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Original poster

What do you think about the Kercher/Knox murder trial?

173 replies

Kathyis6incheshigh · 13/02/2009 14:40

Latest here

I find it hard to believe she did it - seems very trumped up. So much of the evidence seems to be to do with Knox not behaving 'appropriately', but how would you behave if something so shocking happened as the murder of your flatmate? I can imagine it taking a while to sink in.

OP posts:
EricL · 16/02/2009 12:17

I am slightly unnerved by the sight of Knox laughing in court wearing t-shirts emblazoned with bright slogans on them.

Even if you are 'a bt of a character' as has already been mentioned - everyone else relatively normal knows when to calm down and act with some decorum.

Being accused of murder and appearing in court would normally have this affect.

There is something deeply suspicious about her i think.

expatinscotland · 16/02/2009 12:23

'Being accused of murder and appearing in court would normally have this affect.

There is something deeply suspicious about her i think.'

I mean, it would certainly freak me out to know I was facing 30 years in prison.

There's something of the Manson girls in her, tbh.

Or Luke Mitchell, serving a life term in Saughton Prison for the brutal knife murder of his girlfriend, 14-year-old Jodie Jones.

EricL · 16/02/2009 12:26

Yeah - you'd think that there would be people on her side (parents as well as legal team) that would basically tell her not to act in such a way as to dig her hole even deeper.

blueshoes · 16/02/2009 12:29

There is something seriously out of sync with her. But that in itself is not a reason to convict. I wonder if we will ever know the true story.

LoveMyLapTop · 16/02/2009 12:46

I think there is the danger that this has turned into a trial by media.
If she hasnt done it then her reputation is in tatters and she has spent over a year in prison already.
I was at her turning up in Court with a t-shirt saying 'All you need is Love' in bright pink letters.
Not appropriate Court room attire. If I was on the jury i would find that a bit

CaptainKarvol · 16/02/2009 13:12

I know, realistically, that I can't make any judgement without knowing a lot more about the evidence than I do. But Knox's behaviour just makes me sooooo suspicious of her. I can't go for the idea that it's just cultural differences between American and Euoropean teens, she just seems really, really odd and inappropriate.

expatinscotland · 16/02/2009 13:16

'I can't go for the idea that it's just cultural differences between American and Euoropean teens,'

Because you're right, that isn't it at all.

And she wasn't into alcohol, apparently, but into drugs.

Sorry, but having spent most of my teens in the US, drugs are far easier to get hold of than alcohol a lot of times.

She just doesn't seem at all bothered that she's on trial for murder, or that her housemate had her throat horrifically slashed.

Even if I truly despised my flatmate, I can't imagine not really caring if something like that happend to them. That's just awful.

She's seems very narcissitic, making sure the focus is on her and not that poor dead girl.

DaddyJ · 16/02/2009 13:21

I don't know what to think about the trial
as I have no facts to work with.

Kinky sex games that turn into murder
and involve two reasonably pretty girls -
it's a mystery why the media are all over this one!

scarletlilybug · 16/02/2009 13:30

Many words of wisdom here from Expat .

I can only think her bizarre way of acting in court is a way of emphasising her "kookiness" and hence explaining away her apparently strange demeanour at the time of the murder. That and extreme narcissism and/or psychopathy (amateur psycholgist speaking here).

The woman has lied through her teeth about what she was doing on the night of the murder and how she came to discover it. Doesn't make her a murderress, but I'd be surprised if, at the very least, she doesn't know more than she has henceforth admitted.

scarletlilybug · 16/02/2009 13:36

Interesting comments about Knox's demeanour: Eyes for lies

francagoestohollywood · 16/02/2009 13:38

No, the Italian prisons aren't cushy. Overcrowded maybe. It also depends where you end up.

I didn't follow this case.

However, I do not think that nowadays it is that rare for a girl to commit a horrible crime. Sadly here in Italy we had a few examples. 9 yrs ago a then 17 yr old killed (with the help of her teenage boyfriend) her mother and her 12 yr old brother. They were slaughtered with kitchen knives. Initially the girl blamed burglars. A very shocking case that was.

EldonAve · 16/02/2009 13:45

I'm intrigued by the Italian Justice system and how the other guy has already been tried and convicted - how does that impact on Knox and her exboyf?

expatinscotland · 16/02/2009 13:49

US prisons are sssccaarryyy.

expatinscotland · 16/02/2009 13:49

US prisons are sssccaarryyy.

Original poster
Kathyis6incheshigh · 16/02/2009 13:53

I agree the t-shirt was strange; I also did a double take at that. Her being a complete psychopath is obviously one very plausible explanation for her demeanour in court. I don't think it's the only possible one though - maybe she's been advised to act relaxed and confident on the grounds that it will make her look like she is sure of her innocence. Also can't help remembering that Louise Woodward was criticised for being 'emotionless' when she was really just scared and trying to remain calm.

I could also see someone selecting an 'All you need is love' t-shirt in the belief (however mistaken) that it will project youth and innocence.

