Amanda Knox tried for the murder of Meredith Kercher in Italy *NEW TRIAL*#5

[MichaelSmith]

BBM

That part is just odd. Why would she not attend? If guilty, to dispel any suspicions that she didn't care about her friend. And if not guilt, well that just goes without saying?

None of Meredith's other friends attended the memorial either (the ones who stayed in Perugia). One of them wrote in the Times of London last year that she stumbled on it by accident and left immediately because it made her feel uncomfortable.

 

[otto]

Ongoing Trial

La Nazione ‏@qn_lanazione 4m
Meredith trial, Prosecutor Crini: "Do not atomize, but bring together all the elements of the process"

La Nazione ‏@qn_lanazione 4s
Meredith trial, Prosecutor Crini addresses the issue of Knox and Sollecito's alibis, on whether or not they were present at the crime scene

Machiavelli ‏@Machiavelli_Aki 8m
Crini attacks the method of logic reasoning of annulled appeal, parcelling out evidence, parrots aspects of civil procedure

That doesn't sound good for Sollecito and Knox.

 

[otto]

Machiavelli ‏@Machiavelli_Aki 2m
Crini: computer records and alibi point to Sollecito being not at home but at murder scene

http://multimedia.quotidiano.net/?tipo=photo&media=85058#.UpMl1bxHkVY.twitter

 

[otto]

Sollecito arrives in court

 

[Chris_Halkides]

I've seen that Luca told her in the car a few times tonight but I still haven't seen where that's coming from. It would be so helpful if you could post a link. I'd not heard this before. TIA

From Candace Dempsey's Murder in Italy, pp. 77-78, this takes place in the car on the way to the station on the afternoon of 2 November. “ Then Raffaele started asking Luca and Paola questions. Was Meredith dead? How did she die? What had they seen? Then Raffaele passed the information along to Amanda in his garbled English. He told her Meredith’s throat had been cut.” Dempsey goes on to credit Frank Sfarzo for reporting about this at Perugia-Shock, including the fact that Amanda cried during the conversation.

 

[otto]

From Candace Dempsey's Murder in Italy, pp. 77-78, this takes place in the car on the way to the station on the afternoon of 2 November. “ Then Raffaele started asking Luca and Paola questions. Was Meredith dead? How did she die? What had they seen? Then Raffaele passed the information along to Amanda in his garbled English. He told her Meredith’s throat had been cut.” Dempsey goes on to credit Frank Sfarzo for reporting about this at Perugia-Shock, including the fact that Amanda cried during the conversation.

What do you think about the proceedings that are happening right now?
Does it sound like the court is going to overlook the evidence?

 

[otto]

Meredith murder, the prosecutor: 'False Alibi: Amanda and Raffaele were on the scene of the crime'
Prosecutor Crini: 'The Supreme Court has leveled the judgment of acquittal. Trust the witness that places them in the Grimana Square'

Andrea Vogt ‏@andreavogt 6m
#amandaknox appeal prosecutor Crini in Florence: don't repeat error of Perugia appeal. Consider evidence wholly, including Curatolo.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

The knife is significant in that Meredith's DNA was found in a grove on the blade. The amount of DNA on the knife was larger than the DNA that was recently attributed to Knox, so LCN isn't a good argument.

The mystery groove that no one but Stefanoni can see? Even if it were real, the groove would not protect cells against osmotic shock from water-based cleaning solutions. In addition, the profile does not look degraded (showing a pronounced slope from left to right in the egram).

Low template DNA profiles should only be generated in purpose-built facilities: “Very few laboratories perform low template DNA typing properly, because it requires dedicated facilities and great experience, although there are several published methods for the interpretation of such profiles [80-82].”

How is it possible to clean blood from a knife but not to clean starch or DNA in two places? I have been asking variations of this question for almost four years, and I still have not heard a good answer.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

What do you think about the proceedings that are happening right now?
Does it sound like the court is going to overlook the evidence?

THe Court of Supreme Cassation overlooked the evidence, so who knows?

 

[otto]

The mystery groove that no one but Stefanoni can see? Even if it were real, the groove would not protect cells against osmotic shock from water-based cleaning solutions. In addition, the profile does not look degraded (showing a pronounced slope from left to right in the egram).

Low template DNA profiles should only be generated in purpose-built facilities: “Very few laboratories perform low template DNA typing properly, because it requires dedicated facilities and great experience, although there are several published methods for the interpretation of such profiles [80-82].”

How is it possible to clean blood from a knife but not to clean starch or DNA in two places? I have been asking variations of this question for almost four years, and I still have not heard a good answer.

BBM

DNA tested by Dr Stefanoni appears to be part of the original trial that led to the conviction of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for murder in Perugia, Italy.

Are we back to the low copy number DNA sample that was larger than the recent sample placing the murder weapon in Knox's hands.

