.  Whatever.

Now it appears that Nancy's boob came out while dancing on the show "Dancing With the Schmucks Stars."  That was one controversy.  Another is when she allegedly farted while performing on the same program.  She blamed the flatulence on her dancing partner.  What class. What sass.  What an ass.

Some people have been confused by the identity of Nancy Graceless.  She is NOT Miss Piggy, in spite of an unusual resemblance.  See photos to help you differentiate the two.  (Miss Piggy is the thin one.  She also has class.)

Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini Expresses Mild Surprise at the Verdict in the Amanda Knox Appeals Trial (Photoshop, Satire)

I had ten times my usual number of hits the day Amanda Knox was acquitted in Italy. Now I am simply enjoying myself with Photoshop, getting in some digs at Giuliano Mignini, who expected to win the case and was truly shocked when he did not. Apparently, his delusions are not so crystal clear to the rest of the world as they are to him.

Italian Translation:
CHE-E-E-E!!!!

Prosecutor Giliuano Mignini Denies Rumors (Photoshop, Satire)

Douglas Preston, American Writer, Explains How Italy Puts Saving Face Before Justice

Douglas Preston, whom I have quoted here frequently, has another thought-provoking article on the Italian justice system that railroaded Amanda Knox.  Writing in the U.K. Guardian, he says:

About 50% of all criminal convictions in Italy are reversed or greatly modified on appeal. Knox and Sollecito join the 4 million Italians since the war who have seen their lives ruined by false criminal charges, only to be proclaimed innocent after many years of agony and imprisonment.

While they don't like others pointing it out, many Italians are well aware that their judicial system is dysfunctional. Silvio Berlusconi is absolutely right when he says the judiciary needs fundamental reform. The Italian judiciary, a holdover to a great extent from the Mussolini era, when Italy was a police state, acts with no checks and balances, in which prosecutors and police wield enormous power.

If you are arrested for a crime and have no alibi, you are in very serious trouble. The de facto burden of proof is on you to prove your innocence, despite lip service in the Italian constitution to the idea of innocent until proven guilty.

Read it all here.

Amanda is Home

Amanda Knox has landed in Seattle and just finished a short news conference at the airport.  She was emotional and said it was strange to be speaking English again.  She thanked all of her supporters, then she and her family left the airport for home.

NY Post: Amanda Knox Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini's Actions Bordered on the Criminal

An excellent article about the Nutcase of Perugia, Italy, Giuliano Mignini, from the New York Post:

Giuliano Mignini, the 60-year-old magistrate who oversaw the failed Amanda Knox prosecution, has put forth wild and bizarre hypotheses about the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher.

His actions, according to many observers, not only laid the groundwork for Knox's Monday acquittal by an Italian appeals court-but were outright unprofessional and bordering on the criminal. He was even censured last year for abusing his office.

Bordering on the criminal?  Presenting faked evidence in court and destroying exonerating evidence would appear FULLY criminal to this observer.  I suspect Italy will be taking a good long look at Mignini and the damage he has wrought.  Apparently, Mignini, who has been convicted of abuses of office in one trial, awaits another trial in November (probably the appeals trial).  This trial stems from Mignini's handling of the Narducci case, where he prosecuted 20 innocent people for their imaginary ties to the serial killings in the Monster of Florence case.

Now that there are two newly vacated cells in Capanne Prison, perhaps Mr.  Mignini will at long last see true justice in this case...through steel  bars.  As Doug Preston, who was once targeted by Mignini and forced to flee Italy, says:

"Mignini's malicious and completely unwarranted accusations ruined many lives and impoverished the defendants and their families," said Preston, coauthor of "The Monster of Florence." In any event, Knox has been freed and Mignini is now the one awaiting trial.

Ah, Karma's a bitch, hey Giuliano?

Read the whole article here.

Amanda Knox Coming Home, Picture of Her at the Airport

U.S. student Amanda Knox smiles at the Leonardo Da Vinci airport in Fiumicino October 4, 2011. Amanda Knox, cleared of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, on Tuesday thanked supporters who believed in her innocence as she prepared to return home to the United States after four years in jail.

Note to Italy Re: Giuliano Mignini, Rogue Prosecutor, Convicted Criminal

Giuliano Mignini

A humble suggestion to the national authorities, Rome, Italy regarding the official prosecutor of Perugia, following the appeals trial of Amanda Knox:


FIRE THIS PRICK.

Amanda Knox Not Guilty of Murder, Ordered Released

The verdict was just delivered and I watched it live on Fox News.  Amanda Knox was found not guilty on almost all counts, including murder, but her conviction of "defamation" of Patrick Lumumba was upheld.  This latter was probably to shield Perugian officials from any lawsuits by Knox.  Knox was therefore sentenced to three years, time already served, and ordered to pay 22,000 Euros to Lumumba.  She was then ordered to be released immediately.

