The prosecution case against Amanda Knox rested today. If you don't know who Amanda Knox is then your life is probably a good bit richer and more interesting than mine. Here's a useful CNN summary:...
Perugia, Italy (CNN) -- [According to the Prosecution] The November 2, 2007, death of British student Meredith Kercher occurred during a twisted sex game in which Amanda Knox taunted Kercher, and two men -- boyfriend Rafael Sollecito and acquaintance Rudy Guede -- sexually assaulted her. Prosecutor Guilano Mignini said during his seven-hour closing that Knox hated and resented Kercher and had decided the time had come to exact revenge. Knox, 22, and Sollecito, 26, are on trial for sexual assault and murder. Police found Kercher's bloody body under a duvet on the floor of the apartment she shared with Knox. Both deny the charges. Mignini said Kercher died about 11:30 p.m. after she and Knox had quarreled -- either over money or Guede's presence at the house. The prosecutor said the men pinned Kercher down by her arms while Knox played with the knife, prodding at her throat and saying, "Ah, you were pretending to be such a little saint. ... Now we are going to show you."
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The defense argument is that Knox spent the night sleeping at her boyfriend's house smoking marijuana and thus has no clear recollection of the evening's events. The drugs apparently also explained her bizarre 'confession' to the local cops and her odd behaviour in the days following the murder. For good measure the defense also says that Knox's DNA appeared on the murder weapon because of evidence mishandling by the Italian forensics unit.
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Despite the fact that this has become a cause celebre and, ridiculously, an early candidate for Trial of the Century, to me this is a fairly simple case, complicated only by the fact that Amanda Knox is American and very good looking. Patricia Highsmith wrote about uncannily similar events to the Knox affair in her novel The Talented Mr Ripley over three decades ago. Ms Knox is not as talented as Tom Ripley, not by a long chalk I'm happy to say.
28 comments:
There's a high-profile murder trial going on in Toronto now that shares with this very little forensic evidence.
With all the TV I watch I thought trials like this would be a thing of the past and scientists had solved everything for us.
John
Couldnt get that link to work.
Didnt Toronto also have that bizarre motorcycle murder case recently?
Yes, a lot of that trial was conducted under a gag order. A lot of trials seem to be like that in Canada. We don't mind, we like to pretend there's no crime here.
When my first book came out someone commented online, "A Canadian crime novel? What's it about, unlisenced lemonade stands?"
Let's see if this link works.
It's the trial of a guy who is accused of killing his estranged (I love that word) wife and the ex-wife of the guy she left him for. What's interesting, I think, is that it looks like he killed one woman and moved the body across town in his car, made it look like a suicide and then killed the other woman (trying to make it look like the first woman did it) and there's almost no forensic evidence. Not what TV taught me at all.
You know, I sometimes think I lead too quiet a life. But then I read about cases like this and think, oh, thanks very much, I think I'll stay as I am.
What's strange is that there are books and TV shows about true crimes galore, and yet no on in the real world, which I'm not totally sure is the same world these people live in, ever seems to become wiser from learning about them. People don't seem to say, oh, this woman who calls herself my friend actually seems a bit sketchy. I think maybe I won't go off on an Italian holiday with her after all.
I suppose that sounds a bit blame the victim and I definitely don't mean that. I just wonder how presumably ordinary people find themselves in these completely over the top situations.
Oh, yeah, I forgot. It must have been the pot.
John
That is a peculiar case. The motorcycle gang one got well reported over here, maybe because of the sheer scale of the thing.
Seana
I dont know if you've seen any video footage of her but she has the whole crazy eyes thing down pat. Anyone with any sense would run a hundred miles. Also, like I say, anyone who has read either The Talented Mr Ripley or The Secret History.
I haven't seen any video footage of her, and in fact haven't been following this at all. I guess it can all be put down to the fact that we've all known a crazy person or two in our day, but I don't think we usually assume it's going to end in our deaths.
I had a funny experience today that very tangentially relates. This young guy came in and ordered a Sunset gardening book to send to his mother. He seemed pretty out there and I pegged him as some sort of street guy, probably former addict of some kind. Which I still think was probably true. Bad Santa Cruz street kind of childhood, I'd guess. But anyway, he was very patient as we sorted through all we were figuring out--and somewhere along the way as I was getting the forms filled out he said, I like to read--I really like those Pulitzer novels, anything action and adventure. I thought, yeah, right. He said, "Have you ever read Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry?" I had to admit I hadn't, but had read others of his. Then we went to the register and he said, you know I never used to see the point of books much when other people talked about them, but now I get it. As we were walking back to do some other part of the transaction, he scanned this whole table full of used books and snagged out The Good Earth. He asked, did you ever read this one? I had to confess once again that I hadn't. He told me it was really good. It was about people who work and work, never realizing what they had all along. I was beginning to get that I might not have given this guy enough credit when he walked in the door. I asked, so what are you reading right now? He paused and just as I thought I had stumped him, he said, have you ever heard of Alexandre Dumas the son's The Lady of the Camellias? Again, I had to say I knew of it only. He said, it has everything you need to know to seduce a woman.
