Amanda KNOX - Lecture notes 10 PDF

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notes on DNA and hair from the Amanda Knox case, suspects...

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Tasnia Ahmed Forensics

Amanda Knox Case Essay On November 2nd, 2007, Amanda Knox reported her discovery of a broken window and signs of burglary when she returned home from her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito’s apartment, after spending the night. There was blood in the bathroom and Amanda’s roommate, Meredith Kercher, was not answering her bedroom door. When the police arrived, the door was broken down and Kercher’s body was found on the floor, naked, except for a T-shirt pulled over her shoulders. She died of blood loss and suffocation, caused from the stab wounds on her neck. Perugia prosecutor Giuliano Mignini was assigned to the case and asked to speak to Kercher’s roommates. When he spoke to Amanda, he believed that she was hiding something. It seemed very unlikely to the police that the entry though the broken window occurred. They almost immediately discounted the possibility that it was a burglar and he/she was the killer. They came to a conclusion that the killer may have had a key to the Via della Pergola 7 apartment. Amanda Knox became the prime suspect, but she was unaware of that. She was continuously interviewed over the next couple of days. After hours of being interrogated, Knox incriminated herself and her boss, Patrick Lumumba. Knox, Sollecito, and Lumumba were arrested and charged with murder. Lumumba was released when no such forensics evidence placed him at the scene of the crime. Examination of the crime scene identified fingerprints that belonged to Rude Guede, who fled to Germany days after the murder. Guede, Knox and Sollecito were all charged of committing the murder together. On November 30th, 2007, a panel of three judges

endorsed the charges and ordered for Knox and Sollecito to be held in detention pending a trial. Evidence indicates whether a belief or proposition is true or valid. Physical evidence was collected to support the proceedings. A knife was obtained from Sollecito’s apartment that contained the victim’s DNA on the blade and Knox’s DNA on the handle. However, there was not enough of the victim’s DNA for a normal DNA profile, but an LCN one was obtained. While this was a definitive match to Meredith Kercher, only about 5 cells of her DNA was on the blade. The knife cannot even be classified as the murder weapon, for the blade did not match the wounds on Meredith’s body. In the bathroom that Kercher and Knox shared, four drops of Kercher’s blood was found along with a drop of Knox’s blood. Also, three samples of Knox’s blood mixed with Kercher’s blood was discovered. Sollecito’s DNA was found on the bra clasp of the victim. It was a definitive match. However, the bra clasp was collected about 6 weeks after the first search of the crime scene. Behavioral evidence was also collected to support the proceedings. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito’s original story was that they were both in Sollecito’s apartment watching a movie on his computer. They said they had dinner, smoked week, had sex and then went to bed. They slept until 10:30 AM. However, their claims were contradicted. They both said their cell phones turned off the night of the murder until they woke up in the morning. However, Sollecito’s phone was turned back on at 6 AM. This makes it clear that someone was awake and active early on the morning of November 2nd. At 7:45 AM that morning, a storeowner claims he saw Amanda Knox waiting for his store to open and that she headed to the cleaning supply section right away.

Given the circumstances, Knox’s behavior was what some might call highly inappropriate. Her roommate’s dead body had been discovered and she just seemed oblivious to the seriousness of what had occurred. She was seen kissing and laughing with Sollecito. The other roommates also found Knox’s behavior to be peculiar after interacting with her. Knox also knew details of the crime that she should not have known. Crime scene investigators use Luminol to detect blood that is invisible to the naked eye. When luminol was applied to the hallway and Knox’s room, a series of footprints was discovered between her and Meredith’s room. Someone who stepped on blood had walked between the two rooms. The footprints were well matched to Knox’s and Sollecito’s feet, but not Guede’s. I would have to say that the evidence was not all collected in a manner consistent with Forensic Practice. For instance, the bra clasp was discovered and collected about 47 days later. It makes you ponder about how many other things in the case were contaminated with. The testimonies and interviews by the suspects were not consistent as delineated by the stakeholders. All the suspects lied at some point of the case proceedings. Amanda Knox jumped from story to story several times. First she told the interviewers that she had spent the night at Sollecito’s on November 1st, the night of Meredith’s murder. Then during her long interrogation, she told the interrogators that Lumumba had murdered Meredith, placing herself at the scene. Later during court proceedings, she said Lumumba was innocent and that she only accused him because she felt intimidated. She was hit in the head during the interrogation and called a liar. After that, Amanda returned to her first story, saying that she was with Sollecito the entire night, in his apartment.

