Knox case revisited

Daniel M. writes:

You wrote:

“I’m reminded of Rudy Guede, the black African immigrant in Perugia, Italy, who was invited several times to parties in an apartment of male students in the same house where Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox also had their apartment. Then he came back to rob the girls’ apartment, and murdered Meredith.”

Have you again changed your mind on Amanda Knox? Personally, I have always leaned against her guilt even though I never saw a minute of the pro-Knox coverage.

LA replies:

Yes. I have changed my opinion, again, some months ago (though I never said I had a definite opinion, I said I had leanings). Based on books like The Monster of Perugia by Mark Waterbury, it’s clear that a hideous injustice has been done to the defendants. The police and prosecutor decided at the outset that Amanda and Rafaelle had done it, and they pushed the whole case in that direction. I hope that Knox and Sollecito are acquitted on appeal and released soon. The Italian authorities (backed by the Italian media) have stained themselves. They are so far gone in darkness that they even are suing Amanda’s relatives for repeating Amanda’s (correct) charge of police misconduct. I think several people in Italy should have their careers ended and even go to jail for what they did in this case.

The irony is that murders such as the murder of Meredith Kercher happen all the time: a black thug sexually assaulted and killed a white woman, or, in this instance, a British-Indian woman. What was extraordinary in this case was (1) the idea that two white college students were the accomplices of the black thug, and (2) the prosecution and conviction of the two whites, on the basis of the prosecutor’s wholly made-up, fantastical story of a satanic sex cult.

I repeat what I’ve said before, that Amanda’s own amoral, amazingly clueless personality and her behavior after the murder made her look guilty. But being amoral and clueless doesn’t make a person a murderer.

- end of initial entry -

July 21

Sophia A. writes:

I’m glad you’ve come around on this. I originally thought Amanda was guilty. But the hyper-nationalistic lynching tone in the British press convinced me that there was something wrong about this.

After she was convicted, a British commentator pointed out how ridiculous the case was and how poorly handled by the Italians. I began to look into the matter and I became convinced that the evidence against her and Sollecito was shoddy. Sure, she and Sollecito behaved like idiots. Knox’s family also alienated the Italians with their behavior during the trial. Her little sister came to one of the hearings wearing short shorts. Her mother wouldn’t stop blabbing to the press. Haven’t their lawyers heard of “trial prep”?

But poor Meredith was murdered by a crazed drugged up African, not by ditzy Amanda and her besotted computer nerd boyfriend in some Satanic ritual. We can expect more of these murders as Africans slowly colonize Europe. Eventually, Occam’s Razor always slices through the nonsense, but in the meantime, we’d rather sell newspapers. And read them.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 20, 2011 04:20 PM | Send