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Knox defence begins as legal teams swap insults
Nick Pisa in Rome21 Oct 2008
A TRANSATLANTIC war of words has erupted hours before murder suspect Amanda Knox's legal team begins its defence.
Knox, 21, is accused of cutting the throat of Meredith Kercher, 21, in a drug-fuelled orgy at their shared home in Italian university town Perugia. The body of the exchange student from Coulsdon was found semi-naked in her bedroom.
Lawyers Luciano Ghirga and Carlo Della Vedova will begin Knox's defence today, after yesterday attacking prosecutor Giuliani Mignini for relying more on "character than evidence" in the case.
There was also criticism of the Italian police investigation and judicial system from US lawyer Anne Bremner and court judge Michael Heavey, both from Knox's home town of Seattle. They claimed information, including Knox's prison diary, had been leaked and forensic officers had mishandled evidence at the scene.
Ms Bremner, who has offered to help friends of Miss Knox, told US television station NBC: "There is zero evidence to connect her to this homicide. Thou shalt not destroy evidence at the scene."
Commenting on a video that showed Italian police carrying out a search of Kercher's bedroom she said they had done "sloppy job" and may have contaminated evidence by "not wearing a hairnet" and "shaking the duvet that covered her body".
Judge Heavey, a friend of the Knox family, hit out at leaks in the case. He said: "The spreading of [her diary] was a smoking gun and is evidence of the malevolence of the prosecutor."
The war of words comes the day after the Kercher family filed a compensation claim for £20million in the case against Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, Rudy Hermann Guede, 21. All three deny the charges.
Today Mr Mignini said: "The judiciary has been attacked with only a superficial knowledge of what is a case covered by Italian jurisprudence. No Italian member of the judiciary would dream of carrying out such a defamatory attack on an American prosecutor investigating an Italian suspect."
A Perugia police spokesman said: "To be criticised by a foreign judge who has no idea of the case and has not seen the evidence is insulting."
Reader views (1)
Typical American courtroom practice. Intimidate and cast aspersions on your adversary. Empty vessels make most noise.
- Sue Rochester, London, 21/10/2008 14:57
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