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Post by Admin on Jun 16, 2014 14:40:22 GMT
Italian police investigating the death of Meredith Kercher made multiple errors in handling DNA evidence that was used to convict Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, according to a presentation by two scientists at a conference for trial attorneys in Chicago. The presentation by experts Greg Hampikian and Tom Zupancic focused on errors made in collecting DNA at the crime scene that compromised the investigation and may have caused police to reach erroneous conclusions or allowed the evidence to be manipulated. Both scientists, who frequently advocate for Knox and Sollecito, said none of the DNA evidence presented in the Amanda Knox case may be valid since it was mishandled from the beginning. Hampikian used an Italian police video showing collection of DNA from Kercher's bra clasp to show examples of mistakes they made at the crime scene. He also presented the results of an experiment in his lab showing how easily DNA can be transferred from object to object when gloves are not changed each time a new piece of evidence is handled. Italian technicians admitted to not changing gloves during collection of key evidence, allowing the evidence to be compromised. Zupancic gave a presentation showing how failure to use correct DNA processing techniques can invalidate the outcome of investigations. "American attorneys ... were stunned to hear how the Italian forensic analysts and prosecutors connected to the Knox-Sollecito case manipulated and withheld evidence in this case," he said. "Such behavior would never have been tolerated in the American system. It shows an inherent contempt for fairness, the concept of justice and is a serious breach of acceptable judicial practices.” But he also went on to say that such irregularities can also happen in the United States when strict adherence to proper collection procedures is ignored or violated. The John Marshall Law School in Chicago hosted the forensic DNA conference.
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Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2014 13:23:54 GMT
University of Washington student Amanda Knox has filed an appeal with the court of last resort in Italy, the Court of Cassation, asking that her recent murder conviction be overturned and that she be cleared of any guilt of the 2007 murder of her roommate, according to her Seattle public relations representative, Dave Marriott. Knox’s case has been full of twists and turns. She was arrested in November 2007 a few days after her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, was found dead with her throat slit in the flat the young women shared in the university town of Perugia. In 2009, Knox was convicted of the murder along with her boyfriend at the time, Italian student Raffaele Sollecito. But in 2011, an appeals court in Perugia threw out the murder convictions, pronounced Knox and Sollecito innocent and released them from prison. Knox flew home to Seattle and resumed her studies at UW. Prosecutors appealed the acquittal, which is common practice in Italy and won a new trial. In March 2013, the Italian Supreme Court reversed the acquittal and sent the case to a Florence appeals court which reinstated the murder convictions earlier this year. The court also increased Knox’s sentence from 26 years to 28 years. Knox maintains that she is innocent and plans to vigorously fight her recent conviction from the safety of Seattle, her hometown. She did not attend the recent trial in Florence that led to her second conviction. Knox is requesting another appeals trial, which could take place later this year, with a final decision expected in 2015, according to Dave Marriott.
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Post by Admin on Jul 2, 2014 13:40:24 GMT
Raffaele Sollecito reasserted his innocence Tuesday as his attorneys continued to distance him from his ex-girlfriend Amanda Knox. "This has been a real tragedy," he said. "I'm not a criminal." Sollecito's new defense strategy comes as their legal teams prepare to appeal the couple's murder convictions in the death of Knox's former roommate Meredith Kercher before Italy's Supreme Court next year. It's a dramatic departure from the past seven years, where the tactic has been to "stick together" and be "tried" together. Sollecito attorney Giulia Bongiorno said that approach no longer works. "They are not Siamese twins -- one body with two heads," she said. The old approach began to change shortly after an Italian appeals court sentenced Sollecito to 25 years in prison and Knox to 28 years in January, and that change continued Tuesday. Sollecito's lawyer John Kelly started laying the groundwork in February. "It's imperative that the Italian courts consider Raffaele's case separate from Amanda's case," he said. "By necessity, he has to distance himself and his case from Amanda and her case." In a CNN interview at the time, Sollecito followed his attorney's lead. Though he said that the evidence clears them both, he used more selective language. "There is nothing against me and nothing very strong against Amanda," Sollecito said. "And in my case, I really did nothing wrong, and I don't want to pay for someone else's peculiar behavior." Tuesday's news conference in Rome was a profile in contrasts. At one point, Sollecito called into question Knox's version of events on the morning Kercher was found stabbed to death, saying it was "imagination and hallucination." Yet, a few minutes later, he added, "Amanda and I still believe she is innocent." There are some anomalies, Bongiorno said, but the legal team hopes that Italy's high court will rule in their favor by "annulling the sentence in full."
