Monday, September 26, 2011

Sixteenth Appeal Session: Images Of Main Participants Before Start Of Court Today

Posted by Peter Quennell







Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/26/11 at 07:48 PM in Appeals 2009-2015Hellmann 2011+

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Update post on the proceedings today will follow tonight when our translators have had a chance to digest today’s Italian media reports. 

Patrick’s lawyer Pacelli (top shot and one other above) was very fiery this morning and now the lawyer for the victim’s family’s lawyer is explaining the cruel damage caused.

Looks to be Sollecito’s and Knox’s worst day in court yet, with no chance as this is summation for their lawyers to interrupt.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/26/11 at 08:07 PM | #

Thanks Peter for all the updates on the latest court hearings.

Maresca seems to have been great. I didn’t expect less.

I’m looking forward to read your new articles.

Posted by Nell on 09/26/11 at 08:26 PM | #

Thanks for these welcome photos.

The Amanda photo, the one showing an officer’s hands on her arm as she brushes by Mignini, her arch-foe, is telling.

She seems to have entered court without her dark smile, with downcast eyes, no hint of a nod, without that trace of self-display. The pale face & parted lips are those of someone who has received a blow from which she hasn’t yet recovered.

Was it the simple nearness of Mignini that could drain all color from her face? Or is it the recollection just two days ago of so much that she has striven to forget?

Also uncharacteristic (or is this “photoshopped”): the blank front of a young woman who dresses so as to display herself. But not here.

The contrast to Sollecito is impressive. So is it also revealing? Raffaele looks better than ever here. He’s not wearing that silly expression so often seen in court. And we see nothing of the disdainful indifference of the youth who once held Amanda so gently outside with police about.

Might he know something not yet in view? Know of a surprise or at least a maneuver prepared in his behalf?—of which Amanda has no clue?

As far as these faces may register their experience, I mean of course their feeling of the moment, Sollecito has the better shot at things.  I see nothing of Amanda’s resourcefulness in face or attitude as she brushes by Mignini.

Things may take a surprising turn over the next few days, nicht wahr?

Posted by Ernest Werner on 09/26/11 at 08:48 PM | #

PS
Darn it, Peter, you switched the Amanda photo as I was typing up.
Oh well.

Posted by Ernest Werner on 09/26/11 at 08:49 PM | #

Indeed, Ernest, there may well be surprises tomorrow 😉

Posted by Ergon on 09/26/11 at 09:39 PM | #

Referring to Ms. Bonguirno, of course.

Posted by Ergon on 09/26/11 at 09:40 PM | #

9/26/11
Pacelli rules! Maresca rocks it! Perna pushes envelope on Time of Death!

What a day. Whew. Maresca in closing really brings Meredith alive again in all her glory.

Peter, we have you to thank for your masterful work in keeping this site cued to every major event. Considering the long haul it has been an amazing victory.

How great today to see Meredith front and center once again, and Maresca reminding court that she was killed like a Mafia victim. His big point indirectly was that Italy, a country that loved justice enough to run off the Mafia, was facing a newly arrived Mafia maven from Seattle, and they would know how to put a lid on her, too.

Pacelli denounced Amanda as a split personality, a dual mind both angel and witch in the same person. It happens. His image of Miss Two-Face reflects back on Mignini’s words that hinted at same: we all have a dark side. Don’t be deceived by the mask, naturally one wants to put on a good face for others. I guess on Thursday we’ll hear Amanda’s reaction to all this: “I’m not that girl.”

Posted by Hopeful on 09/26/11 at 10:15 PM | #

Sollecito looks a far cry better that 4 years ago. He looks like a model. Incredible! AK has not had the same luck. I hope conviction be held because I won’t be surprised that RS start to receive offers to be in magazines.

Posted by lulupr on 09/26/11 at 11:50 PM | #

Hi, all.

However it all ends at this and the final appeal I hope we will all come away with a greater understanding of the role PR agencies like Gogerty Marriott play in trying to manipulate public opinion.

Like all of you I care for justice for Meredith Kercher. I also trust the fine work of the Italian judicial system. Justice will be served.

