American Girl, Italian Nightmare

A 48 Hours Investigation Raises Questions About The Case Against A U.S. College Student On Trial For Murder In Italy

(CBS) 

It was October 2008, months before Amanda Knox' trial even began, that an Italian court found Rudy Guede guilty of murdering Meredith Kercher.

"They have a person that was responsible. There's no connection between Amanda, Raffaele and Rudy," says Amanda's mother, Edda Mellas.

But Guede’s trial was only the first act in this continuing Italian drama. Amanda and Raffaele Sollecito's trial is now in its third month and Amanda is starting to show signs of wear and tear.

"These last few hearings, I have noticed a change in that she perhaps now realizes the seriousness of the situation," Pisa says. "And I think her demeanor has changed considerably from that that we saw at the beginning of the trial to now. …it suddenly hit her what's going on here."

Amanda’s ordeal won’t end anytime soon. This trial is expected to last into the fall.

"At some stage, we expect both Amanda and Rafaela to get the witness box, and to give their version of what happened that night," says Pisa.

Everyone expects Amanda and Raffaele to again swear their innocence. But Preston says it may not matter. He doesn’t think Amanda can get a fair trial. "Public opinion is so against her that there will be an uproar if she's acquitted," he says.

Preston, who says he will probably never go back to Italy, is worried that Amanda will be there for a very long time. "I mean say goodbye to Amanda. She will return from her semester abroad a 50-year-old Italian woman after her 30 years in prison.”

Curt Knox says he cannot accept that innocent people are sometimes convicted.

"I mean, having that as even a possibility, you just can't think about that. You just have to rely on the system understanding the facts, and seeing that she had nothing to do with this."

But the Italian system is allowing something unheard of in the United States. Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini is leading the case against Amanda even though he’s been accused of breaking the law himself -- under indictment for a series of serious crimes, including abuse of office, obstruction of justice and illegally wiretapping journalists.

"I have no idea how a person who has been charged with crimes related to his work continues to work," says Mellas. "But that's the system over there. And when I ask they say, 'Well, he's not-- he's not guilty of anything yet.'

"It does seem rather odd that we have a prosecutor who is accused of abuse of power, and at the same time, he's the lead prosecutor in the in the Meredith Kurcher case," says Pisa.

"I think in the U.K. and in the U.S. we wouldn't get to that situation. He would be asked to step down."

No one expects a verdict in the case against Mignini for a long time. But if he is convicted, "he could face jail of two years. The Meredith Kercher murder trial will be over by the time a sentence is reached on Mignini," says Pisa.

A few months ago, Amanda turned 21 behind bars. Her mother was with her. "My birthday is the day after hers. And I was there at that time. So we held each other and sang happy birthday to each other."

Amanda’s parents are praying their daughter won’t have to celebrate any more birthdays in jail.

"You get to see her twice a week for an hour a day," says Curt Knox. "You get to hold her; you get to talk to her. But…"

"To watch them take her away - and then you have to leave her there," says a sobbing Mellas, is "unbearable."

---

Amanda Knox faces a maximum sentence of life.
If she’s convicted of murder, under Italian law, there will be an automatic appeal.

Amanda was scheduled to graduate from college this summer.

[overlawed-overtaxed]

sex games? yeh, there's games allright judge and prosecuter
games.

[kbo-1976]

Right sex games the prosecutor wishes. I think he is the sick and perverse one!

[msday1]

What kind of young woman would write a fictional tale about another young woman being held down and raped? This was on her myspace page and it was written before she arrived in Italy.

What kind of young man writes that he has an obsession with serial killers and keeps a collection of manga comics depicting sexual violence? This was on his myspace page and the comics were found at his house.

If you arrived at your house and found that there was a break-in, what would you do? Amanda noticed blood stains, called her one of her Italian roommates to tell her about it, and then decided to take a shower.

The police arrived to see Meredith because both of her cellphones were found. Amanda and her boyfriend were sitting on the steps. The police went in, broke down the door and found Meredith's body.

Now ask yourself, if you came in noticed a broken window and saw blood, wouldn't that make you anxious and curious enough to walk cautiously through the house and check each room? As a woman, wouldn't you be afraid that someone was still hiding in the house? What would make you feel comfortable enough to take a shower? Why wouldn't you say to yourself, "f--the shower, I'm calling the police!"

After the police inform you that your roommate was in her room, with a slashed throat under a Duvet, wouldn't that freak you out? Wouldn't you be in shock, shedding some tears, looking sideways at the boyfriend you have only known for 4 days? Would you feel sexy enough to stand outside kissing and hugging?

