1. Crucial lies/mistakes on which the whole case turns
Stomach emptying does not start till the third or fourth hour after eating
This is a very serious mistake in Massei.
The truth: stomach emptying for a solid meal typically starts after 30-80 minutes. ( Note:this is a complex area, see reference )
Reference:
Empty-Duodenum Amount of DNA on the knife blade
Patrizia Stefanoni claimed the amount of DNA on the knife blade was "in the order of some hundreds of picograms". She claimed quantification had been performed by real-time PCR, which was untrue ( see
C-V report - Knife quantification ).
The truth: A test was performed with a Qubit Fluorometer which was negative (no DNA). Two other previous tests for blood were also negative. Cytological tests that should have been performed were not. The test results after PCR (very low RFU), and a failure to perform negative control tests or implement adequate measures to prevent contamination, suggest contamination occurred from previous tests of Meredith's DNA, that is Meredith's DNA was not on the knife blade.
Reference:
DNA-analysis Only Meredith and Raffaele's DNA was on the bra clasp
Patrizia Stefanoni claimed that the DNA on the bra clasp was only from Meredith and Raffaele.
The truth : there were at least 2 other male contributors, strongly suggesting contamination.
Reference:
Bra-clasp-results The footprints were not tested with TMB
Stefanoni claimed that a second blood test on the luminol footprints was not performed. Later, under pressure from defense lawyers, she provided documents showing that a second test was performed, and it was negative for blood in every case.
Reference:
Note 1 The footprints detected by luminol might have been blood even though they tested negative to TMB
Another very serious mistake in Massei.
The truth: TMB is very sensitive, and can detect blood from only five red blood cells. Hellmann is particularly scathing about this.
Reference:
Note 11 Rudy's foot was too large to make the impression on the bath mat
Rinaldi overstated one dimension of the size of Guede's foot creating the false impression that it was too big to have made the print on the mat.
Reference:
IIP Hellmann Report ( "In light of the different dimensional evaluation of the latter.." )
Amanda and Raffaele were in Piazza Grimana on the night of the murder
This would disprove their alibi that they were at Raffaele's all evening.
The truth: Witness Curatolo mistook the day.
Reference:
Curatolo 2. Other lies / mistakes
Amanda sent a text to Lumumba saying "ci saremmo visti subito" or "ci vediamo"
According to the 1st and 2nd statements typed by the police and later signed (without reading) by Amanda.
In English, "we would see each other at once" or "see you".
The truth: The full message was "Certo. Ci vediamo più tardi. Buona serata!", meaning "Sure. See you later. Good evening!".
Reference:
See you later Caught on Camera
It was alleged that Amanda was caught on camera at the cottage on the night Meredith was murdered.
The truth: the (very indistinct) figure was probably Meredith herself, not Amanda. See
Note 24.
Example:
Daily Mail 12 November 2007 Meredith's phone was at the cottage at 22:13
Another serious mistake in Massei.
The truth: it's quite unlikely the phone was at the cottage.
Reference:
Massei analysis Amanda was not at Raffaele's at 20:18
Another mistake in Massei.
The truth: the signal for the call is strong at Raffaele's house.
Reference:
Massei analysis Stefanoni lied that the investigator changed gloves immediately before handling the bra clasp
Stefanoni stressed that the investigator, immediately before having touched said hooks, changed his protective gloves
Note 7.
The truth : the glove was visibly dirty.
Reference:
Youtube bra collection ( Note the close-up at 3 minutes showing dirt on the glove )
Amanda’s shoe-print was found on the Meredith's pillowcase
Rinaldi found this print too small to be Rudy's (
Note 4 ).
The truth: the footprint was Rudy's, as shown by Vinci (
Note5 ) and conceded by Massei (
Note 6 ).
A bloody footprint found near the body was Raffaele's
This was a finding by judge Matteini and the main justification for holding Raffaele.
The truth: the footprint was conclusively shown to be Rudy's.
Example:
Daily Mail 2 November 2007 Reference:
Note 3 A bloody footprint was found in Amanda's bedroom
The truth: no such footprint was found.
Example:
Daily Mail 11 January 2008 Raffaele called 112 after the postal police arrived
The truth: this was false (as found by Massei), but the prosecution were still arguing it even during the final stages of the appeal.
Reference:
Hellmann report "There has been much discussion on whether the call to 112 happened before or after the arrival of the Police..."
Battistelli lied about the time he arrived at the cottage
In order to support the prosecution case that Raffaele called 112 after he arrived.
