Myth: Amanda Knox's statement was false or coerced after a long interrogation
Not true. Knox's interrogation was at most two hours long, but realistically less than an hour, from 12:30am to 1:30am. Sollecito was called to the police station that night and Knox accompanied him, waiting in the hall with her homework. Sollecito was being asked about some inconsistencies in his earlier statements, causing him to now tell the police he had lied at Knox's request and the truth was they had parted company at 9:00pm and she did not return to his apartment until 1:00am. The police had been intercepting their conversations that week in which they frequently refer to a third person -- while they were unsure of the roles they felt that Knox was at least covering for someone, so when Sollecito said Knox went out, the police seized the opportunity to ask Knox about this.
They telephoned the interpreter at 11:30 to say they would require her services; Anna Donnino arrived at 12:30am. In the meantime Knox was with the police making lists of Meredith's acquaintances, drawing maps, et cetera. Likely Knox was nervous but not as a result of anything the police were doing. When Donnino arrived she was seated next to Knox at a table across from two police officers, who challenged her about her text messages. It was then that she said she was at the cottage and began to accuse Patrick Lumumba.
Because the statement had been prepared, typed and signed by 1:45am, realistically Knox implicated herself and Lumumba within minutes of learning Sollecito had withdrawn her alibi. The text message represented an easy out for Knox, a way to concede what she suspected the police already knew without admitting any wrongdoing. She, Sollecito, and Lumumba were arrested that night. It is frequently suggested that the non-existence of a recording of this interrogation proves it was abusive; in truth, the police officers, the interpreter, and Knox all relate the same sequence of events, Knox herself doing so in a conversation which was recorded.
Knox's own account of that evening, written to her lawyers a few days after the event, is also worth reading (see Amanda Knox's letters to her lawyers). She makes it clear that she and Sollecito arrived at the police station at "around 10:30pm or 11pm" and goes on to describe the things that happened before the formal questioning began, again supporting a considerable elapsed time. Although she was certainly not playing down the unpleasantness of the police questioning, she nevertheless makes absolutely no claim of being denied food, drink or toilet breaks, which are other details that people have added to myth in subsequent retellings.
Myth: Knox's human rights were violated because the police did not give her a lawyer or an official interpreter
Not true. At around 11 pm on November 5, 2007, Knox was questioned as a witness.[13] She had a right to a lawyer if she so wished, but there was no obligation for the police to provide one. She was provided with an interpreter, Anna Donnino, who gave evidence at Knox's trial.[14] Knox signed a formal statement at 01:45 am, placing herself at the crime scene:[15] from this point she could not be interviewed without a lawyer, because she was now a suspect. The interview was therefore terminated. At 05:45 am she made a further voluntary statement. These statements were subsequently the subject of a Supreme Court ruling. The SC did not rule that her human rights had been violated, nor that the statements were illegal. In fact, they ruled that the statements made while Knox was properly a suspect but being treated as a witness were inadmissable for the murder charge, but they were admitted as evidence for the calunnia charge.[16]
Myth: The DNA evidence was contaminated or faulty
Not True The Scientific police processed approximately 400 case items and extracted DNA profiles from roughly 225. It has been commonly repeated that the DNA evidence in this case was contaminated or in some way faulty if it incriminates Knox and Sollecito, but not Guede. This boilerplate defense claim dates back to the earliest hearings, and it has failed to convince a series of courts for lack of logic or substantiation. The Hellmann-appointed DNA experts reviewed only two items out of dozens in this case, the knife and the bra clasp. In the case of the knife, the experts advanced these main complaints, in line with defense argumentation before the Massei and Micheli courts:
That the negative TMB test on the knife should have caused the lab technician to stop testing, because the sample was probably not blood. TMB detects blood but not tissue; as the material was lodged in a crevice it seems likely it is solid matter;
That lab contamination could not be ruled out, claiming that negative control tests had not been performed by the lab between items although the records of these important controls had been filed with the court years prior. Vecchiotti further conceded on cross-examination that the 6-day interval since the testing of the last Kercher item was a virtual guarantee against lab contamination with respect to the knife.[17]
That LCN DNA typing is itself untrustworthy, quoting a 2009 article in the Croatian Medical Journal by Bruce Budowle.
Finally, the experts offer that a sample tested once is unreliable, scientifically speaking, and the evidence should be excluded on this basis. For this reason of non-repeatability Judge Hellmann also declined to order the testing of the newly-discovered third human trace on the blade, since it too is estimated to be small, reasoning that if one single test is not reliable, two are no better.
Turning to the bra clasp, the reviewers affirmed Sollecito's profile on the hooks in a Sollecito/Kercher mix, but suggested that its collection during the second pass meant contamination could not be ruled out as an explanation. (During this second pass two items with Guede profiles, the purse and the sweatshirt, were also collected.) They did not explain how the passage of time in a sealed crime scene would cause the clasp to become contaminated in this way, nor did they identify a source of so much Sollecito DNA, his only other genetic trace in the house being on a cigarette butt in the kitchen, mixed with Knox's (this was removed on November 3). By way of explanation reviewer Conti only said "anything is possible." In other words, the Hellmann court held contamination to be a probable explanation for the trace on the clasp without identifying a likely route or even source. The Supreme Court, in overturning Hellmann's ruling, was especially harsh regarding the lack of logic on this point, calling it completely unmoored from scientific reasoning.
Myth: Knox was arrested/convicted because she turned cartwheels at the police station
Not true. Knox was arrested because she gave the police a statement saying that she was present at the cottage at the time of the murder.[15] The other person who she said was present (Patrick Lumumba) was also arrested. This would be standard police practice anywhere in the world. There is no evidence that Knox's strange behaviour, such as turning cartwheels, played any part in the judicial process. Judge Massei gave very detailed written reasons for Knox's and Sollecito's conviction, and there is no mention of cartwheels.[18]
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
