Friday, December 16, 2011
Our Translation Of Today’s Corriere Newspaper Report On The Hellmann Motivation Document
Posted by ziaK
Click image above for the original. This is today’s straight reporting. In-depth commentary should start appearing soon.
The appeal court: “There is no proof of offence” : Amanda and Raffaele are good kids
The report contradicts the first instance judgment: “The motive - of an unplanned choice of evil without purpose by two good youngsters, who were well-disposed towards others - is improbable”
MILAN - The board of appeal judges, which acquitted the two young folk of the charge of having murdered Meredith Kercher, talks of the “essential baselessness” of the elements upon which the Court of the first instance based their conviction of Raffaele Sollecito and of Amanda Knox.“There is no proof of guilt” with regard to Amanda and Raffaele, writes the judges of the Appeal court of Perugia, in the “reasoning” report on the second-grade acquittal ruling, which was published on Thursday. This baselessness, according to the report, “takes precedence over even the equivocality of those same elements”.
“BUILDING BLOCKS” OF THE CONSTRUCTION - In the 144 pages which must be lodged before 3 January, the judges who wrote the report claim that “those same building blocks” which led the first-instance judges to convict Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox “had failed”. “The Assizes Court of the first instance felt the need to seize upon a motive which, however, while it was not corroborrated by any element of proof, was in itself entirely improbable”, says the report, which demolishes, brick by brick, the structure upon which the judges of the first instance based their verdict of guilt.
GOOD KIDS - “The unplanned choice, by two good young folk, who were well-disposed towards others, of evil for evil’s sake, without any other purpose, is even more incomprehensible because it was aimed at upholding the criminal acts of another youth, Rudy Guede, with whom they had no relations, and is unlike their own personal histories, character and human condition.”
RUDY GUEDE - The judges set out these considerations, reflecting briefly on Rudy Guede’s definitive sentence to 16 years of incarceration for his participation in Meredith Kercher’s murder. In the reasoning report, they explain that the hypothesis of the participation of several people in carrying out the crime had been set out in the Ivorian’s appeal-court conviction [which had] “basically upheld all the arguments put forward by the prosecutor”.
According to the judges who acquitted Sollecito and Knox, however, “an analysis of every single element on which the hypothesis of joint contribution [to carrying out the crime] leads one, at the least, to doubt the necessary participation of several people in perpetrating the crimes in question”. The Assizes court of appeal therefore stated that they could “concur with” the appeal court conviction with regard to Guede’s responsibility, without “assuming that this conviction has any probatory relevance” as far as determining the responsibility of Sollecito and Knox is concerned.
“The only evidentiary elements which remain unopposed (the crime of “calunnia’ towards Patrick Lumumba) but without the aggravating circumstance, the incompletely demonstrated truth of the alibi, and the dubious reliability of the witness (Quintavalle), when taken as a whole, do not even allow us to hold that the guilt of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito has in any way been clearly demonstrated”.
AMANDA UNDER STRESS - “Over and above the formal aspect”, the judges write, “the context in which those declarations were made was clearly characterized by psychological conditions which had become, for Amanda Knox, a truly unbearable burden. In that context, it is understandable that Knox, yielding to the pressure and to fatigue, had hoped to put an end to the situation, by giving to those who were interrogating her what they, at heart, wanted to hear: a name, an assassin.
By giving “the news” of that name to those who were interrogating her so harshly, Amanda Knox hoped, no doubt, to put an end to that pressure, by then - after many hours - a real torture, while adding details and building a brief story around that name was surely not particularly difficult, since many of the details and many conjectures had already appeared the previous day in many newspapers, and were in any case doing the rounds of the town, given the small size of Perugia”.
According to the judges, furthermore, for Amanda “it would have been easier to name the real author of the crime” because “basically, she lived in that house, and to have been there at the time the crime was committed, in her own room, perhaps entertaining [herself with] Raffaele Sollecto, would have been a completely normal circumstance, to the extent that it would certainly not entail responsibility for a crime committed in the room beside [hers]”.
WHO MUST JUDGE - “Having excluded the existence of the proof of guilt which the two current defendants are charged with”, the judges write, “it is not up to this Court to suggest how the affair [the crime] might really have been carried out. Nor whether the author of the crime was one or more than one person, nor whether or to what extent other investigative hypotheses might have been neglected.”
Comments
Why the same considerations do not apply to Rudy Guede?
Oh, I forgot, he does not look innocent! He does not have a two million dollar PR agent appointed on the 3rd day!
By their own admissions, these two “good young folks” are also drug addicts!
Posted by chami on 12/16/11 at 06:58 PM | #
12/16/11
I’m having some good times this Christmas, it’s a glorious tonic against the injustice of this case. Christmas music in my car, radio on top of microwave, TV humming in living room and bedroom, and a Harry & David fruitcake. I baked fruitcake last year loaded with apricot brandy, best ever, but too much work.
Along with some art magazines, my daughter gave me a December 2011 “Self” and “Allure” magazine. Yikes, whom should I see on page 175 but Amanda Knox in Allure article, “Hating the Beautiful”. Nina Burleigh was quoted. The premise is that beautiful people are feared to be more egotistical and vainer than average, blah blah boring. Much more enjoyable were the samples of perfume in the magazine. It’s better to concentrate on Charlize Theron in her gorgeous gold dress as she advertises “J’Adore” than reel from the stink of liars and con artists who have escaped justice.
