To feel very sorry for Raffaele Sollecito?

[MarmaladeTwatkins]

He was interviewed on that turgid telly programme Daybreak this morning. He has a re-trial hanging over his head and says he doesn't know how much longer he can go on.

I'm in the 'they weren't involved' camp, but even if I wasn't, he was acquitted of the crime he was accused of. Surely it isn't right to dangle this over his head forever. Imagine living with that. Must be awful.

I remarked that I felt sorry for him to another parent this morning who was discussing it and she said "Well your sympathy is misplaced." I don't think that I am being U in feeling sympathy for him, or Amanda Knox.

[Portofino]

I totally agree. Anyone who has read anything at all by the more impartial journalists vs the gutter press will know this was all a load of old bollocks. There is NO evidence to accuse either AK or RS of this crime. They have the murderer locked up. It must also be awful for Meredith's family to have to keep going over and over it. Why can not they let her rest in peace.

[MarmaladeTwatkins]

I couldn't have hacked such pressure at such a young age. I would have probably topped myself if I were in their shoes. :(

The Kercher family are so dignified. I am amazed at how they have conducted themselves.

[CloudsAndTrees]

I feel sorry for him too.

[Curioustiger]

Err, well, Amanda Knox accused an innocent man of being a murderer. So to feel much sympathy for her is entirely misplaced, IMO. I don't know a great deal about this case so can't comment on raffaele sollecito.

[MarmaladeTwatkins]

She didn't.

She was questioned, intensely, without a break or translator and was coerced into naming the man who owned the bar that Meredith worked at.

[EldritchCleavage]

Re-trials are incredibly hard on everyone. I think a situation where anyone cannot afford to defend themselves in criminal proceedings is deplorable (and the situation for the vast majority of us in the UK now, which terrifies me). So to a degree, I do feel sorry for him.

But there has to be a retrial. Conviction quashed on appeal. Acquittal quashed on appeal. So we start again, in the hope of a definitive result. Which everyone, including Sollecito, desperately needs.

[MarmaladeTwatkins]

I have just donated to his appeal fund. He cannot cover the costs needed to get a decent lawyer and is already in debt trying to cover the previous trial legal fees. And he is being criticised for "cashing in" by writing a book. Poor bloke.

[Curioustiger]

She did and she was convicted of slander as a result. I'm sorry, but fourteen hours of questioning do not excuse naming an innocent man who had absolutely nothing to do with this terrible murder.

[noblegiraffe]

14 hours of questioning in a foreign language excuses a lot. Who knows what you might say after 14 hours if you thought it might bring an end to the questions, especially if your friend had been murdered, you didn't know who did it and pressure was being put upon you to speculate.

[Winterwood]

It seems unlikely that these two were completely uninvolved surely? There is just too much circumstantial evidence and incoherence / changes in their testimonies?

[MarmaladeTwatkins]

What I meant is that she didn't volunteer that false information without a lot of goading and aggressive questioning. Questions were posed to her in a language she didn't understand at that time. She says that she was manipulated and that if she named a guilty party, she would be free to go. I'd say that combination of fear, confusion and naivety led her to naming the bar owner.

[EldritchCleavage]

The books are disttatesful. But like so many of these 'My Trial Ordeal' books, they have been written to earn enough to pay legal fees, not really for any kind of celebrity. At least his family have been more dignified and thoughtful re the Kercher family than Amanda Knox's.

I really feel for the Kerchers having to go through the retrial. They must be desperate to have a conclusion to this.

[Curioustiger]

Noble giraffe, I'm afraid we're going to have to agree to differ on that, she speaks fluent Italian and I just don't think it can be excused away. Lumumba's life was ruined by this false accusation and he was nowhere near their flat at the time of the incident.

[MarmaladeTwatkins]

She learned Italian in jail. She didn't speak fluent Italian at the time of her arrest.

