STORY: "Why Italy keeps tormenting Amanda Knox," by Douglas Preston, published by the Statesman Journal on April 8, 2013. (Douglas Preston is the co-author, with Mario Spezi, of The Monster of Florence, to be published on April 23 with a new afterword on the Amanda Knox case.)
GIST:"Four days after the murder, before the crime scene had been analyzed, police and prosecutors announced they had arrested three killers -- Knox, her boyfriend and a third man. Over the following weeks, as the crime scene was analyzed, they realized that not one speck of Knox’s DNA could be found at the crime scene. Instead, they discovered the DNA of an unknown fourth person everywhere, including inside the victim. He was soon identified as a drifter and drug dealer named Rudy Guede, who had fled the country.In the USA, the prosecutor and police would likely have admitted their mistake, released Knox and Sollecito and arrested Guede. But not in Italy, where to do so would involve a catastrophic loss of face. Instead, they went to great lengths to yoke Guede, Knox and Sollecito in a murderous conspiracy. This is why eight months passed before Knox was charged with murder: that was how long it took to “develop” the evidence against her. This last verdict is one more step in the face-saving process.........Many Italians are well aware that their judicial system is dysfunctional. The judiciary is a holdover from the Benito Mussolini era, when Italy was a police state. If you’re arrested for a crime in Italy, unless you can prove your innocence, you are in serious trouble. The honor of police and prosecutors must be upheld, and the system is heavily biased against the accused. This latest decision to retry Knox was more about the saving of face than about finding the truth."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20130409/OPINION/304090004/Why-Italy-keeps-tormenting-Amanda-Knox
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
