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New York, 2:56 PM
Fri Nov 27
15 posts in the last 24 hours
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06/15/09
They just kept working him and working him and questioning him for hours and softening him and twisting his words and asking him, "What WOULD you have done if you'd killed her?" They asked him to practice a confession, etc. Eventually, they got him to believe he'd done it.
I don't know if you have to have a particularly "susceptible" personality for this to work, but planting false memories and encouraging false confessions happens. It seems like that may have occurred in this case.
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It is legal for the police to lie to you, mislead you, tell you they've already got all the evidence against you they need, etc. It is NOT legal for them to continue to question you if you tell them you are invoking your right to remain silent and your right to an attorney. If they continue to press you (as they so often do on cop shows) after you ask for a lawyer, anything you say *should* be excluded from the record.
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Then they watched the video of the interrogation and realized they gave her every piece of information she told them.
Why did she lie? She was up all night and exhausted. She was a victim of child abuse and domestic abuse, and the officers learned that abuse victims will often lie if they think it will placate an authority figure.
There are many reasons a young foreign student would give up and admit a crime she didn't commit if she thought it would end the interrogation.
06/15/09
This whole thing has reminded me I should educate myself more about the French legal system.
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Wait, she told her mom she knew her own knife was the murder weapon?
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And agreed about wanting to know Sollecito's story...will be corroborate Amanda's? If he didn't, that would be very odd since her story doesn't implicate either of them.
06/15/09
I will be surprised if she is able to beat this - whether innocent or not. I'd be surprised if she got a fir trial there from all that I have heard on the legal end.
06/15/09
On top of this, I don't think the Italian justice system has removed the head prosecutor from the case even though he is currently on trial for sensationalizing and bungling a former major murder case. No conflict of interest, eh?
I will admit that it is because of this trial and the way it's been carried out that I crossed Italy off my list of countries I'd like to visit in the next 20 years. Between Berlusconi and his "rapist men are just being regular men, aww shucks" personality and this trial, I am judging another country--I know it's unfair, but I try not to talk or think of it too often so hopefully my bias will fade.
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06/15/09
-Knox kills Kercher in fucked-up Satanic sex-game orgy.
-Kercher gets in the way of Guede when he breaks in.
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At least that was my impression. I may be wrong.
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What do you all think?
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Very bizarre. I guess I kind of lean more towards guilty than not guilty, but I just don't know.
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On the other hand, if she was badgered during interrogation, then perhaps her alibi changed in order to give investigators what they wanted (and therefore make the interrogation stop).
All I know for sure, is that one young woman's life was cut short...
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If she didn't do it, though, I must say that I feel incredibly terrible for her. Not just because the last year of her life has been a nightmare, but because she'll always be remembered for that, it will always be the first thing in google searches, people will recall it when they're introduced at parties or she does job interviews, etc.
06/15/09
But I agree that I am torn about this case. I will try to hulu the 20/20 mentioned by mfnher.
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I can only hope for the best for this girl, but I fear the Italian justice system is not the most moral system.
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Not only are "criminals" put under extreme psychological duress, but they are usually faced with other situations during questioning. The police don't only do "threatening/aggressive questioning, gestures, and yelling." In Chicago, many innocent Black and Latino men have been BEATEN for the duration of the questioning, held some more then beaten again. Many people have confessed to crimes that they have since been exonerated from due to being beaten into a confession.
This is part of the reason why George Ryan pardoned all of the people on death row in Illinois before his term as governor was over- the system is very fucked up here and I understand how Amanda Knox could confess to something she didn't do.
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As many people have already stated, it is very common for people to falsely confess due to the dishonest police interrogation techniques. One of the most famous cases is of Michael Crowe, a then 14 year old who was accused of murdering his sister. I watched the video of parts of his interrogation in social psychology and it was heartbreaking. They seperated him from his parents, questioned him for 27 hours over a 3 day period, lied to him, refused him water, and convinced him that he must have killed his sister and blocked the memory. They also told him that if he confessed he would go to a juvenile prison, but that if he didn't, he would go to an adult prison. He confessed on camera but was later proven innocent. And all of that was without any added violence like Amanda experienced to scare her into a confession. Not to mention the added fear of being convicted in a foreign country with an unfamiliar judicial system. I would be terrified and unsurprised if I confessed after 14 hours of that.
Oh, if anyone is interested more in false confessions, there is a very interesting article about it here: [www.joshuadfoster.com] (Sorry, I'm new at commenting!)
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I just sat in on my first jury trial, and there were so many shades of gray and issues of witness credibility that I was pretty grateful this case went to trial before a jury. We have no doubt about the general culpability of the defendant, and that he poses a major threat to his girlfriend. However, after hearing all the testimony and seeing all the evidence (that could be seen in front of the jury), I think there were questions about how truthful the main eyewitness was being. The jury dismissed about half the charges, and I really think it was necessary for 12 people to determine the credibility of the witness. The DA's office tries really hard to weed out bad charges and witnesses, but we also want to protect people, so of course there is bias there, and that is why we need some impartial parties to review the evidence. Of course, only 1 out of 10 cases even go to trial, and less to a jury trial, generally because defendants know that we have good evidence and they have bad cases and it's easier to plea.
06/15/09
Not someone objective
Not someone who is attentive.
Not someone who is intelligent.
But someone who can be convinced to agree with them.
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@queen sara saturday: that is absolutely the implication that every journalist seemed to further....I hear she had this nickname since she was 12 or some other young age where a reference to promiscuity would be even more nauseating than it already is. She was quick on the field, like a fox.
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Not perfect. But at least an attempt to get closer.
I, like many, have a problem with the corruption in the American judicial and criminal systems. But there are thousands of people who are actually working their asses off, including police officers, to protect people's civil rights. This flip response shits on their work and the fact that we live in a country where the pursuit of justice is a continual, albeit imperfect, journey.
Is there corruption? Absolutely. But the legal framework in place give us the means to unroot it. That is a fantastic thing.
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If you look at the work of the Innocence Project and the myriad of pro bono legal groups solely working on death penalty appeals and trials and compare it to the general criminal bar, you would be shocked.
The success of the death penalty bar is a good thing, but reflects equal parts wrongful convictions (which occur in all parts of the criminal system) and the vast amount of resources attributed to it. Trying to find trial and appellate help (outside of stretched public defenders) on a 20 year criminal sentence for murder? Shockingly difficult.
Like I said, imperfect. But that's partly due to the lack of resources attributed to criminal justice and people's willingness to limit pro bono work to impact cases.