AMANDA KNOX and RAFFAELE SOLLECITO: GUILTY as SIN!

Thanks for the debate Mr. February. I have been wanting to debate this for awhile now. === Burden of proof === Burden of proof lies with Pro to prove guilt. Given that this is a criminal case, the burden of proof must be by the standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt." My job is only to prove that there is enough doubt surrounding the case that Knox should not have been convicted. I do not have the more difficult task of affirmatively proving her innocence. Although I think the facts do establish her innocence, proving someone "not guilty" only requires proving that the prosecution does not have enough *evidence* to convict. === The case that Knox is not guilty === When determining guilt, a jury usually decides which of two competing stories is more compelling. I will lay out the two possible stories below. Story #1: Rudy Guede acted alone Rudy Guede is an African immigrant who was living in Perugia, Italy at the time of Meredith Kercher"s murder. Guede had prior arrests for drug dealing and burglary and had been in trouble with police multiple times during his short stay in Perugia. [1] As Steve Moore - an expert in forensics at the FBI - states, this is a simple case of "resident-surprises-burglar." [2] Guede broke into Meredith"s room by shattering her bedroom window. Meredith's friends testified that she decided to go home early before heading out clubbing. Meredith came home and found Guede in her room. She freaked out. Guede panicked and attacked her with a knife. As Moore explains, Meredith fought "bravely" for her life; there were 46 wounds on her body consistent with a desperate struggle. [3] Guede killed Meredith and decided to have sex with her dead body. [2] He then took a dump in Meredith"s bathroom, covered her body with her bedspread, threw her phone out the window, and fled the country. Guede's DNA was found all over Meredith"s room and inside her vagina. A bloody handprint and footprints were found in Meredith's room that all matched Guede. [3] Guede attempted to flee the country, which is evidence of guilt. Story #2: Knox, Sollecito, and Guede acted together The prosecution's theory of motive has changed multiple times, but the original theory was that Amanda Knox, her boyfriend (Raphael Sollecito), and Rudy Guede were part of a Satanic cult or sex club that attempted to coerce Meredith into having sex with them. Sollecito is alleged to have held Meredith's arms and Knox is alleged to have held a knife to Meredith"s neck while Guede had sex with her. When Guede was done, Knox slashed Meredith's throat. Guede left, and Knox and Sollecito are alleged to have staged the scene to look like a break-in. The problems with this theory are manifest. First, as an Italian court of appeals (that acquitted Knox) noted, there is no evidence that Knox and Sollecito knew Guede. [4] Their phone records reveal no communication between Knox/Sollecito and Guede. [4] Second, Knox and Sollecito had no motive to kill Meredith. Knox was a Dean's List exchange student. [2] There is no evidence that she was part of a cult. In addition, she had only been dating Sollecito for a few weeks. It is unlikely that if she said, "Hey, let"s kill my roommate" that he would have gone along with it. Third, there is an absence of DNA evidence linking Knox and Sollecito to the crime. [2] Meredith"s neck would have spewed blood all over Knox and Sollecito. [2] However, as Steve Moore explains, there are no bloody footprints or anything else in Meredith"s room that are attributable to Knox or Sollecito, and the police did not find evidence of blood on any of Knox"s or Sollecito"s clothing (even if put in the wash, traces of the blood would not wash out). [2] As Steve Moore explains, this is a classic case of a botched police investigation. FBI investigators are warned that their original theory of the case might be wrong, and they must revise their theory based on the evidence. The police"s original theory was that Knox killed her roommate (because of small inconsistencies in her alibi story). However, the police stuck to their guns even when they caught the true killer (Guede) and even when they failed to find any DNA evidence linking Knox to the murder. Knox's case was rife with abuse. The lead prosecutor on her case was later found guilty of misconduct. Two of the police investigators were also later found guilty of misconduct. Investigators lied to Knox and said she had tested positive for HIV so they could get a complete history of all of her sexual partners [to prove their sex cult theory]. Police used sleep deprivation techniques in interrogating Knox that are the *same techniques* used by the CIA when interrogating suspected terrorists. [5] Knox was interrogated for almost 43 hours straight. [5] When police failed to find *any* trace of Knox or Sollecito in Meredith"s room, they went back a few weeks later to try again. The crime scene had already been mostly abandoned and not properly maintained, but six weeks after the initial investigation, police found Meredith"s bra clasp (which they had missed earlier) that had been swept into the corner of the room and had been sitting in a huge pile of dust. The clasp tested positive for Sollecito"s DNA, as well as testing positive for the DNA of five other people. [2] As Moore explains, dust is mostly composed of human skin cells. [2] That pile of dust likely contained cells from anyone who had ever been in the common areas of the apartment. [2] In addition, the prosecution claims that Sollecito touched the clasp because he undid Meredith's bra. However, the bra strap was cut by Guede. [2] If Guede used a knife to cut open Meredith's bra, there would be no reason for Sollecito to touch the clasp. [2] There was a violent struggle in that room with Meredith fighting for her life and Guede's DNA is *everywhere.* It seems impossible that no trace of Knox was *ever* found in the room, and only one tiny trace of Sollecito was ever found. It seems more likely that there was contamination of the crime scene due to the dust. The *only* other piece of DNA evidence was Sollecito's kitchen knife. The prosecution claims to have found a tiny piece of Meredith's DNA on the tip of the knife. However, first the Italian court of appeals found that the lab technicians and police had been willing to perjure themselves about the forensic evidence in this case. [6] So it is pretty sketchy that police claimed that the sample was so small that it was "used up in testing," so the defense could not do any independent testing of the knife. A second possibility is that the tiny trace of DNA was simply stuck to the inside of their lab equipment. [6] The police had been testing a number of objects from inside Meredith's room, so her DNA was inside the equipment. It is likely that investigators simply failed to clean the equipment completely before testing the knife. [6] Tellingly, of the six stab wounds on Meredith"s body, the kitchen knife *could not* have made five of them and "maybe" could have made one of them [according to the testimony of the prosecution's own forensic expert]. It seems more likely that Guede ditched the real murder weapon elsewhere, and police have never found it. My opponent cites the testimony of Hekuran Kokomani who was shown to be lying at trial. [7] His testimony is ludicrous in a number of ways. [8] The Knox trial is a very high profile case in Italy. Knox was vilified in the media. Kokomani thought he could lie to help the prosecution's case. I will address some of my opponent"s other arguments in the next round. [1] http://tinyurl.com... [2] http://tinyurl.com... [3] http://tinyurl.com... [4] Mirabella, Julia Grace, Scales of Justice: Assessing Italian Criminal Procedure Through the Amanda Knox Trial (January 5, 2012). [5] http://tinyurl.com... [6] http://tinyurl.com... [7] http://tinyurl.com... [8] http://tinyurl.com...