So the verdict is apparently due in the Meredith Kercher murder trial today

[PortofinoRevisited]

BBC Link

The appeal after the overturned convictions. I hope this can all be brought to a close now.

Persons unknown. He is, in any case, I believe, eligible for parole this year, so could effectively be released before their Cassazione trial even comes up.

The police didn't even IDENTIFY RG until after they had already charged the other 2. They arrested Patrik instead. He had an alibi - very fortunately for him - and I, myself, blame the police for this cock up and not AK. When they arrested RG, they should have started again and re-evaluated what had happened based on what they now knew. The whole issue is that they didn't do that - they were already down the sex game gone wrong route, and huge efforts were made to make the evidence suit that hypothesis. Rather than the other way round.

It does make me wonder what would have happened if Patrik HADN'T had a alibi for that night....

And there were horrendous leaks of misinformation to the press - the bloody bathroom photos, for example. AK was scene as a huge focus and all concerned seemed to go out of their way to ensure she was seen as completely evil, cold and calculating. Though in RL she appeared to be a young honours student, an Erasmus student who had worked several jobs to save for her trip and was indeed working in Perugia. She had lots of friends at home who stuck with her. Her evil personality seems to be a media construct.

seen as....

reading with interest.

but the murder couldn't have been the work of 1 person - not enough hands to hold her and stab from two angles with 2 knives? no restraining rope/ so how does the single killer theory counteract that;

arguing why would AK / RS get involved as it's too bizarre is weak - why did RG do it? has he spoken out from jail / given his explanation? has he blamed them too?
Just 'cause no one saw AK meet RG - how do they know FOR SURE they didn't know each other?

I wonder also what mis/disinformation was fed by the police to AK & MK's flatmates/friends before they made their statements

It's always hard for a witness to remember precisely what happened when (I would hate to have to give a witness statement)(would hate to be on a jury too) esp if you've been helpfully almost been told what to think & how to judge...

Have any of them come forward subsequently to confirm or deny their impressions of the relationship between AK & MK? or of how AK behaved & spoke in the immediate aftermath?

and why all of the lying? all of the mixed up alibi-ing each other
why lie about her locking her door as a usual thing
why did RS muddy the waters by refusing to agree with AK -

it is fascinating how one terrible event can be so completely confused
no one can even agree what time the ruddy police got there
this is 'diffusion of responsibility gone nuts - they are clever people for sure but criminal masterminds...?

not enough hands to hold her and stab from two angles with 2 knives

well he had 2 hands & his own bodyweight. but in any case both wounds didn't have to be made at the same time.

& AK did meet RG once, in the basement flat. MK was there too. She subsequently started going out with with one of the male students from that flat.

why did he do it? it seems probable that he broke in when the cottage was empty for burglary purposes (credit cards, cash & phones were taken) & was disturbed by Meredith coming home. he had a previous record of both burglary & (I think) attacks on women?

well according to the pro-AK website, the police timing confusion was due to a mis-set clock on a CCTV camera

AK shared her bathroom with MK - maybe MK did lock her door when she was in the bathroom but the other 2 didn't know that? & locking it when she was out seems perfectly reasonable to me. who's to say who was lying & who was ignorant of the norm?

RS was led by the police to agree that when he was asleep he didn't know where AK was.

the police were v v devious

And after they wrongly arrested Lumumba, the police were able to produce a witness to claim that his was bar was closed on the night of the murder, which helped to keep him locked up for over two weeks.

I've not really heard about any of the flatmates since the trials - however, none of them testified that they had noticed any bad feeling between Meredith and Amanda. My impression was that Meredith likely thought that Amanda was a bit loud and annoying, but was probably too nice to say anything - and Amanda thought they got on fine.

The prosecution have tried to portray Meredith as a sexually repressed (Mignini described her as prissy) clean freak, who was horrified by Amanda's sex life and became angry at Amanda being messy. In reality, Meredith seemed to be a normal sexually active young woman who liked to have a good drink with her friends and wasn't confrontational.

has AK ever said in public how sorry she is for MK family, how she misses her, how she was a lovely person -

have any of them had lie detector tests.,

I think the comments about whether Meredith locked the door were all taken out of context - Amanda was talking in Italian, which she could barely speak at the time or otherwise she was talkingin English and Raffaele was translating. Everything gets confused in translation and the meaning is often lost - what is the difference between shut and locked in Italian and would Amanda know the difference if only able to speak a few words?

about lack of dna trace in MK 's room from Ak / RS

there is a lack of dna trace in their own rooms too - one of the scientists commented quite common to leave not much trace in an area you frequent

yes, she has. she wants to meet them - they won't speak to her

ChaffinchOfDoom - Amanda has said many many times how sad she is for MK family. However, she is usually criticised for doing this - and is pretty much damned whatever she does.

