Friday, December 18, 2015
Knox Calunnia Trial #2: Judge Receives Arguments Of Prosecution And Knox; Verdict In New Year
Posted by Our Main Posters
Court in session 7 September in Florence with Knox a no-show
1. Latest Development
We are informed that the final arguments to the judge by both sides have been submitted in writing.
We will summarise and/or fully translate them, hopefully next week. Next step is the verdict from Judge Boninsegna, which may come early in the New Year.
Below is a reposting of the background to this unusual case, and Machiavelli’s reports from the court on 7 September.
Such trials are very rare. Usually it is only organized crime figures that in the course of a trial impugn police and prosecutors who in Italy are much respected. Defendants rarely even get on the stand, and if they do so, they invariably follow the advice of defence counsel to not dig themselves in any deeper.
In contrast, Knox pretty well went haywire. NOBODY in Italy has ever believed her. Not her own lawyers, nor multiple hearings & trial judges, or the skeptical media, or the watching population, or Hellmann & Zanetti, or even Marasca & Bruno… Not even Curt Knox! He failed to turn up to give scheduled defense testimony that could have helped Amanda Knox last September.
Gee, thanks, Curt….
And she has left her own lawyers handicapped, as they had publicly counseled Knox to stop escalating her claims about illegal coercion at her “interrogation” on 5-6 November 2007.
Their filing probably needs to be especially careful to avoid their own liability.
2. Background To Calunnia Trial
This trial focuses on the claims of Amanda Knox at trial in 2009. Charges for malicious claims in her book will fall to another court, probably also in Florence. Oggi is already on trial for republishing some of them.
There seems no parallel in US or UK legal history to this - to a defendant testifying prolifically for two days to crimes by investigators, in spite of even more days of prior testimony which all pointed the other way.
Seemingly under strong pressure from her own family Knox willingly took a huge legal risk which her own lawyers had warned her about again and again, sometimes publicly, over nearly two years.
They never ever lodged even one complaint. Nor did the US Embassy in Rome, which monitored all sessions in court, and often checked her out (as did Italian MP Rocco Girlanda) in prison at Capanne.
The Massei court and the watching audience in Italy (read here and here) bought none of it. Knox still served three years for framing Patrick. Not even Judge Hellmann bought into her claims. Certainly not the Supreme Court.
The current trial in Florence was preceded by an investigation by Florence prosecutors, who bring the charges and argue them because Knox impugned officers of the justice system in their official roles.
Prior to today the prosecutors’ investigation report had only been released to Knox’s defense. So we don’t yet know if the charges extend beyond Knox’s claims of having been abused into a false “confession” on 5-6 November 2007.
Post #1 of our ongoing Interrogation Hoax series points toward what investigators testified to at trial.
Four months later Knox contradicted them at length as summarised in our two posts here and here: “The Amanda Knox Calunnia Trial In Florence: What It Is All About”
3. Machiavelli Reports From Trial 7 September
1. Tweets from the Florence court:
16. Zugarini was present throughout the interrogation and described when #amandaknox started to cry, remembered her peculiar hand-ear gestures.
15. Napoleoni testified #amandaknox was brought a chamomille when she started crying at 01:45, the interrogation was immediately stopped.
14. Napoleoni and Zugarini said they “cuddled” Knox because she was a 20-year old girl.
13. Both Mignini and Zugarini described having had impression that #amandaknox was feeling “relieved of a burden” after accusing Lumumba.
12. Mignini said Knox was not clearly a suspect to him by the 05:45 interrogation.
11. Witnesses had inaccurate memory on some details, but were convergent on some peculiar details.
10. Napoleoni said she did not enter interrogation room, she called Rita Ficarra out to talk to her.
9. Zugarini said, as for her knowledge, Knox was not told that Sollecito withdrew her alibi.
8. Zugarini said called interpreter only to ask #amandaknox more precise questions about people in her phone contact list.
7. Zugarini said #amandaknox was able to explain herself in Italian. They called an interpreter to translate what police had to say.
6. Testimony of Mignini was descriptive and framed thing in law. Mostly talked at length explaining alone, prosecutor listened.
5. In today’s hearing, Mignini talked 2 hours, confirmed arrived at 3am, police interview was over, he asked no questions of AK.
4. Napoleoni was precise and synthetic. Zugarini longer and IMO more interesting on many details.
3. Mignini and Judge Boninsegna appeared irritated by Dalla Vedova’s remarks.
2. Long hearing of Mignini at trial against Amanda Knox for calunnia. Napoleoni & Gubbiotti followed, then Zugarini
1. Testimony of some of the investigators accused by Knox and the lead prosecutor Dr Mignini [image above] is being taken in court.
[Reporting from the Florence court sometimes requires a wait to get to a place where mobile phones can connect to the outside.]
2. Emailed report following day (8 September):
No Knox calunnia session required today as last Friday and yesterday both sides completed their witness list.
Amanda Knox and Curt Knox chose not to testify.
Now Judge Boninsegna has ordered each side to prepare their arguments within three months (7 December).
The verdict is likely to arrive in the New Year.
Posted by Our Main Posters on 12/18/15 at 02:25 PM in Defendants in court, Amanda Knox, Trials 2008 & 2009, Knox on stand, The legal followups, Italian related, Hoaxes against Italy, 2 Italian mileu hoax, 3 No evidence hoax, 9 Mignini v Knox hoax, Hoaxes Knox & team, 16 Interrogation hoax, Hoaxers from 2007, Knox-Marriott PR
Comments
Good to see Mignini in above photo. I was thinking today how his daughters must be growing up, taller and more mature, perhaps ready for computer games for Christmas or the Italian equivalent of Best Buy certificates. Hardly the young girls they were when their father first took this case. How fortunate to have a dad with integrity.
Also Meredith’s birthday approaches this month. I was thinking of Meredith’s white feather sign to her father, possibly a sign of an angel or the Holy Spirit who appeared at Jesus’ baptism as a dove.
Christmas is a few days away and the year 2016 almost upon us. Then we’ll hear the verdict on Knox calumnia. Knox was blameshifting, I hope the judge rules fairly. Knox could have put a lid on her accusations and saved herself more grief, shoulda listened to Ghirgha.
Posted by Hopeful on 12/19/15 at 01:32 AM | #
Timely reminder as always. Yes, perhaps its time to look around and see if there is any season’s cheer.
Not so obvious this year; though in Italy the bent M&B verdicts (actually two: March and September) are getting nibbled to death. Slow-motion but good guys there never give up.
There are advances on Syria and climate change, and the US has already got quite a good 2016 budget so it wont rattle the worlds economy in 2016.
The UK might stay in the EC though its a tough call for some and the EC really does need to be rethought. If north and south Italy had their own currencies both ends would roar ahead.
Best macro-news by far seems to me to be on the energy/good-growth front. Windpower and solar power have finally reached economic mass, and conservation has sent oil prices to the floor.
Best news of all which many have hoped for years to read?
A nuclear fusion power-generation breakthrough - in Germany, when just about everyone had thought it would come in the US.
If Germany can get right the final inventions, we’ll have infinite cheap non-polluting power, which could even drive machines to put the climate back in balance and the North and South Poles to re-freeze.
For rebalancing the economy of the Middle East to allow real growth and reduce passions, and for smog-ridden Beijing, and for the forests and fish and polar bears (and our own shoreline in New York!) this could come to be the 21st century’s best news.
Stay tuned!!
Posted by Peter Quennell on 12/19/15 at 05:26 PM | #
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