Category: Florence 2014+

Sunday, October 06, 2013

Dr Mignini Pushes Back Against His Demonizers Trying To Ascribe Non-Existant “Satanic Theory”

Posted by Peter Quennell

[Preston left, Spezi center, and George Clooney who is at legal risk for his option on their defamatory book]

1. Dr Mignini’s Published Statement

To the editor of Florence Corriere

Dear Director,

I am Giuliano Mignini, the magistrate who performed the investigation and trials of first instance and appeal in Perugia against the people accused of the murder of Meredith Kercher, as well as the investigation into the death of Francesco Narducci linked to the one performed by the Florence Prosecution Office in relation to the masterminds of the “Monster of Florence” murders.

I saw reported the interview that the journalist Mario Spezi ““ a person accused in the Narducci case ““ did with Amanda Knox, a main defendant in the appeal trial that will start today ““ published in the Corriere Fiorentino on Sep. 29.
 
In two recent cases the Court of Cassation has annulled verdicts, which acquitted Knox and Sollecito, and which decided [by Judge Micheli] a dropping of charge against Spezi (the parts regarding “˜lack of certainty about malice’ were annulled too).

Therefore I don’t need to add anything further on that point.  Instead, I need to point out the falsehood of an assertion which Mr. Spezi makes at the beginning of his article, as he tries to explain the reason for a link which, in his opinion, allegedly exists between the two cases, the one related to the Monster murders and Narducci’s death, and the one about the Kercher murder.

Mr. Spezi’s text says: “”¦ a strangely similar background, for two different cases, behind which the magistrate thought he could see satanic orgies on the occasion of Halloween for Amanda, and ritual blood sacrifices as a worship to the Devil in the Monster of Florence case”¦”.

This is an assertion that Mr. Spezi and crime-fiction author Douglas Preston have been repeating for years, but does not find the smallest confirmation in the documentation of the two trials, nor in the scenario put forward by the prosecution in which the Meredith murder (which didn’t happen on Halloween but on the subsequent night) was the consequence of a sex hazing to which Meredith herself did not intend to take part, and, above all, it was the consequence of a climate of hostility which built up progressively between the Coulsdon girl and Amanda because of their different habits, and because of Meredith’s suspicion about alleged money thefts by Knox.

Furthermore the object of the proceedings in the Narducci case is the scenario about the murder of the same Narducci and the attempt, by the doctor’s father and brother, to conceal the cause of his violent death, and this included the background within which the event ““ which was a homicide in my opinion and in the opinion of my technical consultant, coroner Prof. Giovanni Pierucci of the University of Pavia ““ had developed and taken place.

I had already denied several time assertions of such kind, but Mr. Spezi and Mr. Preston, and some people connected to them, go on repeating a lie, apparently hoping that it will become true by repeating it.

Another astonishing fact is that, despite that I was the prosecutor in the Kercher trial together with my colleague Manuela Comodi and then subsequently with my colleague Giancarlo Costagliola [at annulled apeal], and despite that I limited myself to formulating judicial requests which were all agreed to by a multitude of judges and confirmed by the Supreme Court, I am still considered as the only one responsible for an accusation against Ms. Knox and Mr. Sollecito, by twisting its content in various ways.

In the Narducci case, in the same way, I simply limited myself to performing the investigation and requesting the remands to trial, and the trial will have to start again now because the Supreme Court has annulled the dropping of charges [by Judge Micheli] and sent back the trial to another preliminary judge in Perugia.

The purpose ““ quite overt ““ of such endlessly repeated lies, is to defame the investigator, picturing him as a magistrate who is following alleged personal obsessions rather than sticking at facts, as instead he is.

The hope that such conscious misrepresentation of reality could bring advantage to the defences (foremost that of Spezi himself) is consistent with a bad habit which has all along flourished in Italy but is now also copied abroad.

Therefore I ask you to please publish my rectification against false and seriously defamatory information.

Kind regards

Giuliano Mignini

2. Context: The Mafia Playbook Adherents

As we have often d previously, the mafia and their handmaidens strive constantly to bring the Italian justice system down a peg or two.

When not using dynamite, as they often did in the past, they especially favor the weapon of character assassination of witnesses, judges prosecutors and police.

The vilification campaign being run in the United States by David Marriott, Chris Mellas, Doug Preston, Bruce Fischer, Steve Moore, Michelle Moore, Nigel Scott, and David Anderson (and from Italy by Frank Sforza) seems to be right out of the mafia playbook, whether all of them know it or not.

How the mafia have been using the public relations campaign to their own advantage seems set to emerge further in at least five of the associated trials coming down the pike: those of Luciano Aviello, Frank Sforza, Mario Spezi, Raffaele Sollecito (his book trial) and Amanda Knox (her book trial).

And now Mario Spezi, obviously a real glutton for punishment, once again piles on. Spezi has had incessant run-ins with the Italian law - and now he seems to have entered some kind of self-immolation end-game.

With Doug Preston, Spezi published several editions of their Monster of Florence scenario. These are widely discredited in Italy, not least because they are such obvious attempts to apply lipstick to a pig (half of the text is about an obviously red-handed and very very scared Preston trying to prove he did not actually melt down under interrogation for his probable felony interference in a case.)

Spezi has been charged with interfering with and hampering both the Monster of Florence investigations and the related investigation (which involved Dr Mignini) into the Narducci drowning - a clear murder (the body was found bound and another substituted) though a nefarious group worked very hard to deny that. (They were all charged as well, and the Supreme Court has recently confirmed the correctness of that.)

