Hi I m Diane Sawyer I hope you will

Hi! I’m Diane Sawyer. I hope you will join me April 30 th for my ABC News Primetime Special. I will be interviewing Amanda Knox, one of the accused killers of Meredith Kercher, an English student, almost six years ago in Perugia, Italy… You were all probably as puzzled as I was, when in December 2011, Barbara Walters declared “This story has a happy ending!” because Amanda Knox and Sollecito were released after the first appeal court reversed their convictions. This story has a happy ending!

However the first appeal acquittal has been annulled by the Supreme Court. Now the couple must repeat their appeal trial; this time in Florence. Meredith Kercher, a beautiful, kind, and talented young woman, will never have the life she deserved to have because it was taken from her in a cruel and brutal manner. While Knox, who has fled Italy, and Sollecito are “happily” promoting multimillion dollar book deals, there is no happy ending for the family and friends of the murder victim.

The Interview Hello viewing audience. I’m Diane Sawyer, and my goal tonight is to convince you that I’m an independent, ethical journalist who doesn’t shy away from trying to get to the bottom of a story. I am not a shill promoting the memoir of accused murderer and convicted felon, Amanda Knox, who was jailed for almost four years in Italy for “calunia”, when she falsely accused her boss of raping and murdering Meredith Kercher. Ms. Knox still in the Italian legal process for that brutal murder. We’ll be back on my interview set after this commercial break. Before we go upstairs to the wardrobe & hairdressing department, I’d like to take a step towards keeping this interview “honest”, by reading the riot act to one of the Knox “men-behind-the-scenes”.

The Interview Marriott’s website describes his firm as being specialized in the use of “a range of tactics such as earned and paid media” … Dear audience, I will work hard as a true journalist today to put some sense into this story, with no influence from the PR firm nor Harper. Collins who has to recover Knox’s $4 million royalties. Goodbye David, let the interview begin. Here’s David Marriott, partner at corporate image consulting firm Gogerty Marriott. I have to admit, it is truly baffling that the parents of an American student accused in Italy of murdering her English housemate had to hire an expensive, American corporate consulting firm like Gogerty Marriott, whose extensive contacts with mainstream American media have helped corporate clients like Boeing, Alaska Airlines, AT&T or T. Boone Pickens. David, first of all I would like to ask you not to influence the content or orientation of my interview with Ms. Knox. Secondly, I would ask you to update your Amanda Knox case study on your website, to reflect Ms. Knox’s worsening legal situation, in spite of the extensive work you have carried out.

We’re back, on set with Amanda Knox, convicted felon and currently accused of murdering Meredith Kercher in Italy in 2007.

Welcome, Amanda, I’ve been waiting for this opportunity to clarify a number of questions relating to the murder of Meredith. My first observation is purely visual: the ABC News hairdressing department does a much better blow-dry than you do. Here’s how you looked on November 2, 2007, when you told Italian police you had just washed and blowdried your hair after they stumbled upon you and Raffaele Sollecito in the door to your Perugian rented home with Meredith’s body locked in her bedroom.

Where’s Marriott’s teleprompter? Talk about this!! Next time, please spin faster, Mr. Marriott! Yes, well, Diane, I do have a rather long neck don’t I?

Let’s get back to the night of the crime: Raffaele’s last official statement regarding that night is that you were absent from his flat from around 9 p. m. until 1 a. m. On the other hand, you had originally said that you were with Raffaele all the time and that he had blood on his hands. Um … it was like … (sob) I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow. You later admitted in your statements on November 6, 2007 that on the night of the crime you weren’t at Raffaele’s but in your own home, hearing Meredith’s chilling screams as a black man killed her. You didn’t do anything to stop the crime or call the police. You may have been either crouched in the kitchen covering your ears or with Raffaele fooling around … … or maybe even worse.

