A Very Difficult Situation For The Knox Family
This won’t be the most fun post to write but it’s important for me because of a situation my friend Curt Knox is in. If you’re reading this you will think that name sounds familiar but only when you know his daughter is Amanda Knox will you know why. She was found guilty of murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Perugia, Italy, this past December in a farce of a trial.
I met Curt in the summer of 1979 while playing football at Olympic College in Bremerton, Washington. He was a VERY fast reciever and I was a VERY average (at best) quarterback. We have kept in touch over the years laughing about the “three and up” route that would score every time. After college he became my accountant for my first company, White Glove Cleaning Services, and we’ve stayed in contact ever since.
Curt was one of three friends that visited our house recently for dinner and then we met them up in Sandpoint, Idaho, for some REALLY good pizza a couple nights later. They were having their annual ”guys ski weekend” for the first time in many years (obviously Amanda’s situation kept the ski weekend from happening in recent years). His spirits are always high, which amazes me. It’s apparent he is able to emotionally divorce himself from the hell he is going through with his oldest daughter. I don’t know how but he does it.
I admire the way Curt and Edda Mellas, his ex-wife and Amanda’s Mom, have handled this situation. They have not given up on getting her back home in a timely manner. Curt has dedicated his life to getting Amanda back on American soil as fast as possible.
The support for the Knox family has been wonderful. Curt’s Vashon High School class of 1979 classmates have raised funds to help with the cost of going through something like this. Now Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump and United States Senator, Maria Cantwell have gotten involved, as well, in various ways to help the cause. Curt and Edda (as well as their other daughter) will be on the Oprah Winfrey show on Tuesday, February 23 (tomorrow) to discuss this situation. Donald Trump suggests, in no uncertain terms, we all boycott Italian products and Italy in every way. Senator Cantwell has approached Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for help and support on a national level. (Click on the highlighted text in this paragraph to read more.)
In a time where Tiger Woods garnered more media attention Friday for a prepared statement of how he’s wronged his wife, family and the world (because of choices he’s made) than even the President did in a State of the Union address, it’s worth taking note that there are people who are truly experiencing injustices in the world. There are people that are going through their own hell and it’s out of their control. Tiger could control what happened and the only reason we know he cheated on his wife is because he GOT CAUGHT! Now we’re supposed to feel sorry for him? Amanda has been wrongly accused and convicted in Italy. What this has done for the Knox family is both horrific and faith sapping. I wouldn’t wish this on my worse enemy!
I know that there are many people who are going through difficult situations with the economy, and so forth. At church yesterday our Pastor talked about living “beyond ourselves”. If you take a step back and look objectively, it is certainaly true that most of us do not have as bad of problems as we might like to think. If we step out and help those that really ARE struggling with major problems it will likely help us with our own issues as well as give us the satisfaction of having helped out others. Living beyond ourselves.
If you would like to help, visit The Amanda Knox Defense Fund website and it will direct you how. If you can’t help out this way, you can help by just talking about this to everybody, ANYbody. The more the word gets out the better. If we all just help out a little bit it can add up to a whole lot of help.
Thank you for reading and remember to watch Oprah tomorrow.
The evidence against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito is overwhelming:
Amanda Knox’s DNA was found on:
1. On the double DNA knife and a number of independent forensic experts - Dr. Patrizia Stefanoni, Dr. Renato Biondo and Professor Francesca Torricelli - categorically stated that Meredith’s DNA was on the blade.
2. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the ledge of the basin.
3. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the bidet.
4. Mixed with Meredith blood on a box of Q Tip cotton swabs.
5. Mixed with Meredith’s blood in the hallway.
6. Mixed with Meredith’s blood on the floor of Filomena’s room, where the break-in was staged.
7. On Meredith’s bra according to Dr. Stefanoni AND Raffaele Sollecito’s forensic expert, Professor Vinci.
Amanda Knox’s footprints were found set in Meredith’s blood in two places in the hallway of the new wing of the cottage. One print was exiting her own room, and one print was outside Meredith’s room, facing into the room. These bloody footprints were only revealed under luminol.
A woman’s bloody shoeprint, which matched Amanda Knox’s foot size, was found on a pillow under Meredith’s body. The bloody shoeprint was incompatible with Meredith’s shoe size.
Two independent imprint experts categorically excluded the possibility that the bloody footprint on the blue bathmat could belong to Rudy Guede. Lorenzo Rinaldi stated:
“You can see clearly that this bloody footprint on the rug does not belong to Mr. Guede, but you can see that it is compatible with Sollecito.”
The other imprint expert print expert testified that the bloody footprint on the blue bathmat matched the precise characteristics of Sollecito’s foot.
An abundant amount of Raffaele Sollecito’s DNA was found on Meredith’s bra clasp. Meredith’s bra was removed some time after she had been killed and Rudy Guede had fled the scene.
The murder dynamic implicates Knox and Sollecito.
Barbie Nadeau wrote the following:
“Countless forensic experts, including those who performed the autopsies on Kercher’s body, have testified that more than one person killed her based on the size and location of her injuries and the fact that she didn’t fight back—no hair or skin was found under her fingernails.”
Judge Paolo Micheli claimed that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito knew precise details about Meredith’s murder that they could have only known if they were present when she was killed.
Amanda Knox voluntarily admitted that she involved in Meredith’s murder in her handwritten note to the police on 6 November 2007. She stated on at least four separate occasions that she was at the cottage when Meredith was killed. She also claimed that Sollecito was at the cottage.
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito both gave multiple conflicting alibis and lied repeatedly. Their lies were exposed by telephone and computer records, and by CCTV footage. Neither Knox nor Sollecito have credible alibis for the night of the murder despite three attempt each. At the trial, Sollecito refused to corroborate Knox’s alibi that she was at his apartment.
Legal expert Stefano Maffei stated the following:
“There were 19 judges who looked at the evidence over the course of two years, faced with decisions on pre-trial detention, review of such detention, committal to trial, judgment on criminal responsibility. They all agreed, at all times, that the evidence was overwhelming.”
Great article, Phil. Having followed this case for over a year I, too, know Amanda is beyond a doubt innocent. I feel for her parents and congratulate them on their unswerving support for their daughter. I know my parents would have done the same for me had I fallen into such a horrible situation through no fault of my own. That’s why it grieves me to see the way some people speak about Curt and Edda. These people could only wish to have such supportive and loving parents. I wish them all the best and hope that Amanda will be coming home soon.
Now for the hard part. This blog is about to get some very negative comments starting in about 3, 2…
Dear Sir,
Pardon me, but if you looked objectively at the evidence of the case against Amanda Knox — and it is something that requires many hours of reading — you might very well come to the conclusion that justice has been done and she could not possibly be innocent of this crime.
Phil
You are a good friend and a christian as well. You feel Curt’s raw pain at being separated from his daughter. However, support the man not his daughter. Whatever he tells you, there is a great deal of evidence against not the Amanda or anyone else knew, but an Amanda that night who had ingested too many drugs and alcohol (by her own admission) that night and then got herself in a hellish situation which was completely out of character but nevertheless which she committed.
The truth is important. Really important. Don’t blind your eyes out of love and compassion for a good man who can’t bear to face up to the bitter truth by joining in on the untruth that Amanda had nothing to do with it or that the Italian conviction is unsafe or anti-American. They convicted an Italian apple-of-their-eye boy as well because it was done on the evidence, nothing else. Awful, unpalatable, something that could never be believed by a loving parent - he *must* think otherwise for his sanity, how could he not - but it is true nevertheless I’m afraid.