In recent weeks the Supreme Court has given a firm order for both prosecutions against Spezi to go ahead. How Spezi stays out of prison if he is found guilty is anyone’s guess. Doug Preston came up with a calamity of an explanation for the arrest of Frank Sforza for domestic violence, but presumably his assistance wont be sought this time around. 

So in face of impending prison Spezi really watches his tongue, right?

No, in fact in a move bizarre even by his own standards, Spezi on 29 September published a surreal “interview” with Amanda Knox in Florence Corriere. It once again repeats the felony claim that the prosecution charged Knox and Sollecito in the first place based only on some “satanic theory”.

The Perugia prosecution has never never NEVER claimed that. The Florence prosecutor has already moved into felony-investigation mode (this could cost Spezi more years in prison) and on 3 October Florence Corriere published this correction below by the defamed prosecution (translation is by Yummi).

This unequivocal statement (far from the first but the most prominent) has its own legal status. It is a clear legal warning to the likes of Chris Mellas and Bruce Fischer that if they sustain the libel they are at risk of felony charges also.

The statement has already had a strong ripple effect in Italy. Many former allies - some of them not very savory - now feel that Spezi has lied to and betrayed them for his own ends.

Friday, October 04, 2013

Appeal Session #2: Witness Luciano Aviello And Knife Test Arrangement Main Biz In Court

Posted by Our Main Posters

[Above and below: complete with heliport, the Carabinieri investigation service (RIS) in north Rome]

1. Explanation

These court updates came in during the day. The first is at the bottom of the post.

2. Court updates

Update #6

Did the prosecution just set the mother of all traps for the wrong-doers here? Quite possibly. Their amused equanimity at the testimony of Aviello may be explainable in this way. 

1) Today, Aviello compounded his perjury by repeating it in court under oath, right when his own trial for perjury is just starting out. What is not to like about that?

2) Today the prosecution had no way to introduce the obvious rebuttal witnesses, aka the cellmates of Aviello in his former prison up north. At his own perjury trial they can do that while Aviello has to sit helpless watching them for days selling him out.

3) And today the prosecution could hardly cross-examine Giulia Bongiorno, Claudio Pratillo Hellmann, and Francesco Sollecito (see the post below this one) who Aviello in 2011 pointed the finger at, because this trial is not about them.

But at the Aviello perjury trial just now starting, Giulia Bongiorno, Claudio Pratillo Hellmann, and Francesco Sollecito can all be made to testify under oath, and they would enjoy no protections.

Aviello seemingly blowing it in court today may in fact turn out to be the defenses’ worst nightmare. 

Update #5

From our main poster Mason2 in the court

Court was very brief this morning. The letter Giulia Bongiorno received from Aviello in jail in 2010 was produced. She and Carlo della Vedova went to visit him in jail and he said his brother was responsible for the murder of Meredith Kercher.

He had been living in Perugia at the time of the murder and in Via della Pergola. Later he gave testimony to Prosecutor Comodi in July 2011 in 73 pages of which half a page was relevant.

At that time he accused Bongiorno of promising money in the sum of 158000 euro which would cover cost of the sex change surgery in exchange for his assistance.

He accused his brother and said he knew where the knife used in the murder was together with the house keys. In 2010 he said they were buried behind a rock near the house.

This morning Luciano Aviello is Lucia Aviello and looks very much a mature woman. She again accuses her brother. She confirmed her testimony of the 1st Appeal trial but said she had been threatened by Prosecutor Comodi who would prevent the surgery he was seeking at that time.

Judge Nencini and the panel of judges surely cannot believe this person.

The next stage of the testing the sample I 36 found in 2011 will be urgently anticipated.

Update #4

The prosecution and Kercher lawyer Maresca seem unconcerned. Remember that Aviello was heavily built up as one of Sollecito’s “super witnesses” back in 2011 along with Mario Alessi. The prosecution always thought he was a flake.

Today Aviello said nothing credible to help Sollecito or Knox. Not such a super-witness for them any more. The prosecution has other ways of advancing the investigations summarised iin the post below this one.

Giuia Bongiorno seems concerned, as she ought to be. She produced a 2010 letter showing that Aviello first contacted her, not the other way around. Still, that doesnt prove that she made no nefarious offers for the zombie story suddenly revived.

Update #3

More detailed reports to come from the courtroom soon.

La Nazione reports that the court wass adjourned rather abruptly after this surreal testimony. Aviello first objected to cameras, but then said one should be focused only on him. He said something about a seance telling him what happened.

Update #2

Judge Nencini reads out the details of Aviello’s present status (he is back in prison and facing a perjury trial). Aviello gets on the stand wearing women’s clothes (he is on the way to a sex change operation).

He reverts to his first story going back to 2010 - that his brother (now conveniently dead) and one other killed Meredith in the course of an artwork burglary in the wrong house - which he had already recanted in Perugia in 2011.

Now he is saying there were no bribes offered although other witnesses from his previous prison near Turin had testified that there were.

Sounds like he might have been got at, there is far too much against him for this return to the original story to work. Including that police tried to find the keys and knife that he said were buried, but there proved nothing there.

The screws will be tightened at his own trial. Lets hope at least we get a photo of Aviello today. We still dont know what he looks like.

Update #1

Mason2 and Yummi in court both report that two Carabinieri DNA scientists have been appointed to conduct tests on the knife. Their names are Major Andrea Berti and Captain Filippo Barni.

The first testing of the knife will start at 2:00 pm on 10 October at the headquarters lab of the Carabinieri in Rome, a lab with an excellent reputation separate from that of the Scientific Police which has not been a part of the case before.