Raffaele Sollecito changed his story after being put under a lot of pressure by the detective. He said that Amanda was not with him the entire night and he does not know where she was. He therefore lied because in his first interview he said that Amanda was with him in his apartment on the night of the murder. He also lied when he said he called the 112. He did not call the police after he found the broken window at the apartment with Amanda. He called the police after the Postal Police had arrived. Sollecito also lied about having his phone turned off the night Kercher was killed. When the police captured Rude Guede, he said that Knox was not at the scene, and Sollecito was not even mentioned. Soon however, he changed his story and said Knox and Sollecito were the ones who murdered Kercher. He said he was in the bathroom when he heard Kercher scream and saw Knox and Sollecito fleeing from the scene. Nonetheless, Guede’s DNA and blood was found scattered all over Kercher’s room and belongings. According to the prosecutor’s conclusions, Knox, Sollecito, and Guede entered the girls’ apartment that night under the influence of drugs. Knox and Kercher started to argue. The two did not get along due to many reasons. Some of which include Kercher disagreeing with Knox’s hygienic habits or her bringing strange men home. That was when Amanda attacked her. Her and Sollecito held Kercher while Guede raped her. After that, Amanda stabbed Kercher, finishing the job and getting her revenge. Magnini also proposed that the three had started some kind of sex game, which turned into a murder when Kercher refused to participate. The court’s reconstruction was more credible than Magnini’s for he himself was facing charges for illegally wiretapping the phones of police officers for his previous case. The lack of compatibility on the accounts of the

suspects causes suspicion. The credibility of each of the suspects is low. Amanda changed her story many times. Sollecito seems to be trying to protect his girlfriend, but is failing horrendously. Guede is also changing his story around that we don’t know what to believe. Credibility is an important consideration because it is the quality of being convincing, believable and trusted. There is not enough evidence analysis and collection to support the convictions/verdicts of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito. There is no real physical proof that places them directly at the crime scene. The knife that the police collected from Sollecito’s contained Amanda’s DNA on the handle. There were about 5 cells of DNA that belonged to Kercher. However, 5 cells are as close as nothing. Also, Knox and Sollecito were lovers and since she was over at his house often, she probably used the knife to cut food. There was no DNA of Raffaele that places him anywhere in the crime scene except on the victim’s bra clasp. As the Forensics specialist stated “DNA does not fly.” How could Raffaele’s`1 DNA be in one single place out of the entire room? Even more alarming is the fact that this bra clasp was collected late and therefore could have been contaminated with along with many other things in this case. Behavioral evidence is not enough to convict and Sollecito and Knox may have just been at the wrong place at the wrong time. The evidence analysis and collection does support Rude Guede’s verdict. All evidence places him at the scene of the crime and marks him as the murderer. His DNA and blood were all over Meredith’s room and on her purse too. I believe that justice was not served for Meredith. We still do not know what happened, everyone who was involved, or for what motive she was killed. She was murdered and her body was left naked on the ground locked in her bedroom. Her family

deals with this never-ending pain every single day. The trials keep continuing and the suspects continue with their lies. People focused more on whether Amanda Knox was wrongly convicted than the fact that Meredith Kercher was brutally murdered. The worst thing is Knox and Sollecito are released. If they actually did do the crime, two of Kercher’s murderer’s are set free. The credibility of the prosecutor, defense lawyer, and CSI team are low. The prosecutor believed Knox was guilty the moment he laid eyes on her. Magnini himself was on trial himself, from his previous case, “Monsters of Florence”. He believed that Knox and Sollecito had taken Kercher away from this world, and deserved life imprisonment. The defense lawyers cannot be trusted because their loyalty remains with their clients. They served to do everything in their power to protect their clients and win the case. For example, when the police searched Raffaele Sollecito’s apartment they reported a strong scent of bleach. The police already concluded that someone had cleaned up afterwards and staged the burglary back at the Via della Pergola 7 apartment. During the search, two bottles were found under the kitchen sink. When the police interviewed Sollecito’s maid Natalia, she said she had never seen the bleach. However, after meeting with Sollecito’s lawyer, the previous maid changed her story by saying the bleach had been at Sollecito’s apartment when she used to work there, and that she herself, had purchased it. Both defense lawyers were effective in creating lies to save their clients. The CSI team proved how low their credibility can be when they failed to retrieve evidence at the correct time. The bra clasp was collected about six weeks after the murder had occurred. It goes to show how many other things could have been contaminated with.

On March 2015, the Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest court overthrew Sollecito and Knox’s convictions a second time. They ruled that the two were innocent of the murder of Meredith Kercher. This ended the case and I believe that justice was not served for Meredith Kercher’s murder. Her family has suffered a huge loss and all everyone talks about is whether Amanda Knox is guilty or not. Amanda Knox, Rafaelle Sollecito, and Rude Guede were all involved somehow. I strongly believe this even though there is not evidence.

Bibliography (Works Cited) "Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. "Amanda Knox Speaks Out." N.p., n.d. Web. "The Evidence." - The Murder of Meredith Kercher. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. "Murder of Meredith Kercher." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015....