Injustice in Italy
The New York Times published an eye-opening op-ed column about the Amanda Knox case in Italy today that really got my attention.
Knox, 20, a fetching young American college student from Seattle, and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito are accused of the murder of a young British woman, Meredith Kercher, who was her roommate. According to Timothy Egan, the author of the piece, there is no solid evidence against her or Sollecito and much physical evidence implicating one Rudy Guede, who has already been convicted of the murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Why is she still being prosecuted? In large part, Egan says, because of the ego and "honor" of the Italian prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini. Knox, who speaks only broken Italian, was interrogated by Mignini for hours with no translator or lawyer present, then held in prison for nearly a year before charges were even filed. Mignini, who is facing charges of professional misconduct in another case, seems to have a penchant for making up fantastical scenarios--here, it is that Kercher was slain during a sex game--and sticking to them, no matter the inconvenient facts. An outside consultant hired by CBS News looked at the case and termed it a "railroad job."
This could not have happened in the American legal system, which has protections for the accused--long derided by rightwing conservatives--that stop legal travesties like this before they can get too far. We don't have a perfect system--consider the number of men freed from death row by DNA testing--but it's far better than what the Italians have. Think about that the next time Limbaugh or O'Reilly rail against the rights of the accused.