If the scientific officers find nothing that can be tested they are to inform the court immediately. November 6 and 7 were assigned to discussion of the knife but November 7 has been removed from the court’s calendar.

Initial post

If many media are present in court today it will be a surprise. Florence takes scarce time for most of them to get to and this session surely wont last a full day.

If Aviello doesnt talk or takes off at a tangent or reverts to his original tale the porsecution have other witnesses which they may wheel our here or at his own parallel trial.

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Appeal Session #1(B) Detailed Report On Enquiries The Court Has Okayed

Posted by Our Main Posters

[Above the two co-judges with lead judge Allessandro Nencini reading the case history]

Explanation

The previous post listed what has already been agreed to by the court to guide the appeal. This report which only became available later describes what had been the prosecution and defense requests.

Translation From The Umbria24 website

Meredith, war of requests in the first hearing of the 2nd Appeal

The court has order a new test on the I trace and on the hearing of the witness Luciano Aviello. Rejected all other requests

By Francesca Marruco

After a little over 2 hours in counsel chambers the Florence Court of Appeals has decided to order a new test on the trace evidence of the knife seized in Raffaele Solecitto’s apartment, the weapon presumed to have been used in the murder.

The Court has also decided to hear the witness Luciano Aviello but rejected all the other requests for renewal of investigations presented by the defense. The Court resumes on Friday with Aviello and the assignment of the task of the new genetic analysis to the Carabinieri del Ris of Rome.

[The appeal] this morning in the maxi courtroom no. 32 of the Florence Justice Courthouse, commenced the new appeal for the murder of Meredith Kercher, after the annulment of the acquittal by the Supreme Court.

Present in the courtroom was only Patrick Lumumba. Absent, as expected, were the two appellants, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.

- 9:00 Francesco Sollecito, father of Raffaele, says he is tranquil about the outcome of the new trial. Responding to journalists, he specified “The statement of the Supreme Court is compromised by errors committed because the judges did not have full access to all of the proceedings, as they themselves indicated.”

- 9:45 The defense of Knox and Sollecito have asked for the exclusion of the Patrick Lumumba (civil) party because the conviction of Amanda for calunnia has already been passed into final sentence.

This request was opposed by the General Prosecutor Alessandro Crini, and the lawyer of Lumumba. For them the plaintiff’s civil right is legitimate, as the Supreme Court has asked this court to re-evaluate the penalty in light of the finalized sentence of Knox.

The Court retired to counsel chambers to decide, announcing it wanted to decide today on any reopening of the investigation.

- 10:15 The court rejects the request of the defense of Knox and Sollecitto to exclude the civil party Patrick Lumumba, because the Court specifies that, among other things, the offense was not assessed in totality by the trial court.

- 10.50 The President of the Court of Appeals, Allessandro Nencini, is initiating his introductory report, starting from the day of Meredith’s homicide. The judge travels trough the most important passages of the three Courts. Speaking of the trace, secured by the consultants of the second [Hellman] Court, on the knife (considered the weapon of the crime by the first Court) President Nencini said: “It is necessary to underline that the independent consultants had found another trace; but it was not analyzed”.

- 11:15 The President of the Court, Judge Nencini, at the end of the introductory report, said: ” This is an appeal for matters of undeniable seriousness beyond the media spectacularization. Thus the Court is willing to give all possible space for debate to all of the parties, because originally there was a solid verdict, and the actions on which we proceed are of undeniable seriousness”

- 11.25 Raffaele Sollecito defense lawyer Giulia Buongiorno was the first to take the floor.

]Bongiorno:] Sollecito’s defense does not ignore the motivations of Cassazione, and we are in favor of any kind of verification that the Court will order, with the following caveats. This proceeding has always been based on two types of evidence, the testimonial and the technical.  We request that during this proceeding, which we hope to be the last one, that the Court during the next hearings will concentrate only on the truly reliable evidences, putting aside those that are nullified by media conjecture.

Many witness have said things because they have read them or heard them. The proceeding was reopened, but not to collect this type of guesswork. We do not want to inflate this proceeding with new conjectures. We request to examine in depth the crime observed, as emphasized by Cassazione.  In the crime scene room there are copious traces of two of the four claimed present persons, the victim and Rudy Guede who admitted to having been there, and none of the two appelants except on the hook of the victim’s bra.

When the Prosecutor asserts that there are no traces because Amanda and Raffaele cleaned them, we think that this is impossible. For this reason we request to have a evaluation done in order to verify if it is possible to clean selectively…  A Cassazione mistake was that it didn’t notice the entry into the crime scene room before the bra hook was found, so we request the acquisition of two reports [on that].

We want to understand if in a sealed place it is possible to get firm evidence even after the admission by the police of other searches.  We do not request to simply take the hook and to say that it is contaminated, we want to know if in that environment it was possible to collect some genuine evidence, because at the crime scene there were not ten traces of Raffaele but only that one”.

 

A subordinate request by Giulia Buongiorno is that experts, new experts or the ones at the Hellman appeal, will read the electropherograms.  Buongiorno requests the analysis of both of Meredith Kercher’s cell phones that she consider the “black box” of the crime and that they “were never analyzed deep enough by the Corte d’Assise di Perugia” The defense requests also analysis of the presumed sperm trace on Meredith’s pillowcase.

- 12.15   Amanda Knox defense lawyer Carlo Della Vedova takes the floor and raises right away an exception to the judge’s stipulations.  “Are we today able to judge on matters that happened six years ago? Can a person be under proceeding for life? Are we sure that Amanda Knox is an accused like all the others? Is it right, the indefinite delay of this proceeding? For all of this I insist that the Court evaluate the constitutionality.”

