Friends of Amanda – Case summary references with active links
On November 9, 2007, Judge Claudia Matteini issued a court order authorizing the detention of Knox, Sollecito, and Lumumba. Parts of this document were translated into English and published in the UK Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1568861/How-the-sex-game-went-wrong-Judge's-report.html). Matteini presented a theory of the crime, which included "an initial wish of the three youths to try a new sensation, above all for the boyfriend and girlfriend, while for Diya [Lumumba] the desire to have carnal relations with a girl he liked and who was refusing him." Writing for the US Newsweek magazine on November 15 (http://www.newsweek.com/id/70610), Barbie Nadeau typified the media's take on Matteini's order by describing it as a "a squalid tale of dangerous sex games." The robbery motive surfaced when Rudy Guede's DNA was found on the victim's handbag, as reported by CNN (Allessio Vinci) on January 11, 2008 (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/01/11/italy.kercher/index.html) and Sky News (Nick Pisa) on February 1, 2008 (http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641303615). In the latter story, Pisa wrote, "Inside, there were also traces of blood, and police sources said this added further weight to their theory that theft was a motive." Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini issued a report on June 19, 2008, in which he alleged that Knox, Sollecito, and Guede stole approximately 300 Euros from Kercher along with her credit cards and cell phones. With regard to a possible occult motive, on October 19, 2008, during the pre-trial hearings, Mignini laid out his reconstruction of the crime for Messaggero Umbria, which quoted him as follows: “...what’s more, the three, and especially Sollecito, were very susceptible to ‘cultural’ influences ... That night was the feast day of the Saints, the Catholic ‘heir’ to the Celtic new-year Samhain, with all the implications which are focused on the eve of the feast day, that is the night between Oct 31 and Nov 1." On October 20, La Nazione wrote that, according to police theory, "Meredith could have died on the evening of Oct 31st because that night was favourable for a ’sexual rite’ in accordance with the traditions of Halloween." The English translations of these articles are found in the October 2008 archives of a blog devoted to the Meredith Kercher case (http://damiano33.wordpress.com/).
The 9:30 phone call was reported in La Republica on November 7, 2007. (http://www.repubblica.it/2007/11/sezioni/cronaca/perugia-uccisa/ricordo-amanda/ricordo-amanda.html). No English translation is available.
The time of Kercher's death has been a matter of controversy. Initial reports indicated that she died between 12:00 am and 2:00 am, as reported in the UK Times (Richard Owen, Patrick Foster and Rajeev Sya) on November 7, 2007 (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2821154.ece). On November 9, however, the Times (Richard Owen) quoted Judge Claudia Matteini's contradictory assertion that death took place "at 11pm at the earliest and at the latest one hour after, with a time frame between 10pm and midnight." (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2841412.ece). On November 27, the UK Telegraph (Malcolm Moore) noted that investigators had not been able to conclusively establish the time of death (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1570573/Meredith-Kerchers-family-plead-for-funeral.html). On January 31, 2008, the Times (Richard Owen) reported that forensic scientists had revised their estimates and concluded that Kercher could have died any time between 9:00 pm and 4:00 am (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3282588.ece).
This account of Knox's activities is based on an email she sent to friends and family on November 4, 2007.
Later on the day of November 6, 2007, Knox wrote a note to police, which was published in the UK Telegraph on November 11 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1570225/Transcript-of-Amanda-Knox's-note.html). In this note, Knox attempted to reconcile her statements with what she believed the truth to be, as follows:
"In regards to this "confession" that I made last night, I want to make clear that I'm very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion. Not only was I told I would be arrested and put in jail for 30 years, but I was also hit in the head when I didn't remember a fact correctly. I understand that the police are under a lot of stress, so I understand the treatment I received.
"However, it was under this pressure and after many hours of confusion that my mind came up with these answers. In my mind I saw Patrik in flashes of blurred images. I saw him near the basketball court. I saw him at my front door. I saw myself cowering in the kitchen with my hands over my ears because in my head I could hear Meredith screaming. But I've said this many times so as to make myself clear: these things seem unreal to me, like a dream, and I am unsure if they are real things that happened or are just dreams my head has made to try to answer the questions in my head and the questions I am being asked."
