On Monday night, the most infamous murder trial of the past decade reached a second verdict. Amanda Knox faces not another 22 years as a murderer behind bars, but a life as the poster child of a flawed justice system. A great theatrical tragedy played to the tune of press sensibilities, public opinion would have been divided regardless of the outcome.
Italian daily Il Foglio very concisely set out the two characters superimposed on the defendant for public consumption. ‘Sexy and ambiguous… there isn’t just one Amanda, but two, or perhaps three, or four’. As prosecution lawyer Giulia Bongiorno describes her, a ‘Venus in fur’. The other: a ‘Jessica Rabbit’ (‘I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way’), sultry on the surface but in reality just ‘a young girl in love’.
Eventually decreed Rabbit rather than Venus, the feeding frenzy has perhaps pilfered attention from the fact that Monday was a very important day for the Italian courts, whose verdict would determine not only Knox and Sollecito’s fates, but whether accusations of impropriety in the police force and incompetence in the forensic lab, where defendants claim DNA samples have been contaminated, are groundless or not. The attention focused thus far on Knox should now shift to the justice system.
Amelia Jenne
On Monday night, the most infamous murder trial of the past decade reached a second verdict. Amanda Knox faces not another 22 years as a murderer behind bars, but a life as the poster child of a flawed justice system. A great theatrical tragedy played to the tune of press sensibilities, public opinion would have been divided regardless of the outcome.
Italian daily Il Foglio very concisely set out the two characters superimposed on the defendant for public consumption. ‘Sexy and ambiguous… there isn’t just one Amanda, but two, or perhaps three, or four’. As prosecution lawyer Giulia Bongiorno describes her, a ‘Venus in fur’. The other: a ‘Jessica Rabbit’ (‘I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way’), sultry on the surface but in reality just ‘a young girl in love’.
Eventually decreed Rabbit rather than Venus, the feeding frenzy has perhaps pilfered attention from the fact that Monday was a very important day for the Italian courts, whose verdict would determine not only Knox and Sollecito’s fates, but whether accusations of impropriety in the police force and incompetence in the forensic lab, where defendants claim DNA samples have been contaminated, are groundless or not. The attention focused thus far on Knox should now shift to the justice system.Amelia Jenne
