Written by Luca Cheli on GroundReport.com.
This article aims to be a short commentary on the final ruling concerning the Kercher murder case, the so-called Marasca Report, the one definitively closing the case by acquitting Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito after almost eight years.
But it is also intended to be a final thought about the case before leaving this chapter of my life behind me and dedicating myself to other causes.
The ruling
Since the acquittal is based on paragraph 2 of article 530 of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure, which provides for a judge to pronounce a verdict of acquittal “when evidence is lacking, insufficient or contradictory”, it was to be expected that it would not have been a clearcut, one-sided proclamation of innocence.
Also, by paying attention to the text of the verdict back in March, it was already clear to me that, since the acquittal for the charge of staging a burglary was due to the defendant not having committed the crime and not to the crime not existing, this new ruling was going to accept the theory of a staged burglary and hence, most probably, of multiple attackers.
It is a ruling with both lights and shadows, but indeed appreciation for it greatly varies if one looks at it only from the point of view of the specific case, or from the point of view of its potential effect on Italian criminal justice in general. Read More »