The truth: records proved that Battistelli was lying.
Reference:
Note 19, and item above "Raffaele called 112 after the postal police arrived".
Amanda or Raffaele bought bleach on the morning after the murder
and there were receipts that proved this.
The truth: An unnamed police source told Richard Owen of the UK Times that they found receipts showing the purchase of bleach on the morning after the murder, and he went with the story, but no such receipts exist.
References:
IIP bleach receipts Times Online 19 November 2007 (google news search) According to these two articles in the la repubblica the bleach receipts were in (
Meredith, svolta sul quarto uomo pronto un altro ordine di arresto) and out (
Giallo Perugia, in casa di Sollecito nessuno scontrino del 2 novembre) of the news on November 18th.
Amanda called Rudy Guede
"Investigators say Mr Guede left Perugia on the morning after the murder and went to Milan, where he was stopped by police but not detained. Detectives locked on to his mobile phone signal in Milan as recently as this weekend, but it then went dead. Amanda Knox made at least two calls to his number, one of them at 11am on 2 November, around the time police discovered Kercher's body."
The truth: Amanda never called Rudy. She didn't even know his name, didn't have his number and Rudy didn't even have a mobile phone.
Reference:
Independent 20 November 2007 Amanda and Raffaele washed their bloody clothes in the washing machine
The truth : Meredith's clothes were in the machine.
Sources: Perugia shock via
IIP IIP Myths Amanda disposed of her sweatshirt
The truth: it was found clean, in her room on the bed (
amanda_clothes.jpg ).
Source: Perugia shock via
IIP Amanda gave herself away by revealing a murder detail only the killer would know
The truth : she didn't. She had learnt that Meredith had been stabbed from Raffaele, who in turn had learnt from Luca Altieri.
Note 13 and
Note 14.
Examples:
Daily Mail 23 December 2007 "Amanda Knox, 20, told friends of Miss Kercher that she died slowly from a stab wound to the neck."
Guardian 23 December 2007 Battistelli lied about not looking under the duvet when Meredith's door was broken down
The truth: he did look under the duvet as Luca Altieri testified. This lie is related to the one above - the prosecution wanted to show that Amanda shouldn't have known what had happened, but Luca Altieri, Marco Zaroli and Paula Grande set things straight.
References:
Note 20 and
Note 21 Amanda's print was on Meredith's face
The truth: it wasn't.
Reference:
Telegraph 2 Nov 2007 (google search) "The arrest warrant for Amanda Knox, 20, discloses that her print was discovered on the face of Meredith Kercher, who was found in her bed ..."
Amanda's bloody fingerprint was found on a tap in the bathroom
The truth: no such fingerprint was found. This
fingerprint map shows only a single print of Amanda's was found, on a glass in the kitchen.
Reference:
BBC 27 November 2007 Amanda attempted to clean up her finger prints from the crime scene
The truth : there was no evidence of this, according to the prosecutions expert witness, Giuseppe Privitera. Also see map above.
Reference:
IIP Myths Investigators found blood belonging to both Amanda and Meredith mixed together in the bathroom
The truth: traces of blood containing the DNA of Amanda and Meredith were found. This is not surprising as Amanda would naturally leave traces of DNA in her own bathroom ( saliva from brushing teeth, or skin from washing ). Amanda's DNA could have been added to Meredith's blood either before or after the murder ( since she cleaned her teeth in the bathroom the morning after the murder ).
Example:
CNN 28 Oct 2008 Harry Potter book falsified Amanda's alibi
Part of Amanda's alibi was that she read a Harry Potter book (German edition) at Raffaele's on the night of the murder.
It was reported (by a police leak) that the book was found at the cottage, casting doubt on her story.
The truth: Amanda had bought two copies, one was found at the cottage, the other at Raffaele's as a police video shows.
Example:
Komo news 19 Dec 2007 Reference:
Youtube Raffaele said that Amanda went out on the night of the murder
The truth: he only said that he may not have known if she left and came back because he was asleep.
Reference:
The interrogation Amanda lied repeatedly and kept changing her story
The truth: she was put under pressure and manipulated into trying to recall non-existent memories that she was at the cottage when the murder happened. She always stressed that these were dream-like memories (unrelated images) that didn't seem real. Leading and loaded questions were used to distort her non-existent memories. The only way in which here story ever changed is that she withdrew the statement that the police manipulated her into signing.
