NY Daily News: Amanda Knox, the 22-year-old American exchange student who was convicted of murdering her roommate, says her trial was "correct."According to ABC News, Knox spoke to Italian Parliament member Walter Verini four days after a jury found her guilty on the weekend of killing Meredith Kercher on Nov. 1 2007.
Verini, who represents Umbria, the region where Knox is jailed, told ABC that Knox was polite and "apparently calm."
He found the Seattle native in a track suit, reading in her cell, when he visited the Capanne prison outside of Perugia.
Knox allegedly told Verini that her trial was "correct" and that she "still has faith in the Italian legal system," to whom her lawyers will appeal the ruling.
"I asked her if she had seen how her country had reacted to the verdict," Verini told ABC News. "She was evidently aware of everything that was happening, but did not say what effect she thought it would have on her legal situation."
After receiving a prison sentence of 26 years, Knox was moved to a cell she shares with a 53-year-old American named Laura, her mother, Edda Mellas, told ABC News.
American commentators criticized the verdict, suggesting that the court was subject to anti-Americanism and the tabloid coverage of the trial.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state, released a statement implying that the jury was negatively influenced by the Italian media and by anti-Americanism. She said she would bring her concerns about the Italian justice system to Secretary of State Clinton. For her part, Clinton said she had not gone over the Knox case but would meet with anyone who had concerns about it.
But Knox's lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, has rejected claims that his client's trial in Perugia was tainted in an way.
"Amanda's rights were respected during the trial," he told ABC News. "She had a fair trial."
Ghirga, however, did bring up the fact that Knox's rights were not respected when she was questioned without a lawyer in the investigation following Kercher's death.
"We made that point very strongly in the trial," he said.
Kercher, 21, was found on Nov. 2, 2007, with her throat slit in the apartment she shared with Knox. Knox; her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and Ivory Coast citizen Rudy Hermann Guede (in a separate trial) were convicted of sexually assaulting and killing Kercher.
Sollecito was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and both he and Knox were ordered to pay 1 million euros to each of the victim's parents and 800,000 to each of her Kercher's three siblings.
Both parties plan to appeal in a process set to begin March 5.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/12/10/2009-12-10_amanda_knox_murder_trial_that_led_to_conviction_was_correct.html#ixzz0ZORbeHQO
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/12/10/2009-12-10_amanda_knox_murder_trial_that_led_to_conviction_was_correct.html#ixzz0ZORbeHQO
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/12/10/2009-12-10_amanda_knox_murder_trial_that_led_to_conviction_was_correct.html#ixzz0ZORbeHQO
No comments:
Post a Comment