Amanda Knox

It's always difficult to understand a legal system that differs so much from our own. I find the comments made by the prosecution and reported in the media with great glee about how Amanda Knox's sweet appearance belies her "inner witch" deeply disturbing. True or not, it hardly constitutes evidence. Equally, that she didn't do her fair share of the housework is not evidence of weirdness, as has been suggested – or have none of these people ever shared a flat with a bunch of other young people? I can't help feeling that whatever the outcome of this appeal, it will leave a very nasty taste in many mouths and the truth will probably never be fully uncovered. But then, like our own legal system, revealing the truth is not the object of the exercise.

I really haven't followed this case enough to know a lot about it. I have just watched the news conference with Meredith's family though, and was struck by their handling of the questions, their wisdom and their quiet dignity. Let's just hope that justice prevails, whatever that might be.

This is one of those occasional cases where either she ( and the bf) has suffered a gross miscarriage of justice, or is deeply manipulative.
I feel so much for Meredith's family, having to go through all of this again (and likely again, as both sides have said they will appeal)

The verdict is out and Amanda and her boyfriend have been freed. The only thing I can say is that the Italian justice system seems to have let the Kercher family down so badly right from the first day. The investigation seems to have been a total shambles along with no restrictions on the media at the time. Thank goodness for the reporting rules we have here and the way we investigate crimes.

Certainly the investigation and the no holds barred approach by the Italian police and media seem to have muddied the waters rather than clarified the situation. Even this morning on television, Amanda Knox was refereed to as Foxy Knoxy by an Italian journalist. However, ameliaanne, we shouldn't be too smug. We have had our own serious miscarriages of justice – some of which were the direct direct result of corrupt or incompetent police work.

cough phone hacking cough

Lots of unknown in this tragic case. Perhaps she will try to explain why her story was difficult to believe e.g. her claims that she and bf had spent the evening on his computer watching films but police claim there was no activity on the computer during those hours when the murder occurred, and why did she and bf turn off their mobile phones overnight, when there was no evidence of this ever happening in the past? Will the victim's family ever find out - they deserve to know. Justice has not yet been seen to be done.

Methinks there is something rotten in the state of Perugia - to misquote someone famous - it still leaves a nasty taste

There must surely be more forensic evidence, although dna stuff [I'm no expert] must be difficult being as the two girls shared a house. Does anyone remember that tragic case of the stutent who supposedly commited suicide on a motorway even though he'd phoned his mother in a state of terror before he died. Not sure what the outcome of that was. Every mother's worse nightmare. I sometimes wonder how I would feel if my child was accused of something awful; how far I would go to protect them even if I thought they may be guilty. One never knows how one will behave or feel in such terrible circumstances.

crimson, you've got a point there, for sure. I suppose we'd all like to think that we'd do the 'proper' thing and ensure the law of the land was adhered to. Faced with the actual possibility that your own child has done something awful would be one hell of a dilemma.

The Italian Police came up with that strange explanation of a sex game gone wrong which sounded improbable. I wonder if they thought of this theory and made the evidence fit it. We will most likely never know. It's been a tragedy for the Kerchers and my heart goes out to them. But the Knoxes too have had a desperate time, fearing that their daughter and sister could be locked up for most of her life, forgotten in an Italian prison.

I twitched this morning, hearing about the Knox family employing a high-powered PR company – but then, I thought, supposing that was my daughter. I would have mortgaged my house, my life, my husband, my cats to get the best Italian criminal defence lawyer and the best PR company to counter the disgusting suggestions made both in court and in the media.

Exactly my feelings, absent. I have heard that they aren't the most affluent of families and have had to make big sacrifices, so if Amanda sells her story to the highest bidder, I guess you can't entirely blame her.

Perhaps we shall never know the full story - but surely it is better to risk the possibility that a murderer goes free than have an innocent person spend so many years in prison.
What really bothers me is the demonising of this woman by the media: calling her a witch etc. There is a long history of this sort of vilifying treatment of women; her (then) boyfriend is hardly mentioned at all (why did she get a year longer sentence than him?) - is it because she is a) female, b) attractive, c) American?

With you there, carbon. I hope (wishfully?) that if such slander had occurred in the UK or US, the perpetrators would have been sued for libel.

Carol my thoughts mirror yours...

carbon - wasn't her dna found on the handle of the knife? The one that had Meredith's dna on the blade.

Like someone else said, I wonder why her phone was turned off at the time of the killing, especially as she had never turned it off before since she had been there.

In the middle of all this speculation are the family of Meredith Kercher. My heart goes out to them and I fear that they will now never have their questions answered. Amanda Knox will have the opportunity to tell her tale, but Meredith's story will always have an ending shrouded in mystery. That poor, poor family!

jinglej I should think her DNA and just about everyone else's was found on just about everywhere if the pictures of the police picking up things at the crime scene without wearing gloves are anything to go by.

grannyactivist It's hard to imagine how the Kercher family is feeling. The not knowing must add immeasurably to the pain of loss. However, as the chap from the Ivory Coast (Guede?) will almost certainly now have to have a retrial, perhaps more information will be revealed.

Well said Grannyactivist, the Kercher family have behaved with such dignity throughout this dreadful time.
If Amanda Knox has any compassion for them she will not write a word, however tempting the money may be, and will shun the limelight too.

Something I didn't know until yesterday is that Magnini (I think that's right), the chief prosecutor, has been indicted for abuse of power in a previous case and seems to be obsessed with his status to the point of lunacy. Also, I learned that 50% of all convictions in the first court in Italy, are overturned on appeal at the second, higher one. There is something very rotten in the Italian judicial system.

On purely philosophical grounds, if Knox is innocent of murder, I feel as sorry for her as I do for the Kercher family. Also the boyfriend whose conviction was overturned alongside Knox's. Just imagine if it was you in the dock for murder and you didn't do it. Worse than being dead in my book.

Please do not mis-read what I've just said!! It doesn't detract from the enormity of what happened to Kercher and what her family is going through.

The problem I think we're all having is the big "if". We have not seen justice being done, apparently, and that leaves a nasty taste in one's mouth.

Having said that I feel unsure... I then read this article which mentions Mignini (as absent said) as a main perpetrator of some of the bias against Knox and her boyfriend. I agree with you carbon that it seems very odd that Knox was given a harsher sentence than her boyfriend.

This case does make me very grateful for the good points of our justice system here in the uk.

www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/11134/