Guilty? Not Guilty? We will soon discover how this trial will end. One way or another the two defendants, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito will be judged by the Italian Corte d'Assise of Perugia within hours.
I don't want to get into judicial matters here because I think journalists and reporters should stay out of the very trial’s matter. Indeed, despite I graduated in one of Italy's oldest law school, at the Università di Macerata, (whose school of law was founded in 1290), with a thesis in comparative law, my work has always been focused on media ethics and this trial offered one of the richest variety in terms of comments and contributions in the history of the media coverage of trials.
Indeed since its very beginning this trial was influenced by its own because of the nature of the crime and the defendants profiles, especially Amanda Knox, nicknamed "Foxy Knoxy" from Seattle. Ms. Knox was able to attract the attention of the media but also to build up a sense of team game and parochialism, especially from the Seattle area.
It started with a woman called Anne Bremer, a former beauty queen turned attorney from Seattle who then became the spokeswoman for a group called "the Friends of Amanda". Since the very beginning of the trial this woman started a real battle at first against italian media and then against the Italian judicial system by claiming Ms. Knox on his opinion wasn't having a fair trial.
Although this is more than normal as an international trial like this one usually attracts all sort of mythomaniacs or simple wannabes and Ms Bremer makes no exception, but this strange request for fairness kept going on and on till present day when I just read on nothing less than the New York Times, a story by an award winning journalist called Thimothy Egan who is very very famous for having written a story about a burned wood that apparently saved nothing less than the destiny of the United States of America and President Roosvelt all together.
This man who seems to have no background in law nor any expertise in judicial systems but in burning woods is from Seattle like Amanda Knox. The New York Times left this man's parochialism and bias affecting not only the traditional objectivity of once one of the most respected paper in the world but also the last chance Amanda had of not being involved in a jurisprudential debate over a suspect in italy's judicial fairness.
Indeed all these people who have no or little knowledge of the Italian law system they all insist on the lack of "fairness" in this trial and in general by Italy's judicial system, even if this is probably the first italian trial for all of them, who certainly don’t know anything about italy’s law and law in general.
Obviously this happens to people who don't have any knowledge of the Law and whose judgement is corrupted by the case law system and the trial by jury that is the American System. So would be the same from a civil law perspective.
Any Comparative law course in the world, at its first lesson would describe the difference between civil law and case law systems.
On the contrary ignorance and restricted vision plus arrogance and thirst to know and then that desperate feeling of will to master, typical of impotents are all compensated by a more accessible and popular tool: television. In the perfect fictious world of the American series CSI foreinstance, defendants and prosecutors always deal with the highest degree of certitude proof and consequently of justice because of its dreamy advanced technology that always gains access to "clear and convincing evidence".
Indeed the poor and naive Mr. Egan focused the entire lack of evidence on the fact that DNA on the knife was such a trace amount that it could not be accurately tested. This was so candid from him...I felt moved when I have read his piece. Smack.
But my poor Mr. Hegan, a CSI episode is not the reality and DNA is not the cornerstone of Italy's burden of proof neither of any other law system procedures including the American one. That's fiction baby!!! I understand Mr. Ogan sympathy for Amanda because I feel it as well, but he better goes back to the firing wood.
I am not blaming Mr. Hogan for his ingenous attempt neither for his total ignorance on the subject as he's not supposed to have a jurisprudential knowledge. I am blaming the New York Times for letting such naive people express their simple bias like in a pizza restaurant. Desperate.
The blind Mr. Hogan embraced then the cause of Sollecito’s lawyer who affirmed “Amanda made the cartwheels in the police station because reality for her is too strong to deal with” without understanding that this argument can be used by the prosecutor to blame Amanda instead of Raffaele. And probably this was the smart tactics operated by the smart lawyer Bongiorno, who not by chance was able to clear former Italian prime Minister Giulio Andreotti indicted of Mafia affiliation back in 1994.
Dear Mr. Hegan you really weren’t of much help to the poor Amanda. So the New York Times, sorry folks!!!Unless this was the real objective of the famous American media: to support the prosecution’s thesis against Amanda. A giant international parochialist plot?
