Preview: American Girl, Italian Murder

(CBS)  The CBS News broadcast "48 Hours Mystery" has been following the Amanda Knox case from the beginning and in a special report at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time Saturday Correspondent Peter Van Sant examines a key piece of evidence used to link the killing to Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

In court, the prosecution presented two crucial pieces of DNA evidence to the jury, starting with the knife allegedly used to kill Meredith Kercher.

Is it the murder weapon? The prosecutor says that it was found at Sollecito's apartment.

There was no blood on the knife. But investigators say they did find DNA - Knox's on the handle and Kercher's on the blade.

It sounds like the murder weapon. She handles it, she stabs and it leaves DNA on there.

"That's not necessarily true cause there's always a transfer of evidence when you live with people," CBS News "48 Hours" Consultant Paul Ciolino said. "Amanda's DNA is on a knife that she used that was on a kitchen drawer at Raffaele's apartment. That knife was never at the murder scene. The DNA that purportedly belongs to Meredith on that knife was tested out of existence by the Italians. It was never verified."

There's another problem with the knife. Police discovered two faint knife impressions on Meredith's bed. When the alleged murder knife is compared to those outlines, it doesn't match.

"That's the knife they want you to believe is the murder weapon, but it's not the murder weapon," Ciolino said. "It doesn't fit the outline on the sheets."

[contvvv]

if she was tellng the truth she woudnt have changed her statements, first she said she was in the same house the day of the murder and heard her scream then she changed it saying she was at her boyfriends house, just that makes it clear... what did she want to hide? when we are telling the truth we have nothing to remember.
she is guilty and justice was made.

[ppcccc]

IN REPLY TO us_1776
"ell, it's over for Italy that's for sure. Many in our family have traveled and studied in Italy through the studies abroad program. And taken vacations to most of the cities in Italy. It will be a long time before we're going back" YOU ARE REALLY DOING US A FAVOUR FOR NOT COMING TO ITALY ANYNORE. WE DESPISE IGNORANT RED NECKS LIKE YOU. STRONZA

[voxpopulus]

Against people for whom every new lie and misremember from Knox and Sollecito is further proof of her innocence, there is really no point trying to argue logically. She can't remember what she did that night. Except she can remember the bits that gave her an alibi. She remembers reading Harry Potter in German at Sollecito's place. But the book was at the murder cottage.

[legalwatcher]

I see the Witch Hunt's in America are spreading overseas. A college girl don't go to Italy to become a murderer. Nothing in her past ever indicated anything but a normal honest life. We predict future events by examining the past, that's the only data we have. It seems very unlikely that she did this. Seems like a case of punish the American girl no matter what. My America and Italy both need to start producing solid evidence before convicting people, innocent until proven guilty. the Spanish Inquisition is alive and well again.

[voxpopulus]

Well OJ had never murdered anybody, until he did. There is plenty of evidence. It's the defense's job to try to pick holes in it. They did. It just wasn't convincing enough for the jury. Or me. Or many other Americans. Or Meredith Kercher's family.

[voxpopulus]

Well OJ had never murdered anybody, until he did. There is plenty of evidence. It's the defense's job to try to pick holes in it. They did. It just wasn't convincing enough for the jury. Or me. Or many other Americans. Or Meredith Kercher's family.

[voxpopulus]

Incidentally, Knox first claimed it was Lumumba after just one hour and forty five minutes of questioning as a "witness" not a suspect, before which she'd been out at dinner with Raffaele. This was hardly Guantanamo.

[voxpopulus]

Why did Raffaele admit Kercher's blood was on the knife in his prison diary, and say it was because he had "pricked" her while cooking? Incidentally, this is not the Amanda Knox case. It's the Meredith Kercher case. Get your priorities straight.

[us_1776]

And you have a problem with Raffaele's statement about the knife? They are a bunch of college kids. They were probably horsing around in the kitchen while preparing dinner. Have you never been in the kitchen and had someone turn around and poke you with something accidentally? It happens all the time.

[voxpopulus]

Kercher had never been to Sollecito's kitchen. Nor had she cooked with him. He had not been dating Knox very long.

[kbbpll]

Guilty. Story over.

[us_1776]

Well, it's over for Italy that's for sure. Many in our family have traveled and studied in Italy through the studies abroad program. And taken vacations to most of the cities in Italy. It will be a long time before we're going back.

[voxpopulus]

Fine. There's a certain kind of my fellow countrymen I don't like to meet on my trips to Italy at all. Luckily most of the people saying they won't go don't even have passports.

[us_1776]

There are so many holes in this case you could drive a freight train through them.

There was no pre-planning for this so called satanic sex games theory. No phone calls, no text messages. Amanda's statement to police, was coerced after hours of browbeating and physical abuse. The bra clasp which they claim had the boyfriends dna was shown in the video to be handled over and over by investigators at the crime scene. They could have easily transferred anyones dna onto that clasp, they were handling other items. The knife that was found elsewhere and called the murder weapon did not fit the bloody knife outline on the sheets. In any other court that would have excluded it right there.

What I think happened here is that this nutcase of a prosecutor was waiting for a bribe. He manufactured this case expressly for that purpose. But no bribe was ever offered so he gets a conviction of two innocent college students and it doesn't concern him one bit.

There has already been justice served in this case. The career criminal Guede was caught and convicted on damning evidence. And then the prosecutor had him disposed of and out of sight so that he could pursue his "manufacturered" case against the two rich kids.

[voxpopulus]

It didn't take pre-planning. All it took was "Let's teach that b**** a lesson". There had been plenty of arguments between the two. Certainly the faked burglary was pre-planned. Glass was ON TOP of the clothes the burglar had taken out of Filomena's drawers and thrown on the floor. Who ransacks the drawers first and smashes the window afterwards?

[us_1776]

Every set of roommates has arguments. And the text messages between the two do not support this theory that they hated each other. Quite the contrary. This "burglar" was Guede and he broke the window on the way out to make it look like a breakin and robbery gone bad.

[lorlif]

Any international entity is banking on the fact that foreign visitors, especially Americans, know nothing of their laws and legal systems. This makes travelers vulnerable to accusations and convictions of crimes they never committed. It just goes to show that when one travels abroad, one must be vigilant

[rkendel1]

From the program, I would have to think Amanda and Rafaele are guilty because they never offered an alibi. If they were not there, where were they?? Why wasn't this addressed in the program?

[us_1776]

That's been covered incessantly over the past two years. They were over at the boyfriends apartment where they spent the night.

[voxpopulus]

Except Raffaele has denied this before claiming his right to silence.