Just because she is a white and wholesome looking American girl, it doesn't mean that she is not as guilty as homemade sin. This article is biased towards Amanda. It is an attempt to portray her as a sacrificial lamb.

If you are innocent, no matter how many times someone hits you in the head, you don't admit something you didn't do. You also don't write in your prison journal about how "special" you are and how the police can't "prove" that you were in the house. The word "prove" is not a word, an innocent person would use.

[seadoo1a]

For the ones calling CBS bias and one way, CBS showed you facts. They didnt make anything up. The knife that the Italian government says is the knife does not fit the imprint left by the real knife. Also there were many more cuts on the victim that the police did not match or for that matter try to match to anything either. And the Italians own words hurt them as well when they say Amanda was not the cleanest person in the world. Well If she is not so clean, then explain how not one person, but two people did not leave one shread of evidence in a room where supposedly 4 people were fighting or as they want to call it a sex orgy gong wrong? They caught the real murder which who's DNA, Hair, etc was found ALL OVER THE CRIME SCENE!!. I say It again FACT's. Amanda's DNA is on a knife that was not at the crime scene, but in a drawer at her boyfriends house and as stated before, Let See, Boyfriends house, Im sure her DNA is all over her boyfriends house and the knife the italian say is the knife, does not even match the imprint left by the real knife, and they could not WITHOUT A DOUBT match the DNA to the victim. For you people that say she is guilty, then where is the evidence. You want to talk about her confession, Ok, She didnt even know how to speak Italian that well at that time, and the Italian government questioned her for more than 14 hours with no lawyer present or translator for her. I wonder how many time she asked to speak to a lawyer or translator? I personally seen police tactics for interogating a suspect which they sit you in a room and if you don't know is called a post arrest and it is not pretty especially after 14 hours. They scream at you, they try to twist your words, call you a liar the whole time. So I personally can understand how she would say anything just to get them to leave her alone. You have no idea what you are talking about if you think this girl is guilty. Just the way the Italian police handled the case makes me suspisous of them " Based on the FACTS they presented". You think she is guilty, then point out real evidence when you make your statement. There is not one shread of evidence that says she is or was even in the same room at the time of the crime. As a few have stated here, Makes me afraid to go to another country. By the way, I am of hispanc nationality. I hope they get her out of that sick place and bring her home where she belongs.

[wakeywakeyhandsoffsnakey]

Where to start.

Ok - well the knife found at the boyfriends house had Knox DNA on the handle and Kercher DNA on the blade. The DNA patterns were consistent with the knife being used as a weapon.

Kercher had never been to the boyfriends house. Knox had only been seeing him for 6 days.

The knife itself had been washed very recently in bleach. Not soap - bleach. Who washes a knife in bleach?

Oh - and it was the same bleach that Knox had been buying early on the morning after Kerchers murder, when her alibi had her in bed with the boyfiend. A little odd, yes?

The italians questioned her in English.

Knox blamed the bar owner, and stood by the story for days, until several witnesses gave him a REAL alibi. Knox has never apologied to him for the attempted frame up. Instead several months later malicious rumors that Knox had been 'slapped' by the Italian police into making the accusation surfaced, at about the same time the Knox family engaged a PR firm to handle their propoganda war/smear campaign.

'There is not one shread of evidence that says she is or was even in the same room at the time of the crime.'

Other than the testimony of the guy who was jailed for 30 years. Knox held a knife to Kerchers neck, as boyfriend held her down (leaving DNA on her bra) and other guy attempted rape.

Wake up.

[kbo-1976]

wakeywakeyhandsoffsnakey I was wash my knives in a solution of bleach and soap to prevent salmonella poisoning after cutting meat. You can actually buy Dawn with bleach on the shelf, but I like mine stronger...and no I have never killed my roommates!

[chloesmama]

This was not a biased story by CBS however I can see how if you are ignorant and unable to use reason in your judgment, you might believe that it was biased. I find it to be unbelievable that a young girl regardless of her country would be held and convicted with a lack of evidence and without a fair chance at justice. This story makes me hesitate to travel to another country where a vengeful and corrupt prosecutor can make his own rules and enforce his own laws. Shame on Italy and shame on the Italian government for allowing an egotistical maniac to prosecute people who are most likely more law abiding than him. Every person should imagine what if this was your daughter?

[wakeywakeyhandsoffsnakey]

Lack of evidence.
Fair chance of justice.

All opinions I'm afraid. Opinions based on you WANTING Knox to be innocent, and refusing to see the facts as presented.

In Italy the prosecution dont get to influence the decision quite like they do in the USA. You dont get OJ Simpson trials in Perugia.

Six jurors and two judges, and a web of Knox lies and deceipt. If she was innocent, then she sure as h.ell didnt act like it. And the EVIDENCE didnt point to it.

