From
Gumbel, Andrew; Sollecito, Raffaele (2012-09-18). Honor Bound (Kindle Locations 2970-2992). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
We received the sentencing report in early March 2010. I doubt an Italian court has ever published 427 pages quite this shameful, illogical, or flat-out ridiculous. It was not exactly a surprise to be ripped to shreds by Judge Massei (when he cared to remember that I existed), or to see him endorse Patrizia Stefanonis forensic results, or to read yet another account minimizing Rudy Guedes actions and responsibilities. What I did not expect was to laugh out loud at the sheer absurdity of his arguments.
The biggest surprise, which my lawyers saw as a huge benefit moving toward the appeal, was that Massei did not accept Migninis theory of the crime. Massei had clearly paid attention to Giulia Bongiorno when she said I could not have planned a murder with Guede because I did not know him. So, instead of endorsing the premeditated crime conjured up by the prosecution, Massei imagined a spontaneous one. Amanda had not, in his telling, stoked the flames of hatred in her heart over an unflushed toilet, or otherwise marked Meredith for death over a period of days or weeks. Rather, the whole tragedy came about because Rudy Guede needed to take a **** on a cold night.
Bear with me, because the judges reasoning is every bit as crazy as it sounds. First, he claimed that Amanda and I spent the evening of November 1 at Via della Pergola. We were, he said, making love in Amandas room while Meredith was minding her own business in hers. What evidence did he have for this? Precisely none. But, he noted, there is nothing to confirm that Amanda and Raffaele were anywhere else late that evening. Massei appeared to have forgotten it is incumbent on the prosecution to prove its case, not simply to say there is no evidence to the contrary. But lets leave that to one side for a moment; the story gets better.
Rudy Guede, in his account, was wandering the streets of Perugia when he realized he needed to go to the bathroom. Or decided he wanted to spend time with Amanda and me (even though he did not know me). Or was looking for a place to sleep (even though he had an apartment of his own just a few minutes walk away). Whatever the precise reason Massei said there was no way of knowing for sure he rings the doorbell of the girls apartment. And Amanda and I, even though we are busy having sex, decide we have to pause to pull on our clothes and let him in. Did we think it would be rude not to open the door to him, even though it was eleven oclock at night and we barely knew him? Was there some reason why Meredith, whose bedroom door was still open in the judges account, would not answer instead? Masseis report is entirely silent on the mechanics of this.
In any case, Rudy comes in, goes to the bathroom, and takes a dump. We, meanwhile, go back to our lovemaking. Rudy supposedly finds this a turn-on, to the point where he forgets to flush, comes out of the bathroom, and decides he wants to get it on with someone.
Lured by the atmosphere of sexual solicitation and giving way to his own concupiscence, Massei writes in painfully precious terminology, he barges into Merediths room to see if shes willing.
Shes not. Soon, shes fighting him off and yelling. That gets our attention. But, instead of stepping in to defend Meredith, we take Rudys side. We have, after all, been smoking pot what other spur to irrational violence do two otherwise blameless college students need? Amanda produces my kitchen knife, which she just happens to be carrying around in her handbag, I pull out a pocketknife, one thing leads to another, and the next thing you know, Meredith is dead. This Court, Massei concludes, can only take note of the choice made to engage in extreme evil. That, for him, was our motivation: extreme evil. Even Mignini had tried harder than that.
What is perhaps most extraordinary about Masseis scenario is that it was not based on anything heard in court. It was his own imagination at work, from start to finish. Nothing in the Italian justice system prevents judges from taking off on such flights of fancy, but it certainly doesnt look good. Such sentencing reports effectively say, I dont like the way the evidence has been presented, so Ill come up with my own version, which Ill pluck out of thin air if I have to. Naturally, Masseis report begged question after question, some of which he attempted to answer, however tentatively.