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Thursday, July 8, 2010

Breaking News:

CRAB CAKE FOR AMANDA’S BIRTHDAY
Something like that. But wisely not octopus salad



Freedom or jail? Paul, the psychic octopus at work

I don’t like to make a big deal about my birthday here, like the other holidays, because everyday here --Amanda said yesterday-- is the same as the one preceding it.
Those who, instead, do make a big deal of it, already know what she had for lunch and all the details of how she celebrated her 23rd birthday in jail.

Amanda Knox, aka Foxy Knoxy on Seattle soccer fields, tries to follow the World Cup but she missed most of the last week of games due a translating job that she runs in the afternoons. I've been rooting for Germany --she confessed-- in the last week. But Germany went out, just after its coach Joachim Loewe had started giving soccer lessons to the world in his press conferences, revealing what the secret was of his then successful team.
Italy went out before, they kept thinking they were world champions. They don’t know that you are the world champion only that night when you win. Next day you are already ex champion.
The US team also failed miserably. They made one goal to Algeria and they already thought they were number 1.
England was supposed to win, as always. And, as always, went out, even with an Italian coach. They probably learned that you need to have your own head, especially if you are the country that brags to have invented football.
Another key subject of discussion then, after Amanda’s t-shirt, Amanda’s hair, Amanda going blind, Amanda’s birthday menu: who will she root for, now, at the World Cup.

So, Amanda is doing the job she aimed to do, translating, not exactly in the place where she dreamed to be, the fortress.
Italian and English languages are often close, but when it comes to the law, they become really different, if not untranslatable.
Indeed it seems that there is still a lot of confusion between what we call defamation and slander. Let’s try to clarify once more, so people finally don’t get mistaken.

OK Now?

Defamation is when you insult someone’s reputation. Plain defamation is punished with up to 1 year of jail and a fine.
When it’s defamation through the press (or any other public medium-- we could also call it libel) it is punished with six months to three years and a fine. Every judge would convert the jail part into another fine (unless you have been condemned already several times in the last five years).
A court can proceed for defamation only if the presumed victim sues you. And the victim can ask you for compensation. That’s why it’s all about money for Amanda’s parents, and they don’t risk any jail. They only risk about 1,000 euro fine, the legal expenses of both parties, the trial expenses and, especially, the compensation that the victims would require.
Same for Amanda’s lawyer and the Oggi journalist (but, as we have seen, the lawsuit against them has been probably rejected).

The Million Euro Girl

Then there is the calunnia, for which we used the world slander, since calumny seems to be quite obsolete.
Calunnia in Italy is when you sue someone for a crime you know he’s innocent of. It’s a crime against the judicial system, so you don’t need a victim to sue you, a prosecutor can proceed by his own initiative. The victim, though, can constitute himself a civil party and ask for compensation.
The punishment depends on the crime that you have falsely reported. That’s why Amanda risks a minimum of six years for the presumed calunnia against Patrick, being it a slander related to homicide, but only a minimum of two years for the presumed calunnia against the police.
Patrick asked a couple of millions euro, we will see how much the cops will ask.
At least, if the case goes to trial. Someone in Germany could ask Paul the octopus, the new oracle.
With the occasion they may ask him even when the appeal trial will start. And, why not, also who will really go to jail at the end.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Satellite Trials around Amanda Knox

ALL ABOUT MONEY
Police Searching for Compensation

There will be probably 50 people in the world who are interested as well about the satellite trials of the case of Amanda Knox, so let’s try to take a stock of the situation, since things are a bit clearer now, and they are not as dramatic as they may have looked like is some moments.

Slander pre-trial
According to Mignini-Comodi, Amanda slandered the police in court, but she didn’t name anyone. So Mignini asked the police station who were the officers present during the night between November 5 and 6, and the Questore provided him twelve names.
Besides the slander, Amanda allegedly did some other crimes with her words, while defending herself, and for all this she risks at least two years, plus the compensation that she, when convicted, will have to grant to the victims. The dozen, indeed, did constitute themselves a civil party (=they aim to be compensated) at the last hearing.

Defamation lawsuit
Then, there is the group of five very sensitive officers of the mobile squad who felt libeled by an Oggi article and sued, as we know, the journalist along with the lawyers whose words were quoted in that article. To date nothing was known of that lawsuit, it has been probably rejected. We’ll come to know, but a lot of imagination was needed to see a defamation in that piece.

Defamation pre-trial (started today)
Italian cops browsing a family magazine like Oggi is quite likely. What nobody could have ever suspected is that those intellectuals of the mobile squad read even the Sunday Times Online. And our voracious and polyglot readers have felt libeled even in English, when they read the interview to Amanda’s parents.
They didn’t sue the Times (probably since they came to know it has no money...), rather they sued Amanda’s parents for having repeated what their daughter reported about the famous night at the police station.
Today the preliminary hearing started (and was promptly adjourned to October) and the charge pressed by the prosecutor Antonella Duchini is in fact defamation through the press, so no jail risk for Amanda’s parents. As we saw, the minimum penalty is six months, usually converted to a fine.
But, here too, the officers (represented by Kercher’s lawyer Francesco Maresca) announced they will constitute themselves as a civil party, so they aim to be payed by Amanda’s parents too.
And we’ll see, if the case goes to trial, how many millions they will ask.
In the meanwhile we can leave them to their international readings. What will they take this Sunday? Le Monde has an excellent cultural supplement, but they certainly already know about it.

COLLECTIVE FOLLY
Time to take it easy

The satellite trials, along with the persistent incarceration of Amanda and Raffaele, are only the result of the long moment of collective folly which took possession of the case.
But maybe it’s time to relax. What I don’t understand is why people take things so seriously. Even the professionals working at the case seem to have become like the time wasters of the internet, who spend their life insulting each other over Amanda Knox.
The only thing worthy of going to court should be the murder of Meredith. The satellite trials are an insult to Meredith and to the judicial system. However, they will ultimately result in nothing.

The Oggi defamation lawsuit, as we have seen above, seems to have already finished.

For the slander: Amanda already explained what was already evident and obvious, that she didn’t mean to accuse anyone.
Mignini and Comodi could withdraw the penal action and we would save this useless trial.

For the Times defamation: Amanda’s parents could apologize to the police. The police could accept the apologies and withdraw the lawsuit. And we’d save another useless trial.

With the collective folly finally vented out, we could now focus on the forthcoming appeal trial, aimed to shed light on the only thing that concerns us: who killed Meredith.
With Amanda and Raffaele, preferably, attending it in the only civil way, in freedom.