Italian Supreme Court Knocks Hard on Amanda Knox’s Prosecutors

by Patrick H. Moore

My best beloveds, well do I remember that dreadful day when I first began running posts on the Amanda Knox – Meredith Kercher case. I was still very much a true crime greenhorn at the time and didn’t realize that — right or wrong — true crime fans are incredibly passionate about the cases they follow. Within minutes of our first posting, we found ourselves in the middle of a shit storm such as I have rarely endured. Oh myfreakin’god, it was nasty.

Now, nearly a lifetime later (slight exaggeration), the Italian Supreme Court has followed up its March 2015 exoneration of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito with a blistering 52 page condemnation of the prosecutors and their endless faux pas (plural) and alleged errors. The Supreme Court not only states that there was not sufficient evidence to link Knox and her computer savvy boyfriend to the death of poor Meredith Kercher; the high court goes much further and flat-out states that Knox and Sollecito had nothing to do with the murder.

Enuff said… or is it?

What if the Italian Supreme Court in all its majestic wisdom has GOTTEN IT WRONG? After all, we know that this case was highly politicized in good old Italy, so it’s just possible that there may be more to this than meets the eye (although the high court does appear to do a workmanlike job of demonstrating that, unlike Rudy Guede, who is fast-tracking his way to freedom, and whose DNA was all over the victim’s body, there was apparently not a shred of forensic evidence linking Knox and her boyfriend to the crime.

In any event, in the interests of ultimate truth, please humor me while I list a few possible reasons why Ms. Knox COULD CONCEIVABLY be among the perpetrators of the crime. This is not to say she is but simply that she could be. After all, the Italian Supreme Court does not rule out the possibility that Guede had accomplices; it simply states that Knox and Sollecito WERE NOT among the accomplices.

Without further ado, here are my reasons Knox could be guilty of some kind of crime, though not necessarily murder:

• Her nickname was Foxy Knoxy which suggests some kind of hidden agenda. Never mind the fact she allegedly got the nickname on the soccer fields of suburban Seattle based on the foxy strategic ploys she employed to will her team to victory. With a name like Foxy Knoxy, you just know she’s a crafty one. Could that “craft” include the taking of an innocent life? Probably not but we don’t know for sure, do we? Do we ever know for sure who murdered whom unless we witnessed the bloody act ourselves, or even worse wielded the instrument of death with our own trembling hands?

• When first questioned by Italian law enforcement, Ms. Knox apparently got bored and started doing handstands. This is clearly a sign of both some kind of hidden guilt and excellent coordination. And we all know how much good coordination helps when offing someone. The grim Dahmer allegedly had the fine coordination of a freakin’ Olympiam. And the agile Mr. Guede was allegedly quite the basketball stud. Could this be a sign of Knox’s culpability? You be the judge.

• When first questioned by the Italian police, Ms. Knox apparently got bored and also started doing yoga exercises. Could this be a sign of hidden guilt? After all, exercise yoga is an effective way to calm the nerves, and if Ms. Knox was nervous based on some deep dark secret, this would explain her untoward actions? What do you think?

• For some reason, even though according to her autobiography, Ms. Know was relatively inexperienced sexually when she arrived in Italy, the tabloid press turned her into a freakin’ sex goddess. This, of course, goes along with the Foxy Knoxy riff. And let’s face it, she was a pretty young lady. I know many men who have said…well, never mind what they’ve said. In any event, we all know about sex goddesses, femme fatales, and bad women in general. Both Sigmund Freud and Raymond Chandler were well aware of the close relationship between sex and death. Is it possible that since Ms. Knox allegedly became more sexually active after arriving in Italy, that this acting out of primitive, instinctual desires may have also unleashed the killer within? You gotta admit, although it’s unlikely, it’s a possibility… How many of you esteemed readers have murdered someone in conjunction with “indoor sports”? A lot of you, right? It happens all the time.

• Also, Ms. Knox went to Italy with dreams of becoming a writer. All through history, writers have been held in disrepute as immoral, lazy good for nothings. If the shoe fits, wear it. As much of a literary luminary as the great Nathaniel Hawthorne (who incidentally wrote some of the first great crime novels) carried guilt around inside his voluminous brain for his entire life because instead of doing something useful, he chose to become “a scribbler of tales.” Therefore, the fact that Ms. Knox had dreams (and probably still does) of writing her way to glory could suggest an innate and highly problematic character flaw, couldn’t it? Could this flaw rise to the level of taking another human life? Maybe. Maybe not.

• And finally, Ms. Knox accused the Congolese pub owner for whom she worked of having killed poor Meredith Kercher. Therefore, she must have done it herself, right? It’s clearly a case of her trying to find some poor sucker to deflect the blame on. Right? Blame it on a black man… Hasn’t that always been the American way? When in danger or in doubt, blame it on a black man… On the other hand, when she made the accusation, Ms. Knox had been under intense interrogation for many long frightening hours. She was undoubtedly extremely frightened by this point in time. Have you ever been interrogated by aggressive cops for hours on end? No? For shame. Why not? I certainly have been…approximately 48 years ago, and let me tell you, after hours of intense interrogation, you’ll do damn near anything to “cool out” the constabulary. But that’s another story for another place and time.

On balance, I’m extremely glad that Ms. Knox and the Mr. Sollecito have been exonerated. But does this mean true justice, that most elusive of chimeras, has occurred. Yeah, I’d say in this case,  it probably does. But am I certain? No, I’m never certain. Which according to some is the biggest crime of all…