Reference:
The interrogation Amanda was a compulsive liar
The truth: she never told a single lie ( that is a statement she knew to be untrue ).
Reference :
Daily Mail 11 Nov 2007 Amanda knew that Patrick was innocent when she implicated him
This is a mistake in Hellmann, needed to justify the callunia charge.
The truth: she had no way to know that Patrick was innocent, and at that moment genuinely thought it possible. She had been confused into doubting her own memory by the police assuring her that she was at the cottage that night. See
Note 15 and
Note 16. This is part of the complex topic of
the interrogation.
Amanda didn't tell the police when she remembered she was not there
The truth : she told her lawyers, who passed this on to Mignini. See
Note 17 Amanda said Raffaele might have killed Meredith
The truth: She stressed that she didn't believe this. The quote omitted the vital "well, I just highly doubt all of that". See
Myth-Knife .
Reference:
Daily Mail 2 Dec 2007 "But I think it's possible that Raffaele went to Meredith's house, raped her, then killed her, and then when he got home, while I was sleeping, he put my fingerprints on the knife."
Amanda said she was at the cottage in a bugged conversation
The truth : she said "I was there", and was referring to Raffaele's place, not the cottage.
Reference: See
Note 25 and
Note 26.
There were no traces of a break-in
The truth: Filomena's window was broken.
Reference:
The Sun 5 Dec 2007 "Kercher family attorney Francesco Maresca called the panel's explanation "a well-reasoned ruling that puts Amanda in the leading position in the murder. The lawyer, who had a copy of the panel's explanation, said the judges had reasoned that Kercher was killed by someone she knew since there were no traces of a break-in."
Raffaele was depressed / unstable
The prosecution tried to show that Raffaele was depressed (and hence mentally unstable) at the time of the murder. An entry from Raffaele's blog dated 13 October 2006 where he said he had strong emotions about the death of his mother was shown to judge Matteini, but the year was omitted, so Matteini thought it was in the days before the murder.
Reference:
Perugia Shock Amanda was seen with Raffaele and Rudy and threatened a man with knife on October 31st
The truth: Kokomani's testimony fell apart in court. He claimed to have met Amanda in July 2007, before Amanda ever went to Italy.
Example :
Nick Pisa Daily Mail 24 January 2008:
Amanda, Raffaele, Rudy and Meredith were seen coming out of the cottage on October 30th
This was another failed attempt to show Raffaele and Rudy knew each other.
The truth: Fabio Giuffredi's testimony fell apart in court. Raffaele's computer showed he was using his computer at the time.
Amanda was at a shop at early in the morning of November 2nd
This would contradict Amanda's account, and was used by the prosecution to suggest she bought cleaning materials that morning to clean up the crime scene.
The truth: The sighting is not reliable.
Reference:
Hellmann report : Quintavalle Amanda met a secret Argentinian boyfriend and went to the Laundromat to wash a pile of clothes, including a pair of blue Nike sneakers
This appeared in a newspaper article, and caused Raffaele to doubt Amanda.
The truth: she didn't.
Reference: Honor Bound, Loc 1276
The washing machine was warm when the murder was discovered
Implying that the washing machine had been used to dispose of bloody evidence ( alleged testimony of Filomena ).
The truth: the Italian word for "damp" ( "umido" ) was mis-construed, FIlomena only intended to say the clothes in the machine were damp.
Reference:
The Guardian, 8 February 2009 and also
Note 30 3. Smears / innuendos / half-truths
Foxy Knoxy
This is an innuendo, intended to smear Amanda's character. In court, it turned out that this had gone one stage further, with this being translated to "Evil Fox" in Italian in official court documents (Source:Amanda testimony). The truth : this was a nickname for her when she played soccer as a young child, aged 11.
Example:
Daily Mail 22 November 2007 "Knox, who styles herself Foxy Knoxy".
The picture of Amanda behind a machine gun
A crude smear, intended to convey the impression that Amanda was a violent person.
The truth: this was on a visit to a military museum.
The picture of Raffaele with a meat cleaver
A crude smear, intended to suggest that Raffaele was a violent person.
The truth: this was a Halloween costume.
The picture of Raffaele kissing Amanda outside the cottage
This picture was widely used to suggest Amanda and Raffaele were indifferent to the murder.
The truth: Amanda was very shocked and upset, the kiss was to comfort her, and not sexual.
Reference:
Youtube : the kiss Amanda wrote stories about rape
A crude half-truth.
