Kercher Killer Rudy Guede has sentence reduced

[Portofino]

Link here

During the very long, recent thread about the AK/RS verdicts, I expressed the hope that all the misleading information did not have a beneficial effect on the one person who was categorically proven to have been there. It looks like my fears have come true!

Whatever the situation with the other 2, RG is firmly linked to the crime with solid forensic evidence and this must be terrible for Meredith's parents.

yes goodbyesun, he probably will. what a shite system.

He didn't even need to plead guilty!

"The fact he wanted a fast track trial to lessen the sentence he was going to get proves he's guilty."

That's very dangerous logic from a legal perspective.

Just got off the phone with my mother in America.

All they've seen is Amanda Knox's family, doing the talk show rounds.

I grew up in America, we have a different outlook to here. Just do. Particularly towards shopping/snitching if you are not in a gang.

I don't know what to think anymore.

I'm not from Wash state. It's hard to know, what they think like.

Believe or not, there can be some pretty vast cultural, geographical and socioeconomic differences.

I just can't coming back to Meredith Kercher, and my time working in the TX and CO state courts.

How I learned what it is like to die of a slit throat from evidence.

How I feel for her family and not so much for the others because yeah, years on, they don't demonstrate throught for Miss Kercher's.

Maybe that means something, maybe it doesn't.

But somehow to me, it does.

I'm marked by what I saw, by what I heard.

And I still say, I still hope, I still think, first and foremost, not of anyone else first before Meredith Kercher's family.

Because I've had people I have known murdered.

It happens often enough in the US. It happened where I was from, when crack came on the scene.

And I hope, I hope they've found Parents of Murdered Children website.

I hope they've found support.

Because I know, they will never know peace or time heals all wounds or any of that shit the people who don't know say or write.

Their girl's life was marked by her death.

And whatever miscarriage of justice that people debate about, it's nothing compared to the end Meredith Kercher met.

So goodnight, Miss Kercher, and if your friends or family members might see this, and I know from being here long enough that they do, know that there are those of us who think first and foremost of your girl, and hope you find support.

Debate this, debate that.

Someone held that girl, a newborn, naked and squalling, against her chest.

Ever been there? Ever held your baby like that?

She was someone's world.

And there are those who serve in prison for her rape and her death.

And maybe they are not guilty and such will be proven, and maybe they are not and such will be proven as well.

But they are alive.

And Meredith Kercher is not.

And if and when those who were found guilty are released, or have their convictions overturned, it changes not a damn thing for Meredith Kercher or her family.

So everytime it's debated academically, those who were involved in her death, well, spare a thought for her who could have been your own daughter.

It's a lot easier not to.

But it's wrong not to.

OK.

The way I look at it is that I believe that Knox and Sollecito are innocent and I believe that their guilt has not been proven at all.

I believe that for a parent to see their child possibly in prison for 20+ years must be heartbreaking.

I wouldn't want to compare that heartbreak with the heartbreak someone has when a child is killed or dies but I can totally understand why those parents would do anything they can to get their children out of that situation. I certainly wouldn't blame the families of Knox and Sollecito for the kercher's situation.

Guede's sentence has been halved for no good reason. if Knox and Sollecito are released it will be for a very good reason, that they are innocent. The Kerchers, I am sure, would not want innocent people in prison and if and when they are released I am sure they will have support.

Unfortunately it is the murder of Meredith which has put the Kerchers into this situation, but the accused are entitled to an appeal and they have to go through that process which is upsetting for the Kerchers but is all a part of the process.

The whole thing is horrible, no one is denying that.

Amanda Knox is from Mercer island, which is a fairly middle class area in Seattle. The sort of place where she would have Bill Gates as her neighbor. It's fairly convervative, not that it makes an iota of difference as far as guilt/innocence. As far as I can tell, the Seattle PI is reporting it fairly objectively. My relatives in Seattle said the case doesn't really register on their radar and the Copenhagen is much more in the press, probably explaining why the Knox's are doing the talk show circuit.

Well, that's shocking, Dittany.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one Dittany

I, Like Amanda Knox's Mother and Rafaelle Sollecito's father, believe that the two other people sentenced are not guilty and that the evidence provided did not prove them guilty. I know the jury and judges disagree with this, and I know that the Kerchers said they have faith in their legal team, the prosecution and the verdict but there are many many problems with this trial and even the kerchers were unprepared to say if they believed knox and Sollecito were guilty.

