Friday, March 29, 2013

Amanda Knox: Commentary published by The Guardian focusses on the discrediting of minute traces of forensic evidence during the appeal process; Commentator Joan Smith indicts Italian criminal justice system for "incompetence and rank misogyny."


COMMENTARY: "Amanda Knox's retrial puts Italian justice in the dock," by Joan Smith,  published in the Guardian on March 26, 2013.

SUB-HEADING: "Rudy Guede killed Meredith Kercher. The continued pursuit of Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito implies incompetence and misogyny."

GIST: "The announcement that Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are to face a retrial means a fourth set of proceedings, no doubt with worldwide publicity. It also confirms the reluctance of the Italian authorities to let go of a misogynist fantasy which has turned the case into a prolonged media circus......The central mystery of this case is not the identity of the murderer but the steely determination of the Italian authorities to drag in two other suspects, Knox and Sollecito. At their original trial in 2009, the prosecution was able to produce neither witnesses nor a credible motive. Knox's "confession" was obtained when she was sleep-deprived, had no access to lawyers and was unable to speak fluent Italian; she retracted it as soon as she was allowed to sleep and get legal advice. The two students' eventual conviction rested on minute traces of forensic evidence, and even that was comprehensively discredited during their successful appeal in 2011.......... The resurrection of the tabloid caricature "Foxy Knoxy" cannot be far off, but it's hard to see how justice is served by what looks like the prosecution's idée fixe. Knox and Sollecito face the ordeal of another trial but the Italian criminal justice system is also in the dock, arraigned for incompetence and rank misogyny."

The entire commentary can be found at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/26/amanda-knox-retrial-italian-justice

Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Knox

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. 

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.