Angel Face (17 page)

Amanda and Raffaele can only begin their appeal process after Judge Massei’s reasoning, or
motivazione,
is released from the Corte d’Assise. The deadline is strict—Massei must file his report within ninety days of the verdict—and few Italian judges rush the deadline, determined to ensure that the person they have convicted serves the most time possible in the event
his or her verdict is overturned. Judge Massei’s statement is expected in early March. After it is delivered, defense lawyers have forty-five days to officially file their appeal. There is very little they can do without first studying the intricacies of the judge’s reasoning. Even the slightest misstep by Judge Massei could give the defense a loophole to crawl through. The first-level appeals judge is from a higher Italian court than Judge Massei. This higher judge will review all the evidence and testimony from the first trial with a more highly qualified jury. In the initial case, the jury members only had to have a junior high school diploma. In the first appeal, they must be high school diploma or equivalent.

If Amanda and Raffaele lose in the first appeal round, their cases are automatically pushed to Italy’s highest
cassazione
court, where they have a better chance at a reversal. This level more closely corresponds to a U.S. appeals court; it does not retry the facts of the case, but focuses only on points of law, closely examining any procedural errors made during the investigation and trial. Did the evidence in the Knox case pass all
legal
requirements? The knife, surely not. Nor did the sneaker footprint that initially landed Raf in jail. The highest court must also examine
the definition of each accusation. In Italy, first-degree murder requires motivation, yet Amanda, Raffaele, and Rudy were convicted without solid proof of a motive, by the prosecution’s own admission. The law also requires that an autopsy must conclusively point to sexual assault for a conviction on that charge, yet that was never medically proven in Meredith’s case.

It can take several years, however, for the case to finally be resolved at the highest level. Most legal observers in Italy predict that an acquittal at the high court level would be the best outcome: The presumed killers would have paid a price—in jail time and legal expenses—and the police and prosecutors would pay for their various sloppy mistakes. But the litmus test, of course, is what happens to Rudy. His murder conviction will be the first of the three to be heard by the high court. If he is acquitted, it is likely that Amanda and Raffaele also will go home, too. If he is not, then chances are that his partners in crime will stay in jail as well.

A month after the verdict, Amanda’s supporters declared that her defense team had been bolstered with Philadelphia lawyer Theodore Simon, a popular legal analyst for U.S. TV networks who specializes in Americans caught in foreign legal systems. He represented
high school student Michael Fay, who was sentenced to prison and public lashings in Singapore for vandalism. Simon got the nine lashings reduced to four and won Fay a reprieve from hard prison time. He also represented Ira Einhorn—the so-called Unicorn Killer—a Philadelphia New Age guru who killed his young girlfriend and stored her in a trunk in his apartment. While Einhorn was on the lam in Europe for many years, he was convicted, in absentia, of the murder. When he was finally apprehended in France in 1997, Simon managed to block his extradition by arguing that a conviction in absentia violated Einhorn’s human rights. But in 2001, Einhorn was finally extradited to the United States and is currently serving a life sentence in Pennsylvania.

Curiously, though, Simon’s role in the Knox case appears to be limited to public relations in America, not legal strategy in Italy. Both of Amanda’s Italian lawyers deny that he has any role in the appeal process. “
Simon non c’entro—
Simon doesn’t enter into this,” Luciano Ghirga told me emphatically, making it clear that neither he nor Carlo Dalla Vedova were ready to take a backseat to an American interloper. No one will confirm whether Simon is working pro bono, but sources close to the family say he volunteered to help
them because he felt Amanda’s lawyers weren’t up to the job. David Marriott says that he has no idea whether Simon is being paid, although Marriott consults with him regularly about PR matters. Up to now, however, the two have had very different approaches to the case. Marriott has been fiercely critical of the Italian justice system and the individuals prosecuting the case. Simon, in his role as an independent TV commentator, told
Dateline
last year, “Speaking from experience, you have to be very careful when you try to be persuasive but not insulting, because you can’t expect judges or jurists to receive your arguments or your evidence favorably when you’ve said terrible things about them.” Perhaps the Knox family is finally ready to hear that advice.

 

 

THROUGHOUT THIS CASE, the mantra for pro-Amanda supporters has been that this was the “railroad job from Hell.” When you consider the botched knife evidence, the shoddy police work, and the prosecutor’s questionable past, it is easy to entertain the notion that Amanda Knox did not get a fair trial. But that doesn’t mean she’s innocent. Had the police done their jobs impeccably, and had all the extenuating circumstances
fallen into place, Amanda Knox would probably still have been convicted of Meredith Kercher’s murder. But nothing in this case ever made sense, and no one, it seems, played by the rules. Amanda Knox will always be remembered as someone who hung in the balance between sinner and saint, good and evil. And Meredith’s murder will always be a mystery that was blurred by the headlines and lost in translation.

Acknowledgments

MEREDITH KERCHER’S MURDER was a heinous crime that robbed a young woman of her future and a unique family of their daughter. Her murder trial was a true media circus, but for those of us reporting from the center ring, it was also a profound experience. Though it is no consolation to her family, Meredith’s memory will live on through all of the friendships that formed among those of us who covered her story.

Thank you to my editor and friend Lee Aitken, who guided this project, turning my on-the-ground dispatches into a real book. Lee invited me to join
The Daily Beast
by phone late one frigid night as I stood on the steps of the
enoteca
in Perugia. Through her I have had the most exhilarating adventure embarking on Tina Brown’s pioneering journey in paperless media and fast book publishing. I am so lucky to be part of it and to work with so many smart people on the
Daily Beast
team. But I would never have been in Perugia in the first place if not for
Newsweek
magazine, for which I have worked since 1997. And I would not have received
Lee’s late-night call if my
Newsweek
bureau chief and trusted friend Chris Dickey had not suggested me for the part.

Very special thanks to Italo Carmignani for his willingness and generosity in sharing his reporting and knowledge of all things Perugian, which proved invaluable as a resource for this book.

Thank you to criminal lawyer Alessandra Batassa in Rome for always engaging on this story and for answering my many criminal-law questions.

Thank you to Andrea Vogt, whose verve as a reporter and friend has taught me more than a few things about integrity and about myself; to Sabina Castelfranco, whose honest friendship and genuine belief in Amanda’s innocence have helped keep me in check; to Nick Pisa, whose untouchable reporting skills and wit make him the true
operatore;
and to Chapman Bell, whose dead-sprint enthusiasm made covering this story for so long so much more bearable. Others who have been important to this project, both as reporters and as friends, are Ann Wise of ABC, Marta Falconi of AP, Paul Russell of Fact TV, Massimo Mapelli of La7, and Alessandro Capponi of
Corriere della Sera.

Big thanks to my sister Sherri for closely reading this manuscript so many times and for being such an honest critic, and to her, my parents, and my brother for not giving up on me when they easily could have. My deep appreciation goes to my dearest friends in Rome and Nairobi who have been so supportive, have helped with the kids, bought me my morning coffee, and listened to the gory details of Meredith’s murder ad nauseam.

Last but not least, special thanks to Andrew for continuing to put up with my antics for all these years and to our sons Nicholas and Matthew, who aptly cringe when I mention “Perugia.”

Copyright © 2010 by RTST, Inc.

Foreword copyright © 2010 by Tina Brown.

 

Published by Beast Books
Beast Books is a co-publishing venture with the Perseus Books Group

 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address the Perseus Books Group, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016-8810.

 

Books published by Beast Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected].

 

Editorial production by
Marra
thon Production Services,
www.marrathon.net

 

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

 

eISBN : 978-0-984-29512-8