Who is Amanda Knox? Rolling Stone Magazine Article Sets Record Straight.
Ready for some fair press coverage about Amanda Knox? After all, it is not just the Italian and British tabloids that suck. The Lifetime Network’s movie about the trial was pretty bad, and the coverage on the network news is hardly insightful. So check out the new Rolling Stone article about the Knox trial by Nathaniel Rich. The article is entitled: “The Never Ending Nightmare of Amanda Knox.” If you want to pick it up at the news stand, look for the new issue with Katy Perry on the cover.
The article debunks a lot of the myths about Knox, her family, and her personal life. 
The article contains interviews with Knox’s friends who visit her regularly, and share what Knox is thinking and how she is holding up. The people who know Knox described her as a naive kid, with few self-preservation skills or street smarts, that she would talk to strangers, and always assume that people were good and fair. So we see how that could be a problem in the Italian criminal justice system. The reporter obviously spent a lot of time camped out in court, and bumped into Candace Dempsey there last month. As an American lawyer, I found Rich’s observations about the Italian court interesting. He writes: “…[T]here is never order in the court, the lawyers and defendants constantly interrupting the proceedings with groans and catcalls and wild gesticulations, while the press in the gallery yammers away like the kids in the back of the classroom.” Rich doesn’t really set his sites on Giuliano Mignini so much as the evidence in the case as a whole. The reporter does fault the Italian police officers who first arrived at Knox’s apartment. The first officers on the scene did not have much experience, and he compares the investigation to something out of Scooby-Doo. The article contains an interview with Giuliano Mignini, and that probably was not easy to arrange. The article doesn’t mention any questions posed about Mignini’s own criminal conviction, or the frivolous slander charges Mignini has brought against Knox’s parents.
The funny thing about what Mignini says is that many of his opinions about Knox seem to be based on her demeanor, which I find really superficial as I have complained about before.
I am interested in what you think about this article or the case in general. Post your comments below.
Well this is kind of a teaser, I want to read the article now, and it is not online. Are there any bootleg copies of this online anywhere? Before I go look for this magazine on store shelves, does anyone know if this addition is on news stands yet?
O.k., the free version is now online, so I added the free link to this post.
I think Nathaniel Rich isn’t much of an investigative journo and that Knox’s parents are great at PR. I’m not convinced either way, but I think this writer basically thinks “cute girls can’t kill”.
It is obvious to anyone who looks at the facts in this case that it is a railroad job from hell……It has nothing to do with cute girls and everything to do with corrupt prosecutors and police. Amanda and Raffaele are totally innocent! No question about it.
I think the Today Show correspondent, Keith Miller, who has been covering the case, agrees, at least in a blog post on MSNBC’s World Blog in late July. He said he actually told an Italian Newspaper friend in an interview, that he would rather be tried in Cuba! The rest of the post was critical reporting and commentary on the events of the trial. He is one of three reporters I have heard on this case that at least was objective on TV, but leaning towards the prosecution not proving the case in their online reporting. Drew Griffin at CNN was another.
//worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/07/29/7195714-amanda-knox-victim-of-a-crazy-court-system
The fact that the prosecutors had the police go after the scientists that did the review, shows they had something to hide. Even though the experts were not defense experts, but independent experts appointed by the court.
A little jealousy here toward cute girls? If it’s one thing I can’t tolerate in the internet comments re Amanda Knox it is the resentment suggested by women toward Amanda’ appearance. She was 19-23 yr. old during this ordeal – she can’t help her youthful appearance. She was imprisioned, so I doubt she was able to enhance her appearance much. If anything, the experience probably aged her.
Hi Belinda. Thanks for coming by. I think the facts of the Knox case really sell themselves, and not much PR is needed. As to RIch’s piece, I would agree that it is not so much investigative journalism, but it is a nice synopsis from a magazine that is very influential in American culture. He does have some new ideas.