But, as a keen observer of the media for many decades now I see how it is a tool of propaganda. I see corporations and PR agencies produce fake front agencies to greenwash their environmental record, to whip up support for obscene war, and to promote corrupt politicians.

This trial will come to an end soon. One hopes we will all have learned something from it.

Posted by Ergon on 09/27/11 at 12:53 AM | #

@Ernest - There was tweet from either Nadeau or Vogt clarifying that the only statements would come from Knox and Sollecito (as in no witness statements).  I was surprised when I heard that Sollecito might testify; it’s probably nothing more than a simple prepared statement, but I’ve wondered if he’s maybe fed up with this and ready to tell the truth. After all, it’s not his side who invested so much in the innocence campaign. I wonder if his lawyers would try to negotiate a lesser sentence for him in exchange for a full confession; not sure if this is possible in the Italian system.

Posted by Vivianna on 09/27/11 at 01:32 AM | #

Too late, Vivianna, too late.

Posted by ncountryside on 09/27/11 at 01:45 AM | #

@Vivianna
I had much the same thought except for wondering if an arrangement by Giulia Bongiorno had already been made.
ncountryside declares it to be too late for this, having no doubt legal reasons for saying so.

It would be greatly to everybody’s advantage (except Amanda’s) for Raffaele to confess to his role in this crime, remorsefully, & to put the finger on Amanda for cutting Meredith’s throat, & to throw himself on the mercy of the court.

It would vindicate the prosecution, show decisively the justice of the original verdict, save all further wrangling & delay concerning the Supreme Court.  And I see no reason why (if that could be done) Sollecito might not win an early release.

So countryside, you must tell us why it is too late for Sollecito (via Bongiorno) to extricate himself by remorseful confession & a plea for mercy.
Italian law is surely not written on tablets of stone.

Posted by Ernest Werner on 09/27/11 at 02:48 AM | #

It’s interesting to see the many knife wounds (not defensive, but designed by the attackers to intimidate) being raised again in court. And that it is clear evidence of more than one attacker.

In that context I agree with Maresca’s decision to show the picture of Meredith’s fatal knife wound to the neck. Good!

And, the evidence that Amanda Knox transported the knife from Sollecito’s flat to hers speaks so clearly of premeditation.

Posted by Ergon on 09/27/11 at 03:44 AM | #

Several news reports talk about Patrick’s being in jail because of Knox, but none say how long.  They also said Knox eventually recanted her accusation, but again they didn’t say when.  What is crucial is that Knox did not recant her accusation while Patrick was in jail. How do those who believe Knox is innocent justify this cowardly and self serving act by Knox? If Knox claims to have realized after she was away from the so-called intense interrogation that she was innocent and that Patrick wasn’t there, why didn’t she tell the police?  She did tell her mother but that didn’t help Patrick.

Posted by Sailor on 09/27/11 at 04:06 AM | #

Ernest Werner
Having said that I’m not a lawyer… The fast-rack trial, called “rito abbreviato”, that is NOT the american “plea bargain” may be requested by defendant during the preliminary hearing, this time spent, no further market is allowed in Italy. This is the case of Guede, who, among other things, obtained the 1/3 reduction. By confessing, I guess, he could eventually get the mitigating circumstances, crumbs. For italian law, to dodge his responsibilities, he must give proof of a positive action useful to stop the crime. (ie: something like: yes I was there, but I didn’t want to hurt, I didn’t know, Amanda did everything … directly leads to the FULL criminal responsibility)  Can he ?  At this point, imho, the best thing to do is keep the mouth shut and trust in his lawyers’ work (that is his current strategy).

Ergon
D’accordo, il fine giustifica i mezzi….

Sailor
A poetic explanation is given in RS appeal request written by Bongiorno, unfortunately available only in italian in injusticeinperugia.org site, please avoid the sweetened summary in English. In that paper Bongiorno finds useful sometimes defending also Amanda, a wonderful lesson of empty Italian.

All
Sorry for the lame syntax and goodnight.

Posted by ncountryside on 09/27/11 at 04:27 AM | #

Thank you, ncountryside.

Ergon, where did you find that report about the knife?