This is not the most just verdict, since prosecutors used psychological torture to pressure Knox into making the false statements implicating Lumumba.  The prosecutors believed him to be guilty and pressed Knox into giving them what they wanted, enough of an excuse to arrest him.  She was interrogated intensively for 14 hours without an attorney present, and the interrogation was not recorded as required by Italian law and international standards.  The interrogation was illegal.  If I were Knox, I'd get myself back to Seattle as soon as possible and I wouldn't pay Lumumba a damn dime.

Raffaele Sollecito was found not guilty also and ordered released.

So I still say that Italy is a banana republic and I still say we should boycott Italy.   

Amanda Knox: Italian Justice System on Trial

The verdict in Amanda Knox's appeals trial is expected today around 4 pm PST (2 pm on the east coast).  What we have learned from this case is that Italian justice leaves a lot to be desired.  There is no habeas corpus, no protections against self-incrimination, no prevention of double jeopardy, and no right to a speedy trial.

Per author Douglas Preston, who wrote a book, the Monster of Florence, the Italian system is rife with corruption, coerced statements, lawyer vendettas, forced confessions, planted evidence and other illegal methods.

Today Italy has an opportunity to change course, to right at least one wrong in its system of justice, and that is to acquit Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito of a murder that they obviously had nothing to do with.  The question is, will the jurors in this trial place more importance on their cultural ties than on facts and evidence?

Italians accord great respect and esteem to a father-figure, the prosecutor Giuliano Mignini.  Will they base their decision on this misplaced deference, or will they base their decision on facts and evidence?  We shall see.

Giuliano Mignini, Agent of Injustice

Visualizing Justice in the Case of Amanda Knox

As we await the verdict in the Amanda Knox appeals trial, it is clear why and how two innocent students were imprisoned for four years for a crime that they did not commit.  It is because the chief prosecutor of Perugia, Italy, is not an agent of justice, but of injustice; not an honest warrior for truth, but for falsehood.  The man has such a massive ego that he believes his intuition is 100% accurate.  Whatever impressions first enter his mind are immutable truth, not subject to change based on evidence, no matter how compelling.  Evidence and proof are merely bureaucratic inconveniences, needed only to confirm his clairvoyance.  That which tends to refute his visions is to be devoutly ignored.

This is what happened in the Narducci case, where 21 defendants were prosecuted by Mignini in a different province,  Florence (the city of Perugia is in Umbria province).  There Mignini held no sway over the forensic teams and other law enforcement personnel, and lost every one of the 21 trials.  Justice triumphed, over the heavily damaged lives and fortunes of 21 innocents.  Mignini, however, did not learn from this, i.e. that his intuition and judgment were not so accurate as he believed.  He entered the trial of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito with the same irrational belief in his own infallibility.

Early on, within the first three days after the murder of Meredith Kercher, Mignini had formed an unshakable opinion that Knox and her boyfriend Sollecito were parties to the crime.  There was no evidence to support this belief, so the Perugian offices of justice went to work to either find or invent some.  The forensic team worked for Mignini and was not an independent authority committed to finding the truth, wherever it might lie, but to finding whatever Mignini wanted them to find.  To do otherwise could be detrimental to one's career, and reflecting on Mignini's recent past, to one's liberty as well.

When one is clairvoyant, like Mignini, proof is only a statutory annoyance, nothing more.  Even today, after all of his key evidence has been refuted or thrown out, Mignini is as convinced as ever of the absolute certitude of his unproven accusations.  No doubt, when the Italians finally get around to removing this massive ego from their system of justice, he can make a fine living as a fortune teller or soothsayer.

Whatever you might say about Giuliano Mignini, in spite of his exalted opinion of himself, he is not an agent of truth and justice, but an agent of falsity and injustice.  His delusional, ruthless abuse of his office have furthered both injustice and human suffering, a net loss to humanity and to civilization.  When this case is finally over, when Knox and Sollecito have finally been released to salvage their damaged lives, a form of justice, however tortured, will have been achieved.  But that's not enough.  Giuliano Mignini must be held to account for his crimes, for the many damaged lives and the suffering that he has caused.  He must be removed from office so that he can no longer victimize the innocent.  Further, the Italian system of justice must be reformed to prevent such injustice in the future.

I personally hope that Mignini will inhabit the prison cell soon to be vacated by Raffaele Sollecito.  Now that would be justice -- and a step in the right direction for Italy.