Britney Spears fragrance “Radiance” says Choose Your Own Destiny. There’s “Acqua di Gioia” (water of joy?) and Versace’s “Bright Crystal” “Cashmere Mist”, also a “Midnight Rose”. All smell better than the stench of this report saying Toto was wrong, Quintavalle was wrong, Nara was wrong, Stefanoni was wrong, everybody was wrong except a young liar.
Like Werner, I think Amanda will pay for her crimes in the emotions if not in the jailhouse. As Dickens’ character kept saying until it came true, “Something will turn up.” In this case, it may amaze us how justice is finally wrought.
Someone commented that Hellman turned a blind eye to the footprint on the blue rug which we know is not Rudy’s. It’s Raffaele’s. In blood! Best part of the motivation report so far is Mignini’s comment that they will surely appeal against it. Oh, Mignini. We can always count on you for truth.
In between trying to understand this Report, I’ll take breaks. All you folks have a merry Christmas. The Amanda clan will try to wrest Christmastime to promote her notoriety and prominence. They ride the earthly timing, but they can’t get on top of eternal things. I agree with Ergon’s quote about battle not to the swift nor to the strong, but time and chance happen to them all. It’s not over.
Another poster said a simple thing that was profound, that Amanda should look so happy now if she had truly escaped wrongful conviction. She should be deliriously happy, radiant with vindication. But she’s not so happy. Her mom is, you can see it in recent Edda pix. Amanda, not so much. She should be the happiest person alive if she were truly escaped from an undeserved snare. Amanda should not be simply relieved, but happy and exuberant. Instead she heads for a punching bag as if fearing physical attack. She takes up Krav Maga for what, her next time behind bars, to not feel vulnerable? It should be Amanda’s happiest Christmas ever.
Well, back to my spice cake and fiber optic tree, snowman in window, candy cane lights and tiny Disney tree by bedside. My dwarf pear tree in front yard sprouted a tuft of mistletoe in easy reach. Christmas is normally a yo-yo time for me, up and down or badly down. So here are the good things: the tour of Christmas homes last Saturday and a raid on the mall to buy sweaters and jeans for daughter. But best gift all year long: peace and quiet to read and relax with comedies and History Channel.
“Hark now hear the angels sing,
Listen to what they say,
That man shall live forevermore
Because of Christmas day.”
Posted by Hopeful on 12/16/11 at 10:13 PM | #
Posted by Miriam on 12/16/11 at 10:41 PM | #
Thanks Miriam. Barbie doesnt have much to say as yet but she does warn of the battle ahead. Hellman is in effect going up against FOUR judges: Massei and Guede’s judges at the three levels.
Italian reporting is still confined to quoting from Hellman without overt commentary but the quotes being chosen are pretty hilarious to Italians who know the details of the case.
Such as the “good” qualities of RS and AK and Guede as a drifter, and the supposed long tough interrogation without a lawyer present which caused a desperate Knox to point at Lumumba.
We’re hearing that the prosecutors are bullish in light of such a flaky and factually tendentious report and eager to get on with the appeal request to Cassation. It aint over, that’s for sure.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 12/16/11 at 11:38 PM | #
Let’s keep our finger crossed, Peter. I really hope you are right.
As you say I can’t find any comments about Hellmann ruling in the Italian media. I am hoping Porta a Porta does a show on it…..they are the best.
Posted by Miriam on 12/17/11 at 01:18 AM | #
Reminds me of the Casey Anthony jury, they too, wanted everything wrapped up in a neat little package. They were unable to infer and to properly weigh the circumstantial evidence. I do not believe this will go anywhere. It’s done, AK and RS have gotten away with it.
Posted by MaryK on 12/17/11 at 01:20 AM | #
Somewhere Amanda is saying to herself..see Raffaele I told you my version was believable and would work out.
Posted by Amber2670 on 12/17/11 at 03:48 AM | #
Hellman reasoning is simple….they did not confess!
Posted by starsdad on 12/17/11 at 11:18 AM | #
@MaryK
You do frankly express my misgivings, yet I cannot accept that. Cannot believe that AK & RS “have gotten away with it.”
So I seize on Peter’s confidence that this is far from over. Cassation cannot ignore the prosecution’s appeal. Our human sense of justice demands it.
What I think we cannot—must not—expect is that Amanda & Raffaele will be returned to prison. Too much is against that.
Cassation must surely find them guilty as it must surely express its own measured reproach of the Hellman result. But it may well find the time served in prison as ample-enough penance for the crime.
I look for a decision of guilty, affirming the verdict (but not the sentence) of the original trial whose patience & conscientiousness were admirable.
As for the Knox clan, now briefly triumphant, in the long run they will live in infamy & be remembered with disdain.
Posted by Ernest Werner on 12/19/11 at 01:31 AM | #
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Where next:
Click here to return to The Top Of The Front PageOr to next entry Does A Perverse Fear Factor Account For The Hellmann Jury Breaking The Way It Did?
Or to previous entry Breaking News Thursday: Judge Hellmann’s Sentencing Released In Italian; Responses From Italy Follow