Amanda Knox and the ever-changing verdict. Sounds like the Harry Potter title that wasn’t, but with a murderous subplot.
Last week, an Italian appeals court found Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito guilty of the November 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, with whom Knox shared a residency while they were both exchange students. This decision overturned a 2011 appeal that cleared Knox of the murder, which overturned an original guilty conviction that was handed down in 2009. Lawyers of both Knox and Sollecito have announced plans to appeal to the Italian Supreme Court, a move which may take two or three years to complete.
Enough already. Before I start, let me say that I have no opinion on whether or not Knox is guilty. I’ve read through the testimony and gathered the facts, but at the end of the day, it seems that no one definitively knows who killed Kercher, except for maybe Kercher.
I understand that justice has a system, it’s called the justice system. However, to keep going through the motions of these trials when Knox is in the United States and it seems unlikely that she’ll be extradited anytime soon seems a little wasteful. I’m sure that Kercher’s family would disagree, but can they really feel that justice is served when the evidence in which these trials rest have been so shaky? The prosecution in the original trial argued that the murder was the result of a kinky sex game between the trio. This time, they switched tactics to contend that arguments over cleaning and hygiene caused Kercher’s demise.
Listen, I have a roommate, and sometimes I leave underwear in the bathroom and unwashed dishes in the sink. I highly doubt that he is going to slash my throat over it, and this is from a man who eats cereal at 6 a.m. in the dark with his hands, sans the milk. He’s 28. If that doesn’t spell out clinically insane behavior, I don’t know what does.
I realize that the Kercher family wants to see justice served for their daughter, but I doubt that they ever wished for the media circus these trials attract. The longer this is dragged out, the longer it will be until this family finally finds closure. Perhaps it’s time for case closed, not only for Knox and Sollecito, but for a grief-stricken family as well.
