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Round 1 (early 1970s) - #1 Led Zeppelin vs #16 Roxy Music
YellowSnow
Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 33,892
On we sweep (Free Pub bitches) with treshing oar, our only goal will be the Montlake Shore
Round 1 (early 1970s) - #1 Led Zeppelin vs #16 Roxy Music 41 votes
#1 Led Zeppelin
95%
39 votes
#16 Roxy Music
4%
2 votes
Comments
(And, yeah, I know she's gone kind of bull dyke downhill since then - but I'm sure batshit crazy sex is still inside somewhere).
Mods?
Scale of 1-10 on the creepy scale?
Contents
1 Early life
2 Italy
2.1 Summary
2.2 Perugia background
2.3 Via della Pergola 7
2.4 Discovery of body
2.5 Investigation
2.6 Interviews, arrest and arraignment
2.7 Italian legal procedure
2.8 Trial of Guede
2.9 First trial of Knox and Sollecito
2.9.1 Prosecution case
2.9.2 Defense case
2.10 Verdict and controversy
3 Acquittal and release
3.1 Retrial
3.2 Forensic controversy continues
3.3 Final decision
4 Personal life
5 Media
5.1 Books
5.2 Documentaries
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Early life
Amanda Knox grew up in Seattle, Washington, with three younger sisters. Her mother, Edda Mellas, a mathematics teacher, and her father, Curt Knox, a vice president of finance at the local Macy's, divorced when Amanda was a few years old. Her stepfather, Chris Mellas, is an information technology consultant.[3][4][5]
Knox first travelled to Italy at the age of 15, when she visited Rome, Pisa, the Amalfi Coast, and the ruins of Pompeii on a family holiday. Her interest in the country was increased by the book Under the Tuscan Sun, which her mother gave to her.
Knox graduated in 2005 from the Seattle Preparatory School and studied linguistics at the University of Washington, where she made the university's dean's list and gained a reputation as one of the school's most attractive and charismatic students. She worked at part-time jobs to fund an academic year in Italy. Relatives described the 20-year-old Knox as charming but unwary.[6] Her stepfather had strong reservations about her going to Italy that year, as he felt she was still too naïve.[7]
Italy
Amanda Knox was vaulted into international attention when studying abroad in Italy at age 20. Knox was accused and imprisoned for murder.
Summary
Knox reportedly spent the night with her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito; upon returning to the flat she shared with Kercher, she discovered her roommate dead. She became a suspect and during an interview—the conduct of which is a matter of dispute—she implicated herself, Sollecito, and her employer, Patrick Lumumba, all of whom were consequently charged with the murder. Forensic evidence from Kercher's body identified Rudy Guede, a petty criminal, and he, not Lumumba, faced charges. Although originally denying that Knox had any involvement, Guede later incriminated Knox as the killer. He was tried first and convicted, although not of actually inflicting fatal injuries. At the murder trial of Knox and Sollecito, American legal commentators were disturbed by courtroom attacks on her character and evidence officially ruled improper being heard by the jury nonetheless.
Both Knox and Sollecito were found guilty, which caused international controversy, as American forensics experts thought evidence at the crime scene was incompatible with their involvement. A prolonged and complex legal process continued after Knox's 2011 successful appeal. She was found not guilty of calunnia for saying she had been struck by policewomen during the interrogation, then re-convicted of the killing in 2014. In 2015, the murder case against her was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Italy, which definitively acquitted Knox and Sollecito of any involvement.