Related Video:  Ex-FBI agent Steve Moore speaks out on the trial from Perugia, Italy.

Amanda Knox Appeals Trial Ends Today: Verdict Next Week

New suspect in Meredith Kercher murder case? Or
is it another victim of Amanda Knox?  DNA on kitchen knife
indicates rye bread was slain in a Satanic ritual.  Either that
or in a sex game gone awry.   Will Mignini prosecute?

Amanda Knox's appeals trial in Perugia, Italy ends  today.  Yesterday, the defense put on an excellent summary of the case and why the prosecution's case is utterly flawed and unsupported by evidence.  Today the two accused, Knox and her friend Raffaele Sollecito, will make personal appeals to the jury.  A verdict is expected early next week, perhaps on Monday.

I have read about the case rather extensively, and I have no doubt that the two accused are completely innocent of the crime.  They were not present when the crime went down, had no motive for killing the pretty young victim, Meredith Kercher, and there are no witnesses and no evidence to support their conviction.  They should never have been indicted, never should have been tried, and most certainly never convicted.  However, the prosecution lied repeatedly throughout the first trial, destroyed evidence and obstructed justice.  Luminol indicated that footprints in the bathroom might contain blood, but specific tests for blood showed there was no blood.  Nevertheless, the prosecution (and many media outlets) proclaimed that the footprints were "bloody footprints."

However, the two major pieces of "evidence" on which the prosecution built its case were these:
(1) DNA found on a kitchen knife that they alleged was the murder weapon, and  
(2) DNA found on a bra clasp that was ripped from the bra of the victim during the crime.

First, let's review the knife and its DNA evidence.
A kitchen knife was chosen at random from a kitchen drawer in Raffaele's apartment, 15 miles away from the crime scene, and proclaimed to be the murder weapon.  It wasn't.

In the first place, it is absurd to think that Knox and Sollecito carried a kitchen knife to the crime scene, 15 miles away, used it to murder the victim, then washed it off and carried it back to be placed in a kitchen drawer.  Ridiculous.  As Mark Waterbury points out in The Monster of Perugia, there were plenty of kitchen knives in the cottage where the murder occurred, why would one need to be transported to and from the crime?

More importantly, the knife didn't fit the wounds on Kercher's body, it didn't match the bloody print of the actual murder knife left on her sheets, but the prosecution was bent on framing Knox and Sollecito (why is another story -- see today's ABC report for details) and presented it as key evidence.  A forensics lab, under the control of the prosecution, tested the knife for DNA and found (1) Amanda's DNA on the handle, providing shocking and irrefutable evidence that she once used the kitchen knife to prepare dinner, and (2) a very tiny amount of what might be DNA on the blade of the knife.  The prosecution alleged that it was Kercher's DNA.

That small amount of DNA was below the threshold of accurate testing by the lab's equipment, and might have been from contamination from other samples tested in the same lab.  The amount of DNA the tester, one  Dr. Stefanoni, retrieved from the blade was extremely small, 1/3 of a picogram.  A picogram is one one-trillionth of a gram.  Stefanoni used 1/3 of the sample to test for blood, and no blood was found.  Let me repeat: The DNA on the blade was not from blood. She then used all of the remaining sample to test for DNA, even though the sample was far too small to provide an accurate reading, overriding the testing equipment's TOO LOW indicator in order to do so.  Since all of this DNA was used up, there was no possibility for a second test to confirm the results.  However, it is highly doubtful that this substance was the victim's DNA; other experts who reviewed Stefanoni's results say it was apparently starch from rye bread.  (Perhaps Mignini will now issue a warrant for the arrest of a loaf of bread!)

Clearly, the kitchen knife and related DNA evidence prove absolutely nothing, except that the prosecution was reckless, amateurish and highly biased in their effort to manufacture the evidence needed to fit their preconceived theory of the crime.  The appeals court was right to throw it out.

Second, let's review the evidence of the bra clasp.
When Rudy Guede was raping the victim, he ripped off her clothes.  Her bra was found on the floor and tested for DNA evidence, but the bra clasp was left on the floor for 47 days among the dust and debris before it was picked up and tested.

The prosecution stated that Raffaele Sollecito's DNA was found on the bra clasp, indicating that he must have ripped off the bra and was part of the crime.  However, the DNA of at least three other people was also found on the bra clasp, but these samples were not profiled and the identities of the owners not explored.  When one is attempting to prove a preconceived theory, one does not bother with evidence that might lead elsewhere.

However, it is not at all clear that the prosecution's DNA test proves anything.  About 30% of household dust is dead skin cells.  Dead skin cells contain DNA.  Contamination of the bra clasp, either from 47 days of dust or from the forensic team's dirty gloves (as recorded on video), is almost a certainty.

