Friday, January 16, 2009

Trial: Amanda Knox Takes Her Place At The Start Of The Trial

Posted by Peter Quennell

Click above for a selection of shots. This may be the last time Knox is photographed in court.

Some shots available seem to catch Amanda Knox at a gleeful moment. It is hard to know what to make of those shots. Photographers click away at a “gotcha” moment. It may have lasted only five seconds and meant nothing.

These are a few of the less loaded shots. They show Amanda Knox being led in, looking around the courtroom, perhaps for people she knows, and reading some passage in the Italian legal code.

It appears that an uncle and aunt were present at the back or in the balcony. Her biological parents will be witnesses and so are not allowed to attend the trial before they testify.

It seems certain now that Rudy Guede will testify. And Knox and Sollecito have just both said they’re eager to do so.

So far as we are aware, the Kercher family and the parents of the defendants have not yet ever come face-to-face. That is probably an encounter that none of them look forward to.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 01/16/09 at 08:43 PM in Trials 2008 & 2009Amanda Knox

Comments

Posted by Tara. Thanks for the pictures.  This last shot of Knox stealing a glance at Sollecito tells a story.

All her smiles aside, she is worried about what Giulia Bongiorno has up her sleeve!  In my opinion, she should be worried.

Tara

(This comment was moved here for Tara - the right-column device was giving it a hard time)

Posted by Peter Quennell on 01/16/09 at 10:38 PM | #

It has been commented before that Amanda looks like different people photographs of her.  If I met the person in the second picture of this set, I would not recognize her as being the one in the first picture.  In the first she has a smooth face with no cheekbones.  In the second she as a very angular face.  Just confirming some previous comments.

Posted by Arnold_Layne on 01/17/09 at 02:51 AM | #

There have indeed been such perceptions. I was just looking through all the shots again, including those we didnt post. Some of the shots seem to show a younger her, and some seem to show an older her.

Some people explain this kind of phenomenon in simple terms of growing up: late teens and early 20s as a volatile time in life.

Some explain it in clinical terms: switching on for attention, and switching off when offstage, often to the point of gloom or fear.

The family doesn’t seem to want to know about it, or at least talk about it or have it checked out. They are on TV almost daily remarking how sublimely normal she is.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 01/17/09 at 03:23 AM | #

As CPaulW touched on this interesting and kinda forbidden area, perhaps two other occasional perception should be noted.

One is that that attractiveness has never been her thing - she seems to have simply presumed through her teens that she wasnt very, and allowed the tomboy side of herself to hang out. She still sounds nonplussed in her diaries. It is easy to ridicule as vanity but I’m not sure of that: She is perhaps genuinely surprised.

The other is that the facial expressions and dress modes in the shots of recent years vary over a huge range. Some shots are flattering, but a number of them many people would not want to see the light of day, and they would probably be trying to call in the shots and burn them.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 01/17/09 at 03:44 AM | #

Curt Knox has apparently commented in one of their interviews that should AK be convicted they will take it to the Court of Appeals and then the Supreme Court. An unguarded admission that the oft repeated assertion that there is no real evidence is just public posturing?

This public relations stance has evolved slightly. First it was all misunderstanding and the police would ‘‘see the light’’ (they didn’t)

Then it was all the fault of a corrupt and incompetent prosecutor and tabloid hysteria. As soon as a judge saw it AK would be skipping home (she wasn’t).

Then the judges would be compelled to grant bail when they saw how fimsy the final prosecutors file was and all the so called evidence was thrown out (the judges didn’t see it that way)

Now finally an admission that there may very well be a conviction based on the evidence in open court. No doubt this will be spun as a flawed court influenced by media distortion.

Coupled with Curt still repeating the untruths about a fourteen hour interrogation which he must know is rubbish, he seems to have moved from being mostly dishonest with himself to just being dishonest with everybody else. Spin and PR is not going to change the outcome.

The family should stop the endless round of tearful interviews and come up with another strategy. Telling the truth may be the only one that may mitigate the consequences for AK and bring some closure for the family of the actual victim.

Posted by Faustus on 01/17/09 at 12:06 PM | #

Very nice take on what seems an increasingly lost and losing PR strategy and how it has morphed without really evolving.

In a great post here Deathfish remarked on how there is no Plan B and how Plan A is increasingly out there in some alternate universe.

It sure has many lawyers and PR people baffled. Its extreme arrogance, chutzpah, legal klutziness, xenophobia, and at times racism (of course the black guy did it) has many AMERICANS highly ticked off, and the US here is where it is primarily beamed.

We came alive because of the extreme nastiness of it all and the extreme callousness toward the talented, idealistic victim and her quiet and retiring but very classy family.

We have a growing list of the behind-the-scenes legal threats emerging from it too. Any journalist who does not observe the party line seems to get the cold shoulder or worse. Other journalists get to hear of this and so, like a dam waiting to break catastrophically, a huge reservoir of resentment at this manipulation builds up.

And it has been remarked that Italy is the least appropriate country and legal system IN THE WORLD to run this kind of campaign against.

Nicki sure proved why that is the case in her extraordinary piece on the fairness and extreme caution of the Italian legal process.

It is unfair to Seattle. It is unfair to the United States. It is very unfair to Italy. And above all, it is unfair to Amanda Knox herself who seems to believe this is a slam-dunk and no actual seriousness is required. Either that or she gets edged even further into what looks like her own personal dream world. 

Move to the huge body of evidence that has to be contended and the psychology that maybe has to be explored, give it a best shot, and let the legal chips fall where they may. Nobody - nobody - is out to get Knox if there really is an innocent explanation.

And of course, at least the first of those threatened appeals will be automatic.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 01/17/09 at 03:49 PM | #

Post A Comment

Smileys



Where next:

Click here to return to The Top Of The Front Page

Or to next entry Trial: Court Report From Trisha Thomas Of Associated Press

Or to previous entry Trial: Court Report In Italian From Italian TV Network LA-7 DRAFT