re[2]: What do you think of cover for my book? It can be changed

Are vyou back in NY? Below is draft of the last case, Amanda Knox. =he is a favorite because it shows how prosecutors invent theories.

Death in Perugia

On the night of November 1st 2007, Meredith Kercher, a 21 year old =xchange student from south London, was murdered in a cottage on the =ia della Pergola in the ancient university city of Perugia in Umbria, =taly. Her body was found by police the next day locked in her ground =loor bedroom, covered in a blood-soaked quilt. She had deep stab =ounds in her neck. The only clothing on the body was a shirt pulled up =o her neck. Bruises indicated she had been held down, and male DNA in =er body indicated she was possibly raped. The exact time of death =ould not be determined because the coroner had not been allowed to =mmediately take the body temperature. The autopsy could only =stablish a time frame, between 8:55 pm and 12:50 AM. There was also =vidence of a burglary, since housekeys, money, cell phones, and =redit cards were missing, and a ten-pound rock had been thrown through =he window of the adjoining room. When the crime scene was further =rocessed, finger prints, palm prints, and semen was found that did not =atch any of the residents of the cottage. They was also a footprint =f a Nike sneaker in the blood. Two witnesses had also seen a young =lack man running down Via della Pergola from the direction of the =ottage at 10:30 PM. They said he nearly collided with them.

The black man seen running away might have been sought as a =uspect if the investigators from the police's "flying squad" =elieve that an outsider had killed Meredith, but, within hours of =inding the body, they concluded that all the evidence of burglary, =ncluding the broken window, strewn clothing, and missing belongings, =ad been staged to mislead them. For one thing, some of the glass =ragments of the window had landed on top of the clothing on the floor =ndicating that the rock had been thrown through the window after not =efore the crime, and probably from inside the room. For another thing, =t seemed unlikely that an intruder had climbed the 11.5 foot wall to =nter through the window, when he could have broken a lower window for =ntry. They therefore assumed it was an inside job done by someone who =ived in the cottage.

The insider theory narrowed the police investigation down to just =even suspects: four young Italian students who rented rooms in the =asement of the house, where they grew Cannabis plants; and Filomena =omanelli , Laura Mezzetti, and Amanda Knox, who shared the ground =loor flat with Meredith. Each of the women had a separate bedroom =hich could be locked from the outside with a key. As it then turned =ut, it was a holiday week in Italy, and all four of the Italian men =ad gone away that weekend to visit their families (and had asked =eredith to water their Cannabis plants.) Filomena and Laura, both =egal trainees in their late twenties, were also away and had solid =libis. That left one suspect, Amanda, a twenty year old American =tudent from Seattle, who was at the house when the police arrived, =issing her boy friend Raffaele Sollecito. She was also stunningly =ttractive. Amanda alibi was her boyfriend Raffaele, whom she had met =he previous week at a classical musical recital. She told them that =he had stayed over at the nearby flat of Raffaele. According to her, =hey had smoked marijuana, watched a DVD of the French movie Amelia, =nd slept together. She claimed she only returned to her apartment =he next morning at 11 AM to change her clothing, and noticed blood in =he shower. Even though Raffaele initially backed up her alibi, during =he three days of interrogation, he changed his story, now saying =manda had left his apartment at 9 pm to go to the bar, Le Chic, where =he worked, and did not return until after midnight. Under intensive =nterrogation where she was threatened with imprisonment, and without =eing given a lawyer, she also altered her story, implicating the =atrick Lumumba, the Congo-born owner of Le Chic. She now said =atrick had murdered her flat mate. On November 6, police arrested =er, Raffaele and Patrick for the murder of Meredith. Even though =manda subsequently retracted her accusation, claiming she had been =raumatized by police threats, the theory of the prosecutors was that =he murder proceed from an orgy that got out of control. But a =roblem developed when a Swiss professor, who had been at the Le Chic =ar on November 1st, swore

that he had an extended conversation with =atrick during the time when the murder was committed. In light of this =libi, and Amanda's admission she had falsely accused him, he had to =e released.