Further, none of Raffaele's DNA was found on the bra itself.  This is rather incredible if Raffaele ripped off the bra.  Perhaps he ripped it off only by touching the tiny bra clasp in back, either using tweezers or his first finger and thumb.  Who knows what these satanic cultists will do during an orgy?

Some DNA strands were found to match some of the markers for Sollecito, but again, the DNA collected was not good enough to prove this beyond any shadow of a doubt.  One of the outside experts called in from Rome reviewed the DNA testing of the bra clasp, and found DNA markers that matched her own!  Perhaps she was the true murderer -- perhaps you were (can you prove you weren't in Perugia on November 1, 2007?).  It does prove, however, that the bra clasp evidence is worthless.  The appeals court was right to throw it out.

If Knox and Sollecito are exonerated, as they certainly should be, let us be clear:  they will not have been "let off on a technicality."  They will have been exonerated for a crime for which they had no guilt whatsoever.

The Massive Incompetence of the Perugian Police in the Amanda Knox Murder Trial

Perugian Police In Action

The massive incompetence of the Perugian police is breathtaking.  However, to be fair, their destruction of major evidence in the case may not have been  incompetence.  It may have been deliberate obstruction of justice, in order to frame the suspects under the command of chief prosecutor Giulano Mignini, no stranger to illegal and unethical methods of prosecution.  Let's review, shall we?

1.  Failure to affix the Victim's Time of Death.
Meredith Kercher's body was not examined by the coroner for more than 48 hours, making it impossible to fix the time of death in the usual manner -- by analyzing the drop in temperature, the onset of rigor mortis, etc.  The TOD is critically important to a murder case, because individuals can be eliminated from suspicion if they can establish their whereabouts at the time of death.  Fortunately, Meredith had a pizza dinner with several friends on the night of her death, and it is established that she last ate at 6 pm.  Food traveling through the digestive tract can be used as a secondary method of determining the TOD.  Mignini's control (formally or informally) of the entire Perugian legal structure resulted in a highly biased "motivation report," also known as the Massei Report after the judge who issued it.  The Massei Report disingenuously pushed the possible time of death to 11:30 pm, even though Kercher's stomach contents indicate her death occurred between 9:00 and 9:30 pm.  Both Knox and Sollecito were seen at the latter's apartment, 15 miles away, at the time of death.  They should have been eliminated as suspects early on, absent a conscious effort to frame them.

2.  Destruction of Computer Evidence.  The prosecution claimed Knox and Kercher disliked each other and had issues about rent money, cleanliness and other things.  However, this could have been proved or disproved by photos, email, letters and other documentation in the computers of the victims and the suspects. However, the Perugian police destroyed three out of four hard drives, ostensibly by accident:  those of Knox and Kercher, and one of Sollecito; the remaining drive on Sollecito's laptop was compromised by the use of the police for surfing the internet.  The defense proposed that the fried hard drives of the first three computers be sent to outside experts to see if the lost data could be recovered, but the prosecution refused.  It is reasonable to suspect that the police willfully destroyed evidence that refuted their case.

Update:  Another blogger in Perugia states that a fourth computer was also seized by the police, a laptop belonging to housemate Filomena Romanelli.  Her laptop was returned to her with the hard disk fried as well.  Gee, what an incredible string of bad luck!  Oh well, one out of five ain't bad.

3.  Failure to Tape the Interrogation of Amanda Knox.  A team of 12 interrogated Amanda Knox for many hours, during which she says they deprived her of food, water and sleep, screamed threats and insults in her face, cuffed her on the back of the head and subjected her to psychological torture.  It was from the use of this method that they coerced her into signing a false confession implicating her boss, Patrick Lumumba, who was targeted as a suspect. However, the police did not record the interrogation, either with video or audio, as required by Italian law, so Knox's claims cannot be verified.  It is entirely possible that the police did indeed tape the interrogations, but then  either destroyed the tapes or withheld them from the defense in order to obstruct justice. (As noted by author Mark Waterbury, the Perugian police recorded everything -- phone calls, text messages, email.  Not recording these interrogations would be out of character.)

4.  Failure to analyze a bank's security camera across the street from the crime scene.  The bank's camera would have recorded all comings and goings at the murder house, but the police did not access the camera until after the recordings were overwritten.  Although DNA, fingerprints and footprints clearly establish Rudy Guede's presence in the murder room, they do not refute the prosecution's claim that Guede was the invited guest of Knox and Sollecito, rather than a burglar who entered through a broken window on the second story.  (The Massei Report implausibly argues that the broken window was "staged" and not the actual point of entry by Guede.  Their argument is absurd and not supported by any evidence.)

