Amanda Knox (L) and Douglas Preston (R)
A 16-MONTH INVESTIGATION BY CBS NEWS’ “48 HOURS MYSTERY”
RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CASE AGAINST AN AMERICAN GIRL
ON TRIAL FOR MURDER IN ITALY
“I WAS HIT IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD BY ONE OF THE POLICE OFFICERS,” SAYS AMANDA KNOX IN AN AUDIO TAPE OBTAINED EXCLUSIVELY BY “48 HOURS MYSTERY” BROADCAST ON SATURDAY, APRIL 11
In an exclusive audio tape obtained by CBS News’ 48 HOURS MYSTERY, American student Amanda Knox describes to an Italian judge what happened the night she was brought in for questioning in the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher. “They kept asking me the same questions,” she recounts. “At a certain point the police began to be more aggressive with me…I was hit in the back of the head by one of the police officers who said she was trying to help me remember the truth.”
In addition to her claims that physical abuse led to her false confession, 48 HOURS MYSTERY, working with private investigator and 48 HOURS consultant Paul Ciolino, launched our own investigation. The 16-month probe raises serious questions about the key evidence, witnesses and forensic procedures in the case against Amanda Knox. Is this University of Washington honor student being falsely accused?
On November 2, 2007 Knox, who was studying for a semester in Perugia, Italy, was at the house when police discovered Kercher in her bedroom, semi-naked with her throat slashed. Within days she went from being a witness to a suspect in what prosecutor Giuliano Mignini called a drug-induced sex orgy gone wrong. After a 14-hour police interrogation, Knox told authorities that she and a local bar owner went to the apartment that night and the bar owner had sex with Kercher and then murdered her, a story that later proved false. “They threatened that I was going to go to prison for 30 years…They said I was lying,” she explains. “I was terrified, because I didn’t know what to do.”
Knox’s interrogation experience is echoed by best-selling author Doug Preston. In 2006, Preston was living in Italy writing a true-crime book about 14 serial killings that occurred in the Tuscan Hills between 1974 and 1985. Preston wrote The Monster of Florence with journalist Mario Spezi challenging investigators’ theory of the case. Prosecutors accused the authors of being involved in the murders and falsifying evidence.
“They hauled me in for an interrogation in front of Giuliano Mignini…About an hour into the interrogation the questions became very pointed and they became aggressive,” he recalls. They almost broke me down…I was terrified, my knees were shaking, I could barely walk.”
Preston was released without charge and left Italy. But as Knox’s trial enters its fourth month, Preston worries that she will be there for a very long time. “[Mignini] is absolutely determined to see her convicted…Public opinion is so against her that there will be an uproar if she is acquitted.”
Correspondent Peter Van Sant reports on “American Girl, Italian Nightmare” Saturday, April 11 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT), on the CBS Television Network. This broadcast is produced by Joe Halderman and Douglas Longhini. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer and Al Briganti is the executive editor. Susan Zirinsky is the executive producer.
Editors’ Note: CLICK HERE to watch a preview of the broadcast, and CLICK HERE to watch Van Sant’s notebook. CBS News 48 HOURS MYSTERY broadcasts are now available on iTunes.com.
This piece was posted on the True Justice For Meredith Kercher website:
CBS Reporter’s Bizarre Claims About Prosecutor And Reporters
Posted by Skeptical Bystander
[click for larger image]
Peter Van Sant of CBS is the slightly confused-looking reporter in the images above and below.
In promoting his “48 Hours” report tonight, which by all accounts seems intent on equaling CBS’s record for worst report on the case, Mr Van Sant has come out with an interview which is an absolute classic for how not to do such things.
First, consider Mr Van Sant’s remarks about one of the prosecutors in the case.
As for the accusation that Kercher was killed over a sex game, Van Sant cites an Italian blogger for putting that notion into the prosecutor’s mind. Van Sant said the blogger claims that she speaks to a dead priest who tells her what happened at crime scenes.
The blogger told the main prosecutor in the Knox trial, Giuliano Minnini, (sic) that this was a satanic sex game and that’s how the theory started, Van Sant said.
Sliming of a prosecutor in this fashion has already been strongly protested against by Amanda Knox’s own defense team.
And the prosecutor in question, one of two (real name: Mignini), many weeks ago made clear that he had NOT listened to the Rome blogger (had locked her up in fact), is NOT especially pushing any particular theory of motive for the crime, is NOT especially central to the continued momentum of the trial – and has actually started a lawsuit against PRECISELY this kind of libel!
Second, consider Mr Van Sant’s remarks about the reporting of the case.