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Post by Admin on Jul 6, 2014 14:20:18 GMT
Italian prosecutors pushing for Amanda Knox’s extradition from the US claim they have evidence of her extensive links to cocaine dealers in Perugia, it has been reported. Police in the Italian city where the British student Meredith Kercher was murdered have reportedly already convicted one man for dealing cocaine based on information from the American’s phone. They say that details from Knox’s file show she had phone conversations with a known drug dealer before and after Ms Kercher’s death, was getting through cash at an alarmingly fast rate and had an alleged “relationship of a sexual nature” with the supplier. Lawyers now plan to use these alleged drug links against Knox as they prepare to try and force her back to Italy on an extradition warrant to face justice, the Mirror reported. Even as she and former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito await an appeal over their re-conviction for the murder at Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation, Knox has said she will never return from Seattle for what currently stands as a 28-year jail sentence. The police report attached to Knox’s file reportedly stated that: “In the course of the investigation regarding the criminal proceedings 9066/07 [Kercher’s murder] they discovered that an Italian person from time to time replenished Amanda Knox’s narcotic substances, as well as having allegedly had with her the relationship of a sexual nature.” The fresh reports of drug links came as Sollecito told reporters in Rome that the evidence showed Knox was not with him at his home at the time of the killing of Ms Kercher,21, as her alibi claims. Ms Kercher, from London, was killed on 1 November 2007 in the flat she shared with Knox. The American, Sollecito and Rudy Guede have been convicted of the murder but only the latter is currently serving time in prison. Knox and Sollecito have been convicted, had their convictions overturned and then reinstated by Italian courts in January this year. They are preparing for one final appeal to overturn the convictions once more. Sollecito denied he was changing his story. “Only a madman or a criminal would change versions, and I’m neither mad nor criminal,” he said. “There’s proof that I was at my place and I was watching Japanese cartoons.”
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Post by Admin on Jul 17, 2014 13:39:21 GMT
Raffaele Sollecito says he’s innocent — and he’s got his own thesis to prove it. The 30-year-old co-defendant of Amanda Knox analyzed online social media to find if more people believed he was innocent or guilty of killing Meredith Kercher in 2007, Italian news outlet ANSA reported. Both Sollecito and his 27-year-old American ex-girlfriend were found guilty of killing the British national at a sensational 2009 trial. The conviction was later overturned before an appeals court ordered both defendants to face a second trial. In January, they were both convicted a second time, Knox in absentia, and sentenced to nearly 30 years each in prison. Sollecito is free as he appeals the latest ruling while Knox, now living in the Seattle area, has vowed never to return to Italy and seems to face little likelihood of being extradited to the European country. But Sollecito, who earned a computer engineering degree from Verona University in Perugia, says his paper, which he wrote in English and defended in Italian, already proves his innocence. More people online associated his name with “innocent” instead of “guilty,” he told ANSA. “I did an experiment on myself,” he told the Italian news agency, according to ABC News. Both Knox and Sollecito, who had dated for only one week before the murder of the 21-year-old woman, have repeatedly proclaimed their innocence. Earlier this month, Sollecito asked to stand trial separate from Knox, and claimed her version of the story “imagination and hallucination.” Sollecito was awarded a degree in information technology from Verona University, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. His thesis for the degree analyzed social media, including mentions of his name and his case. Sollecito, who wrote the thesis in English and defended it orally in Italian, concluded that his name was more often linked to the word "innocent" than "guilty," ANSA reported. “I did an experiment on myself” he told ANSA.
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