Anyway Mr Hogan closing argument is that this trial is an outrage for the ancient American law, whose millenary tradition is a real guarantee of justice and fairness without any doubt. I don’t want to question the common law system here against the civil law as they both have their “raison d’etre” mostly based on culture and traditions but I prefer to give more power to the legislative branch than to the stare decisis of the judge as legislator as it happpens in the common law. Those like Mr Egan who did not attend the Law School won't know that Italy's has the most ancient legal system that comes directly from the Corpus Juris Civilis issued by the Roman Emperor Justinian, a code that is the basis for most of today law systems and obliged the world to learn latin language in order to better understand the real meaning of the law.
Regarding Mr. Ogan call for Italy’s judicial fairness America is also famous for hosting the fairest trials in the history of law, beginning with the one of Sacco and Vanzetti as an example of the judicial concept of burden of proof but certainly Mr. Hogan knows this case very well.
Indeed this poor contribution by Mr. Ohgan certainly won't help Ms. Knox as the judges will feel the New York Times is really a desperate and dilapidated piece of paper. Also this wont' create any sympathy between the jurors and Amanda. If the New York Times wanted to host the greatest contribution in terms of italy's judicial matters they should have called the top living expert on Italy's law system: Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Mr. Berlusconi is the maximum critical expert probably in the entire world about Italy'sjudicial system as he's been involved in more than 16 judicial trials. Indeed Berlusconi is working on a giant reform of Italy's judicial system in order to make it work better and faster but most of all safer for all defendants.
In the end, my poor simple opinion is that what viewers and readers forgot here is the victim's wait for justice. Meredith Kercher was brutally murdered in Perugia two years ago without any reason. Why? We still don’t know and we want this trial to answer this question. First of all because we don't care if the defendants are italians or Americans we want to know why Meredith was murdered.
Also there is another victim of this murder that was not mentioned by any commentator ever and that’s the city of Perugia and its citizens. This murder greatly injured Perugia, one of the most beautyful medieval cities in the world, whose art, architecture and nature inspired saints, poets and writers for thousands of years. A city that is certainly not used to murdered students like maybe other cities in the world.
We want justice to be made and everybody knows there is no justice without truth.
Comments
You spelled Egan's name three different ways in this article.
I thought it was funny that you spelled that imposter's name differently each time. Your article is excellent. The NY Times should be ashamed of itself. Maybe it will be the next big newspaper to implode under the weight of its cronyism and xenophobia. Europe is more than a playground for American tourists, though you would never know it from reading people like Egan.
Well-written, and informative on differences in legal systems.
The problem, as the two posters above demonstrate, is that you can't tell people who don't want to hear.
;^) Loved the misnaming.
Ahh thank goodness, someone knows what they are saying....I am not as intelligent as you are Signore Gianluca d'Agostino, but thank goodness for your smartness - Mr. Egan's article (and we don't really care how his name is spelled as he's a total loser) was so bias it made me sick to my stomach...how could America have such one-track minded people write an article defending a student, just because she's American. She turned the city of Perugia upside down and brought sadness to all . I pray pray justice for Meredith & her family, for all those students who have had to bear with this very sad story. Amanda Knox was not there to study...she was there to play games and she played a very aweful one.
Amanda Knox's supporters want her to be found innocent of the terrible murder because 1) she's from Seattle 2) she's an American 3) she's white 4) her parents raised a million dollars or more for her defense, and money buys freedom.
The fact that Italy's justice system includes two judges in the jury will address the "imbalance" that can cause a dozen naive benevolent members of the public in other nations' justice systems to let murderers get away with murder. Lots of Americans were correctly outraged when OJ Simpson was let off the hook. At least some will appreciate justice in Italy. And let's hope justice prevails in the Knox/Sollecito/Kercher case. Thanks Mr D'Agostino for a very fair summing up of a disgusting, depraved run of events that has left a respectable loving family deprived of a very bright young lady who had a wonderful life ahead of her.