- 13.00 The Kercher family’s lawyer produced a letter written by the family members of Meredith that read “We are confident that the evidences will be reexamined and all the requests of more evidences will be granted, in a way that all the unanswered questions will be clarified and that the Court can decide on a future way of action in this tragic case. The past six years have been the most difficult of our lives and we want to find an end and remember Meredith as the girl that she really was rather than remember the horror associated with her”.

-14.00 The General Prosecutor Alessandro Crini says he is against the request of the defense to hear anew from some witnesses, including Rudy Hermann Guede. The same argument Crini voiced for the majority of the requests of the opening introduction presented by the defense. In conclusion, he asked for the the addition of the evaluation of the “I” trace, isolated by the independent experts, but never analyzed because they claimed it was believed to be Low Copy Number. Furthermore the prosecutor asks that the witness Aviello be reheard.

-15:00 The lawyers of the civil part that represent the Kercher family support the request of the General Prosecutor Crini, and opposed the requests of the defense. The lawyer Francesco Maresca said he believes that the defense attempts to frame with a new “dress” evidence that is strong, resistant, and robust, from the findings of the trial court, and that were minimized by the first appeal court. For example, the witness Capezzali.

Also there are newly framed certain requests that are obsolete, that have already been actioned. Like that of the selective cleaning. In the bathroom next to the room of the crime, there were many mixed traces of DNA of Amanda and the blood of Meredith. And the genetic profile of Sollecito, besides on the bra hook, was present only mixed with that of Amanda on a cigarette butt, then how did it migrate, only that one, from the cigarette butt to the bra hook?

- 15:10 The defense of Raffaele Sollecito maintains the request to analyze the “I” trace, but opposes hearing from the witness Luciano Aviello. Buongiorno also pointed out that it is not true that the independent experts of the second court decided automatically to not analyze certain traces, but did so in the presence of the prosecution experts Stefanoni and Novelli and those of the defense.  Carlo Dalla Vedova, for the Knox defense, said that Avelio should be heard only to demonstrate that the police uses him two different ways. Like when Avelio said he knew where the crime weapon was.

- 15.30 The Court retired in council chamber and announced that will not come out before 17.30

Conclusion

Thereafter the court convened again and the decisions were as outlined in our post below this one. Almost all of what the defense had argued for - each of them a stretch if you know the full circumstances - was denied. 

And the two main requests from the prosecution - that Aviello be put back on the stand, and the large knife be retested - were accepted. Ourcomes of these may or may not add to the strength of the prosecution’s case, but seem to offer no prospects of joy for the defenses.

Monday, September 30, 2013

Appeal Session #1 (A) Judges And Lay Judges Address The Biz Of Procedures And Enquiry Scope

Posted by Our Main Posters

Reporters Andrea Vogt and Barbie Nadeau are live-tweeting from court and our main poster Mason2 is periodically reporting

Update #10

Finally for now a commentary on Mason2’s interview with Dr Mignini in the Update #9 just below and how he saw the attack happening.

That as we understand it has always been his humane bedrock position on why the attack on Meredith happened and became so vicious. A hazing with sexual humiliation that at the end of 15 minutes resulted in someone (probably Knox as the other two so clearly resent her) pushing in the knife.

Dr Mignini seems to believe one or other came so close to their confessing something like the above, in exchange for a manslaughter or limited responsibility charge. It is something Meredith’s family might have understood, not the rabid hatred of Meredith explanation that they so feared.

But then early in 2008 the families and lawyers and wannabees started their demonizing of Dr Mignini and falsely claiming that he had called the attack “satanic” which he never did. Not once. Five years after Guede’s trial in late 2008, where they too could have gone for the short form trial and reduced sentences, here we all still are.

Millions of dollars and hundreds of defamed people and some soured international relations later. And the perps maybe looking at a total of 30 years and other trials to come. 

The “profiler” John Douglas in his wildly inaccurate but influential account wrongly used the term “satanic” a dozen times. Nina Burleigh in her silly book was another who babbled on about religion as a root cause of the prosecution.

But as Knox and Sollecito themselves have both written, the reason the attack was initiated was possibly quite simple.  An argument over noise, or drugs in the house, or Meredith missing her rent money, or Meredith replacing Amanda at Le Chic.

Add to the mix drugs (maybe the deadly skunk marijuana), and/or mental illness, and/or group dynamics. And poor Meredith died. How right the prosecution at trial was.

Update #9

This is Mason2 reporting again from the courtroom.

First day over and the tweets tell it all. This new Judge Nencini is determined to keep things in check. The defence had a whole lot of requests this morning. Giulia Buongiorno has to impress Dr Sollecito to earn her fee to pay for her pant suit.

I did feel a bit sorry for him today, he looks a refined man and is a very polite person.

The new DNA found on the knife during the 1st Appeal will be tested, and the Court will hear from Aviello on Friday.

I will be there and with my own wi fi. Many journalists are not going to attend this friday and will probably wait until or if Raffaele arrives or just come for the finale.

Am very pleased to say i had the first interview with Patrick Lumbumba and his lawyer Carlo Pacelli. Patrick is sweet and has a gorgeous face and smile.

I shook his hand and said, Patrick i wish you the very best, but i have only one question and it is DID AMANDA PAY YOU THE MONEY SHE WAS ORDERED TO PAY and he said no i did not receive a cent.

He was later interviewed by the media outside, and they asked, what would you say to Amanda right now, and he replied IF YOU ARE INNOCENT YOU WOULD GET ON A PLANE AND BE PRESENT HERE.