Meanwhile, on November 15, the prints inside Meredith's body were =dentified.. They belonged to Rudy Guede, 20 year unemployed gardener =rom the Ivory Coast. His palm print was clearly visible on the =lood-stained pillow under Meredith's hips. His DNA was found on =er clothes and inside her vagina. He also wore Nike Outbreak 2 =neakers that were consistent with the bloody footprint on the floor. =e also fit the description of the lone man seen running down the =treet at 10:30 pm. He also had knowledge of the cottage. After =laying basketball in the square with the Italian men living downstairs =n the cottage, he came to their apartment earlier that week to watch =n auto race and smoke hash with them. On that occasion, he met both =eredith and Amanda.

This hard evidence unambiguously established that he was in =eredith's room, had sexual contact with her, and left the room =fter her blood was spilled. According to witnesses, he also had =een involved in other recent home invasions in Perugia and Milan. In =eptember 2007, a witness said Guede had broken into his home in =erugia at 6 am that through a window, brandished a knife, and stole =is credit cards. On October 13th, he apparently broke into a =awyer's office in Perugia through a second-story window and took a =aptop and cell phone (which were later found in his backpack). Less =han one week before the murder, he been briefly detained by police in =ilan for breaking into a nursery and stealing an 11-inch kitchen =nife.

Rudy Guede, who had fled to Germany, was extradited. But by =hat time Amanda Knox had become such a focus of the media's =ttention, and the putative sex games by an angel-faced killer such a =ornerstone of the story, that the prosecutors, even after releasing =atrick Lumumba, were not about to abandon their group murder theory.

To maintain it, chief prosecutor Giuliano Mignini teamed up the =wo insiders, Amanda and Raffaele, with the outside burglar, Rudy. =ignini previously had achieved considerable notoriety in Italy in the =001 "Monster of Florence" case when he attempted unsuccessfully to =ttribute the suicide of a Pergugian doctor to a secret satanic cult. =ow, he proposed a similar satanic scenario in which Rudy, Raffaele, =nd Amanda, went to the cottage together, attempted to force Meredith =o have sex with them, and after Rudy and Raffaele took turns molesting =er, Amanda, who he described as a"she-devil," stabbed her to death. =or the next four years, this became the prosecution theory of the =ase.

One stumbling block was a lack evidence that Rudy was together that =ight with either Amanda or Raffaele, or even had ever met Raffaele. =hile two witnesses had seen Rudy run away, he was alone. No one saw =manda or Raffaele enter or leave the cottage. Rudy who was convicted =f murder in a separate "fast track" trial did not claim that =ither Amanda or Rudy were with him, His story was Meredith herself =ad invited him to cottage at about 9 PM, had consensual foreplay with =im, but, lacking a condom, they stopped. He then left the room and =ent to the bathroom. When he emerged he saw an unknown man ran out of =he cottage, and found Meredith bleeding. So he ran away. The initial =vidence Raffaele was in the Meredith's room a Nike footprint but now =t turned out it came from Rudy's Nike sneaker. What the police =ailed to find was a single print in the room that was Raffaele's or, =or that matter, Amanda's. Since Rudy's prints were found, the room =ad not been thoroughly washed. So up until mid December 2007, the =olice and prosecutors could not place either Amanda or Raffaele at the =urder scene. Then a DNA analysis of Meredith's bra clasp, which =ad accidently remained at the crime scene for 46 days, found DNA on it =hich matched Raffaele's and put him at the murder scene.

DNA analysis also identified both Amanda's and Meredith's DNA =n a kitchen knife in a cutlery draw in Raffeale's home. No blood was =ound on it, and, it later developed, the blade was too long to be the =urder weapon (which was never found.) Even so, since Amanda said she =ever removed the knife from Raffeale's home, and Meredith had never =isited Raffeale's, the presence of her DNA on it, assuming it was =ot cross-contamination, suggested that Raffeale took it to the cottage =n the night of the murder.