5. The "loss" of twenty-nine wiretapped and recorded phone calls between Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, and between Raffaele and his father, and unable to be reviewed  by the defense (see here). One can only imagine the conversations that devastated Mignini's fanciful and imaginary theory of the crime.  It is reasonable to assume that these calls were "lost" because they exonerated the accused.  Either the police make the Keystone Kops look like CSI Miami, or they willfully obstructed justice by destroying exonerating evidence.  I report, you decide.

****

The government and legal system of Italy is very corrupt.  As disclosed by Wikileaks, our State Department is aware of this corruption.  Therefore, the willingness of judges and police officials to purposely frame innocents may seem unbelievable, but in Italy it appears to be both possible and probable.

Sources:  The Monster of Perugia:  the Framing of Amanda Knox, by Mark Waterbury, PhD. (See here for relevant excerpts.)
                Doug Bremner, M.D.  (See here)

Famed FBI Profiler and Murder Expert John Douglas Says Amanda Knox Innocent

A famous (among law enforcement personnel) murder expert, John Douglas, was intereviewed on the murder case of Amanda Knox in Italy.  Douglas comes with impressive credentials.

Since retiring as head investigator for the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime at the FBI, Douglas now travels the world hired by international and domestic law enforcement and defense teams who request his help in investigations.  He studied the evidence in the Knox murder case and concluded that Knox and her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, had nothing to do with the crime. He said:

Two people [were] convicted that should have never been convicted. The media pictured Amanda as a cold-blooded murderer. Frankly, I was surprised that they were charged. I was surprised by the conviction. The appeal is wrong. It’s wrong because of the lack of concrete evidence. No forensic evidence, no behavioral evidence. Nothing points to their guilt. They’ve got nothing.

Read the entire interview here.

Kercher's Stomach Contents Exonerate Amanda Knox -- Will Jurors Agree?

Knox's lawyer refuted in court today the Massei report from the first trial of Amanda Knox.  That report wrongly stated that food eaten might not exit the duodenum for five hours, and that Kercher's death could have happened as late at 11:30 at night.  Medical professionals have since strongly rejected this conclusion as being impossible.  They state that Kercher's stomach contents, from her last meal at 6 pm, indicate the time of her death was between 9 and 9:30 pm. (See explanation of Doug Bremner, M.D., here).  The only person known to be at the murder scene at that time was Rudy Guede, as learned from his cell phone records.

Guede had falsely testified that he came out of Kercher's bathroom to find Sollecito standing over the body at around 9:15 or 9:20 pm.  However, it has been reliably established that Sollecito was somewhere else at the time of Kercher's death.  This evidence should exonerate Sollecito, and by implication, Knox, since it proves Guede is a liar and the person solely responsible for the crime.  [Update:  it also exonerates Knox, since it has been established that she was at Sollecito's apartment at 9:30 pm.]

At this point, I have grave doubts about the ability or the willingness of the Perugian jurors to fairly assess the evidence.  However, this gives a bit more hope that Knox and Sollecito will be acquitted in their appeals trial.

More Shocking Information About Giuliano Mignini, Prosecutor of Amanda Knox

I am reading "The Monster of Perugia: the Framing of Amanda Knox" by Mark Waterbury. Waterbury discusses Mignini's past and it is quite revealing. Before Mignini framed Amanda Knox, he prosecuted 21 defendants for being part of a "Satanic cult" that "murdered" a doctor, Francesco Narducci. Actually, Narducci drowned in a lake, either an accident or suicide, but Mignini was convinced, based on absolutely nothing but his imagination (and that of a soothsayer that he consulted), that Narducci was part of a Satanic cult responsible for the serial killings of the "Monster of Florence" case, and that he had been killed by the sect because he had become a security risk.

All 21 of the defendants were acquitted over an eight year period, after having their lives almost ruined and after incurring huge legal expenses, all because of Mignini's fantasy that was unsupported by any evidence or facts. I think this indicates that Prosecutor Mignini has a difficult time differentiating fantasy from reality.  It also makes it clear that his accusation that Amanda Knox took part in the murder of Meredith Kercher (as part of a "sex game gone wrong") is typical of Mignini's dark imaginings.  There was never any evidence to support this fantasy.   It did not happen.

Why the Italians have allowed Mignini to continue as a prosecutor is incredible. He should be removed from office so he cannot wreck any more innocent lives.

And while we are at it, perhaps our ambassador in Italy can discuss reparations from the Italian government, to reimburse the Knox family for the huge legal expenses that have eaten away at the family fortune for the past four years.