Posted by Ernest Werner on 09/27/11 at 07:52 AM | #

@Ernest Werner

I had the same thought as you. Amanda looks worse every time, now going towards the end of the appeal. Sollecito on the other hand looks better than before.

I am not sure that we can expect surprises at this stage from his lawyer Bongiorno. I do think that the court focusing so much on Amanda makes Sollecito stay relaxed and fresh faced. Nobody calls him a witch, two-faced or a devil. Everybody believes she was the instigator of the crime and probably the one who inflicted the fatal stab wound. He was never considered the main character.

Amanda said in court that Meredith was her friend and that she would never have hurt her. Raffaele Sollecito made a spontaneous statement to the court, saying he couldn’t hurt a fly. At least one of them is lying.

Posted by Nell on 09/27/11 at 08:09 AM | #

PS
I had (earlier) meant to put in a good word for Amanda & forgot to.

She is on the wrong track entirely, as of yet, in part because of her parents: Curt Knox, rigid, truculent, a one-man propaganda machine & Edda Mellas (?), a mother foolish enough to encourage her daughter in her belief that she can create her own reality by lying.

Certain recent photos show Amanda as a very unhappy young woman. No doubt that she feels sorry for herself, thanks to the immense mess in which she has involved herself. And true also that she shows that schizoid aspect of being able to switch back & forth between good & bad Amanda. That’s not “schizophrenia” at all, however. (In unpublished writings I have analyzed the American Protestant ministry as, today, a profession caught up in the “schizoid predicament,” basing this on a veritable requirement for public falsehood.)

Every moment of self-pity, however, is a moment which may open to further insight—to reality.

Although Amanda’s academic intelligence is overstated & her use of language nothing brilliant, she is gifted in many ways. Had she been brought up in a “close” religious community or another family, given only her natural endowments, she must have been a very different person & “further along.”

Four years of it, so far: four years in a relentless struggle to evade a truth she cannot possibly deny in the privacy of inner thought.

When I have said that she ought to write a confession by way of seeking self-redemption, I mean nothing shallow or hasty by this.  I mean a writing-out in plain simple English (revising as necessary: get a thing said right) a thorough account of what happened in the most complete detail &... the big one: WHY?

Let her only trace out the why of this & the why of that, & the why of the thing before it, & she can achieve—what no psychoanalyst could force upon her—her own illumination. What would this require of her?  Immense courage, zealous determination.  And at some critical stage, a veritable break-down in which the false-self system lies in ruin.

She could do it, unquestionably, in my estimate of her. But who thinks of encouraging her along these lines?

A thing like this could not be done in a year’s time but the point is that it could be done, at all.  Were she ever to make big money for such an undertaking (not out of the question, here) she must of course first pay off all debts.  And then keep the rest: we must ourselves at that (imagined future) point forgive her.

Posted by Ernest Werner on 09/27/11 at 09:09 AM | #

Thanks, Nell. Despite the hour’s difference in our posting, yours had not yet appeared when I (very slowly) composed my own.

Already much earlier I have tried, too feebly, to sign off in these posts.  Powerfully, I have been drawn back again & again…

Come mid-October, I’ll be 80 years old, for me a big number. My dear wife (a miraculous being when now I think back on her & not the least of her qualities: nobility) has been replaced as a companion by my knee-high dog, Oolong.  Whence the insomniac habits & all the other ills that flesh is heir to…

Posted by Ernest Werner on 09/27/11 at 09:36 AM | #

Ernest, if you don’t mind, I’m going to directly quote your comments here on her psychological makeup because it is precisely what I’m trying to put at my blog and at Orphans [a group blog]. 

As this is a Meredith site and should only be that, I can’t leave a url for that post [which will be more political] but the moderator will know how to direct you.

I did a post last evening trying to sort out the timeline of the discovery of the body and am as bamboozled as before. Thanks for your thoughts - it makes things clearer for me.

Posted by James Higham on 09/27/11 at 10:01 AM | #

Does this sound familiar?

van der Sloot “maintained that police tricked him into making a confession, saying they would not let him call his mother, talk to anyone or arrange for an attorney.”