On April 24, Perugia Shock, the most comprehensive English-language blog on the Meredith Kercher case, summarized the Italian Supreme Court's position on Knox's statements as follows: "the statements you made at 1.45 can only be used contra alios (against another person). As a result of those statements, the interrogation was suspended and you became 'indagata'(a suspect). The 'spontaneous statements' made at 5.45 am are not admissible against you or against other suspects because you had already become 'indagata' and you did not have legal protection." (http://perugia-shock.blogspot.com/2008/04/amanda-q-and-with-supreme-court.html)
Police interrogation techniques have come under scrutiny in recent years, as DNA exonerations have revealed many cases of wrongful prosecution. The Innocence Project, which works to free prisoners who have been wrongfully convicted, has reached the following conclusion: "In about 25% of DNA exoneration cases, innocent defendants made incriminating statements, delivered outright confessions or pled guilty" (http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/False-Confessions.php). Because of concern about how police interrogate suspects, many jurisdictions have passed laws requiring that these sessions be recorded electronically. According to the European Criminal Bar Association's summary of Italian criminal procedure law, electronic recording of interrogations is required in Italy, but only after a suspect has been detained (http://www.ecba-eaw.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=982&Itemid=31#recording). No electronic recording of Knox's interrogation has been produced or shown to exist.
On November 19, 2007, the UK's Guardian (Tom Kington) reported that, according to Corriere della Sera, Guede had become a suspect because "[a] fingerprint left in Kercher's blood matched a print in Guede's file at the register of foreign residents at Perugia town hall" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/nov/19/italy.internationalcrime). On December 21, NBC's Dateline provided more detail, reporting that Guede had left "a bloody left hand print on a pillowcase found behind the victim's head." (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22332240/) The Dateline report also mentioned that Guede's DNA was found in an unflushed toilet. On November 26, the UK Times (Richard Owen) reported that Guede's DNA was found inside the victim (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2946813.ece). But in April 2008, according to an Associated Press story carried in USA Today (Frances D'Emilio), a forensic expert told an Italian court that it was not clear whether Kercher had been sexually assaulted, and no traces of sperm were found (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-04-19-3562090720_x.htm). The presence of Guede's DNA on Kercher's handbag was reported by CNN (Allessio Vinci) on January 11, 2008 (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/01/11/italy.kercher/index.html) and by Sky News (Nick Pisa) on February 1 (http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641303615).
On November 26, 2007, the UK Times (Richard Owen) reported that witnesses had seen Guede dancing until 4:30 in the morning on November 2 (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2946813.ece). This article also reported the details of Guede's statement, including the words "a black man seen is a black man condemned." Guede's initial story described what police and crime writers refer to as a "bushy haired stranger," a term that originated with the Marilyn Sheppard murder case in 1954. Many defendants who could not plausibly deny a presence at the murder scene, including Diane Downs and Jeffrey MacDonald as well as Sam Sheppard, have described strangers who suddenly appeared on the scene, committed the crime, and then fled.
This was reported in Fondazione Italiani on November 22, 2007, but does not seem to have been picked up in any English-language publications. No English translation is available. (http://www.fondazioneitaliani.it/index.php/en/Omicidio-Perugia.-Rudy-Amanda-non-c-era.-L-assassino-e-un-italiano.html)
On March 27, ABC News (Ann Wise and Phoebe Natanson) reported that Italy's national news service, ANSA, described an interrogation in which Guede claimed that he was now able to identify the person with whom he grappled as Sollecito, and that he heard Knox's voice in the doorway (http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=4536344&page=1). On the same day, the UK Telegraph (Malcolm Moore) reported that Guede told investigators that Knox let him in through the front door, which would seem to contradict Guede's basic premise that the assailants entered the residence while he was in the bathroom (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1582903/Meredith-Kercher-police-claim-breakthrough.html). The UK Times (Richard Owen) reported on that day that Guede said he saw Knox at the door of the house and saw Sollecito inside (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3629353.ece).
On December 21, 2007, NBC's Dateline program described the mood at this event: "There were plenty of forensic details still to process and sort through, but the authorities were confident the three had been in on it together. Lumumba, Amanda and the boyfriend in a haze of drugs and sexual thrill-seeking had ended up murdering Meredith Kercher. Case closed." (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22332240/)
On November 13, 2007, the UK Times (Richard Owen) reported that several hairs had been found in the victim's left hand (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2862541.ece).