[wakeywakeyhandsoffsnakey]

Except there was evidence wasnt there. 26 years worth of evidence.

Just because you want something to be true, doesnt mean that it is.

American bashing? Enough of your own countrymen are doing that to you for me to need to do it. Not everyone in the USA has bought into the friends_of_foxy propoganda thankfully.

No evidence...LOL.

[angelicmuze]

My Uncle was a juror, He arrived here with us in US today. He has fled Italy and will not return. He fears for his life , the post that said he dead girl phone was taken from her was not correct. All Jurors were told to say the american girl was guilty. No one goes against the man. My uncle feels bad for Mr. Patrick as he was wrong black man seen leaving the dead girl.. .... My uncle asks please pray for all the innocent.

[4avocats]

If that's the case, he should be talking to the tabloid press. How ironic to have him paid for the TRUTH when the only two things leading to the conviction were the prosecutor's sick sick mind and the tabloids paying people for lies.

[kbo-1976]

If that is the case, then he needs to step up and do something! This is just wrong, wrong, wrong!!!!!

[kbo-1976]

It bothers me that this has become an American bashing issue, yet most of the people bashing Americans are doing so based on what they think Americans believe or feel. If you have not spoken to or polled a large body of the American public and are basing your views on media, or what you see or hear in movies...that is sad. Get your facts straight other wise please shut your mouth. You make the Europeans that I know embarrassed to be identified as an ignorant member of your society such as yourself! As a matter of fact I seriously doubt that you know what most Americans are thinking and feeling about any given situation!!!

[wakeywakeyhandsoffsnakey]

Justice has been done.

A big thanks to all those shills from FriendsOfFoxy, whos xenophobic and often racist attacks towards Italy helped get the verdict. You forced the Kerchers into a propaganda war to get justice for their daughter. The nationalistic call to arms was nothing short of criminal, when all the Kerchers ever wanted to do was mourn the murder of their daughter and see the whole sorry episode ended.

You should be ashamed. You have made your country a laughing stock in the eyes of the rest of the world.

[kbo-1976]

Oh shut up no they haven't there was not one spot of real evidence against that girl!

[albertinamel]

Though I am sorry for their loss, I have no respect for the Kerchers. Their sadness is clouding their reason. They don't really care about justice. All they care about is exacting the same kind of pain on others that they feel in hopes that it will make them feel better. One word from them about how absurd this case and its supposed "evidence" has been, and it would have been dropped. But nobody ever wants to point a finger at them and their complicity in ruining yet another girl's life.

[albertinamel]

This case was a sham from the start and would have been thrown out immediately in the UK, Kercher's homeland. The reason CBS's portrayal seems "one-sided" is that all the evidence truly points away from Knox & Sallecito. There's no motive and no evidence placing Knox or her boyfriend at the scene of the crime when it happened, not to mention the "hang 'em high and ask questions later" nature of the Italian prosecution. It's like Texas justice in the 1800s or worse.

And what the hell is with people judging her light-hearted nature afterward? That suggests that she didn't think she had anything to worry about b/c she thought she was just called in to give some helpful info to the police, never suspecting they would point the finger at her. If she had acted dour & somber, they would have criticized her for that, saying she was hiding her crime. It's a no-win situation. Anything you do or say will be construed as guilt if someone already believes you're guilty.

Personally, I think she should have been found guilty of providing false testimony to police when she implicated Lumumba, but that's it. Even that would be questionable in the US or UK, since it was a story obtained under duress.

I know the US is unpopular overseas, but this is nothing more than nationalistic payback from the Italians, certainly not justice. I honestly don't have much respect for the Kerchers, either. I'm sorry for their loss. But they got their man: Guede. Wrongfully convicting two more people won't bring their daughter back. It's time to get Hillary involved.

[Foobaby1]

I am infuriiated and outraged by the guilty verdict against Amanda. However after reading Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi's book The Monster of Florence and the afterword in which Mr. Preston spoke of Amanda's case I am, sadly, not surprised by it. This is another travesty of justice once again created by the enept law enforcement of Italy. I am shocked that such a beautiful and seemingly civilized country as Italy could have such a pathetic justice system. I am saddened by Amanda's plight and sincerely hope that her lawyers and parents can create an appeal to free her. More Amercans should be made aware of Amanda's situation. My thoughts and prayers go out to Amanda and her family.

[Fabby09]

I agree with Miss-Manero. I am also very shocked by the biased by the CBS report on this case. I followed the case form the beginning and I have no doubt that Amanda Knox is guilty. Shame on CBS.
I do not know if I can trust 48 hours after this report. Rest in peace Meredith!