The truth: this was a college assignment. The story was only indirectly about rape, and in fact she failed the assignment because her story was not graphic enough. In addition, the story was mis-represented by John Follain, see
Note 23 Example:
Telegraph 7 November 2007 Raffaele admired the Monster of Foligno
The truth : Raffaele was obviously being sarcastic. See
Note 28 and
Note 29.
Amanda is a witch, the murder should have been one day earlier on Halloween but was postponed
The truth: Mignini is crazy.
Reference:
Note 12 Amanda had a private jet waiting to fly her home
The truth: Amanda's family had to re-mortgage their homes to help her defend herself.
Example:
Daily Mail 30 September 2011 Amanda bought sexy lingerie the day after the murder
and was overheard looking forward to a night of "wild sex". Another smear on her character.
The truth: Amanda didn't have any underwear since the cottage was sealed off, so she needed to buy some. She bought a "Tanga" which is a normal piece of underwear. The shop-keeper (who was paid a large sum of money for the interview) didn't speak English, so couldn't have known what was said.
Example: [url=http://were overheard looking forward to a night of %E2%80%9Cwild sex%E2%80%9D]Express 24 November 2007[/url]
Amanda had sex on a train with a stranger
The truth: She didn't. She wrote on her MySpace page "met a guy named frederico on the train to florence from milan, and we ended up hanging out together in florence, where he bought both deanna and i dinner and then, when deanna went to bed, we smoked up together, my first time in italy". Frederico is not in her list of sexual partners.
Example:
Daily Mail 3 December 2007 Amanda was arrested at a wild party
The truth: she was given a fine which her friends helped her pay, but not arrested. The party probably did get a bit wild, it was her party, but she wasn't involved in the wild behavior ( throwing rocks on the road ), she just took responsibility for it. See
Note 27.
Example:
Daily Mail 3 December 2007 Amanda cultivated cannabis plants around the apartment
The truth: the cannabis plants were grown downstairs by the young men living there. Meredith's boyfriend Giacomo asked Meredith to look after the plants while he was away.
Example:
Daily Mail 3 December 2007 Reference:
Note 2 Amanda and Raffaele were callous to not attend the memorial service for Meredith
This does not seem to have been published in the mainstream press, but it quite often crops up in online comments.
The truth : they were told by the police to keep away from reporters and not to talk to the press (
Note 8). Since the memorial was a vigil on the steps of the cathedral, it would have been hard to avoid reporters. See also
Note 9.
Example:
maundygregory blog Amanda and Raffaele were buying sexy lingerie during the memorial service
This is from Barbie Nadeau's book.
The truth: the memorial was on 5th November, Amanda bought the "Tanga" on then evening of 3rd November.
Reference:
Note 10 Manga comics feature extreme violence and rape
Raffaele was interested in Manga and had a collection of comics, so this was used to attack his character.
The truth: some Manga comics are sexually explicit, but this is a crude characterisation. The Manga video "Naruto" that was played the evening of the murder has no sexual content, and is no more violent than a "Superman" comic or a "Tom and Jerry" cartoon.
References:
Manga Wiki Telegraph 2 October 2011 Amanda did cartwheels at the police station
The truth: there was no space to do cartwheels. A male police officer asked her if she could do the splits and she complied.
There is still some confusion about what actually happened, but if she did do cartwheels, it was at the suggestion of the police.
References:
The interrogation Daily Telegraph 27 February 2009 Amanda took a shower in a bathroom covered in blood
The truth: the pictures show the bathroom after a chemical had been applied to look for traces of blood. The actual amount of blood was tiny, apart from the indistinct shape on the bath mat.
Example:
Daily Mail 16 January 2008 Amanda's sexual partners
This was a smear, designed to prejudice Italians against Amanda. While Amanda was held in jail, she was falsely told she had tested HIV positive. This caused her to write a list of her 7 lifetime sexual partners in her diary ( three from her time in Italy ), which was then leaked to the press.
Patrick Lumumba fired Amanda
Patrick Lumumba claimed he fired Amanda for "hitting on customers".
The truth: Patrick never fired Amanda, as evidenced by his text asking her not to come in on the night of the murder.
Reference:
Daily Mail 25 November 2007 Amanda never apologised to Patrick
This was alleged by Patrick after the verdict (
Daily Mail 11 October 2011 ).
The truth : she apologised in court, see
Note 18 and
Note 22 .
Post acquittal lies
Even after Amanda and Raffaele were freed, false stories continue to circulate.
Reference:
ABC news