Monday, February 21, 2011

Italian Media Reporting Injunction And 100 Million Euro Suit Filed In NYC By Sollecito Defense Team

Posted by Peter Quennell


This above is the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York at 500 Pearl Street in downtown.

It is adjacent to the Borough of Manhattan Federal Supreme Court for which we posted an image previously. Italian media including the newspaper Il Giorno are reporting from New York that an injunction request to stop tonight’s showing of the Lifetime film has now been filed at this court by Sollecito’s defense team, with a request that damages for 100 million Euros (about $137 million) be awarded if Lifetime proceed tonight with the airing.

Most of Il Giorno’s long article describes scenes which may or may not be true and damaging and the possible effects on the appeal of Raffaele Sollecito, which has been showing some hints that it may depart from the appeal grounds of Amanda Knox - which to some extent, on the matter of alibis, it already has.

The Lifetime producer Craig Piligian has already spoken out that the film script followed the official record closely (especially the Massei report) and concludes with the verdict and various questions left open. 

We should have more on this later today. We doubt that a Federal judge will grant an injunction to stop the airing of the movie, but not much in this case has proved predictable.

Comments

From one of our excellent lawyers:

See: 419 U.S. 1301 95 S.Ct. 1 42 L.Ed.2d 17
TIMES-PICAYUNE PUBLISHING CORP.
v.
Oliver P. SCHULINGKAMP.
No. A—1305.
July 29, 1974.

“The task of reconciling First Amendment rights with the defendant’s right to a fair trial before an impartial jury is not an easy one. This Court has observed in dictum that newsmen might be prohibited from publishing information about trials if such restrictions were necessary to assure a defendant a fair trial”

However, although the rights of both defendants and victims are emotionally relevant here, the trial is not even in the US; it is in another sovereign nation, which is not even submitting a motion itself.

Furthermore only one defendant is even American, and US citizens famously commit crimes, are tried, and are sentenced all over the world, with no successful attempt to stifle US-Media First Amendment protections.

US-Media First Amendment protections rule supreme in the US.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/21/11 at 08:44 PM | #

Conspiracy theory for dummies…

Now the frenetic little group that Amanda Knox’s own lawyers have repeatedly told to just shut up have come out with an internet video which claims that the Amanda Knox interview lasted a total of FIFTY HOURS and then resulted in…  we are not quite sure what, .

This is the same serious false claim, made more inflammatory, that has the Perugia interrogators already leveling calunnia charge against Amanda Knox and both of her parents. Trials are proceeding - as they would in the US if false claims of criminal activity were leveled. 

What Amanda actually “confessed” to, and why, and when, is fully explained in this post here in response to similar daffy claims by Steve Moore.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/22/11 at 12:19 AM | #

Raphael’s defense team is breaking away from Amanda’s? Does this mean that a deal will be struck with Raphael’s lawyers that will result in him spilling it in exchange for a lesser sentence?

Posted by Barry on 02/22/11 at 12:36 AM | #

Hi Barry. Not necessarily. There is unlikely to be a confession deal at this very late stage. Sollecito’s defence at appeal could be remodeled in two ways.

One, that he was not present. Or two, that he was present, but that he had no idea that Meredith would be fatally stabbed, and he is seriously repentant for having covered up. Either if found credible might result in a little time off.

Extremely unlikely to work but what else does he have going for him? And not going for him is the wildly unpopular Knox PR campaign.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/22/11 at 12:46 AM | #

If I were him, I would have thrown her under the bus on Day 1 of the trial.

Posted by Barry on 02/22/11 at 01:14 AM | #

In written statements each of them in fact tried to accuse the other much earlier than the trial. Each was then seemingly restrained by their respective legal team and the strange kabuki dance began.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/22/11 at 01:34 AM | #

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