Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Contest! Choose a New Coat of Arms for PERUGIA, ITALY! (Photoshop, Satire)
Feel free to copy and pass this along.
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.And this:
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.
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.
Watch 48 Hours: Amanda Knox, the Untold Story
Watch it here.
Also read "Why There Will Always Be Three Amanda Knoxes."
Planning a vacation in Italy? Be careful. The above article states:
Also read "Why There Will Always Be Three Amanda Knoxes."
Planning a vacation in Italy? Be careful. The above article states:
Italy is a sunny place, but free speech there is rather chilled. The nation was ranked 79th in press freedom in 2009. Journalists who criticize Silvio Berlusconi have been fired. Prosecutors have the right to throw journalists in jail on fairly flimsy grounds. Most Italian journalists assume phones are tapped. Courageous, smart journalists are on the front lines of stories about war, the Mafia and social issues, but those who do investigative work generally don't take on the government, a function left to the judiciary, which polices itself.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
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.Read it all here.
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.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Amanda Knox: Italian Justice System on Trial
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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.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Google Pulls Plug on Perugia Shock!
Google shuts down site run by Italian blogger critical of Amanda Knox prosecutor Mignini
Google shuts down site run by Italian blogger critical of Amanda Knox prosecutor Mignini | West Seattle Herald / White Center News
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Amanda Knox: A Case Dominated By Sexual Obsession | GroundReport
Image via CrunchBaseOnce again, Bruce Fisher nails it: Bravo to this robust writer and critic!!!
Amanda Knox: A Case Dominated By Sexual Obsession | GroundReport
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Amanda Knox case being examined by Idaho Innocence Project (video) - National Crime | Examiner.com
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeA group that has helped exonerate a number of people across the U.S.
after examining evidence in criminal cases is now looking at the case of Amanda Knox, the American student convicted by an Italian court of the 2007 killing of her roommate.
after examining evidence in criminal cases is now looking at the case of Amanda Knox, the American student convicted by an Italian court of the 2007 killing of her roommate.
Dr. Greg Hampikian, a professor of biology at Boise State University is the director of the Idaho Innocence Project and became interested in Knox after examining DNA evidence in the case.
“We take cases primarily from Idaho, we’re working on several cases right now in Idaho with people who claim to be innocent who are imprisoned,” Hampikian told KTVB.
Two years ago, he studied how DNA evidence is used in criminal cases abroad and “…was appalled.”
Continue reading on Examiner.com: Amanda Knox case being examined by Idaho Innocence Project (video) - National Crime | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-national/amanda-knox-case-being-examined-by-idaho-innocence-project-video#ixzz1KXGaDw2EAmanda Knox case being examined by Idaho Innocence Project (video) - National Crime | Examiner.com
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Daric Richie's troubling past : From LGBT suicide to Amanda Knox, PMF member is a practiced scammer
I had the misfortune to encounter such a person on a European scholars blog, and it was stunning the number of online identities this man had, and the money he was able to bilk from trusting "colleagues". (This "scholar" also proved to be a convicted felon and registered sex offender in the UK.)
Also, this YouTube exposes Richie under the name of "Daric Rawr": Nasty stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A-CSpuOprs
Fictitious internet poster Daric Richie dupes Perugia Murder File and Peter Quennell
Image by Niccolò Caranti via FlickrThis story regarding Daric Richie and Perugia Murder File smells quite a bit like the recent one involving National Organization for Marriage defector Louis Marinelli. It's all about that 15 minutes of fame. I see that the Examiner has now deleted Richie's "exclusive interview" , and in fact all articles pertaining to him on the Examiner seem to have vanished. Odd, too, that the 16 year old list his age as 18 here . In any case, "Daric Richie" is a fictitious persona of a make-believe "celebrity" who has resorted to the lowest stunts for publicity, as can be seen on this YouTube. Perugia Murder File and his alleged run-in with Friends of Amanda Knox is just the lastest of his cheap gimmicks.
read full article @
Guilter Talkin': Daric Richie dupes PMF and Peter Quennell
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
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