Amanda Knox

The Associated Press just reported that Italy's highest criminal court, the Court of Cassation, ruled today that an appeals court in Florence must re-hear the case against Amanda Knox and her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the slaying of Meredith Kercher, a British exchange student.

This is a travesty of justice. All U.S. citizens should immediately cease traveling to and trading with Italy.

The following is what I wrote about the case back on July 31, 2011:

Amanda Knox is Innocent

by Dee Newman

Shortly after Meredith Kercher's murder a series of lies were leaked to the Italian media for the sole purpose of destroying the credibility of Amanda Knox. By the time the trial began “Foxy Knoxy” had already been found guilty in the court of public opinion.

According to the prosecution the murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher was the result of "a satanic ritualistic sex orgy."

The prosecution, however, never presented during the trial any facts to back up the claim.

Without any evidence supporting the prosecution’s theory, the trial judge dismissed the so-called “sex game theory” and came up with one of his own – jealousy.

The judge proposed that Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, after hearing Miss Kercher's screams joined in a sexual attack already in progress by Rudy Guede. He surmised this despite the fact that the testimony delivered in court painted the relationship between Knox and Kercher as friendly. There was absolutely no evidence ever presented to support his supposition.

It is beyond my understanding how a jury would fall for such a ludicrous hypothesis. One would have to imagine that Knox and her boyfriend hearing the attack decided to help a relatively unknown intruder, sexually assault and then stab Miss Knox’s friend and roommate to death.

In the end, lacking any rational motive, the trail came down to DNA evidence.

Unfortunately, for the prosecution, there was not a single piece of DNA from Miss Knox found at the bloody crime scene. Not one.

However, there was abundant DNA evidence matching Rudy Guede found both on and inside Miss Kercher's body, as well as, on her shirt, bra and handbag.

Now get this – the prosecution claimed that Knox and Sollecito while cunningly leaving behind multiple DNA evidence leading to Rudy Guede, thoroughly cleaned up any trace of them being envolved.

Picture for a moment a very bloody murder scene in a small confined student’s bedroom. There was blood everywhere – bloody hand-prints on the headboard of the bed and on the cupboard, and bloody foot prints on the floor – all of which implicated and convicted Rudy Guede of the crime. But, nothing – absolutely no DNA evidence at the crime scene connecting Miss Knox to the murder.

Let’s be honest – it is inconceivable that two young students stoned from marijuana and alcohol, in the grip of a so-called “sadistic sexual fever” would have the wherewithal to mop up just their blood, remove just their hairs and wipe away any and only their bodily fluids before they made their escape.

How, I ask, was a jury ever convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were murders?

The only DNA evidence supposedly linking Miss Knox to the murder was found on the handle of a kitchen knife recovered not from the crime scene but from her former boyfriend’s flat – a knife that the prosecution claimed had Miss Kercher's DNA on the blade.

The only DNA evidence linking Raffaele Sollecito to the murder was allegedly found on a metal bra clasp of Miss Kercher.

This past Monday two court-appointed independent forensic experts presented findings from a 145-page report they wrote after studying the DNA evidence.

The forensic experts testified that a series of police blunders had severely contaminated the DNA evidence.

They also testified that although Miss Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of the so-called murder weapon, there was no DNA from the victim found on the knife

As for Miss Kercher’s bloody bra clasp that allegedly had DNA from Raffaele Sollecito on it – the experts said it was so badly handled by the police that it was impossible to test.

Their report concluded that the DNA evidence used to convict Miss Knox and Raffaele Sollecito did not adhere to international standards, and therefore, was unreliable, and that the previous test results could have been the result of contamination. The report concludes that the police either mishandled evidence and/or failed to follow proper procedures for the collection of forensic evidence 54 times.