 

[otto]

THe Court of Supreme Cassation overlooked the evidence, so who knows?

I don't know what the Court of Supreme Cassation means. Did the original trial judge overlook the evidence? Did the first, annulled appeal Judge overlook the evidence? Did the Supreme Court overlook the evidence? Will the next court overlook the evidence too?

Who overlooked the evidence?

 

[otto]

Twitter:

Prosecutor Crini: 'The Supreme Court has leveled the judgment of acquittal. Trust the witness that places them in the Grimana Square'

What does that mean?

 

[MichaelSmith]

BBM

DNA tested by Dr Stefanoni appears to be part of the original trial that led to the conviction of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for murder in Perugia, Italy.

Are we back to the low copy number DNA sample that was larger than the recent sample placing the murder weapon in Knox's hands.

36I was 2 cells with 2 tests
36B was 5 cells iirc. with 1 test

RIS said it takes two tests to validate a LCN result.

36B can't be used.

 

[otto]

Quintavalle and Curatolo both appeared as late witnesses. Police had not located them earlier, save for journalist. Case breakthrough, and they are major witnesses. This court will accept their testimony, since the Supreme Court already has.

 

[Footwarrior]

Quintavalle and Curatolo both appeared as late witnesses. Police had not located them earlier, save for journalist. Case breakthrough, and they are major witnesses. This court will accept their testimony, since the Supreme Court already has.

Both are also impeached witnesses. Quintavalle's testimony directly conflicts with what he told investigators shortly after the murder. Curatolo's testimony is inconsistent with the events known to have happened in the square that night.

 

[Sigh Sister]

@Otto

Have you ever read anything that ,even for the briefest moment, gave you pause? Anything that made you even a little bit uncomfortable about your assertion that they are guilty?

 

[Chris_Halkides]

Regarding the question of secondary transfer resulting in Meredith's DNA on Sollecito's knife let's think about it for a minute. Dirty gloves were not worn between the cottage and Sollecito's apartment. Dirty gloves did not transfer Meredth's DNA from the cottage to Sollecito's apartment. The question of whether contamination occurred in the lab was answered as "no" because there were eight days between testing.

How did Meredith's DNA get on Sollecito's knife? We're still waiting for an explanation. That is what Conti and Vechiotti could not answer. They tried to float the argument that "anything is possible".

Everything has been empirically ruled out, so how did the contamination occur. It couldn't be dirty gloves, as they were changed between locations. It couldn't be in the lab because the evidence was tested eight days apart. Where did the contamination occur?

LCN DNA is apparently no longer a point of contention for the defense because a smaller sample belonging to Knox has been readily accepted.

The CSC took "anything is possible" out of context (inexcusably, IMO). There are plenty of ways. Amanda and Meredith hug, then Amanda touches the knife (secondary transfer). Airborne DNA from the cottage gets onto officer Gubbiotti's clothing. He touches his clothing with his gloved hands then touches the knife (tertiary transfer). Gubbiotti's repackaging of the knife, especially since he was at the women's flat earlier in the day, should have caused the evidence to be excluded IMO. Another working hypothesis is that when Stefanoni released the vacuum used in the Speed Vac (a device to concentrate samples), DNA from the lab entered into the reaction in question (one type of laboratory contamination).

The six-day gap needs to be verified with machine logs and other records. Even if it could be verified, the six-day gap doesn't mean much. There was a one day gap in the Farah Jama case, and a two-day gap in the Jaidyn Leskie case. If a two-day gap is not long enough, then what is so definitive about a six-day gap? DNA on laboratory tools has been shown to persist for months, and a dirty tool represents a contamination hazard.

Dr. Donald Riley wrote, "The ability of small amounts of DNA to produce false and misleading results is well-known and well-documented within the research community, where the technology originated....When contamination occurs there is rarely any way to confirm how it happened." It is not up to Conti and Vecchiotti, or anyone else, to find the mechanism of contamination. It is up to the FP to follow best practices, which they obviously did not do.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

Quintavalle and Curatolo both appeared as late witnesses. Police had not located them earlier, save for journalist. Case breakthrough, and they are major witnesses. This court will accept their testimony, since the Supreme Court already has.

Volturno interviewed Quintavalle within days, IIRC, and Quintavalle did not say anything noteworthy at that time.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

Twitter:

Prosecutor Crini: 'The Supreme Court has leveled the judgment of acquittal. Trust the witness that places them in the Grimana Square'

What does that mean?

If I take Curatolo's testimony at face value, he puts them in the square continuously until late into the evening, long after Meredith was dead.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

Who overlooked the evidence?

The Court of Supreme Cassation did (and this is how I refer to the Italian Supreme Court). Wikipedia calls them "Corte Suprema di Cassazione" which they render as "Supreme Court of Cassation." They overlooked the fact that the bra clasp had been moved by at least a meter in between the time it had been photographed and the time it was collected. And that is just an example.