At this point I thought, you know I really have to stop prejudging people. I told my co-worker after he left that I thought we should hire him and do literacy outreach to the wayward youth of Santa Cruz. Our demographic is getting a bit older and this could be just the rejuvenation it needs.
Best thing about him? He had also bought his mom a pretty adorable little wooden squirrel.
Seana
Thats a nice story. Although it confirms my prejudice that the only people who read books are women and male eccentrics.
The Good Earth is good. You can see the arc coming from about twenty or thirty pages in but it still packs a punch when it does come down. Its kind of a feminist classic too in a way because its the woman who's the smarter, harder working partner and who gets shafted in the end.
Anyone with any sense would run a hundred miles. Also, like I say, anyone who has read either The Talented Mr Ripley or The Secret History.
Ah, but we look so charming, funny and innocuous at first - the crazy eyes come after.
I loved the Good Earth. Read it a bunch of times when I was in high school. I get on these kicks where if an author manages to snag me with one book, I go for it with any other books they've written. And when I was younger I re-read to retain the flavor. I also did that with Doris Lessing and Tolsoy, to mixed results.
Seana you should really get that guy to recruit new readers.
Well, of course all men are eccentric from a woman's point of view, so perhaps there's hope.
Lot's of men read books in Santa Cruz, but I suppose that explains itself.
Sheiler, I don't have the sense that I'll ever see that young guy again, though I'd remember him if I did. He seemed like he was getting his act together but it was not all the way together yet, if you know what I mean. However, he didn't seem like the type who would need our go ahead to recruit people to reading. I'm sure he is always trying to persuade his buddies that there is another world beyond. However, I think it's probably something each of them will have to figure out for himself, and most won't.
Adrian, I find it weird that the biker trial probably got more coverage in Australia than it did here.
We are determined in Canada not to know anything about ourselves right now. But you ask us about prairie farm ife in the 19th century? Wow, the details our lietarture will show!
Seana, I guess we all ake those kinds of judgements. Mine usually aren't, "Bad Santa Cruz street kind of childhood," but rather, "Wonder how old he was when got into drugs?"
John, I think the judgement about the past is usually right or close, but it's the limit on who the person is now or who he or she can become that it's obvious I can be badly wrong on.
Sheiler
I liked the Good Earth but thats as far as I got with her. I know what you mean about jags though. I remember reading every single John Steinbeck novel in about eight months. It was a good thing on the whole because there are books out there like In Dubious Battle and To a God Unknown which are nice but no one reads em.
John
Eight people were murdered in cold blood, that would be a big trial anywhere and the fact that they were killed under a giant swastika flag in the woods because of a biker feud should have had hacks flying in from everywhere.
Oops those two replies should have been from me not Arwynn. She logged in to answer her email.
Seana
In my experience its actually pretty hard to find anyone who's different from the way you initially think they are going to be.
Marco
It must be something about Italy.
Yes, I think it's more common that you find unexpected facets.
Yes, Adrian (or Arwynn, or whatever your name really is) you would have thought killing eight guys in one night and leaving the bodies in a very public display would have created more interest in the backstory, but no.
Some might say there's a little biker-fatigue going on here as we went throgh the big war between the Angels and the Rock Machine, which killed about 200, but eve that didn't get a lot of news.
I'm on the verge of a Declan Burke-style retiremet myself. There's no interest in the real thing and even less interest in my fictionalized accounts.
It's a funny old world, that's for sure.
John
I know exactly what you're talking about. We need to write chastity/vampire novels or the adventures of boy wizards if we're going to make an impact or indeed a living.
The future is here.
John
When I read this at first I thought it was in the AV Club and thus was not a parody.
Thats how bad it is out there.
I was some ways into it before I realized it was a parody too. I was thinking, never mind write them, how do all those people find time--and will--to read all those novels? I think it was the noveling while driving where the faintest whisper of suspicion began to dawn on me.
But then, you know, it's probably happened. Hopefully not the death part, though.
With Harlequin turning itself into a self-publishing business, it really doesn't seem like parody anymore.
The only reason I stick with the writing is that I'm too old to start anything new.
I'm pretty sure this one is real.
Pretty sure.
John
This is scary stuff.
Twenty bucks to save your 200 most memorable thoughts. Thirty if they are so memorable that they need to be saved in hardback. Wow.
I have something for that already, though. It's called a spiral bound notebook. And no, unfortunately my thoughts are not that memorable either.
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