British student murdered in Perugia, 3 suspects

Isabella said:

My honest opinion..any country that has shows like Nancy Grace and Greta shouldnt be complaining about others. By your reasoning how would Casey Anthony ever get a fair trial?

And again i think its where your from as someone posted on whether you believe she was given a fair trial. At the end of the day Amanda is a liar who changed her story various times and even tried to blame a innocent man for it. At some point she has to take responsibility for her actions.

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Tizzle said:

1) I don't watch Nancy or Greta or any of that garbage.

2) I haven't stated whether I feel she is guilty or not. Just that I don't feel she was given a fair trial. And what does the country I live in have to do with anything?

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LogicalMinds said:

I think the way she changed her stories so many times is very telling

at one point she was accusing her boss, and claimed she was there and "saw" him rape Meredith?? and now he is suing her for defamation of character

Amanda Knox seemed so cocky and carefree in the beginning, like she didn't take this seriously

well now I guess she does

probably the food is better in Italian prisons <grin> so manga manga Amanda

ciao

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Tizzle said:

So you're ok with that system if you're the one in the position of "possibly" wrongly accused?

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Tizzle said:

That wasn't my question, but cool. I hope you never find yourself in that position.

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Tizzle said:

So you're ok with that system if you're the one in the position of "possibly" wrongly accused?

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MomofBoys said:

Thanks!

Despite speaking fluent Italian? I have to admit to always being skeptical of coercion claims and especially in this case, since she's never seemed traumatized by the events of that night.

They say the appeals process often shortens the sentences, so...it doesn't sound like she'll be spending life in prison by any means. So many comments on NG exclaim that this never would have happened in America and she would have been better off here, but I'm not so sure. If an American jury found her guilty, she'd be looking at more time.

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Isabella said:

Because to say she wasnt given a fair trial because the Jurors may have read a paper in the 11 months is ludicrous especially when there are shows like Nancy around.

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Isabella said:

Its also been reported that she threatened a guy with a knife in Italy.

I agree there is a difference in where you come from on whether you believe the verdict or not. It seems to me..that Americans..or some would rather put all the blame on a black guy from the Ivory Coast rather than accept a American girl could have been involved in this. And then because she is..then its like well Amandas not guilty its just the Italians are corrupt blah blah blah.

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gitana1 said:

You got that right. The fact is, sometimes Americans actually do commit crimes in other countries. When they do, they are subject to those countries' legal systems. The legal systems in most of Europe are much less harsh than here. None have the death penalty, some have caps on life sentences and their prisons are summer camps compared to ours. So AK got off pretty easily if indeed she committed this crime.
As for the coercion claims, I very much doubt it. Again, the legal systems are much less harsh in Europe and that includes interrogation techniques. People often complain that suspects and defendants in Europe have more rights than the victims. So, in the case of confessions, I would tend to not give much creedence to a coercion argument.
I am afraid that many of us don't like one of our own subject to the laws of another country, nor do we like an American to be judged by foreigners. I wonder how people would feel if this case played out here and not in Italy.
Violent crime and/or sexual violence is not as common in some parts of Europe and they tend to think of the United States as the most violent country among the Western democracies. The Italians would be very disgusted by the thought of Americans living in their country and possibly committing such a crime there. They probably also feel that Americans have a lot of money and are favored due to our nation's superpower status so they likely feared that AK would get preferential treatment.
In their country, 26 years is a lot of time, so I venture to guess that most Italians there are pleased and feel justice was done.

ETA:
My prayers tonight go to Meredith and her family.

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angelmom said:

But jurors here are not allowed (or not supposed) to encounter any media reports of the actual trial.

When the jurors are selected, the lawyers have an opportunity to determine as best they can through voir dire which ones have been exposed to significant media coverage and try to unearth any evidence of bias. A juror is told that whatever press they've seen prior to the trial is not evidence and that they shouldn't consider anything not entered in court. Of course, that's hard to do, but that's what voir dire is for.

Once the trial starts, you are stuck with that jury unless you can prove wrongdoing. It is wrong for a juror here to read news articles or watch TV news reports about what happened in court that day. But if they are allowed and the media takes a certain slant, then suddenly the witness they liked and believed may be cast in an unfavorable light by a reporter and cause the juror to rethink their view.

Not that I think any of this means the trial wasn't fair, just pointing out that there is a difference.

I also take offense to the characterization of Americans and race. I don't know anyone who thinks she is innocent.

Also, I certainly would never travel to those countries whose justice system I find irresponsible. As much as I would like to see certain parts of the world, it is just not worth it to end up in some hellhole of a jail without due process.

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lonetraveler said:

I'm an American and I say that she is guilty. Don't put all Americans in the same basket, please. It does appear that you are stereo-typing all Americans as saying that Knox was not guilty just because she is an American, that is just not true. Dont' believe everything you read about Americans. We, each have our own minds and believe it or not, are not the racists as the rest of the world would like us portrayed.

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Houston Homer said:

JMO....
I'm perplexed by all of it.

I think about Amanda, 2 years ago and under interrogation for HOURS, over 3 days, by police in a foreign country where she had lived only, iirc, a few short months and could have in no way mastered the Italian language in that time. In fact, she has acknowledged that she has only learned to speak/understand Italian during the 2 years she has been in jail. She had no lawyer and no translator.

Also, the prosecutor put forth several theories for Amanda's motive, ending with that Amanda just hated Meredith. They had not lived together that long! It takes a LONG time to develop that level of hatred for a person. Sure you can be annoyed, and annoying, by and to a new roommate, but to reach the level of HATE to kill somebody when you could always leave the shared apartment and hang out at your boyfriends? I can see resentment, but not the evil that would have to drive the hate to commit such a crime.

IMO, I don't see how the evidence alone could have convicted her. Too much emphasis on her sex life and marijuana smoking could have been a deciding factor for some of the judges and jurors in their decision
It doesn't matter to me that she bought panties or whatnot with RS shortly after the murder and talked about upcoming sexual interludes. She was 20, twenty!! lordy be, if sex and pot could determine innocence or guilt, I would have been in a A LOT of trouble in Texas in the early nineties! :innocent:

I'm saddened by the verdict. I don't think I could have voted for conviction on the evidence alone. I am mostly sad for her family, who have effectively lost their young daughter, inside a foreign justice system. Now they're moving to Italy for the appeal? Mom & Dad divorced and are both re-married, so 2 more families lives have been ruined. And of course, Meredith's family, will never recover from the loss of their beautiful daughter.

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Isabella said:

I know your not. I have many American friends and they all thought she was guilty too. But i do hate the way ( and not necessarily on this forum i have to say) that the Italians are getting slaughtered and called everything for daring to find her guilty.

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gitana1 said:

Italy is not like a third world country. It's not like being interrogated or incarcerated in Indonesia or Thailand, for example. But, I do get your meaning.
But the problem was not that AK was into sex, it was that she was into anything after her roommate had been murdered. As someone stated above, Italians are passionate people who wear their hearts on their sleeves and express themselves loudly and often. Her ability to be so cavalier about her friend's death as to plan sex and show no emotion after the fact would have convinced most Italians that she must be guilty.
On the other hand, she was only twenty and false confessions do occur. The younger the suspect and the longer the interrogation,the more chances of a false interrogation. So, it's possible.

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