On 3 October 2011 a court acquitted Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito of the murder of Meredith Kercher. A few articles stood out. Christiana Patterson’s title, “We prefer a crazy story to the truth,” as good a one-sentence summation of the case as any I have seen. She also indicated one of the main problems with the one of the most significant pieces of evidence against Knox and Sollecito: “One piece of ‘evidence’ wasn't ‘found’ for 47 days. It was found, in fact, the day after a TV programme highlighting flaws in the case.” She also empathized with the Kercher family’s dilemma of whether to continue believing that Knox and Sollecito are somehow culpable or to reconsider their understanding of the case.
Of the prosecution’s version of the murder as a sex game gone wrong Deborah Orr said, “An astonishing number of people around the world were keen to believe this scenario, although there is no evidence to support it. Some still are.” Of the Kercher family she concluded, “A lot of people share blame for the mental torture this family have been through. Amanda Knox is not one of them.” Indeed. Nor is Raffaele Sollecito.
Ms. Knox’s seemingly odd behavior led some to suspect her; A friend of mine recalled a video of Ms. Knox as wildly kissing her boyfriend Mr. Sollecito outside of the apartment shared by Ms. Knox, Ms. Kercher, and two other women. Yet Ian Lesie noted, “In fact, the video is anything but sexy. Knox, looking wan and dazed, exchanges chaste kisses with Sollecito, who rubs her arm consolingly.” He saw this case as “a particularly pungent manifestation of a universal trait, one that frequently leads criminal investigators and juries astray: overconfidence in our ability to read someone else's state of mind simply by looking at them.”
With considerable justification Carole Cadwalladr observed, “The whole case, the prosecution's version of events, the media coverage, and the court of public opinion, has been viewed almost solely through the prism of Knox's looks and sexuality.” Was Meredith Kercher shoved aside? To some degree, but so was Ms. Knox’s then boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. Most remarkably, Rudy Guede, the sole person whom the evidence indicates sexually assaulted and killed Ms. Kercher has also been largely ignored. In an alternate universe he would have been the person most vilified, and with complete justification.
Update 1 (11 PM)
Dylan Evans saw "confirmation bias" and "imagination inflation" in the investigation: "Unfortunately, law enforcement officials are as ignorant of this phenomenon [imagination inflation] as they are of confirmation bias. When they ask suspects to imagine their possible role in a murder they do not at first remember, therefore, this very exercise may unknowingly lead the suspect to believe that he or she was really involved."
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