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.

Who makes the judgement call, though, on what or who is worthy of anyone's sympathy?

That's up to each individual

Yes I will feel comfortable because I gave (a small amount!) based on what I believed at the time. If it turns out I was wrong, I've lost £10 and he'll go to jail anyway so no big loss.

Would you like some tommy K for that very working class chip on your shoulder?

Oh do stop saying "potheads" like it's a moral outrage issue that a student smoked a bit of weed. But thanks for telling me what I should find worthwhile. I just said, I donate monthly to Oxfam. Does that meet your criteria? I also give for Children In Need and Comic Relief. Oh and I give at Macmillan coffee mornings. And to the Cat's Protection. Is there a reason that you think that I am only able to give to one cause? How odd.

And no-one has asked you to join in anything.

I think it is very sad that the tabloid reporting of this case still makes people certain that they are both guilty when the evidence does not support it. There is NO evidence against them, not even circumstantial. There has been a huge amount of media spin, leaks to the press, changes in prosecution approach etc. I feel sorry for everyone in this case, especially Meredith's family who have not been served well by the Italian system, and all this fucking face saving bollocks amongst the prosecution.

What chip on my shoulder? I am fricking middle-class. Born to it, raised in it and in a profession which believes in evidence-based verdicts. I'm just pointing out that the prejudices the OP is blatantly parading are as real as racism and are being touted on this thread.

What is the evidence then?

Good point, SaucyJack. If RS/AK were working class, no-one would DARE mock them. But middle-class is fair game for mockery on MN...

He'd only been seeing her a few days. My mind boggles as to what he going through.

Yeah because pothead obviously equals murderer

I'm not in the least taken in by the Chinese whispers about diplomatic intervention or non intervention, or the persecution of suspects because they are young, pretty or foreign.

What hasn't been found is enough evidence to convict them, and therefore they are innocent and someone else did it. He is in jail. Its hardly unimaginable that in a country with such poor legal procedures as Italy now has, a student may have been murdered in a student town, in student digs, by an itinerant petty criminal.

But of course its more fun to believe ridiculous rumours in the media about innocent people who provide a much more fantastical, fictional storyline.

And actually, if I'm being a cynical old cow about things, what actually is my £10 a month going to actually do for the third world? I pay it happily because I can and will continue to do so, but money has been ploughed into the third world for decades and not much is changing. At least donating to an individual may actually help.

The facts are that the bloke who left his DNA all over the place is black and not middle class. And is in prison. And the other 2 who are white and middle class have NO reason, based on any evidence at all to be involved or accused, were acquitted. Because there is NO evidence, not because they Are mc and white. Because there is NO evidence.

Well, I have said, and continue to say that this is not a worthwhile cause to donate money. You can donate money to the Flat Earth Society for all I care, but it still does not make the cause worthwhile.

You were the one who stated that It stands to reason that you are more likely to have sympathy with people you can identify with. It is human nature. At which point it became very obvious that you were identifying with them rather than looking at the evidence.

I still think, OP that you need to find something better to do with your time than to tout for sympathy for a possible murderer. That is an action that is potentially unhinged. Like those nutjobs who write to people on deathrow. It is not a sensible thing for you to be doing.

AK had Patrick Lumumba's name put in front of her in the middle of an illegal interrogation. Of course he was not implicated. If she was guilty why even mention him. He had texted her and the police brought his name into it, not AK.

Ahhh but according to my mate Dave, Porto, who works for blah de blah de blah...

This was a lot of the problem with this trial. Too many thickos wanting to believe that AK was a demented sexual deviant, "it's in the EYES" they bleated like 14th century witch-hunters. The judge had form for this demonization of women and making up ridiculous claims that women standing trial were devil women and other such twattery. Sadly, there are too many knuckledraggers willing to lap it up.

I'm just wondering why Wuldric is saying that donkeys are more worthy of money than 2, almost certainly in this instance, innocent human beings whose lives have already been ruined by a disgracefully inept Italian justice system. Their background is completely irrelevant.

I have looked at the evidence and see no problem donating to his appeal fund if that is what someone wants to do. I give money to Amnesty for much the same reason.

OP, you have had your abusive post deleted. If this does not tell you that you are over-involved, to a somewhat ridiculous extent, nothing will.

I wish you good luck, but more than that, I wish you'd find something worthwhile for your energies!!

Good night all

"You were the one who stated that It stands to reason that you are more likely to have sympathy with people you can identify with. It is human nature. At which point it became very obvious that you were identifying with them rather than looking at the evidence."

You asked why I was focussing my sympathies on these two rather than X, Y or Z. I merely pointed out that it is natural to take an interest in people who you can identify with. In conjunction with reading on the case extensively, I feel well enough qualified to know whether my empathy is misplaced or not.

Writing to someone on Death Row isn't comparable to making a one-off donation to someone waiting for a re-trial for a crime of which they have been acquitted. You are being hysterical again.

I got deleted because I said you sound a twat going on about class, where it is irrelevant.

Honestly, this could easily happen to any of our children. Let's hope that should anything like this ever happen to yours, they'll not be smeared in the way that you have smeared these two.

Over involved? Christ. Feeling sympathy for someone you believe to be innocent of a crime and sending them £10 is quite mild compared to some of the buy in people have on here for complete strangers.