Amanda Knox is an American college student imprisoned in the town of Perugia, Italy after being convicted of murdering her roommate. Knox appeared before an Italian judge today to decide if separate charges can be made against her for slander against the Italian police, who she claims beat her during interrogation.
Knox arrived in a penitentiary police van today for the preliminary hearing. Many are worried that if the case of slandering eight police officers is thrown out, it will cause questions of her actual conviction for murder. If the judge rules that the slander case can proceed, Knox faces more time in prison. The prosecution is planning on asking for a life sentence.
Knox is in prison after being convicted of murdering her roommate, British student Meredith Kercher. The crime scene was gruesome and splattered with blood. The slander charge facing Knox is based on her statements of what happened during her interrogation with investigators after the discovery of her roommate.
Witnesses in the courtroom described the scene as almost deja vu. The same judge who originally committed her to trial oversaw her case today. The same prosecutor represented the state and the lawyer representing the police was the same lawyer who represented the Kercher family in a civil suit against Knox. The slander hearing reconvenes in a week.
This news article really puts me between a rock and a hard place. I am a firm believer in justice and I believe very strongly in sanctioning illegal behavior. However, I am still unsure as to who's side of the story to believe. Police officers are trained to do the right thing, so I have a hard time believing that they abused Amanda Knox during interrogation. On the other hand, we hear a lot of scandalous stories similar to this in the news. For example, one of my last blog entries was about American troops killing Afghan citizens for fun. Military personnel are trained to do right just as the police are. Scandal has become more rampant in the justice system in the past several years, so it is hard to know what to think about this case because it is a possibility that Knox was abused. However, I want to believe that police officers are people we as the public can count on to be fair and follow the rules.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/01/earlyshow/main6917792.shtml
1 comment:
All the witnesses who were present when Amanda Knox was questioned, including her interpreter, testified under oath that she was treated well and wasn’t hit.
The judges and jury had to decide whether to believe the corroborative testimony of numerous upstanding witnesses or the word of a compulsive liar who has lied repeatedly. It would have been a very easy decision to make.
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