The sad case of Meredith Kercher

[FreeGeorgeJackson]

I feel for her parents. The trial seems to have gone on for ages doenst it?
I cant see ( form what i read) how kNox will get off.

6am a lie in!!! wow, that puts me to shame these
days in my student days

How would they strip the room of their fingerprints but leave Guede's?

but yes the phones being turned off and the amnesia is rather strange.

Of course she wasn't confident about her previous statements - she had been lying through her teeth.

How come none of Meredith's friends found the initial police questioning so stressful that they, too, made incoherent statements and false accusations?

Raffaele's own words (to me) confirm that the DNA found at the tip of his knife was indeed Meredith's. "I remember cooking with Meredith with that knife, I pricked her and apologised immediately". (summarising from memory). No denials or questioning "how could that possibly be?". An implicit confirmation.

As for the DNA (or lack of) on the mop - if it had been soaked in bleach, could that have destoyed the DNA? The police searching RS's apartment noted that it smelled very strongly of bleach, although his cleaner testified that she never used it (bleach, that is).

i'm pretty sure something soaked in bleach would kill off any dna on it is strong enough to remove stains and kill bugs and germs at the same time.

It is possible to clean up after a murder and remove all evidence and to do this I don't think there are any specific crime scene products out there!! I think water, soap and bleach are what would normally be used.

Someone mentioned earlier that Knox was known for her lack of personal hygiene and her messiness and yet that morning in particular she'd gone all Kim Woodburn!

Dittany is right. Remember some forensic scientist saying that CSI has a lot to answer for as it's common knowledge now that bleach will destroy biological evidence.

yes but they left Guede's fingerprints. That is very selective and accurate cleaning. Odd, no?

I'm not sure. There were numerous fingerprints of Guede's found. The defence said it was impossible for them to have been there and to have found no fingerprints at all.

why turn phones off and back on simultaneously?

a feasible explaination put forward by the defense is that their phones weren't switched off at all, there was simply no reception in the apartment during that time.

if they did such a bang up job on bleaching the apartment why leave such an obvious bloody footprint?

would you be hanging about in the morning after slaughtering someone with a mop in your hand when you could much more easily stay out the way and plead ignorance?

and how would they know which were guede's fingerprints and which were there own?

did they bleach the body? there was no dna on the victim from either of them.

dittany - what kind of reasoned argument is that? RS was photographed with pink fluid. Wow - he must be an evil killer then!

Give me the reliable evidence that they were in that room, and explain why 2 young students would do such a thing?

Of course, in the knowledge that a violent drug dealer, fingerprints already on file, who ran away after the murder, and whose DNA was found in the room, the victim's body and handbag, and who accepted a fast track trial, is now serving 30 years for the murder!

There were no bloody footprints, there is only very unreliable dna evidence to connect them with the crime. There is no evidence that AK was in the room at all. There is no evidence that someone cleaned everything with bleach. There was no blood on the mop.

I agree there is some doubt about who said what when about who. The authorities also seem not be able to provide crucial tapes of when things were said also. The whole thing stinks!

and the fingerprint on the glass belonging to amanda knox was the only clearly READIBLE fingerprint... that's a common scenario in a home residence. most fingerprints are too smudged to get a proper reading.

Um, but he was in fancy dress. Do you know that was bleach in the bottle? This is pure suppostion, as is the report about stories that AK has written. She was studying languages and creative writing!

Show me the EVIDENCE that they killed her and tell me why they did it!!!!

But why should she confess if she is innocent?

I mentioned Colin Stagg a couple of times already - this is an interesting
article about what happens when the police and media decide you are guilty, and the evidence doesn't back you up.

PS you have still not linked to the evidence that puts THEM in the room. You seem to be focussed on AK. There are 2 people locked up after all.....

It's a fair point, Dittany about the Knox family and the PR machine, although disagree with your conclusion. It's no great secret that the Knox's hired a PR firm shortly after AK was arrested. (there was a Sunday Times article noting this).

Yes, I think they did degrade the Italian justice system, and were not for the high profile media interest, it is entirely possible that the case against AK may have been quietly dropped. If one has faith in the justice system, then there is no need for external influence and think it did backfire a bit.

Am sure that there are cultural issues also in conflict here which didn't go down well with the Italian police who after all are human and would gauge their opinion of what's acceptable behavior based on their own subjective compass. AK wasn't emotional, and that wouldn't be the expected emotion. Or perhaps she didn't express it in a manner in which the Italian police understood.

So much of this case isn't based entirely on scientific evidence, but rather behavior with the barometer being the Italian norm.

"The bra clasp and the murder weapon puts them in the room. How many times have they been mentioned? "

God, no they don't! 2 of 3 knife cuts cannot be attributed to that knife. And the DNA is very sketchy. The bra clasp had 5 peoples DNA on it and had been knocking round in the dust for 6 weeks! This is NOT reliable evidence. NO DNA from either AK or RF was found on the body, or in the room, or on the victims bra......how many times!!!!

Yet again, it seems that people who weren't on the jury and haven't seen all of the evidence available know better than those who were.

Clearly there must be some source of information out there that you have access to which supports all of these allegations?

Please share this information that enables you all to make these judgments with such alacrity.

Dittany, some of your points are absolutely valid. I accept that a jury doesn't convict based entirely on scientific evidence and of course you're right about Sollecito being Italian. As an American myself, really don't accept that there was an anti American slant, but still think there were cultural barriers that made the case difficult.

But re: DNA evidence. I only did forensic science as an undergrad, but the process of STR (short tandem repeat) which was what was used on small quantities of DNA to amplify it in order to get a result, can be prone to all sorts of variants. From what I have read, the time frame as far as the collection of the knife as a murder weapon, no one can attest that it hasn't been in a secure chain of evidence.

the note mentioning Lumumba wasn't brought into evidence in the Kercher murder trial dittany.

it was put forward as evidence in the separate prosecution for Lumumba against AN.

this is interesting-

10:00pm (22:00) (Meredith?s house) Meredith?s British cell phone is used to call her bank but the country code was not typed in so call did not go through.

10:13pm (22:13) (Meredith?s house?) Meredith?s bank was dialed again and again the call did not go through

10:30pm (22:30) Rudy claims he left Meredith?s house at this time.