Posted by brmull on 09/27/11 at 10:06 AM | #

@ncountryside. As far as I know, I am not a lawyer too, “rito abbreviato” is not a market/negotiation.
rito abbreviato means that the defendant accepts a limit in the evidences (mainly he accept the evidences brought to the court at that moment by the prosecutor). So more or less defendant thinks that he/she can not or does not want to bring or ask for any other evidences to the court.

While, “patteggiamento” is more similar to Plea bargaining, but “patteggiamento” is not allowed for serious crimes like this. Apart from this any other kind of negotiation is forbidden.

Posted by giuseppe on 09/27/11 at 12:15 PM | #

http://www.http//affaritaliani.libero.it/ultimissime/flash.asp?ticker=270911110850&refresh;_ce

Bongiorno: nulla collega Raffaele a questo delitto
Martedi, 27 Settembre 2011 - 11:08
Perugia, 27 set. - “Nulla collega Raffaele Sollecito a questo delitto. Tutti gli elementi erano su Amanda ma comunque Raffaele doveva essere inserito in qualche modo perche’ aveva passato la notte con lei”. E’ quanto ha sottolineato uno dei legali di Raffaele Sollecito, l’avvocato Giulia Bongiorno nel corso della sua arringa davanti alla Corte di assise di appello che sta processando lo studente di Giovinazzo e Amanda Knox per l’omicidio di Meredith Kercher. C’e’ chi con una fidanzata acquisisce una famiglia - ha detto il legale - Raffaele ha acquisito un delitto. Siccome i due erano insieme quello che era a carico di Amanda e’ a carico anche di Sollecito. Questo e’ un processo ‘amandocentrico’ anche se alla fine non c’e’ nulla neanche su Amanda”. “Nessuno qui mette in discussione che c’e’ stato un efferato crimine - ha detto la Bongiorno -, un fatto imperdonabile. Ma il percorso che oggi dobbiamo fare e’ se questi due ragazzi hanno ucciso e non capire quanto efferato e’ stato questo delitto”.

Bongiorno more or less said: Nothing links Raffaele to this crime. All the evidences were on Amanda, but anyway raffaele somehow should have been involved because he spent the night with her…. Some people find a new family with a girlfriend; he found a murder. As the two were together, what is charged to Amanda is also charged to Raffaele. this case court is all around Amanda, even if nothing is also attributable to Amanda…..

Posted by giuseppe on 09/27/11 at 12:49 PM | #

@nncountryside, Grazie!

@Ernest Werner, congratulations on your 80th. You must look after yourself, as I say to my parents of similar age.

Regarding the knife in the bag, I believe she received an additional sentence for transporting the knife to the cottage (a weapons offense) The nature of the wounds and that many were designed to restrain and intimidate, in fact that they pointed to many attackers, are all contained in the fine Massei Report.

A wise person once said: Having delusions is not a sign of mental illness. The defendants and their supporters have been in a cocoon of delusion for so long.

One more Astrological statement 😊 and it is not to predict the outcome of this trial. Today is the New Moon which falls directly on the horoscopes of the defendants. Over the next two weeks, all delusion will be stripped away. Perhaps now would be the time to accept what must be. They will never be free until they accept responsibility..

Posted by Ergon on 09/27/11 at 02:39 PM | #

@Ernest - I can only hope to be as wise and learned as you are when I get older. 

My friend has worked with sex offenders and says that it can take years of work to make them admit what they did, why they did it, and why it was wrong and should not be done again.  I think that Amanda would be a hard case for anyone, but particularly so as long as her family is involved.

I think that all of us juggle several identities, although the discrepancies between them are not so pronounced as to be considered pathological.  I know that I don’t regale the public with all my flaws, although I am deeply aware of them; I guess the positive thing is that I’m trying to work on myself in the hope that one day, my private and public self will be the same.

For someone like Amanda, it must be incredibly hard, since I suspect she does not even acknowledge the existence of a darker side, so she can’t even begin to reconcile these separate parts. What she did will never be okay, but there is certainly the possibility of growing into a new person, who has little in common with the Amanda who committed such a horrendous crime.  Perhaps I’m naive about this, but I think that such thing is possible (maybe not for her, but in general).

Posted by Vivianna on 09/27/11 at 05:04 PM | #

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