Perugia background
Perugia, the city where Kercher was murdered in her home, is known for its universities and large student population. There had reportedly not been a killing in the city for 20 years, but its prosecutors had been responsible for Italy's most controversial murder cases.[8][9] A charge originated by Perugia prosecutors resulted in the 2002 conviction of former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti for ordering the murder of a journalist, and led to complaints that the justice system had "gone mad". The Supreme Court took the unusual step of definitively acquitting him the next year.[9][10]
In early 2002, Perugia prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, who enjoyed taking a detective-like role and was later to be in charge of the Kercher investigation, arraigned members of a respectable Masonic lodge for an alleged conspiracy. Mignini reportedly based the case on a theory involving serial killings and Satanic rites.[11] Mignini investigated fellow prosecutors for complicity in the supposed plot and appealed dismissals of the charges; there were no convictions in the case, which finally ended in 2010.[12][13] According to a scholar who researched comparative law in Italy, selective changes to the Italian legal system left it unable to cope when a prosecutor with Mignini's American-style adversarial approach used his powers to the fullest.[14]
Via della Pergola 7
In Perugia, Knox shared a four-bedroom, ground-floor apartment in a house at Via della Pergola 7.[15] Her flatmates were Kercher (a fellow exchange student) and two Italian women in their late twenties. Kercher and Knox moved in on September 10 and 20, 2007, respectively, meeting each other for the first time.[16] Knox was employed part-time at a bar, Le Chic, which was owned by a Congolese man, Diya Patrick Lumumba. She told flatmates that she was going to quit because he was not paying her; Lumumba denied this.[17] Kercher's English women friends saw relatively little of Knox, who preferred to mix with Italians.[18]
The walk-out semi-basement of the house was rented by young Italian men with whom both Kercher and Knox were friendly. One, Giacomo, spent time in the girls' flat due to a shared interest in music. Returning home at 2 am one night in mid-October, Knox, Kercher, Giacomo, and another basement resident met a basketball court acquaintance of the Italians, Rudy Guede.[19][20] Guede attached himself to the group and asked about Knox. He was invited into the basement by the Italians; Knox and then Kercher came down to join them. At 4:30 am Kercher left, saying she was going to bed, and Knox followed her out. Guede spent the rest of the night in the basement.[21] Knox recalled a second night out with Kercher and Giacomo in which Guede joined them and was allowed into the basement. He was never invited into the women's apartment.[22]
Three weeks before her death Kercher went with Knox to the EuroChocolate festival. On October 20, Kercher became romantically involved with Giacomo, after going to a nightclub with him as part of a small group that included Knox. Guede visited the basement later that day. On October 25, Kercher and Knox went to a concert where Knox met Raffaele Sollecito, a 23-year-old student. She began spending her time at his flat, a five-minute walk from Via della Pergola 7.[23]
Discovery of body
November 1 was a public holiday, and the Italians living in the house were away. Kercher was alone in the house when she returned at 9 pm that evening. Just after midday on November 2, Knox called Kercher's English phone, which Kercher kept in her jeans and could always be reached on, but the call was not answered.[24] Knox then called Romanelli, one of the two Italian trainee lawyers she and Kercher shared the apartment with, and in a mixture of Italian and English said she was worried something had happened to Kercher, as on going to Via della Pergola 7 apartment earlier that morning Knox had noticed an open front door, bloodstains (including a footprint) in the bathroom, and Kercher's bedroom door locked.[25] Knox and Sollecito then went to Via della Pergola 7, and on getting no answer from Kercher unsuccessfully tried to break in the bedroom door, leaving it noticeably damaged.[26] At 12:47 pm, Knox called her mother and was told to contact the police as an emergency.[27]
Sollecito called the Carabinieri, getting through at 12:51 PM. He was recorded telling them there had been a break-in with nothing taken, and the emergency was that Kercher's door was locked, she was not answering calls to her phone, and there were bloodstains.[27] Police telecommunications investigators arrived to inquire about an abandoned phone, which was in fact Kercher's Italian unit. Romanelli arrived and took over, explaining the situation to the police who were informed about Kercher's English phone, which had been handed in as a result of its ringing when Knox called it. On discovering Kercher's English phone had been found dumped, Romanelli demanded that the policemen force Kercher's bedroom door open, but they did not think the circumstances warranted damaging private property. The door was then kicked in by a strongly built friend of Romanelli's, and Kercher's body was discovered on the floor. She had been stabbed and died from exsanguination due to neck wounds.[28]