Amanda Knox Judges Offer "Lies, Nonsense" About Murder Verdict, Says Consultant
Photo: Amanda Knox.
Private investigator Paul Ciolino, a CBS News consultant, says a document issued Thursday by Italian judges explaining the murder convictions of Knox, of Seattle, and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, was written to justify the court's "crazy decision."
Ciolino told Crimesider the verdicts remain "more about national pride and anti-Americanism than about justice."
Knox and Sollecito were convicted last December of murdering her roommate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher of Britain, in 2007, in Perugia, Italy where Knox was an exchange student. The judges newly declare that there are no "gaps or inconsistencies" in the original verdicts, while saying Knox and Sollecito acted without premeditation. The murder was carried out "without any planning, without any animosity or rancorous feelings toward the victim," the document says.
Rather, it upholds the prosecution theory at trial that the couple killed either during sexual advances that got out of control, or were fueled by drugs, or perhaps both.
Ciolino called the judges' explanation "lies, half-truths, and nonsense," saying it points up the "silliness" of the theory of a sex-game gone wrong. He said the verdict against Knox was "pre-ordained" and the document could have been written before the trial.
The CBS News consultant also said Knox is in jail "because she's an American and because she smoked dope."
Knox, now 22, has said that she and Sollecito, 25, smoked marijuana the night of the murder. However, she maintains she spent the night at Sollecito's house and was shocked and saddened to learn of her roommate's slaying the following morning.
The judges said Kercher, a 21-year-old Briton, was murdered in the apartment she shared with Amanda Knox by Knox, Sollecito and another man, Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast citizen who also was convicted of murder in a separate trial.
The court's explanation of the "motivation" for the verdicts is standard in Italian trials, and clears the way for planned appeals, which a statement from the Knox family says will now begin immediately.
Knox was sentenced to 26 years in jail, while Sollecito got 25 years.
MORE ON CRIMESIDER
March 4, 2010 - Italian Judges Still Sure Amanda Knox a Killer
December 23, 2009 - Rudy Hermann Guede Will Get Out of Jail Before Amanda Knox for Meredith Kercher's Murder
December 16, 2009 - Amanda Knox May be Joined in Jail by the Prosecutor That Put Her There
December 4, 2009 - Amanda Knox Verdict: Italian Jury Will Announce Decision at 6 P.M. Eastern
December 3, 2009 - Amanda Knox Pleads With Jury: I'm No "Assassin"
December 1, 2009 - Lawsuits Fly in Amanda Knox Murder Trial
November 24, 2009 - Amanda Knox: Sex-Game Murder Charge is "Pure Fantasy;" Italian Prosecutors Want Life Sentence
November 20, 2009 - Amanda Knox Trial: Convicted Killer Fingers Knox for Meredith Kercher Murder
June 19, 2009 - Knox's Mom Says Daughter, Victim Got Along
June 15, 2009 - "Always A Crescendo:" Amanda Knox Talks About Murder Investigation On Stand
June 12, 2009 - Knox's Alibi: Sex, Drugs And Sleep