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Has anyone followed this trial?

They had 10,000 pages of evidence against her but not enough to keep her in prison. The original trial looked more like a witch hunt than anything else. It seemed like they decided she'd done it and then tried to make the evidence prove it.

I'm in two minds to be honest. How deeply did the convicted fella implicate Knox and Rafaelle?

If there are doubts about the DNA then why didn't (couldn't?) the court request another review?

It seems to all boil down to the fact that the knife was too big to have caused the type of injury sustained. I'm not sure I know enough to swing either way.

I was very surprised by this, given the picture they painted of her at the original trial.

Tomo wrote:I was very surprised by this, given the picture they painted of her at the original trial.

A LOT of character asassination, if I recall correctly. Maybe her brief told her to go to the appeal as the prejudiced poor student [/devil's advocate]

Rudi, the guy still inside, pleaded guilty and pointed the finger at Knox at the original trial and got 16 years. These two got 25 & 26.

As part of this trial a skype recording was played to the trial where a friend of his was warning him that the police were looking for him for this murder that they'd arrested Knox and Sollecito and he admitted that he acted alone. He has also revealed to inmates, who were called as witnesses in this trial, that he acted alone.

My wide has several books, court transcripts, etc that she's followed for the last 2-3 years and is utterly convinced that Knox is innocent, and everything I've seen and read points to that too.

The prosecutor sounds like a nutcase too!

I'd be interested to see the info mate. Certainly an interesting trial.

Will it get to court a third time?

The majority of the forensic "evidence" that the Italian prosecutors used was very very sketchy. It hadn't been collected to the same standards as what you would find in an American investigation. For instance, they claimed that because the guy's DNA was found on a bra clasp belonging to the victim, that he was implicit in the sexual assault. Thing is, they didn't even check the bra clasp until three weeks after the event, and so it could have been cross contaminated. But details like that were ignored.

The guy doing 16 years, got there because he instantly opted for a fast track trial, which means that if found guilty you get a lesser sentence. Maybe he was expecting that outcome? After all, they did find his handprint in blood on a pillow underneath the victim.

I also read that the Italian police were passing articles of evidence around like holiday photos, pretty much making all pieces redundant.

It sounds like the Italians have badly let down the victim and her family by assuming the verdict way in advance.

There's a very interesting chapter at the end of The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi about the Kercher case and the book in general paints a rather nasty picture of the Italian judicial system as being, how shall I put it, a bit dodgy. The authors at the time where concerned as some of the authority figures that they had run into over the Monstro case were involved in the Knox prosecution which they viewed as being a really bad sign that things were going to be done correctly- they had a tendency of deciding who they wanted to be guilty and then ignoring any evidence to the contrary.

The sad thing about the whole case though is that because of all the media involvement in it and the dodgy goings on, there's a good chance that the identity of the real murder may never be known. It could be the guy in prison, it could be someone not presently connected with the case, it could even actually be Knox and Solletico, but the whole thing has been so badly messed up that it's doubtful if there is any untainted evidence or information that could shed light on this. The Kercher family are essentially back right at the beginning again not knowing who killed their daughter.

And Knox will end up a millionaire now

Recommended reading would be "Death in Perugia" by John Fellain which is pretty convincing in support of Amanda Knox, but there's also a book called "Angel Face" by Barbie Latza Nadeau which will convince you that she's guilty. There's another book by Candace Dempsey which we've not read yet, but have had conversations with her on twitter and she too is pro-Knox.

The motivation from the original court case, which is the document the judge has to write to explain his decision can be found here:

http://www.westseattleherald.com/sites/ ... lation.pdf

If you read that, it's very hard going and there's a lot of DNA evidence talked about, but it basically makes a mockery of the whole case and the way the judge came to his conclusions (by basically ignoring the defence's arguments).

Brilliant - really looking forward to reading that. Thanks.

I heard she might be on a chat show

I imagine she'll be on lots of chat shows, magazines, interviews, book deal and maybe even a film deal. She's lost four year of her twenties, I think she should milk it for all it's worth. I think I would.