It's quite a complex situtation culturally - we're sitting here as Brits (mostly) hearing about an American being tried in Italy, all of which have quite different cultural norms at the moment with regard to how you show emotion. It's easy to imagine someone making a bizarre decision about behaviour or image in this situation where they are being tried in an alien culture.

I didn't buy some of the arguments on that blog - the argument that if she was innocent she would have been more rattled the day after the murder seemed a bit perverse as personally I would have thought you'd be even more rattled if you'd committed a murder and were likely to be found out than if a flatmate had been killed.

I'm playing devil's advocate here but really I don't know anything either - either version seems plausible at the moment. I agree it's sad that it's taking the focus away from the fact that poor Meredith Kercher died an awful and violent death. The worst case scenario now would be if Knox is actually guilty but gets off and then gets to make a load of money playing injured innocent on chat shows etc.

OP posts:
lalalonglegs · 16/02/2009 13:54

So Amanda Knox is guilty because she acts oddly and - according to expat - because she is from Seattle ? Others claim they just know she did it and you have to go with your hunch. I hope to God I don't ever find myself in court with MNers on the jury...

expatinscotland · 16/02/2009 13:57

i said a lot of people from there are weird, NOT that she's guilty. .

because that hasn't been established yet.

that's why there's a trial.

she's behaving oddly and has since hte time of the murder.

that's what's being said here.

francagoestohollywood · 16/02/2009 14:01

Expat, you haven't seen l'Ucciardone or Rebibbia. I must say that I'm not at all happy with the condition of most of the Italian prisons.

As i said I haven't followed the case. There aren't many proofs and I'm not too interested in speculations.

expatinscotland · 16/02/2009 14:03

i'm sure there are bad ones there, franca, but no way i'd want to locked up with the extreme freaks in most US state prisons.

they have a very high murder rate in the US compared to most Western countries, sadly.

and the gang problems in the prisons - eeek.

lalalonglegs · 16/02/2009 14:08

Actually, you did say that she is guilty:

"IMO, she and her little boyfriend are guilty as sin." What is that opinion based on? Surely not something as substantial as facts?

And you seem to be saying that you wish that she were locked up in the US where, apparently, there is a much higher chance of her being murdered by fellow inmates. Nice.

expatinscotland · 16/02/2009 14:10

yeah, so? it's my opinion. so you don't agree. i'm not leaping all over you and getting all personal because i disagree with you.

chillax.

EricL · 16/02/2009 14:11

I think most of us seem to be saying that whether she may be innocent or guilty - she is not acting like an innocent person at all.

Her friend was attacked and bled to death in her house whilst she was there, her boyfriend has been given 30 years for it, she has been acccsed of the same crime and is on trial.

With all that going on, i wouldn't be acting like i didnt have a care in the world.

Even if i didn't.

Bucharest · 16/02/2009 14:11

eldonave Rudy Guede (the person who has already been tried and convicted-) opted for what is known as a "quick trial" which is kind of like pleading guilty. Guede was arrested in Germany where he had legged it (thus, one presumes, confirming his guilt)

I'm not sure what, if anything, he has said about the other 2.

They did originally arrest another African guy (on information from Knox/Sollecito) but he was later able to prove he had been with his university lecturer at the time.

An Albanian witness (due to give evidence in March) claims to have seen Guede/Knox/Sollecito the evening of the murder outside the flat..but he has now been arrested for possession of cocaine, so whether he will still give evidence or not is unclear.

Something that always leaves a nasty taste in my mouth is everyone's readiness to implicate "less worthy" (to Italian media standards) immigrants- Africans, Albanians...Any crime involving them is automatically given front page status.

Sollecito's family (father in particular) seem very keen to implicate Knox. He has one of the "best" (most expensive) lawyers in Italy representing him and it seems whatever the outcome he, at least, is beginning to want out of his relationship with Knox. He stood up in court last week and had a mini-rant about not being involved, being innocent etc, but failed to mention that she was also innocent.

I also find the photo taken while the CSI-bods were poring over the flat, the day after the murder, of the pair of them snogging outside, very odd.

Unless they are, as someone has said, complete psychopaths, whether innocent (and in that case utterly horrified by what had happened) or guilty (in which case, panicked) the snoggery just seemed out of place....as does her walking into court on Saturday, waving to her Dad, mouthing "hi" to him with a big smile on her face, and sitting next to her lawyer and speaking in English to her "hi, how are you?" like she's about to take tea.

Just weird.

expatinscotland · 16/02/2009 14:11

FFS i meant the country as a whole has a higher rate of murder, that's why their prisons are full of freaks.

but keep at it, lala.

franke · 16/02/2009 14:15

There's been some talk of this case in Private Eye lately. I can't remember the exact details but the prosecutor I think has a penchant for finding satanic murder rituals behind murder cases. He's faced a disciplinary regarding these kind of assertions in another case.

Apparently the DNA 'evidence' is all a bit of a mess - some of it 'found' weeks after the murder, the scene already contaminated and the sample so minute that it couldn't be reliable.

I don't know if they are guilty or not, but I'm not sure it's possible for them to get a fair trial now.