Hello All,
I just want to add that I am also an American woman living in Italy, and have been here for 30+ years. I have also been in court here for over 17 years! I was married to a violent Italian man who ended up sending me to the hospital various times. Even with the hospital certificates describing the injuries received from ‘percosso dal marito” or beaten by spouse,the Judge (Florence courthouse) awarded joint custody of our 2 small sons without any child support. ‘Joint custody” was that the boys lived with their father for 9 months a year for school and I was permitted to see the for 3 months in the summer. Now my sons are both over 20, totally brainwashed and won’t even speak to me, let alone wish me merry Christmas.
I have found the courts here to be COMPLETELY biased, dishonest and downright creepy. All the while my lawyers were accepting bribes from the other side to stall proceedings for years…. and the costs! I lost my house as well as my children and ended up with cancer, and the Florence Civil Court still, after 6 years of no payments (440.00 euro alimony check…he owns 6 apartments,a 24 room Villa and has a real estate agency! If i were Italian it would be 1200.00 per month….)
I don’t believe a fair trail is available in this country. Here only money or publicity talks, plus Americans are notoriously hated.
Sad but true. It’s the sensationalistic aspect of the Amanda Knox case that has the press going to town.They can point a finger at a “American”. I don’t know who is guilty or not, but I do know that there is no limit to how long they(lawyers et..) can drag out a case, destroying lives in the process, and let’s not forget the costs that accrue. I would say shameful, but that’s not part of the Italian mentality.
Why don’t you move back to the United States and get the hell out of there?
Yeah, I lived in Italy for about 6 months, and that was all the time I needed to realize the incredibly ignorant small town minded mentality that is incredibly rampant in that country. Most Italians have good hearts, but they don’t know anything. There was so much ridiculous superstition surrounding Knox and Sollecito including accusations of Satanism with no evidence whatsoever of it (for example, one might make that accusation if they had found satanic symbols or literature, or a history of satanism from the defendants). The people in Perugia might as well have chased them around with torches and pitch forks.
I just heard about this case today on the telly — which I seldom watch. The Sr care worker was over and watching the Dr Conrad Murry trial. I noticed a great deal — I mean a great great deal of discrediting and villifying of the prosecution and police over there in italy on the part of the talking heads. Then I noticed that some black guy spoke up and claimed he was there and wound up getting the wrap for it. (sounds familiar). I became very suspiscious that this is sounding very fishy especially because of the the way the talking heads were really going out of their way in villifying the prosecution, and I got curious as to why. This had the smell of some big money involved here. So I asked the Sr care lady who this girl’s parents were and who their connections were. But she didnt know. As far as bizarre ritual stuff and crazy sex stuff, I thought that that was understandable for todays college age kids having grown up watching Lady Gaga videos and other assorted satanic innuendos in music industry videos. And, ads targeting kids like this one for instance – //www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITU7fQI-eso. So I could see something crazy happening and getting out of hand So, what is going on here — for real? I dont believe the poor naive story.
I live in the uk where the justice system is pretty good.Amongst my friends the picture seems to be that they were guilty,but did not get a fair trial due to the incompetence of the italian authorities and therefore their conviction was unsafe.I feel dissapointed that no one in previous blogs has seen fit to mention the victim and her family
To be honest John, when I was a prosecutor, I used to remind the jurors about the victim, and the victim’s family every chance I got. I would argue that the deceased “still testifies through the physical evidence”, and she is saying to convict, etc etc. But in the end, whether the victim was a great person or a bad person, a good student, a loyal friend, or good at sports or whatever has nothing to do with the whole whodunnit aspect of the case.
Nathaniel Rich’s article begins with an error in the very first sentence, and goes downhill from there. No, “the killer” wasn’t sloppy, the killerS were. Both the Knox/Solecito jury and the Guede jury concluded that there had to have been at least 2 persons involved and all the appeals courts have reached the same conclusion, based on multiple lines of evidence. What follows is equally inaccurate. No, Amanda and her boyfriend did not go outside to wait for the police to arrive. They hadn’t as yet called the police. The police were only called after the 2 postal inspectors came to investigate why the victim’s cellphones were found in a neighbor’s garden.
Very great news aboutAmanda knox, so whats gonna happening next, I want to stay in touch, and can anybody want to tell that any other article like this on internet, i mean anywhere else. I’ll be thankful if anyone can guide me through.