Among the many (actually rather neutral and non-inflammatory) journalists on the case that Mr Van Sant seems intent on sliming is of course Andrea Vogt of the Seattle PI. He all but refers to her by name and it seems rather obvious who he had in mind.
Ms Vogt is the reporter from the Pacific Northwest who is based in Bologna, Italy and who has been covering this case for the Seattle PI for over a year. Many observers have been impressed with her thorough, objective and factual reporting, particularly since the trial phase began.
Anyone who has been following the case knows how non-objective and pro-defense much of the reporting has been reported in the US, and how much fluffy air time has actually been arranged by the family-hired PR firm Marriott and company.
So the particular focus of Mr Van Sant’s criticism is really surprising. After claiming that Italy has the most irresponsible tabloid press on the planet and that local Seattle papers like the Times and the PI can’t afford to send reporters to Italy to cover the story, he explained that they hire “stringers”. Apparently these stringers simply translate articles from the Italian tabloids into English and, via the local newspaper circuit which publishes them, they get recycled and become legitimate news.
Mr Van Sant actually uses the terms “filtered” or “laundered”, as if he were talking about Mafia money being invested in life insurance policies.
The Seattle PI has enough problems without having to deal with this irresponsible and possibly defamatory remark. And Andrea Vogt, who to our knowledge is the only “stringer” working on this case who is filing stories for the PI, has been providing some of the best coverage of this case to US readers.
There are many good reasons for this: Ms Vogt is fluent in Italian and lives in Italy for much of the year; and she is a talented writer and an intelligent reporter. But most important, she has been making the trek from Bologna to Perugia and back, and spending Fridays and Saturdays in the courtroom for hours on end.
She recently wrote a piece on the mood in Seattle for Panorama, an Italian publication. For that article, she interviewed people in Seattle—including friends of Amanda Knox.
I would imagine that as soon as each daylong court session ends, she sits down – like the other serious reporters covering this case – and tries to turn out a fair and accurate report of the day’s event under very tight deadlines. Her reporting for the PI has been excellent and fair.
It is not only unfair, it is also dishonest to imply that Andrea Vogt is translating Italian tabloids and trying to pass it off as original reporting. If this interview with Mr Van Sant is any indication, then CBS viewers tonight may be in for an evening of fiction.
In which case, I think I’ll watch “The Greatest Story Ever Told” or “The Sound of Music” instead. Closer to reality than is CBS….
Posted by Skeptical Bystander on 04/11 at 12:10 PM in
By: Harry Rag on April 11, 2009
at 5:49 pm
Skeptical Bystander is just another one of these self-absorbed know-nothings who automatically assume that anything an American is accused of in a foreign court must be true because we are, of course, he hyper-entitled, smug, superior, disdainful people who have caused pretty kuch every problem that exists in the free world. His facile assumption of inside knowledge and his presumption of Knox’s guilt say a lot more about his hatred of Americans in an international setting than anything logical and pertinent about Amanda Knox. We see this sort of self-flaggelation all the time in American Liberal circles and it’s just as irrational there as it is in Bystander’s hysterical screed. IF Amanda Knox is ever to receive true justice, it will only be after people like this preening queen are disregarded and logic os allowed to rule tha day. Ad it stands now, Bystander is just one more remote speculator, airing his own jaundiced worldview in a feckless attempt to Matter, somehow, any way.
By: Steve Body on April 11, 2009
at 10:52 pm
Skeptical Bystander is Margaret Ganong. She is not a journalist nor a reporter nor a writer but she IS a vicious gossip, lookie loo and Internet Troll. Embarrassingly enough, she is an American.
By: Truth Teller on April 12, 2009
at 4:37 pm
Skeptical Bystander raises serious points. I am impressed. And he or she did not smear anyone.
Van Sant on the other hand is clearly close to libel. And Steve Body is right off the deep end.
By: John Morgan on April 13, 2009
at 7:22 am
“Truth Teller” is Chris Mellas’, (Amanda Knox’s step-father’s) friend and co-worker. He goes by many aliases, but is most often known as “Goofy”.
Here he is again posting personal information about Margaret Ganong aka Skeptical Bystander. She is one of the most knowledgeable followers of this horrific crime and exudes an even and balanced point of view.
He is currently under investigation for this cyber stalking behavior.
Beware. He is a very very disturbed individual and Chris Mellas does nothing to stop him.
By: Justice for Meredith Kercher on April 18, 2009
at 4:05 pm
Her story has changed so much but 48 hours didn’t report about that. They just tried to spin the story so she would look innocent. I do not believe she is. Poor Meredith got stuck in their sick perverted game. Maybe one day the Knox family will be able to come to terms with what they raised.