Then i saw my opportunity to speak to Dr Mignini the Prosecutor from the original trial in 2009. He was gracious enough to give me about 10 minutes of his time, and he was hoping for the testing of the new dna on the knife.

He is also convinced that these young people probably would never commit a crime like this on their own. Certainly Rudy and even Raff. But the combination of the drugs and the promise of sex with Amanda and a cocktail of drugs and alcohol…

In these circumstances, he believes people are capable of anything.

Speaking with Giulio Gori from Il Fiorentino, he wanted to know my opinion of guilty or not guilty, and i said you first, and he said he had doubts. He meant like many of the young ones here they wonder why they would do it.

Even Dr Mignini told me his 2 female assistants, who also worked on the Supreme Court matter and support him, privately have their doubts,

I will be back in Court on friday. Meanwhile i am going to act like a tourist and eat at Il Latini and look at the sights here.

Update #8

Court is back is session and Judge Nencini announces the scope of the appeal, with a proviso that he may add more items later.

Judge Nencini rejects most of what the defenses requested earlier, and there seems little to bring them comfort. He agrees to the prosecution’s requests to have Aviello testify again (see update #4; so that was not Dalla Vedova, who must surely not like this) and to re-examine the large knife.

Having Aviello testify again (already scheduled for this Friday) was probably unavoidable, as the cutting-off of his testimony by Judge Hellmann in 2011 was a real red flag to Cassation that something nefarious may have been going on. They sharply commented on it.

Remember Aviello was Sollecito’s witness intended to prove that the 2 or 3 accepted by Cassation as having committed the attack on Meredith were actually his missing brother and one other. After he was released from prison near Genoa he moved to Ferrara, where he is safely back in prison for killing a dog as an extortion threat.

The Knox and Sollecito teams sure set themselves a trap. They seem to have a real knack for not doing their due diligence. Bongiorno threatened to sue him for claiming bribes were offered by the Sollecitos, but never did. Oddly, Raffaele in his book said he sent Aviello an embroidered handkerchief. Seems doubtful that that would buy Aviello’s silence.

This is huge for the prosecution. On Friday we could see more proof emerge that in 2011 something nefarious WAS going on.

Update #7

So far no joy for the absent Amanda Knox. Judge Nencini at the start of the proceedings remarked in sharp language on her absence and that of Sollecito from the court. If he prefers them to be present (the presence of Sollecito is promised by his father for end-October) then arrest warrants could be issued.

Under the US and UK systems they would have been required to appear personally, and locked up again if they remained on the lam.  Patrick Lumumba’s fiery lawyer protested their absence, arguing that this is a clear indicator of guilt.

Amanda Knox has yet another contempt of court problem. She is a deadbeat. She has not paid the E24,000 in damages awarded to Patrick and due since last March, when Cassation confirmed it. And yet she says publicly that she has been paying many other bills out of her blood-money.

Update #6

Lawyer TomM, a main poster here, makes a skeptical observation on PMF about a request from Sollecito lawyer Giulia Bongiorno.

Re “@BLNadeau: Back to bongiorno, rebuttal round.. Says she wants to take knife apart for further tests”. Is she nuts? There is no upside for the defense in this request; the possibilities range from finding nothing to finding a sufficient quantity of material to do multiple tests to both identify it as blood and have clear DNA profiles. In the latter case, I see no credible way of the defense explaining this as resulting from contamination.

Update #5

The judges and lay judges move into private session to decide on the requests made for scope.

Remember Italian lay judges must all have diplomas or degrees (one of these lay judges is in fact a judge by profession) and they will have read a great deal already, including the Micheli and Massei Reports and the recent report of the Supreme Court which annulled Hellmann (who is now also under investigation).

Through the lead judge they can ask questions and are expected to pursue lines of enquiry. As Alan Dershowitz and other American lawyers have noted, Italian juries leave in the dust many or most American juries.   

Update #4

Showing how they are clutching at straws, a Knox lawyer today asked to hear more from witness Aviello. Really?! Aviello was the colorful mafioso witness that at the Hellmann appeal in 2011 claimed that the Sollecito family offered bribes to inmates in his prison for false testimony.

Aviello is already on trial for perjury in the same courthouse in Florence (busy place; Frank Sforza will go on trial there too) and Aviello could inflict real damage on the Sollecto lawyers, especially Bongiorno, if bribes are again asserted.

Maybe this signals the long-anticipated Knox-Sollecito separation. Sollecito before and at the 2009 trial undercut Knox in many small ways, and to try to stop this, Knox wrote him love-letters, and finally made a public appeal (denied) to talk privately with him.

Update #3

Barbie Nadeau reports that Judge Nencini is tough as nails on the lawyers, and has a deep baritone voice like a singer. You can see his image and a brief history in this post.

The foolishly dishonest and disrespectful Knox & Sollecito media campaigns seem to have assurred them one of the toughest judges and one of the toughest prosecutors in Italy. Both have special protected status, as they each conduct trials against the mafia.

And pouring gasoline on the bonfire, the tin-eared media campaigns have organized for wednesday in the US Congress this catastrophe. No wonder Amanda Knox is too chilled to appear in Florence, and Sollecito is sitting in a known mafia hideout in the Caribbean.

Update #2

Nothing seems encouraging here for the defenses. As the Supreme Court instructed, the appeal’s scope will be similar to that of a US or UK appeal. No fishing expedition, no CSI Effect. The only difference will be in the presence of lay judges, in effect a jury, of 6 women and 2 men. 