[MarmaladeTwatkins]

I don't recall Knox's family being disrespectful?

I would be fucking hysterical if my daughter was locked up in a jail, thousands of miles from home, for a crime she wasn't responsible for.

[Curioustiger]

Fair enough re Italian fluency, I take that back. I'm sorry but I still don't agree re implicating an innocent man. And as an entirely separate defamation trial drew the same conclusion by convicting Knox, I think the weight of opinion is on my side, for what that's worth.

[pumpkinsweetie]

There's no way either of them had zero involvement & someone must be accountable for Meridith's death. Someone, one of them is guilty and only they themselves know. You would think forensics and the like would pick up the perpatrator and the killer be accountable!

[EldritchCleavage]

They gave a couple of rather unfortunate US interviews at one stage, Marmalade. There was no need to say anything about the Kerchers (and the Sollecitos duly didn't), but they did. Sounded rather petulant. As if the Kerchers owed them anything, for God's sake.

[MarmaladeTwatkins]

Well, the forensics in this case were extremely badly managed... evidence handled by hands that weren't gloved, evidence booted around the floor, thus picking up the DNA of anyone that had been in that room (Knox/Sollecito)

Just out of interest Pumpkin, what makes you so sure they were involved? If this had happened in this country, it is widely thought that they wouldn't have even been arrested.

[noblegiraffe]

Pumpkin, they've got the guy who did it, he's in jail. His DNA was all over the scene, and a bloody handprint.

[Winterwood]

I have been in conversation with people working as diplomatic service. The evidence may have been mishandled, thereby precluding a safe conviction. I think the feeling is that they have been very lucky.

[Winterwood]

Sorry - lucky to be acquitted entirely.

[noidles]

I've also been keeping up to date with this trial and have to admit I've become at times obsessed. At first I truly believed that they were guilty - there seemed to be some many things that didn't add up. Why did she turn her phone off? Why did she act so weird after they found the body? How convenient that they both smoked cannabis and couldn't remember anything.

However, the more I read the more I truly and forcefully believe that the evidence was not even there to arrest, let alone convict them. There is no admissible DNA of the two of them at the scene of the crime. The one guy who no one disputes did it, Rudy, ran away - completely out of the country - and was only caught after he was arrested for not paying a fare on a train and his finger prints/DNA were matched with the crime. He was also found with the key to Meredith's room in his pocket! This is all stuff that's barely reported!

In the meantime, while they didn't have Rudy, the local police decide to concoct a story that AK and Patrick met up. Patrick had texted Amanda saying she didn't need to work, and she texted back (in broken Italian) words to the effect 'OK, see you later'. The police took that to literally mean that she had made plans to see him later. So they decided they must have done it together.

The police pressured her and after 14 hours in a language that she only vaguely knew without a lawyer, she did cave. Personally, I like to think I wouldn't have, but she did. And immediately after she woke up (even though she STILL didn't have a lawyer) she retracted the statement. But people never seem to focus on that!

I am also considering donating to the legal fees because I feel that this is a horrible miscarriage of justice and I feel for them both. They are never going to be able to get normal jobs, and looking at AK now it looks like she has visibly suffered, you can see she's lost a lot of hair and her face looks drawn - so different from the naive 20 year old she was before this happened.

I really feel mostly for the Kercher family, because the Italian legal system just doesn't seem to be delivering justice for them. The man who definitely did this now only has 16 years in jail.

I also feel Knox's family have actually been admirable - if it was my daughter I would also be doing everything I could to fight for her freedom.

[EldritchCleavage]

Agree Winterwood. It is significant that there was absolutely no diplomatic pressure from the US on Knox's behalf. They were content for the Italian legal process to take its course.

[MarmaladeTwatkins]

Hmmm, I think that if my DD were in jail and I was convinced of her innocence, I would do any interviews offered to me. I would kick up a fuss and a half. Acting dignified would be the last thing that would occur to me, tbh.