Italy : Amanda Knox case with parallel trial rages online

The Italian Court of Cassation tomorrow is expected to rule on Knox's and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito's appeals to their guilty verdicts in British student Meredith Kercher's 2007 killing, issued last year by a Florence appeals court that sentenced Knox to 28 years and Sollecito to 25 years.

 

Amanda Knox.

 

Italy's highest court this week takes up the Amanda Knox case for the second time as a parallel trial-by-social media rages online, with partisans on both sides seeking to shape public opinion over a murder case that has polarised observers in three nations.
While the internet advocacy and sparring over the Knox trial details - on blogs, forums and most vociferously on Twitter - have no bearing on the real court case, observers and participants say it does have a role in shaping public opinion, particularly in the United States, where the exchanges are most acerbic.
And public opinion could eventually have some bearing, if a confirmed guilty verdict requires Knox to serve time and Italy seeks to extradite her.
"Everyone has woken up and realised that the law is not etched in stone. It is in the eye of the beholder and they are trying to influence that," said law professor Laurie Levenson of Loyola Law School.

The Italian Court of Cassation tomorrow is expected to rule on Knox's and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito's appeals to their guilty verdicts in British student Meredith Kercher's 2007 killing, issued last year by a Florence appeals court that sentenced Knox to 28 years and Sollecito to 25 years.
Both had been found guilty by a trial court in Perugia, then freed after a Perugia appellate court overturned the convictions, only to find themselves back in an appellate court after the high court vacated the acquittals.
Knox, who spent four years in jail during the investigation and after her lower court conviction, remains free in the US. She has vowed never to return willingly to Italy. If her conviction is upheld now or in future, any decision on her extradition will include a political component that could be swayed by public opinion.
Eugene McLaughlin, a professor of criminology at the City of University London who is studying the early days of British media coverage, calls the case one of the first examples of "trial by social media".
"The case is almost beyond legal adjudication," McLaughlin said. "No matter if Amanda Knox or Raffaele Sollecito are found guilty or not guilty, it has taken on an after-life of its own.'
He said Knox was assumed guilty in the British press in the early days of coverage, an impression that solidified when Italian police leaked that she had confessed - a confession she later said was forced. In the US, the story was different. Knox's image was closely managed by a PR firm.
One of the latest hashtag battles is being waged by Knox backers against Sollecito, seeking a boycott of donations to his legal defence fund until he clarifies whether his high court defence strategy amounts to a sellout of Knox.