Amanda Knox case overturned on lack of motive and forensic errors, juror says

Lay judge says prosecution case over Meredith Kercher murder was fatally flawed, as victim’s brother questions appeal verdict A member of the jury that overturned the convictions of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of the British student Meredith Kercher told the Guardian the lack of a motive and errors made by forensic investigators fatally weakened the prosecution’s case. Fabio Angeletti, 40, a teacher from Terni, 55 miles south of Perugia, spoke as Knox flew back to the US and the prosecutor who led the investigation signalled he would seek to overturn the acquittals in Italy’s top appeals court. Celebrity publicist Max Clifford said the Seattle student, who spent four years in an Italian jail, could earn between £5m and £20m from her story. He suggested that she give some of the money to the Kerchers to avoid the impression she was profiting from the victim’s death. The Kerchers, who were due to fly out of Italy on Tuesday night, expressed bewilderment and frustration at the outcome. Lyle Kercher, Meredith’s brother, wanted to know “how a decision that was so certain two years ago has been so emphatically overturned now”. “As a father, I have a real feeling for the Kerchers’ pain,” said Angeletti. “But you need conclusive motives to condemn, as well as conclusive evidence. There were lots of mistakes by the forensic investigators that robbed the case of any certainty.” Angeletti was one of six jurors – technically lay judges – who joined two professional judges in upholding the appeal of Knox and her Italian former boyfriend against their 26- and 25-year sentences for murdering Kercher in Perugia in November 2007. Angeletti declined to be drawn on details of the deliberations, but said he had focused more on the hard evidence in the “large number of documents” provided to the court than on the dramatic speeches made by Knox protesting her innocence. The six jurors – Angeletti and five women – were selected using more demanding educational criteria than those at Knox’s and Sollecito’s first trial. The lay judges for the appeal had to have spent 13 years at school and obtained a high school diploma. Angeletti said he had heard appeals in four other murder trials. Knox left Capanne prison near Perugia on Monday night in a Mercedes with darkened windows. At Rome’s Fiumicino airport she boarded a flight to London en route for the US. “Those who wrote, those who defended me, those who were close, those who prayed for me, I love you,” Knox wrote in a letter released hours before leaving the country. Back in Perugia, Giuliano Mignini, the prosecutor who led the investigation, said he was confident the court of cassation, Italy’s highest appeals tribunal, “will deliver justice”. Though Knox was acquitted of murder, she was given an increased sentence for slandering her former employer, a Congolese bar owner. In a statement to police, signed without the assistance of a lawyer, she said Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, was the murderer. Lumumba spent a brief period in jail as a result. “What was the motive for the slander if she was not involved in the murder?” asked Mignini. A fourth person, Rudy Guede, was later found to have been at the scene of the crime. He was tried in separate proceedings, convicted of Kercher’s murder and lost two appeals. Mignini said the court of cassation had accepted Guede did not act alone, a point echoed by Lyle Kercher yesterday: at Tuesday’s press conference. “If the two who were released yesterday were not the guilty parties, we are left wondering who are the other person or people and for us it feels very much like back to square one,” he said. The Italian justice system envisages a trial, appeal and second appeal to the court of cassation. But the second appeal normally only considers points of law or procedure. An appeal to Italy’s supreme court is open to both sides in a case. But Lyle Kercher noted that Mignini would need authorisation from his superiors to go further. Amanda Knox Meredith Kercher Italy United States Europe John Hooper Tom Kington guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 4, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.