Amanda Knox DNA appeal sparks legal battle by forensic experts

[alp227]

Source: The Observer

Amanda Knox's appeal against her conviction for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Italy faces a fresh challenge. A prominent forensic scientist, whose DNA evidence helped to convict the US student and her former boyfriend, has vowed to overturn the findings of an independent report that says much of her work in the case was unreliable.

Knox returns to court in Perugiaon Monday, armed with the new forensic report, which she hopes will help lead to her being freed.

Kercher was found with her throat slit in the Perugia apartment she shared with Knox in 2007. Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were sentenced to 26 and 25 years respectively in 2009 for the murder. A third suspect, Rudy Guede, had already been convicted for his role in the killing.

Written by two independent experts from Rome's Sapienza University, the 145-page DNA review rubbishes the work of Patrizia Stefanoni, the police forensic scientist who found Knox's and Kercher's DNA on a kitchen knife at Sollecito's house and identified DNA belonging to Sollecito on a torn bra clasp found beside Kercher's semi-naked body.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/24/amanda-knox-dna-appeal-threat

[IDemo]

1. Idaho DNA expert claims Amanda Knox is innocent of murder

“I was trying to study how DNA evidence is used in other countries, and when I looked at the data -- I was appalled,” said Hampikian.

The data he was looking at was from the Amanda Knox case, an American student convicted of murdering her roommate at a home they shared in Perugia, Italy. Knox, as well as her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and another man, Rudy Guede, were all convicted in the murder of Meredith Kercher.

"The one piece of evidence that tied her to this case had such a low level of DNA with the victim on it that I think it was probably just one of these casual transfers, certainly not from a stabbing,” said Hampikian.

Hampikian volunteered his services to Knox's defense team.

http://www.ktvb.com/news/local/Idaho-DNA-experts-claims-Amanda-Knox-is-innocent-of-murder-120425444.html

[Taverner]

2. She needs a retrial

I do not know if she did it or not

But she needs a retrial

[pnwmom]

3. She is in the middle of one right now.

In Italy, the appeal trial is essentially a retrial.

So far, the only witnesses to her presence near the cottage that night have been completely discredited. (One admitted to using heroin on a daily basis and got his days mixed up while on the stand. The other, an "earwitness" to a scream she supposedly heard while inside her house, turned out to be mostly deaf and with a history of mental illness.)

And now, the only two pieces of physical evidence supposedly linking Amanda and her boyfriend to the crime, have been called "unreliable" in a scathing report written by the court-appointed independent experts from the University of Rome. There was no identifiable DNA of the murder victim found on the knife in Raffaele's kitchen -- only starch. (As in, pasta.) And the "bra clasp" -- the only piece of evidence supposedly linking Raffaele to the crime, was also rejected by the outside experts. First, the item was grossly mishandled, allowing for contamination; and second, the police lab misread the raw data.

Most maddening is the fact that the judge in the original trial would not allow the defense to examine the DNA files, and he wouldn't appoint an outside expert either. So Amanda and Raffaele have been in prison now for 4 years on the basis of false DNA.

There are still many Perugians who have a vested interest in this case not being overturned, however -- so I'm not overly optimistic, just hopeful. For example, the lawyer who represent the murdered girl's family in their civil lawsuit against the three defendants stands to gain millions in fees if Amanda and Raffaele remain convicted. (Raffaele has a trust fund and his family is very wealthy.) However, the lawyer will get nothing if the real murderer, Guede, is the only one convicted. Guede's a known burglar who was the only one to leave his handprints, footprints, shoeprints, hair, and bountiful DNA all over the room where the murder took place. And in the victim's body. But he doesn't have any money to go after. So the attorney, Maresca, is loudly sounding off about how much more the police lab experts know than the academic forensic experts from the University of Rome.

Why did the police ever accuse Amanda and Raffaele? Because they wanted to solve the crime -- fast. So they charged Amanda and Raffaele and publicly announced the case was closed BEFORE any of the results of the physical evidence came back -- every single piece of evidence pointing straight to Guede. (The bra clasp was found 6 weeks later.) Oops! They didn't want to admit their mistake, so they just decided that the two university students -- under the influence of POT -- had found Guede (a person they didn't know) raping Kercher, and just decided to join in on the fun. Seriously.

[pnwmom]

4. This case is worse than the case against the Duke lacrosse students,

even though they both had showboating prosecutors at their center.

But the Duke students were able to get the prosecution to turn over the raw DNA files before they ever had to go to trial -- and that is when the case against them fell apart. Meanwhile, Amanda and Raffaele's lawyers never succeeded in getting the raw DNA files during their initial trial. They were only turned over a couple months ago, after the two students had been falsely imprisoned for more than 3 and a half years.