Amanda Knox: justice à Pérouse

Une opinion de Timothy Egan, gagnant d'un Pulitzer et analyste politique.

"That Amanda Knox will soon be breathing the marine air of her home in Seattle again gets much blood stirring. One camp sees a beautiful killer walk free, backed by a global media cabal that had initially turned her into a villainous cartoon. Another sees a gross miscarriage righted, a victory that should not diminish the memory of the victim.

There is much to be learned from this case: about the strengths and fallibilities of two ancient legal systems, about human prejudice, about honor and retribution. And yes — about justice.

As one of the prosecutors in the case, Manuela Comodi, no friend of Knox, implied last week in his remarks: were Knox being tried in the United States, she might well be on her way to an execution. The case of Troy Davis, killed by the state of Georgia last month despite the fact that most of the witnesses in his case later recanted their testimony, should linger as the Knox saga is reviewed.

I was drawn to this story because of the parallels to my own family: my daughter, a Seattle girl who never knew Knox, was taking her junior year in Italy at the same time as Knox. Suddenly, Seattle, and a college student abroad, took on a very menacing new meaning. I could see my daughter in the Knox role, not yet 21, trying to do the right thing — staying around to help the police, as did Knox, instead of fleeing. And then, a domino of events, a long night of interrogation by police without a lawyer, at a time when Knox could barely understand the language, conflicting statements, and the torture of being fitted into a narrative at odds with the truth.

Knox had no criminal record. No motive for killing the girl who shared a house with her. But still, her behavior seemed odd. Why did she do cartwheels in the police station? Why did she wear a t-shirt in court with John Lennon’s lyrics? (All You Need is Love.) Not enough to convict, of course, but still, it closed many a mind — especially in Italy. She was strange, they said. Off.

Then, for me and millions of others, what prompted reasonable doubts was the evidence presented in the 2009 trial; it could not withstand scrutiny. So, onto the first point that Knox-haters must consider:

Where is the forensic evidence? Meredith Kercher was stabbed, repeatedly, in her small bedroom in a violent struggle that left blood all over the tiny space. Numerous bloody prints and DNA from the man convicted of her killing, Rudy Guede, were found. But any trace of Amanda Knox? No. Nothing. No one has ever been able to place her at the crime scene."

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/justice-in-perugia/?hp