Andrea Vogt reports that Prosecutor Crini is requesting that additional DNA testing be done on the large knife using newer, more sensitive instrumentation. The first test of that same sample by Dr Stefanoni showed a strong correlation with the DNA of Meredith. The DNA consultancy at the annulled Hellmann appeal which tried to discredit that is considered by the Supreme Court to have been deliberately flawed and today the prosecutor confirmed that.

Andrea Vogt also reports that Prosecutor Crini cautioned against re-hearing any evidence just because there are controversial interpretations of trial facts. He emphasized that the Supreme Court did not discredit any of the evidence, the Hellmann annullment happened because of poor jurisprudence and very flawed logic.

Update #1

The first report from the court by our main poster Mason2:

Hello, I am writing during the break as no wifi for my computer. I will fix this by end of the week.

The Court opened with the President reading the case overview. All the events of the night of the murder of Meredith, and then the reasoning of the Supreme Court.

The media is there, i spoke to the Fox news reporter and The Daily Telegraph London.

The most gracious and kind to me were the two reporters from Porta a Porta. Dr Vittoriana Abate and her colleague. I noticed her file was marked in very large letters in pink MEREDITH.

First a letter was read by Avv Maresca from the Kercher family.

The reading of the case file took a long time.

Who is present is Dr Sollecito who has said Raff will attend later probably 23 - 24 October dates. He is very polite to the media.

Patrick Lamumba and his lawyer Carlo Pacelli arrived about 11.30am and took their place behind Avv, Maresca for the Kercher family.

The arguments commence with Bongiorno in an extremely forceful and very strong voice at times almost shouting at the Judges her argument.

First point was the little bra clasp. She said she believed that the Supreme Court was mistaken and fell down on this point.

She asked for a fresh examination of the clasp as she says there is other dna on it and she spent a lot of time going over what she described as the failure of the Scientific Police to examine the crime scene and preserve it.

She spent a lot of time arguing about the 46 days it was lying in the room. It was not collected from its original place as photos proved. She is trying to create reasonable doubt.

Avv Maori also addressed the court.

Then spoke Avv Della Vedova who argued very strongly but not like Bongiorno i heard him start with the long long process and referred to poor Amanda. He was conveying what this process is doing to her.

He hopes and prays that this time she will be acquitted once again and that will be the end of it.

Ghiriga was speaking just before lunch break and reiterating their argument for Amanda to be found not guilty.

I counted 5 lady judges on the panel.

It was possible to tweet this morning @kgadalof

Dear Ms Bongiorno, the only reason it took 46 days was because Dr Stefanoni and her people were waiting for the defenses to arrange to come along. They delayed and delayed - and now you complain about her?!!

Dear Dr Dalla Vedova: the only reason the process is taking so long is because defense lawyers played dirty tricks to get the terrific Judge Chiari replaced by the incompetent Judge Hellmann who bent the annulled appeal.

First post today

We will have our own more detailed reports from the court later in the day. More images to come also.

First tweets from Andrea Vogt (read from the bottom up):

* #amandaknox trial suspended for 30 minutes, prosecution to make arguments at 13:15.

* #amandaknox atty CDV: That this trial could go on “infinitely” goes against constitutional rights. Can a person be on trial for life?

* Atty Maori: Sollecito defense wants forensic tests done on Kercher’s pillow and rock used to break window. #amandaknox

* Bongiorno: Crime scene conditions prohibited proper evidence gathering. Bra clasp should be thrown out. #amandaknox

* Atty Bongiorno for Sollecito defense: the reliable evidence points to Rudy Guede: “The assassin always leaves a trace.”

* Court rules Lumumba may stay and be a part of #amandaknox appeal trial.

* Patrick Lumumba speaking to press: #amandaknox should be here, but she is afraid, because she knows she has a responsibility.

Appeal Session #1: Images Outside And Inside The Court

Posted by Our Main Posters

a href=“https://truejustice.org/ee/images/perugia/frontpage103/10368.pdf” target=“_”>

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Florence Appeal Court Monday And Friday This Week: What We Might Expect

Posted by Peter Quennell

You are wondering how that short video relates?

Well, it shows the life and death by mafia car-bomb in Sicily of a very brave anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone. The lead prosecutor in the Florence court will be the formidable Dr Alessandro Crini who is also an anti-mafia prosecutor.

It was his thankless job to help to take down those who did the car-bombing, and notably those who supplied the dynamite. You wont find any shots of Dr Crini online (not yet) because those few who sign up to pursue the mafia (of which Dr Mignini is one) have a lot of protections to keep them safe and alive.

One of those protections is to not usually publicize how they look. There are many others in reserve. If the rabid Knox & Sollecito band set out to lie about and defame Dr Crini, doing the mafia’s handiwork, be assured it will be at their great peril. There will be no messing about.

The Florence court will meet on these dates: September 30; October 4, 23, 24; and November 6, 7, 25, and 26.  There is a meticulous factsheet here.  The Italy-based American reporter Andrea Vogt has announced that she will be reporting live from the Florence court. Last Wednesday, she posted this heads-up on what to expect. 

What to expect in court as the Knox and Sollecito appeal begins Monday? As she has repeatedly told interviewers leading up to her trial, Amanda Knox will not be traveling to Italy to attend. Though reportedly traveling in the Caribbean, Raffaele Sollecito is expected to be present for his trial, according to comments his father made to the Italian news agency ANSA on Wednesday. The parents of Meredith Kercher, who have struggled with health issues, are unlikely to attend.