On June15, 2008, the UK Times (John Follain) ran a story based on an interview with Knox's parents as well as her sister, Deanna, who recalled that when Amanda described her interrogation on the morning of November 6, 2008, she said, "I've never been so scared in my life." (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4113087.ece)
Judge Matteini's report included the following statement: "On the evening around 8.30pm, while Knox found herself at the house of Sollecito, she received the message from Diya Lumumba who, rather than simply warning her to not come to work, instead confirmed the appointment that evening." (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1568861/How-the-sex-game-went-wrong-Judge's-report.html)
On November 17, 2007, the UK Telegraph (Malcolm Moore) reported the alleged findings with regard to the knife, attributing the information to Giacinto Profazio, the head of the Flying Squad in Perugia, who noted that the DNA on the blade was not from blood (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1569485/Meredith-suspect"s-DNA-found-on-knife.html). (This report also states that "[p]olice confiscated several blood-soaked rags, sheets and towels, as well as a bloody blue sweatshirt, from Sollecito's house," but nothing further was ever reported about these alleged discoveries.) On March 4, 2008, the US magazine Newsweek (Barbie Nadeau) interviewed Joseph Tacopina, a criminal defense lawyer who claimed he had been to Perugia, where he investigated the DNA tests on the knife and discovered that "there is only a 20 percent chance that it's Meredith's DNA." (http://www.newsweek.com/id/118834) On May 8, Perugia Shock summarized a petition by Knox's defense as follows: "The most important [arguments] obviously concern the data that has emerged after Court of Freedom's ruling, which fell outside the scope of the Supreme Court review. They include... the knife that doesn't match all the wounds, the DNA on the blade that has not been proven to be Meredith's, etc." (http://perugia-shock.blogspot.com/2008/05/free-amanda-within-week.html) On November 24, 2008, Perugia Shock reported that "[t]he Knife doesn't match the print on the bed. The Knife is compatible with only the fatal wound but incompatible with the minor ones. The print on the bed looks like left by a knife compatible with all wounds." (http://perugia-shock.blogspot.com/2008/11/testimony-fever.html)
News of the unidentified DNA traces surfaced in a number of UK publications on January 31, 2008. The Independent on that date wrote: "The three traces - believed to be from two males and a female - do not match up with any of the three suspects currently being held over [Kercher's] death." (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/mystery-dna-found-on-murdered-students-bra-776367.html) On October 1, La Nazione quoted one of Sollecito's lawyers as saying , "We want to show the unreliability of the collection of the dna at the scene of the crime and the contamination of the evidence. We’ll do this with the documentation that we have ." The English translation of this article is found in the October 2008 archives of a blog devoted to the Meredith Kercher case (http://damiano33.wordpress.com/).
When dealing with microscopic DNA samples, a tiny particle of biological material can contaminate the evidence. One set of guidelines for handling DNA evidence to avoid contamination is put out by the US Department of Justice, as follows:
* Wear gloves. Change them often.
* Use disposable instruments or clean them thoroughly before and after handling each sample.
* Avoid touching the area where you believe DNA may exist.
* Avoid talking, sneezing, and coughing over evidence.
* Avoid touching your face, nose, and mouth when collecting and packaging evidence.
* Air-dry evidence thoroughly before packaging.
* Put evidence into new paper bags or envelopes, not into plastic bags. Do not use staples.
(http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles1/nij/bc000614.txt)
Police video shows that investigators did not change their gloves or use instruments when handling the bra fastener. Two of them in succession fingered the item extensively, turning it over in their hands and examining it for a total of about two and a half minutes before dropping it into a plastic bag.
On November 28, 2007, an Associated Press story carried in USA today stated that a drop of Knox's blood was found on a faucet (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-11-28-italy-slaying_N.htm). On December 22 the UK Times (Richard Owen) reported that two blood stains were found containing the mixed DNA of Kercher and Knox, "one near the plughole of a basin in a bathroom at the house, and the other on a box off cotton wool balls on the side of the basin." (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3084751.ece)
On September 26, 2008, the Italian magazine Panorama published an interview with Torre. An English translation is found in the September archives of a blog devoted to the Meredith Kercher murder case (http://damiano33.wordpress.com/). Torre said the following with respect to the blood stains: "That the murderer washed in the bathroom seems quite probable. The fact that Meredith’s blood was there is clear; the murderer would have had a quick wash before going out onto the street...and it doesn’t surprise me that, in the same place there’s Amanda’s dna, since she lived there. I use a bidet, then somebody else bleeds; there’ll be two different genetic profiles, but noone can say whose the blood is and whose are the organic residues. These mixed traces don’t mean anything." Torre was similarly dismissive of the footprints, pointing out that Luminol reacts with household cleaners as well as blood, and it would be normal for Knox's footprints to be found in the hallway outside the bathroom.
