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‘Model prisoner’ Amanda Knox prepares for appeal
Amanda doesn’t break down in tears any more, says her jailer. She’s confident she’ll be out soon
Authorities at the Italian prison where Amanda Knox is serving 26 years for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher say the young American is confident that her appeal trial, due to begin in November, will succeed and that she thinks she "will be out soon".
Asked by John Follain of the Sunday Times how 23-year-old Knox was holding up, Rita Rapponi, chief supervisor of the women's wing at Capanne prison outside Perugia, said: "She's pretty well.
"Amanda's confident that the future will bring freedom for her. She doesn't break down in tears. It's nothing like her night of tears after the verdict when we had to comfort her."
Follain had a brief meeting with Knox inside Capanne, where she is one of only five female prisoners serving time for murder. The other 66 women being held at the women's wing are mostly in for drug-dealing. She shares a cell with a 50-year-old American woman jailed on drugs charges.
Knox, once described by a prosecutor as "a she-devil", capable of stabbing another girl in the throat, is popular among other inmates, who describe her as a model prisoner. Most of them apparently believe she is innocent of the murder for which she and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted last December.
Follain was allowed to interview four women, one of whom, Cinzia Gonnella, used to share Knox's cell. "She's a great girl, she's never been a problem," said Gonella. "Most of us think she's innocent."
This is not because Knox has persuaded them to believe her version of the Kercher story. Like most prisoners, she doesn't talk to the guards or her fellow inmates about the reason why - rightly or wrongly - she's inside.
She reads and writes letters in her 130 sq ft cell, from which she has a view of fields and two villages in the distance. In preparation for her November appeal, she spends hours reading through the Italian penal code and going over the 427-page review of the evidence in her murder trial, written up by Giancarlo Massei and Beatrice Cristiani, the judges who sentenced her to 26 years for murder.
Knox has cut her hair short, page-boy style, mainly for practical reasons but also - according to a recent interview in the Italian magazine Oggi - because she wanted "to show how this situation is devastating me".
Although Knox is not a Roman Catholic, she has come to rely on the prison chaplain, Father Saulo Scarabattoli, for his support in what she has described as her "surreal" experience in jail.
At mass in the prison chapel, Follain saw Knox reciting the Lord's Prayer along with the Italian prisoners, and joining in the chant they repeat over and over at the end of the service - "Let our suffering be your joy". ·
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The ancient Italian legal system should be respected why? It only introduced the concept of assumption of innocence in 2006... a year before the railroad job, it has not really sunk in properly yet. And it has not been all that long since Hearsay evidence and lot of other flaky traditions were discontinued... The judges are also prosecutors who are unaccountable to no one and have become a power unto themselves.... and the "jurors" are reusable dependable locals as are many of the riff-raff "witnesses" who turn up on multiple cases... They are big on "unanimous" this and that... lots of connected people affirming and signing off on things... sort of like an election in a one party state... no surprise who "wins".
Amanda and Raffaele did not lie. Provable lies in this case, not surprisingly, emanate from the police and investigation over and over... The "lies" attributed to Amanda and Raffaele all come from police massaged and interpreted sources... and when looked at dispassionately not congruent with reality. And truth can be bent and twisted into the appearance of lies in the hands of professionals used to doing just that.
SHE WAS RAILROADED
Knox is guilty as sin. Liars or delusionals can try their best to sway public opinion by teaming up to saturate comments under news articles till the day is long, Meredith is still dead, Knox, Guede and Sollecito are guilty and no amount of trolling by knox supporters changes any of that.
In my comment at 1:42am on August 18 in one instance I used the name Kercher by mistake, instead of Knox. I apologise sincerely to the Kercher family and all others concerned.
Wow, it's all kicking off here! My take is that the jury found her guilty, the judicial system will allow her to appeal the verdict on points of law and new evidence, should any arise. This system dates back to Roman times so is about the oldest legal system on earth.To criticise it shows a lack of perspective. Foreign legal systems can be tough to understand even for legal professionals.Lucky for her she wasn't in Texas when she killed that woman, she'd be on death row now, or worse.
Harry Rag you bang on about Mignini. Yes he prosecuted, on whatever grounds. Maybe there was no "sex game" as he first suggested. So what. For whatever reason, the convicted killers murdered Meredith Kercher. That's what the trial was about. Murder. Masses of evidence more or less fell into the laps of the police: all three accused were proved to have lied, mainly Knox who with her "boyfriend" of a few days Sollecito, who incidentally kept his silence throughout the trial because it eventually became impossible for him to drag himself out of the hole he'd dug himself into with his lies. Kercher and Sollecito fell over themselves to prove their guilt. All their "alibis" proved to be lies, there were lies about phone calls. Knox even blamed the murder on her former employer who ended up losing his business. I figure if you're bad enough to murder anyone, lying comes easy. And of course there was a jury, who decided the murder accused were guilty. Prosecutor "an idiot", police "violent" and "inept", forensics "hopeless", 19 judges weighing up the case over two years "incompetent", jury "bent", everyone "anti-American"? This in a European state with an internationally respected judicial system, not tin-pot third world hole. And, by the way, if this murder happened in certain states in America where death penalties come into the picture, Knox and her fellow murderers would now be beyond appealing. The only people who have made this case controversial are the Knox PR machine with their, wait for it, lies.
The unanimous conviction in a trial held over 11 months "rubbish" shows how shallow and illusory criminal/prosecutor Mignini is. The twisted evidence has been presented by the tabloid media and the jury made a decision to convict. There is no way of explaining away the lack of evidence showing Amanda and her boyfriend not presence at the murder scene, try though the trolls might. Let us question the motives of another bunch of goons and wait patiently for the outcome of the appeals. The judicial system is baffling. The evidence shows only Rudy Guede was there that night?
Calling the unanimous conviction in a trial held over 11 months "rubbish" shows how shallow and illusory are the Amanda cultists.
The evidence has been presented and the jury made a unanimous decision to convict.
There is no way of explaining away the mounds of evidence showing Knox and her boyfriend's presence that night at the murder scene, try though they might.
Let us respect the system of another sovereign country and wait patiently for the outcome of the appeals.
Why you think you know more than the Italian judicial system is baffling to me.
Were you there that night?
I've reviewed all the information available about this case and I have no doubt Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are both innocent and they will be acquitted following their appeals. For the facts and crime scene photos Google injusticeinperugia or for rubbish see perugiamurderlies/files
I agree with McJustice. The Massei report documents how the court ignored evidence and logic in coming to a biased decision. The appeals point out many errors in interpretation of the evidence and reasoning that the court uses that can't be considered anything but pure fantasy.
The Appeals doc summaries in English now available on http://www.injusticeinperugia.org/Appeal.html
They are best guides to understanding the judge's fatally flawed 427 page ruling /"Motivation" Report which can be described more accurately as a "Supposition Report". The 2 appeals documents demolish all the spurious notions, calalogue of red herrings and the two key pieces of poorly done DNA forensics and cite the legal basis for each and every error by the court.
There is no case. An injustice has been done.
Also please see 2 recent pieces in "New Scientist" magazine...
"Fallible DNA evidence can mean prison or freedom"
"Time to rethink DNA evidence"
The English translation of Judge Massei's sentencing report can be downloaded from here:
http://www.perugiamurderfile.org/viewtopic.php?p=53735