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Please send in your jury duty exclusion and save us all the hassle so you don't end up on a jury pool somewhere. It's statements and thinking like this, that break the system for us all!
I listened to the story before it became widely known. I never followed it from beginning to end as I never do with stories of this kind. As an unbiased juror I would have gone into any jury pool with her being presumed innocent, as I would anyone else.
However...................
sometimes the actions AFTER the crime establish a pattern of behavior that would more willingly be receptive to a grisly end like this one. She is pretty, has no remorse, and obviously thought she could get away with murder is a very quick summation of my belief in this ending.
Think what you will, but you can't just write off the Italian legal system like that while assuming the US legal system is the one and true paradigm for how a legal system should be properly set up. While there are several reasons to be skeptical about the outcome of this particular trial due to the way in which the case was handled, Italy's justice system isn't just a 'show' as you imply. Italy isn't some middle-income, semi-democratic country; it's a high-income, developed democracy which also happens to be both a member of the European Union and a close ally. They have a fully developed judiciary that is separate and largely co-equal with the other branches. Now, again, there are some serious problems with the way in which this particular case was handled. Let's see what happens in the appeals process where there may still be a decent chance of this being overturned.
It's jury was made up of 6 jurors and two judges, and the evidence and the case was as carefully handled as any theyve done.
Furthermore, this argument attacking their legal system sounds alot like the one attacking England's healthcare system back earlier in the summer.
Oh, thats right, the Brit's love their healthcare. So I'd say both arguments are desperate attempts to discredit, and their system of justice, which probably works as well or better than ours does. In this country, murder is life in prison (without doubt) if its black on white crime. The only was you get 26 years is for second degree/manslaughter, so I'd say both systems are commensurate. As an American in Italy, she'll be filing appeals so much they will all get sick of Amanda Knox very quickly.
Reverse the roles and imagine Amanda got murdered and the black man already in an Italian prison was the suspect. And the girl from England who was murdered was involved with her Italian boyfriend. And Amanda was the sweet, innocent victim. Would these people also say the murdered girl was innocent in Knox's death?
The guy that frequented the bar she went to, that raped her and summarily fled?
Why would the Black murderer break the window from the inside, if he were already in the house?
Why would he take the time to cover up the body and stage the area when he needed to make a quick getaway?
Why would he take the time to "clean up" all the evidence of another person's involvement (Amanda) and not "clean up" his own?
Why weren't Amanda Knox's fingerprints on anything, she lived there?
Where would he have found the cell phones for two people, who according to your version weren't at the crime scene, and trhew them into a neighbor's yard?
When did the Black drifter have the time to place a knife with the murder victim's DNA in the house of the boyfriend of Amanda Knox?
But people who look like this are nothing but criminals, rapists, murderers, etc.
I am also fairly certain that the people who can not even conceive that Amanda Knox is guilty of murder would fail to see how similar their disbelief is to those who thought that OJ wasn't guilty. Funny how that works.
No one on this forum knows if she is guilty or not and it's rather pointless to act like we do. All we know is what we've heard second hand through the media which really isn't all that much when it comes to particulars. Moreover, I seriously doubt anyone arguing about this has actually paid all that much attention to this trial over the past several weeks. They may have done it and they may have not; most of us Americans are going to want to sympathize with Amanda Knox and will tend to assume that she's innocent and the Italian legal system is 'bad' without recognizing that the trial could have mishandled and she could still have actually done it.
Then we can't say anyone is guilty. We didn't see the Charles Manson clan kill anyone, we didn't see Ted Bundy kill anyone. All we ever have is what the news or other second hand sources tell us.
Even in the USA, that isn't considered appropriate attire for a courtroom. It kind of shows the family's arrogance.
I really don't think most Americans believe she's innocent just because she's American or white or rich or anything. I think most people think it was a sex and drug party gone wrong and that Ms. Knox is guilty as charged.
Maybe the American news media is working this story up, but that's what they do -- that's what they do to sell themselves. I doubt anyone here is losing sleep because she did what she did in a foreign country and now is subject to the laws and criminal punishment of that country.
Seems to me there are a lot of similarities with certain cases in the US.
An ambitious prosecutor
Blanket and lurid media coverage
A defendant without the financial means to really defend themselves
A rush to judgement and trying to make the facts fit that rush.
It reminds me a bit of the Duke students a short while ago. Of course, their families had the financial means to defend them and, ultimately, they prevailed. I mention this because I don't think it fair to say that our system of justice is better than theirs. All systems get it wrong from time to time.
Neither do I think this is a case of anti-Americanism. In any country, a defendant from another country is at a disadvantage. This is also true of foreigners accused of crimes in the US.
I have no idea if she is guilty or innocent. But there are enough questions to raise concerns about the safety of the conviction. The fairness of the Italian system will no doubt be judged on the appeal when it happens.
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