By: carolyn on April 21, 2009
at 7:10 am
I find the title of this post a little odd, just curious, what questions do you think the 48 hours show actually raised. I have a few of my own:
1) How does Peter Van Sant sleep at night?
2) How much did they pay him to regurgitate those FOA talking points?
3) Do they remember the name of the victim in this case?
4) Why are CBS underestimating the intelligence of their audience?
5) Why are so many people falling for it?
Just a handful of questions, I expect many of you have more.
MR
By: Miss Represented on April 29, 2009
at 11:02 am
The question is who is paying these trolls to continue the defamation campaign against this normal, Seattle college student who had the misfortune to stumble upon a crime scene in a town where the local authorities have deluded themselves into thinking all American girls are sex-crazed, violent sluts just like Sharon Stone’s character in Basic Instinct. The Eurotrash tabloids were so irresponsible they went with this salacious non-sense this crackpot prosecutor put out against Amanda, and when the evidence came back incrimination a known burglar as the lone killer they refused to issue an apology and instead seem to be taking the smear campaign underground to keep doubt in the public about Amanda’s obvious innocence. They must fear when justice is finally done they will be sued out of existence for libel and slander. What they have done to her is the modern day equivalent of medieval blood libel accusations of Jewish people murdering Christian children in bizarre rituals than only the kind of mind who takes alien abduction and 911 conspiracy theories seriously.
By: Nightowl on February 26, 2011
at 5:07 pm
The evidence against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito is overwhelming. They gave completely different accounts of where they were, who they were with and what they were doing on the night of the murder. Neither Knox nor Sollecito have credible alibis despite three attempts each. All the other people who were questioned had one credible alibi that could be verified. Innocent people don’t give multiple conflicting alibis and lie repeatedly to the police.
The DNA didn’t miraculously deposit itself in the most incriminating of places.
An abundant amount of Raffaele Sollecito’s DNA was found on Meredith’s bra clasp. His DNA was identified by two separate DNA tests. Of the 17 loci tested in the sample, Sollecito’s profile matched 17 out of 17.
According to Sollecito’s forensic expert, Professor Vinci, Knox’s DNA was on Meredith’s bra.
Amanda Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of the double DNA knife and a number of independent forensic experts – Dr. Patrizia Stefanoni, Dr. Renato Biondo and Professor Francesca Torricelli – categorically stated that Meredith’s DNA was on the blade. Sollecito knew that Meredith’s DNA was on the blade which is why he twice lied about accidentally pricking her hand whilst cooking.
There were five instances of Knox’s DNA mixed with Meredith’s blood in three different locations in the cottage.
Knox tracked Meredith’s blood into the bathroom, the hallway, her room and Filomena’s room, where the break-in was staged. Knox’s DNA and Meredith’s blood was found mixed together in Filomena’s room, in a bare bloody footprint in the hallway and in three places in the bathroom.
Rudy Guede’s bloody footprints led straight out of Meredith’s room and out of the house. This means that he didn’t stage the break-in in Filomena’s room or go into the blood-spattered bathroom after Meredith had been stabbed.
The bloody footprint on the blue bathmat in the bathroom matched the precise characteristics of Sollecito’s foot, but couldn’t possibly belong to Guede. Knox’s and Sollecito’s bare bloody footprints were revealed by luminol in the hallway.
It’s not a coincidence that the three people – Knox, Sollecito and Guede – who kept telling the police a pack of lies are all implicated by the DNA and forensic evidence.
Amanda Knox voluntarily admitted that she was involved in Meredith’s murder in her handwritten note to the police on 6 November 2007. After she was informed that Sollecito was no longer providing her with an alibi, she stated on at least four separate occasions that she was at the cottage when Meredith was killed. At the trial, Sollecito refused to corroborate Knox’s alibi that she was at his apartment.
Knox accused an innocent man, Diya Lumumba, of murdering Meredith despite the fact she knew he was completely innocent. She didn’t recant her false and malicious allegation against Lumumba the whole time he was in prison. She admitted that it was her fault that Lumumba was in prison in an intercepted conversation with her mother on 10 November 2007.
By: Harry Rag on February 26, 2011
at 6:33 pm
I used to be suggested this blog by means of my cousin. I am not sure whether or not this put up is written via him as no one else recognize such specified about my problem. You are amazing! Thank you!
By: our spa salon on October 6, 2011
at 6:41 am
This post was promotional material sent to me by 48 Hours for me to post.
By: mylifeofcrime on October 6, 2011
at 2:53 pm