I would think that to Knox's mother Amanda is still her little girl. I don't think that Amanda's family are wrong to fight for her throughout the appeals process and there is nothing wrong with them using the media to do so if they believe that she is innocent.

It is a shame that people have to cast scorn and derision on Edda Mellas. Seems that people want to try her by media also which is a shame . I am sure that Edda Mellas is a perfectly decent person who is just fighting to clear her daughter's name. It's no more than a lot of mothers would do in this situation. As is her father.

Why is it always the women who get picked on?

Has mellas said that the Kerchers did?

If you are getting that from the statement "putting a girl in jail for a crime she didn't commit is not going to make them feel better" then I think you are wrong to think she is suggesting that the kerchers put her in jail. Maybe you want to read something into it which is not there for some reason.

As I say - let's agree to disagree on this as I know you think they are Guilty and you know I think they are not. We've done it to death.

I don't particularly want to get into slaggin Knox or Sollecito's families off, or the kerchers for that matter.

like I said. I think you are reading something into it which is not there. I don't want to get into slagging off the families of the accused or the victim.

I don't think Amanda Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito are guilty so therefore I think your last statement is nonsense. Sorry about that.

Where did she say it, Dittany?

It's a shocking thing to say whatever one's view of the trial.

I have just listened to the interview. I don't get that from what she said at all.

Interesting that the woman interviewing her actually gets the info about the DNA evidence wrong.

Ilovemydog: you can hear it here

"so the question you have to ask is why their families aren't helping them face up to their crimes but rather in the Knox/Mellas's case are conducting this big PR campaign"

I would have thought the answer to that was obvious.

Here's the gist of the conversation in that interview:

When asked "have you had any contact with the kerchers".

'not at all. I don't know what they are dealing with, they lost their child, that's just unimaginable to me. I wait for the day that they too know that Amanda had nothing to do with it'

When asked "What do you think of the way they (the kerchers) conducted themselves?"

she says 'I would not ever think to judge a family that's going through the kind of loss that they are. I don't know what their lawyer has told them... I don't know what they know'
the interviewer then reads out letters from people who have called in or emailed who say that people should be thinking of Meredith and the kerchers and not Amanda. Mellas is then asked if she gets that reaction much to which she replies that she gets a lot of positive responses from people and supportive letters. Then she adds

'Everyone should have some sympathy for the kerchers. I cannot imagine what they are going through but putting an innocent girl in jail for a crime she did not commit is not going to make them feel better'

It's clear to me that she is talking about the prosecution, the case which put her daughter behind bars... NOT saying that the Kercher's put her behind bars!

DuelingFanjo - the Kerchers may have been advised that they ought not to comment at this stage on Knox's and Sollecito's guilt.

My DH, who is Italian, tells me that this past trial is not, in fact, the most significant part of the process: apparently, the second stage - following their appeal - is more important. It is possible that the outcome could change at that point. From the Italian p.o.v. things are most definitely not over: there is the second, then third stage.

The Kerchers will have been warned about this, and will no doubt comment more fully after that.

Absolutely - I said that myself when they had the press conference. I am sure that is the case.

Am sure too that the Kerchers are very well prepared for the appeals process. I am sure too that seeing the one person whos DNA was present at the crime scene in any meaningful way have his sentence halved must be utterly devastating for them .

Ah, so the comment was taken a bit out of context. She was being asked specifically about the Kercher's, who have really conducted themselves with dignity throughout. The interviewer was really pushing the point though.

I really don't understand asking the victim's family, the accused, the accused's family to make comments about the trial. What is the purpose? Of course the Kercher's are in grief. Of course the Knox family feel there has been an injustice. But why and make it something that it isn't, namely a personal vendetta. Seem to recall the Kercher family saying something along the lines that they had confidence in the prosecution. Of course they did.

Whenever there has been a miscarriage of justice, and the accused/convcited is released from prison, the victim's family almost always says that having the wrong person in prison does not help their grief.

That's your opinion but other people have a different one based upon the evidence presented at court that we know about.

The only "opinion" about the guilt of the three defendents which counts is that of the 19 judges and the jury who reviewed all the evidence in detail.
(19 judges if you include those who reviewed the evidence during the pre-trial hearings). They unanimously found "overwhelming evidence" that all three defendents were guilty.
I think the Kerchers made it pretty clear that they were satisfied with the verdicts, too.

White girls accuse black guys of raping and murdering and they can get away with, first Lumumba than Guede, too easy!