Presiding judge Nencini, known for his no-nonsense “get on with business” style, is expected to make a decision Monday on whether or not to open up the trial for new arguments. Defense attorneys have submitted two documents and want debate reopened. The prosecution is hoping to keep the scope more limited.  They support the Cassation’s suggestion to do new forensic testing of a low copy number DNA trace highlighted (but not further analyzed) by the independent experts appointed during the first appeal. For more on the logistics of the trial, skip down to Sept. 18 update

Today Sunday 29 September Andrea Vogt has another report (via the same link). This is an excerpt; the report is worth reading in full.

Now with a government crisis looming and Italy’s biggest story unfolding in Rome, will anybody be there? Lawyers for sure. Sollecito? Probably not until a later hearing. And a number of the 300+ journalists court officials were expecting in Florence are being redirected to the capital for a more pressing story: the possible imminent collapse of the current government.  Don’t expect even that to stop the untouchable judicial arm from carrying out its duties. And from my early glimpse of things, Florence has a very different way of doing business than provincial Perugia.

Please also scroll down on that site to the second part of the 25 September report: “Side Show: Monster of Florence Twist”.

We will soon post at length on the development described there. But in essence what it means is that the Supreme Court has now assured that those meddlers who set in motion the horrific demonization of Dr Giuttari and Dr Mignini to throw the Monster of Florence and Narducci and Meredith Kercher cases will get their just deserts.

The incessant bungling meddlers and mafia enablers Mario Spezi and Frank Sforza seem certain to go down, and their handmaiden Doug Preston seems to have a big target on his back.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Judge Nencini’s Guidelines Authorize Televising Of The Florence Appeal Live In Real Time

Posted by True North

[Research room in the Palace of Justice which can double as a room for the press]


The Florence Courts are renowned for acting with speed and decisiveness.

No surprise then that Judge Nencini has issued the court guidelines for this appeal (remember, this is not a second trial).

There will be regulated access to the courtroom and observers must be in court by 9:00 am. No phone contacts or tweets from the court to the outside world will be allowed.

A pressroom will be set up, as in Perugia, where most of the reporters preferred to sit so that they could use their computers and phones, and come and go when they wished.

And three fixed TV cameras will provide a broadcast-quality live feed from the court in Italian. This feed will be balanced against the needs of an orderly fair trial, and the feed could be turned off now and then.

In Perugia in 2009 and 2011 there were CCTV cameras in the court but the quality of the feed to the pressroom was low and when reporters captured some of it on videocam the resultant videos were somewhat murky as you can see on some YouTubes of the trial.

The huge new high-tech palace of justice was designed with TV feeds in mind.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Breaking News From Italy-Based Andrea Vogt On The Aviello And Knox/Sollecito Court Actions

Posted by Peter Quennell

[A Florence courtroom similar in size to courtroom 32 which is assigned for the appeal]


Andrea Vogt kindly provides these details on the Knox/Sollecito appeal, the Aviello trial, and the increasingly desperate Knox and Sollecito PR.

1) Knox And Sollecito Appeal

In the first hearing on September 30, the court will decide on a fixed schedule as well whether or not to accept any defense evidence requests, such as new DNA testing or witness statements. The prosecution has also made two additional requests to the court: 1) request for another forensic review of knife to see if a small third trace that was never tested before can be examined. Experts in the first appeal deemed it low copy number and rejected requests to test it. 2) request to hear testimony from Luciano Aviello.

All our past posts on the Florence appeal can be found here and all our past posts on the DNA can be found here. 

The defenses are said to have filed monsters of requests for wide scope - a virtual retrial with the defenses in prosecution mode - complete with bizarre argumentation against the rulings of Cassation. None of the defense lawyers have ever won a case before Cassation. This sure seems like a losing move as Cassation is insisting on tight focus.

2) Luciano Aviello Trial

At the heart of Aviello’s trial in Florence are likely to be the revelations by inmate Alexander Illicet from Serbia Montenegro, who testified that Aviello had agreed to pin the murder on his brother in exchange for 158,000 Euros ““ money Aviello desperately needed to pay for a sex change. Aviello himself later took back statements he made on the stand, saying he had been bribed.

The backstory to the potentially very explosive Aviello trial can be found here.  If he cracks under pressure (as expected), he may spill the beans on the Sollecito family, on the defense lawyers Maori and Bongiorno. and on the judges Hellmann and Zanetti,

Potentially all could face prison. No family goes in for bribing of judges and witnesses (along with numerous other dirty tricks) if their little pride-and-joy is truly innocent.

3) Erratic Knox PR

Knox recently was featured in a number of print exclusives to the very U.K. tabloids her family blamed for sensationalizing her case at the outset. She then did her own exclusive video interview in Seattle to the same Italian columnist [used by Sollecito].

Knox, Sollecito, and Oggi are all already being investigated for contempt of court, as explained in all these past posts. For such charges, depending on the seriousness (and serial, seemingly unstoppable false accusations of crimes is pretty serious), prison sentences if found guilty might amount to ten years. That would be on top of any new sentence out of the Florence appeal which this time is likely to be 30 years.

Planet Earth to Amanda Knox: Smart move #1 could be to put aggravators David Marriott and Chris Mellas on the back burnder.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Lead Judge Is Now Confirmed And Court Dates Announced For The Florence Appeal

Posted by Peter Quennell

Above: the formidable senior appeal judge Dr Alessandro Nencini who will preside over the appeal.]


September 30; October 4, 23, 24; and November 6, 7, 25, and 26.

These are the dates the Florence appeal court will meet. Corriere and other Italian media sites are confirming these as the dates.

It is confirmed that Judge Alessandro Nencini will preside over the appeal in the Palace of Justice’s Courtroom 32. He is a very senior judge. As the ANSA News Service mentions, Judge Nencini is the President of the Second Chamber of Appeal of the Florence Court.