In the trial which began January 16, 2009, the prosecutor painted = gory picture of a "she devil" who tortured her room-mate with a =nife while Raffaele and Rudy sexually abused her, and when the orgy =nded, she slashed her throat, and staged a burglary to dupe the =olice, based largely on the DNA evidence of Raffeale's presence at =he scene, both Amanda and Raffaele were convicted of both murder and =exual violence. In December 2009, Amanda was sentenced to 26 years =mprisonment, and Raffeale to 25 years imprisonment.

The case was then appealed, and a independent panel of forensic =xperts was appointed to review the crucial DNA evidence. It found in =ts 145-page report that the collection of the DNA evidence linking =affaele to the crime scene had been egregiously flawed. Not only was =he DNA testimony not consistent with the actual lab reports, but a =ideo showed the key items were picked up with a dirty glove that =ight have transferred DNA samples from the suspects to

them. In =hort, DNA the critical evidence may have been contaminated by sloppy =rocedures. So on October 3, 2011, the court threw out the murder and =exual violence convictions of Amanda and Raffaele. Both were =mmediately released from prison, and, in a happy ending, Amanda flew =ack to America and got a book contract.

There are still three theories about the murder. First, the inside =ob theory advocated by the prosecutors, who are appealing the =cquittal. Second, the lone burglar theory that holds Rudy Guede =roke into cottage, encountered, and killed Meredith. Third, the =wo-burglar theory, based on an alleged jail house confession Guide =ade to a fellow prisoner (who testified at the Appeals hearing.)

My assessment is that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are both =nnocent of the murder. The police investigation was wedded from the =utset to the wrong narrative. It assumed that the crime scene had =een staged to look like a burglary and so focused on the only =vailable insider, Amanda. In doing so, the police neglected =ye-witness sightings of a possible black burglar running from the =irection of the house at the approximate time of the crime, and they =rovided a description. If they had investigated that obvious lead, it =ould have quickly led them to Rudy Guede, who the other residents in =he house could identify. His finger prints, palm prints, sneaker =rint, and DNA inside the victim then would have established him =eyond a doubt as a person at the bloody scene. And he likely would =ave been arrested before he had a chance to flee to Germany.

Guede had the opportunity, means, and motive to commit the crime =lone. He had been to the cottage earlier that week to watch a sports =vent so he could have cased it for a later burglary when its residents =ent on holiday over the long November 1st weekend. He was experienced =n such jobs, since had broken into other three places that fall. =here were a number of ways he could have entered the cottage. With =he help of a box, it is possible he climbed through the broken window. =e also could have easily scaled the grate in the rear of the cottage =nd enter through the empty basement apartment (where Meredith had =greed to water the Cannabis plants). Alternatively, he could have =one in through a lower window. Afterwards, he might have smashed the =indow from the inside to create an expedient means of an exit, =specially if he was in a panic. His DNA was found in Mededith's =ocketbook, and 300 Euros and credit cards were missing, which he =ikely took. And with a small pocket knife, he had the means to force =er to the floor, and stab her. In short, there was no reason from the =vidence at the murder scene, that this was not the work of a single =ome invader.

The appeals court stated that the murder and sexual violence =harges against Amanda and Raffaele were " not corroborated by any =bjective element of evidence." If the so, the orgy scenario was =onjured up out of thin air by the prosecutors.

TIME LINE
2007

2009

January 16 Trial of Amanda and Raffaele begins. December 4 Knox sentenced to 26 years, Sollecito 25

2011

June 29: Court panel rejects the validity of DNA evidence October 3 Murder convictions overturned. Amanda and Raffaele freed.

As ever,
Ed Epstein
www.edwardjayepstein.com