Once
again the spinning wheel that is 'justice' in the western world has
stopped and Amanda Knox (aka Foxy Knox) and her Italian ex-boyfriend,
Raffaele Sollecito, have been reinstated as guilty of the
murder of Meredith Kercher, and both face long sentences .... But
therein lies the rub, do they?
Old Foxy fled to the USA as
soon as the first appeal set her 'free', and has since refused to
return to Italy ... Her unspoken defence to the great unwashed of
middle America seems to be that Europe, and Italy are backward
countries, where a white American girl will get no justice (meaning
she risks being found guilty, and being imprisoned), although what 'human rights' and sympathy a
twice convicted murderess deserves is a little hard to see from this
side of the Atlantic and all utter
bollocks of course, she should try being a foreigner in the US legal
system. Knox
can fight any extradition in a US court, citing among other things
international human rights law, possibly playing the double jeopardy card (the US still prevents criminals being tried for the same crime twice), a practise that has been largely abandoned in Europe as it let too many wriggle free when new evidence emerged, especially DNA ....
Of
course the US, while quick to demand the extradition of foreign nationals
from other countries, is notoriously reluctant to return the same
service to other countries demanding US citizens so she has a good chance of getting away with this ......
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In The US She Is The Classic Innocent Abroad |
But while this white middle class legal merry go round has been
swirling through the Italian court's and world media, there has been
one person in prison for the murder of Ms Kercher, and that of course
is the black man Rudy Guede from the Ivory Coast, who has already
been convicted of Miss Kercher's murder at the first trial, and
sentenced to 16 years in prison. As that verdict specified that he
did not commit the crime alone and he either hasn't or had been
refused the round of appeals the two white suspects have, maybe they
could ask him what really happened that night?
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In Italy Her Image Is Much Darker |
Of
course the backdrop to all this is the whole Western legal process,
which allows for a seemingly endless round of appeals ... I mean what
are the point of the first or even second trials, when the results
can apparently be ignored, in favour of a third trial or even a
fourth? - Yes apparently, Knox and Sollecito can appeal for a fourth
time. I fail to see how justice can be served, if the verdicts of 12
good men and true, and another 12, and another .... Well you get the
idea, can be simply overturned by legal process time after time ....
The only people this ultimately serves well are the lawyers.
But
maybe I am jumping the gun here, because of course Knox is still in
the US and has vowed to fight against any return to Italy to face
justice …... and on that note, Italian police have also reportedly found Mr
Sollecito very near the Austrian border, after he had left the courtroom
just before the verdict was read out ... but after his passport was then taken
away, his lawyers said he had never intended to flee .... yep!
Still
one has to wonder if the US interest would have been the same if
Foxy Knoxy had been Foxy Brown and black .....
It's difficult to comment when guilty verdicts can be wrong. If Knox is in fact innocent then justice is being served by her staying in the USA. That other people not have her skin colour or nationality to evade an injust verdict (if she is in fact innocent) doesn't make her more guilty, it's just doubly injust for them.
ReplyDeleteShe's. been found guilty on Two out of Three trials ...how many trials do you think she deserves?
DeleteDo we just keep going until she gets the verdicts she wants, or do we say on balance of probabilities, she has had her chance .(bearing in mind that it was the state that had to prove her guilt)?
We have to have one justice system that's fair to all, not one which just keeps going until someone rich enough is found 'not guilty' ... criminals are found in all walks of life, including middle class American girls. Meredith Kercher was brutally attacked and murdered .... someone did it, and all the evidence says that it was more than one person who did it. The Italian state has determined upon two occasions that Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, together with Rudy Guede were all guilty of that crime.
However, for some reason Rudy Guede is in prison, with no appeals process, while the two middle class kids have managed to get lots of support to keep them largely free, and with some hopes of staying so. We all have to decide where justice for Meredith Kercher lies, and I for one am happy that the Italian courts have not wilfully misinterpreted the evidence to convict Ms Knox and her accomplice. In fact I suspect that given the international scrutiny, they have in fact bent over backwards to be scrupulous in procedure and process ... therefore on balance of trial outcomes she has been found guilty 2 out of 3 times.
Whether that will be seen to be justice served I guess we will have wait a while to find out .... she may well end up 'free' in America, while both the African and Italian men do the time ... is that justice?
You make your case very well, I concede to your reasoning.
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