How not to run a murder case

Amanda Knox was acquitted of murder charges in Italy on Monday after four long years. I’ll provide a bit of background for those who don’t know. In 2007, British exchange student Meredith Kercher was found dead in her apartment in Perugia, Italy, half-naked and her throat slit.

Kercher’s American roommate, Amanda Knox from the University of Washington, and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were indicted in 2008 and charged with murder and sexual assault before filing for appeal in 2010. All of them were studying in Italy at the time.

Admittedly, I didn’t know much about the trial while it was going on until the last few days. I had heard about it while I studied in Italy last spring, but my information was limited to what other American students were saying.

I heard about her nickname “Foxy Knoxy.” I was told accounts of the story with different details each time. In a case such as this, that type of information is hardly anything to base an opinion on, so I never formed one.

However, my attitude was generally negative toward her. In a general sense, it was like the Casey Anthony case, because it stirred up emotions in people.

Someone had to be guilty and it was such an awful thing to happen. That’s kind of what I thought when I didn’t know anything about it. But when I looked at the actual details and caught up, I realized how extremely weak the prosecutor’s case was.
 
The physical evidence was shoddy and the prosecutor’s first crack at convicting Knox was an extremely plausible satanic ritual.

Wait. What?

Who is Italian Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, and why does he think he is the dude from “CSI: Miami”? Seriously, of all the evidence reported, that is what they came up with? Like I said, I studied in Italy, and they definitely do things differently, but, wow — that’s really different. To be honest, after studying there, I’m not that surprised.

After taking a class on the mafia in southern Italy, you believe basically anything could happen in their justice system. I guess the Carabinieri in Perugia really had a tough time with this big case and processing the evidence. Then Mignini said, “To hell with it. If I’m going to lose, I might as well accuse them of a satanic ritual because it happened the day after Halloween.”

Mignini even had a reason for delaying it a day, saying they would have done it on Halloween, but they postponed the ritual because of a dinner party their roommate
was having.  Now I’ve come to realize how skewed the buzzwords made my perceptions of this story.

It’s weird realizing you’ve been influenced by buzzwords. Normally I rely on Jon Stewart to clue me into the buzzwords that are popular among the TV pundits, but I’m too busy for TV nowadays.

Did she do it? I don’t know that, but I don’t think the evidence is enough to put a person away for 26 years. There will probably be a movie deal for Knox soon, and books are already out. Both girls were attractive, which was always mentioned to play up the “killer looks” angle.

I can’t really blame her for wanting to take a deal and for selling her story in order to help her family out of the financial pain from these trials.

And when she does sell her story, it pushes Kercher’s death further into the background. The death of the young woman is closer to becoming a teen horror flick.

­— agreiner@indiana.edu