The new Prosecutor General of Tuscany (Florence’s region) Dr Tindari Baglione, the chief prosecutor of Tuscany’s appeal court, is selecting the prosecutors for the appeal. He arrived in Florence in May of this year. He is said to be formidably unbending. He recently imposed tough sentences on 27 people for the environmental damage caused by illegal work in Mugello on the high speed rail link between Florence and Bologna.

Already appointed as the lead prosecutor is Dr Alessandro Crini. He was among the Florence prosecutors who handled the investigation into the murders by the Monster of Florence and also the mafia massacres of 1993.  In the Monster of Florence case he was a deputy to the leading prosecutor Dr Paolo Canessa, the main prosecutor of the last and final MoF trials.

There are at least seven pieces of bad news for the hotheaded among the Knox-Sollecito faction coming down the pike, some already mentioned in this recent post here..

1) Prosecutors Paolo Canessa and Alessandro Crimi carried out their MoF investigations in cooperation with Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini of Perugia. We believe it was they who first involved Dr Mignini in the MoF case by explaining the possible MoF connection with the Narducci murder Dr Mignini was investigating. Dr Mignini has no role in this appeal, but they had obvious confidence in him..

2) Giulia Bongiorno may be leaving the Sollecito team. Sollecito himself has done an immense amount to embarrass her with his defamatory book and narcissistic TV claims. The new lawyer Dr Mastro is said to be a relative of the Sollecito family and has been harshly critical of the Bongiorno defense line of joining Sollecito to Knox at the hip. He would presumably separate Sollecito from Knox, and may throw Knox to the wolves if it helps.

3) The trial of Luciano Aviello will be running in Florence during the same time as the appeal. Each could explosively impact the other.  We explained the extraordinary implications of this trial for the Knox and Sollecito entourages in this past post also linked to just above.

4) The trial of Frank Sforza for criminal defamation will start in Florence on 6 November. A prosecutor will bring this case, it is not a simple calunnia case brought by those Sforza abused. We have a new post pending which will explain the many nasty implications for the FOA. Its testimony could also spill over into the Knox-Sollecito appeal.

5) The appeal outcome is expected to be arrived at by the latest in December. Knox and Sollecito wont have to wait long to hear the probable outcome: guilty as charged. Whether either will appear in the court seems doubtful, but a no-show will do them no good. A coward’s move.

6) The chief prosecutor in Florence is expected to announce any time now what charges will be brought against Raffaelle Sollecito and his publishers for the many false accusation of crimes and malicious mis-statements of evidence he foolishly included in his book. At least one could incur a substantial prison sentence: Sollecito’s false accusation that the prosecution sought a deal whereby he would turn on Amanda Knox in exchange for lesser charges.

7) The chief prosecutor in Bergamo north of Milan is expected to announce any time now what charges will be brought against Amanda Knox and her publishers and Oggi for the many false accusation of crimes and malicious mis-statements of evidence she foolishly included in her book. At least one all by itself could incur a prison sentence: Knox’s false accusation that the prosecution forced her in an illegal interrogation into framing Patrick Lumumba.

Those who appear to us realistic about the minefield they face include the defense lawyers (who are rumored to be very despondent) and those who have detached themselves from the pro-Knox forces and quite possibly Curt Knox himself who of late has been quiet for sure.

Those who still maintain a crazed and abusive hard line appear to be only Bruce Fischer and the Mellas family including Chris, Edda, and close relatives. Fischer seems to us unlikely to grow a brain before he is dragged to court, but it is possible that the Mellas family might.  They have taken down all traces of one of the many defaming websites Chris Mellas is known to have put up, the final Perugia Shock.

Also when he overstayed his welcome at their house they threw Frank Sforza out.


[Central Florence at night with Palace Of Justice faintly visible behind at left-center; click to enlarge]

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Fast Forwarding And Minimalizing Demanded By Cassation Could See Appeal Conclude This Year

Posted by Peter Quennell

[Above: the interior atrium of the new Florence Palace of Justice]

We posted below on Florence’s probable new chief prosecutor, the formidable Dr Spataro.

The new attorney general for Tuscany, Dr Tindari Baglione, is also said to be formidably unbending. He will select the prosecutors for the appeal. The selection of judges is unlikely to follow the murky precedent of Perugia’s humiliated Chief Judge Di Nunzio in appointing what Cassation considered to be two incompetents.

One of the many dirty tricks involved Giulia Bongiorno’s new baby. She asked for plenty of time to attend to it, which humanized her, and the 2011 appeal court met on average only every 3-4 weeks. This allowed the PR to build to a crescendo over the better part of a year.

Also it placed the Kerchers at a huge disadvantage as they get no financial help to attend. The 2011 jury saw them just once face to face - after the verdict had been “decided”.

We wont see a replay of that farce in Florence. Weekly meetings of the court are expected, and with this fast-forwarding and the instructions of Cassation to minimize the scope, the verdict should be arrived at by the end of this year, or only very shortly thereafter.

Cassation could endorse the final outcome as soon as next spring or summer.

Well prior to this playing out, the investigations into the contempt of court by RS and AK in their ill-advised books will be completed, and new charges against both of them and their publishers and key capos in their entourages seem rather certain, as well as against Oggi.

If RS and AK fail to attend the opening session of the appeal court they would not neccessarily be charged additionally, but they could be ordered back to prison for the duration of the appeal and arrest warrants could be issued,

If there is a real case to be made for either of them not attending we have not seen it. But their books pretty well rule out any exposure to cross-examination on the stand.