The fact that Italy's justice system includes two judges in the jury will address the "imbalance" that can cause a dozen naive benevolent members of the public in other nations' justice systems to let murderers get away with murder. Lots of Americans were correctly outraged when OJ Simpson was let off the hook. At least some will appreciate justice in Italy. And let's hope justice prevails in the Knox/Sollecito/Kercher case. Thanks Mr D'Agostino for a very fair summing up of a disgusting, depraved run of events that has left a respectable loving family deprived of a decent, very bright, young lady who had a wonderful life ahead of her.
great article. thank you.
Egan's posts were opinion pieces, clearly marked as such. I don't know about Italy, but it is common in the United States for newspapers to have an opinion section. The actual articles in the NYT stayed perfectly objective.
Egan's criticisms were not of the Italian justice system's structure - they focused on the evidence in the trial. His opinion was that there was insufficient evidence to hold her for 2 years. There is a strong argument to be made here, and is a reasonable position for an _opinion_ piece to take.
I'm also completely offended by the notion that anyone who thinks that Amanda is innocent is a racist and xenophobic American. Of course it's possible that she is guilty, but the evidence is not strong, and the motive incredibly weak. Even if she is guilty it was inappropriate to declare her guilt before the evidence was gathered, and I believe that is what has upset so many people.
Who are Mr.Egan, Mr.Hegan, Mr.Hogan, Mr.Ogan, and Mr.Oghan? I take it they are the same person...
RIP Meredith
Lots of people don;t seem to get he irony of the deliberate mispelling of the name, but that desn;t surpriise me given the etent t which people have miscntrued the events surrounding this trial. None moreso than the Knox family. Maybe PR can get yiy off in America? Anyone accused of crime in Europe has to go through a trial and there is no point trying to fight the case by PR in the newspapers!If i were a juror and witnessed the campaign i would assume the parents arrogance may extend to the very person they are trying to defend.Amanda
Aside from the name confusion, the author also seems to have forgotten about Rudy Guede, the third defendant in the case who had already been convicted. I grant that I don't know much about civil law (and will start reading up!), but this trial was a mess, a true media circus, hardly the finest hour of Italian jurisprudence.
Egan's "article" was posted under an "Opinion Blog". I guess when you were at your fancy law school, blogs didn't exist yet huh?
I don't think the Monster of Washington is innocent.
The evidence against the murderess is absolutely conclusive.
The verdict was unanimous and the deliberations were about the length of time each of the two defendants should serve.
It is not ethical to portray people like Amanda Knox, Scott Patterson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Mansion, Ted Bundy in a glorifying way as it only encourages copy cat murders.
Good writing with a few clerical mistakes. Egan wrote an opinion piece in the opinion blog of the NYT and therefore does not reflect on the Times itself; his blog was clearly NOT as emotional or as personal as D’Agostino’s retort. Mr. D’Agostino’s is a tad anti-American, but then Mr. Egan is to lesser degree, anti-Italian: it is a weakness in both writers. I am of the opinion that Knox is guilty, but the evidence wasn’t overwhelming.
Interesting this see people suggesting that those who believe Amanda Knox is innocent only do so because she's American. This is simply another form of xenophobia. I'm not American and I don't care whether she's guilty or innocent. However, I strongly believe that the evidence would not have stood up in a contemporary court in Ireland or the UK. Neither does my partner and we both have legal training, hers to PhD level.. Therefore on the legal principle that it's better to acquit the innocent than convict the guilty, I'm disappointed with the verdict.
Your article contains an ad hominem attack on Thomas Egan in the same manner as his supposed attack on the Italian legal system . So what? What does Thomas Egan's lack of legal expertise prove in the context of his opinion piece? Consider that one of the key witnesses has now turned out to be a drug dealer. In Ireland or the UK this would be "slam dunk" for the defense counsel. The Italian police were aware of his unreliability at the time but didn't care. Yet you're happy to believe the criticism from the other side of the Atlantic is unwarranted.
As for your point about Berlusconi wanting to reform the Italian legal system, it must be a joke.
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