I think AK has said she would do a lie detector test - I would love to see the police and prosecution do one, that would be interesting.

ChaffinchOfDoom - there was supposed to have been a violent struggle and bloody murder in MK's room - much harder not to leave a trace in that situation. There was DNA of Amanda in abundance in the rest of the house, which suggests she was likely a DNA shedder.

Flora

but Amanda said a specific sentence not lost in translation
why would she have said about the shower : copied from the MK website

Defenders of Amanda Knox claim that because her Italian was not very good she misspoke. Asking people to accept that is an insult to intelligence.
How does "even to take a shower" possibly fit into a scenario where Amanda Knox intended to communicate that the door being locked was a concern?
Regardless of what Knox intended to communicate based on the Postal Police's inaction it would have been clear they did not understand the gravity of the situation to which Knox would have objected.
Even ignoring that Knox told the Postal Police that there is nothing to be concerned about the fact that the locked door and concern for Meredith was never mentioned when the Postal Police present themselves and announce they are there because Meredith's mobile phones were found tossed in a backyard is itself just as damning. Under what possible fact situation does someone go from forcing open a door and calling 911 to not even mentioning the situation to police officers who appear on the scene a few minutes later? The scenario is absurd especially given the reason for the unexpected arrival of the police is that the mobile phones of the person you're concerned about have been located abandoned under strange circumstances

I've not really heard about any of the flatmates since the trials - however, none of them testified that they had noticed any bad feeling between Meredith and Amanda

there were witness statements/testimony from them about AK's apparently cold & unfeeling conduct after the murder & at the police station? that's what makes me wonder about the police possibly feeding them the idea that AK was involved

Are any of you on the other AK thread in AIBU as well? Interesting how one leans one way and one goes the other.

Flora
''violent struggle''
is interesting - the sites Ive read suggest she was held still no defensive wounds etc, the only look of a struggle was the faked burglary stuff?
seems a cold clinical murder rather than a fight to the death.

horrific.

I've read and posted on both threads. I don't know what I think about their guilt or innocence. I don't find the evidence against them very compelling at all. And I find it hard to imagine their involvement. But at the same time, I find all the lies and inconsistencies in their stories very puzzling.

chaffinch, I quoted something earlier - hang on

This is from the Wikipedia page about the case:

'Knox said she barely knew Guede; she pleaded not guilty to all charges, and remained in prison throughout the legal process. Knox and Sollecito's trial began on 16 January 2009 before Judge Giancarlo Massei, Deputy Judge Beatrice Cristiani, and six lay judges at the Corte d'Assise of Perugia.[146]
Knox and Sollecito were accused of having gone to the house on the night of 1 November with Guede, and of having murdered Kercher in her bedroom
According to the prosecution's reconstruction, Knox had attacked Kercher, repeatedly banged her head against a wall, forcefully held her face, tried to remove her clothes, cut her with a knife, inflicted the fatal stab wound, and then took her two mobile phones and faked a burglary
[147]
Guede's shoe prints, fingerprints, and DNA were found in the bedroom, his DNA was found on Kercher and her clothing, and his skin cells were inside her body. Guede's DNA mixed with Kercher's was in bloodstains on the inside of her shoulder bag.[148]
No shoe prints, clothing fibers, hairs, fingerprints, skin cells or DNA of Knox were found on Kercher or in the room [149][150]
The prosecution alleged that all forensic traces in the bedroom which incriminated Knox had been wiped away by her and Sollecito [151][152]'

apart from the whole 'magic DNA removal technique', if there was evidence of AK & RS around the cottage on CCTV, it's never been produced afaik

RG, on the other hand...both DNA & CCTV

Maybe AK had a time-turner & an invisibility cloak

the more you read of the prosecution case the more ludicrous it seems, & the more distressing for all concerned

except RG