AMANDA KNOX APPEAL

Monday, July 25, 2011

#AmandaKnox :Is The Conti-Vecchiotti DNA Review Defamatory? Stefanoni Believes So And May Sue

This looks like really bad news for Amanda Knox and Raffaelle Sollecito. The last straw.
TJMK main poster Fly By Night already described in great detail how suspect and heavily biased is the Conti-Vecchiotti report.
He predicted fireworks by the Scientific Police and prosecution expert witnesses who were seriously and without proper bases impugned. He predicted the fireworks would start tomorrow in court.
But already the fireworks have begun. The Guardian’s Tom Kington (who himself has often seemed to show a pro-Knox bias) reports quoting the UK’s sunday paper The Observer..

mA prominent forensic scientist, whose DNA evidence helped to convict the US student and her former boyfriend, has vowed to overturn the findings of an independent report that says much of her work in the case was unreliable.
Written by two independent experts from Rome’s Sapienza University, the 145-page DNA review rubbishes the work of Patrizia Stefanoni, the police forensic scientist who found Knox’s and Kercher’s DNA on a kitchen knife at Sollecito’s house and identified DNA belonging to Sollecito on a torn bra clasp found beside Kercher’s semi-naked body.
The report claims Stefanoni ignored international DNA protocols, made basic errors and gave evidence in court that was not backed up by her laboratory work, rendering the knife and bra strap worthless as evidence. But Stefanoni has vowed to fight back during three hearings devoted to the DNA reviews.
“I am angry about the false statements in this report and ready to come to court to highlight the past record of these experts,” she told the Observer. “I am also looking into taking legal action against them. What international DNA protocols are they talking about? The Italian police is a member of the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI), while they are not.”...
After discovering there was no DNA left to check on the knife or the bra clasp, the experts retraced the steps taken by Stefanoni, concluding that the DNA trace of Kercher on the blade was so weak it could not be reliably matched – or was at best the result of contamination – and quoted Stefanoni admitting in court she should have double-tested her result to be more convincing.
Stefanoni claimed she had no need to repeat tests since the experts for the defence were on hand to witness her work. “And it was good enough to show it was Kercher’s DNA,” she said. “A small amount, but good quality.”...
The experts quote numerous US police and FBI experts on the risk of low DNA results and poor evidence handling, prompting one Italian police source to claim they were being fed information by Knox’s defence team. (Emphasis added.)

More attempted manipulation behind the scenes that now turns out to be heavy-handed overreach? Good luck to Judge Hellman tomorrow. He appointed the two “independent experts”. And he already almost lost control of his court once.
He will already be getting anxious to protect his good name before the Supreme Court. Unlikely now to buck any trends.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/24/11 at 08:15 AM
Links in right column
Permalink for this post • Tell-a-Friend • Perugia MF Forum • Comments here (12)

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php

#AmandaKnox:DNA experts present report to Italian court in Amanda Knox appeal

http://wapo.st/nARE2n

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Amanda Knox: DNA shocker ?...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/06/27/amanda-knox-appeal-hearing-raffaele-sollecito-waffles.html

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Amanda Knox is far from the first American to face legal trouble abroad. Read ten other cautionary tales:

http://t.co/R7zPAbN

Monday, June 27, 2011

Amanda Knox appeal hears witness was offered sex change cash for evidence

http://t.co/MdnEUVF

Amanda Knox sits in Perugia's court of appeal during her appeal with Raffaele Sollecit against their convictions for murdering British flatmate Meredith Kercher in 2007. Photograph: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

Rudy Guede, the man convicted of killing Meredith Kercher in 2007, has told an Italian court that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito murdered the British student, the first time he has made such an accusation before a judge.

Guede, 24, who has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for killing the student, was called to testify at the appeal being mounted in Perugia by Knox and her former boyfriend Sollecito against their convictions for taking part in the murder.

After entering the court room in handcuffs and without looking once at Knox, Guede confirmed the contents of a letter he wrote from jail last year, in which he claimed he was not involved in the "horrible murder of the splendid and wonderful Meredith Kercher by Knox and Sollecito".

"This is the thought I have always had in my mind," said Guede in court.
Sitting five metres from Guede, an emotional Knox tried to address him, but Guede was hustled from the court room by his police escort before she was allowed to rise and tell the court she was "shocked and anguished" by his accusation. "He knows we were not there and were not involved … I wish I could tell him mistakes can be corrected by telling the truth," she said.

"Raffaele Sollecito, Guede and I have only been in the same place in a court," she added.

After the hearing, Knox's mother Edda Mellas said her daughter, who has been sentenced to 26 years, was determined to address Guede after last seeing him in court two years ago. "Amanda wanted to stand up and tell him to tell the truth," she said. "He had a chance to do something good and didn't."
Kercher, 21, was found lying in a pool of blood with her throat slashed in the apartment she shared with Knox, a student from Seattle, after what prosecutors believe was a sex game gone wrong. After his DNA and fingerprints were found at the scene, Guede was arrested and has now exhausted his appeals.

Before his arrest, he told a friend Knox was not present at the murder, but then, during his first appeal, claimed he had been in the bathroom during the attack, emerging to hear Knox's voice and seeing an unidentified man leaving the scene.

Sollecito, 27, who is serving 25 years, also addressed the court on Monday, stating: "Amanda Knox and I have been fighting against shadows and voices for four years."

Guede was called to testify after a fellow inmate at Viterbo prison, child murderer Mario Alessi, claimed Guede told him Knox and Sollecito were innocent. On Monday Guede denied the claim, calling it "the blasphemy of a sick mind".

The hearing then took a surreal turn as two prosecution witnesses accused a defence lawyer of offering to pay a witness for a sex change in return for favourable testimony.

Luciano Aviello, an inmate from Naples, has previously told the court that Kercher was killed not by Guede, Knox or Sollecito, but by his own brother during a burglary gone wrong. On Monday a fellow inmate of Aviello's called by the prosecution said Aviello had told him he had been offered €70,000 (£62,000) by Giulia Bongiorno, an Italian MP and a lawyer defending Sollecito, to invent the story.

Cosimo Zaccari, who is in jail for fraud, libel, criminal conspiracy and receiving stolen goods, said Aviello had confided in him that "I was contacted to create confusion in the trial".

Zaccari was followed onto the stand by Alexander Ilicet, a Montenegrin who shared a cell with Aviello and claimed the Neapolitan had boasted of being offered €158,000 by Bongiorno, which he planned to use for a sex change.
Monday's hearing marked the last time witnesses will be heard in the appeal before a review of DNA evidence used to convict Knox and Sollecito is completed on Thursday and examined by the court at the next hearing on 25 July.

Defence lawyers say DNA traces from Knox and Kercher found on a knife were too weak to be conclusive.