Italian Court Finds Amanda Knox and Rafael Solecitto Guilty, Again

Amanda Knox is in America and she's not going back to Italy.

However, Rafael Solecitto -- every bit as innocent -- is an Italian citizen, and they're determined to jail Amanda Knox, but they can't, so they'll jail the guy no one cares about, Rafael.

The Italian judicial system has a quirk unlike ours. When a trial court pronounces you culpable, you're not actually convicted of the crime -- not yet. The actual conviction only occurs when a court, sitting in review, confirms the conviction.

I believe I read that Italy considers this trial finding of culpability less seriously than our own countrymen would find a jury verdict, because it's not actually yet a verdict.

Thus, Rafael is in this odd twilight, again, where he stands to be convicted of murder, and yet is not actually convicted of murderer, while the actual murderer, a drifter and repeat burglar named Rudy Guede, whose DNA was found all over the crime scene (and yet none of Rafael's or Amanda's-- the prosecutors wisely explained that they had cleaned the crime scene of their own DNA, while managing to leave behind a great deal of Guede's; the prosecutors have never explained what type of bleach could permit this selective removal of genetic material), remains in jail, but with a reduced sentence in exchange for implicating Knox and Solecitto, because all he did was burglarize, sexually violate, and then slaughter Meredith Kercher, whereas Rafael Solecitto and especially Amanda Knox provided the inspiration and stage direction for this crime, even though they weren't even there, but who cares, it's Italy, and she's a Foreign Whore, and Foreign Whores must pay.

Oh by the way: Rudy Guede fled the country the day after the murder, and he had committed a series of burglaries, armed with a knife of the exact same size as used to slaughter Meredith Kercher, with which he threatened one victim. Because he burglarized the home when the occupant was in residence. Because he was a stupid, low-impulse control, rapist, burglar, and idiot thug.

The fact that he did the same thing to another victim (without proceeding to the sexual violation and rage slaughter phase) just a month before he murdered Meredith Kercher is taken as some kind odd, but ultimately unimportant, coincidence by Perugia's All Star Prosecution Squad.

Anyone Interested in a Great True Crime Book About Italy's Own Jack the Ripper... ... should read Monster of Florence, by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezzi.

There is a strong connection to Amanda Knox, though the book is not about her.

If you want to read about this case specifically, the Hellman-Zanetti Report (the official report of the court of appeals that freed Knox and Solecitto) is great. But it is a court document, not a novelistic narrative.

But it is great reading.

posted by Ace at 04:03 PM

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