The first English-language report about the Albanian appeared in the UK Sun (Nick Pisa) on January 24, 2008 (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article721784.ece). At that time, the Albanian claimed he had encountered Knox, Sollecito, and Guede together on the night before the murder, October 31, and that Knox had threatened him with a knife. On June 23, the UK Daily Mail reported that the Albanian, Hekuran Kokomani, now claimed that the encounter took place on the night of the murder rather than the night before (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1028371/8216-Knox-threatened-knife-night-Meredith-killed-8217--says-new-witness.html). This is a significant detail because both Knox and Sollecito could prove they were elsewhere on the night before the murder. On September 27, Il Messaggero Umbria printed a summary of the Albanian's testimony in the pre-trial, and an English translation appeared on a blog devoted to translating Italian coverage of the Meredith Kercher case (http://damiano33.wordpress.com/). The witness claimed to have met Knox and Sollecito before Knox arrived in Perugia and before they met each other, he said Knox had a gap in her front teeth, which is not the case, and he said he wasn't sure whether the encounter took place on October 31 or November 1. When asked if it was true that he was hospitalized because of excessive alcohol consumption two days after he claimed to have encountered the suspects, he replied that a doctor had advised him to treat an ulcer by drinking and taking aspirin.
The CBS program 48 Hours spoke to this woman, Nara Capezalli, for an episode about the case against Knox that aired on April 12, 2008. Capezalli is not sure what time it was when she heard the scream.
Perugia Shock reported on this witness, Antonio Curatolo, on April 4, 2008, noting that he talked to a regional newspaper before he talked to the police (http://perugia-shock.blogspot.com/2008/04/you-too-superwitness.html). On September 20, the UK Guardian (Tom Kington) reported that Curatolo had also been interviewed for British television and, in 2001, was a key witness in another Perugian murder case (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/20/meredithkercher.italy).
This report appeared in the UK Sun on November 24 (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article503095.ece). The story incorrectly identified the store as a lingerie shop when in fact it is a general clothing store. The purchase was described as a G-string, when in fact Knox bought conventional undergarments because she had no access to her clothing, which was at the crime scene.
On November 17, 2007, the UK Telegraph (Malcolm Moore) reported that authorities had found two bottles of bleach at Sollecito's apartment (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1569579/Vital-clues-in-Meredith-Kercher-murder-case.html). (This report also mentioned the knife that was tested for DNA [see Note 16] as well as a "bloody sponge and dishcloth." Nothing further was ever reported about the sponge and dishcloth.) On November 28, 2007, an Associated Press story that ran in USA Today reported that the prosecutor, Mignini, had submitted a document to the court in which he claimed "the apartment was cleaned after the killing in an attempt to erase traces of Knox's presence. The only fingerprint belonging to Knox was found on glass, while many more traces were left by two other Italian roommates and visitors." (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-11-28-italy-slaying_N.htm) Mignini's report also mentioned that bleach was found at Sollecito's apartment and that Sollecito's maid said it had not been there before. Police video shows investigators examining the two one-liter bottles of bleach found beneath Sollecito's kitchen sink along with a collection of other household cleaners. The editor of Perugia Shock has stated that one of these bottles had never been opened, and the other had been opened and about one-fourth of its contents had been used.
On November 19, 2007, The UK Times (Richard Owen) reported that two receipts found at Sollecito's apartment showed that someone had purchased bleach twice on the morning after the murder, with the first purchase having been made at 8:30 and the second 45 minutes later (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2894139.ece). As with the bloody rags and sponge allegedly found at Sollecito's apartment (see Notes 16 and 26), this report has never been substantiated.
In her November 4, 2007, email to friends and family, Knox did not display an insider's knowledge of the crime. She wrote: "i sat around in this waiting room... until 530 in the morning. during this time i received calls... and i also talked with the rest. especially to find out what exactly was in merediths room when they opened it. apparently her body was laying under a sheet, and with her foot sticking out and there was a lot of blood. whoever had did this had slit her throat."