But yourself admitted in court that Mignini wasn’t around when you blurted out something like “It’s him, it’s him” and you falsely accused your bar boss Patrick Lumumba of killing Meredith, all the while admitting your presence in the cottage during the crime. Talk about the satanic obsessed Prosecutor out to get you!! And you did have a translator; I assume you didn’t ask to go to the bathroom. This PR spin about multi-hour questioning includes all the hours you were with police talking to them or waiting to talk with them over several days – many of those hours were shared with other witnesses. In fact, the questioning that lead to your incriminating statement lasted about 2 hours. Gulp … Help! Oh, yeah, that mean Prosecutor Mignini, he was abusive in my interrogation and forced me to imagine – after 53 hours of questioning with no bathroom breaks nor translator – that I was in the cottage during the crime. Probably even Raffaele doesn’t realize that his mind was played with in order to leave me with no alibi. Please! Please don’t tell the readers of my book! They may want their money back, and then how would Marriott get paid off? ? !!

Well, it seems that the PR spinners and book promoters have snuck back in to our studio… Fly swatter!! Talk about the satanic obsessed Prosecutor out to get you!!

I’m glad you brought up Prosecutor Mignini, Ms. Knox. From what I have studied, the basis of your media defense, is that the prosecutor, Mignini, is some sort of rogue element. But this doesn't hold up. There are claims that he abused you in questioning to force your “confession” of being in the cottage when Meredith was murdered, a claim you tried to repeat in court but which you had to acknowledge as being false, because Mignini wasn’t in your questioning when you changed your story and admitted to being at the scene of the crime. This Sawyer lady is abusive! Why doesn’t she offer me a bathroom break? ! There’s a claim that Mignini was satanically obsessed, a claim that pro-Knox PR voices have repeated continuously during the case. This false image suits your supporter, sci-fi thriller novelist Douglas Preston, who relies on an “Evil Mignini” figure as part of his “Monster of Florence” theories and to support future movie income. Preston also accuses Mignini of corruption and abuse of office. That argument no longer exists since the trumped up charges against Mignini have been thrown out. Now Mignini has officially never been accused of abuse of office.

While one can almost understand what’s in it for the “Friends of Amanda” and novelist Preston to paint Prosecutor Mignini in this light, there’s also the troubled Mr. Sfarco/Sforza/Sfarzo. This mystery man from Italy, known as “Frank”, was taken on-board and turned into another FOA poster child abused by a crazed and corrupt prosecutor.

An Italian complaint of domestic abuse filed by a member of “Frank’s” family which resulted in him resisting arrest and biting a police officer, was crafted into a story of an attack by a rogue group of police officers loyal to Prosecutor Mignini!!! and published on the “Committee to Protect Journalists’’ website. ((Diane does a face palm)) This story seriously jeopardizes the respect CPJ has gathered in it's otherwise laudable work.

Not even tyrants like Gaddafi or the ruling Kim dynasty of North Korea have had the honor of the “Committee to Protect Journalists” dedicating two front page photos and critical articles on the main webpage of the CPJ, as they did with this provincial prosecutor in the small Italian town of Perugia. Yet someone pulled the right sort of strings to smear Prosecutor Mignini’s name all over the place during Ms. Knox’s first level trials. “The Committee to Protect Journalists” admitted that they didn’t even try to contact Mignini to obtain a statement regarding the accusations they made against him to insure journalistic balance.

In fact, I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the American Press, to apologize to Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini for the atrocious manner in which mainstream American media and their representative organization have directly swallowed partisan and less-than-the-whole-truth press kits furnished by pro-Knox PR sources. The portrayal of Prosecutor Mignini – with only a couple of exceptions of reporters who have cared to take the time to study him and his cases, and interview him in his language – is an embarrassment to our profession.

But I digress. Amanda, where’s “Frank”, Fo. A’s favorite vicitim of Mignini? He’s the last bullet in the anti-Mignini rhetoric, now that the abusive 53 hour interrogation talking point has been deflated and the now nonexistent Monster of Florence abuse of office charges have disappeared. Um, “Frank” who? Here’s a reminder Tell herneed don’tphoto of you and if you it, a “Frank” at a Vashon know “Frank”last year where you were Island party the blogger. BTW, I the centerpiece, and “Frank”his supposedly pursued by the still have crazed Italian prosecutor – a close second. cellphone from his Hawaii trip You may remember Frank stayed at your mother and stepfather’s house for a few months before he was arrested for domestic abuse in Hawaii and then arrested again on his return to Seattle for similar charges. On a visit to Canada, his elderly host called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police due to “Frank’s” behavior. Since he didn’t show up in court in Seattle in December, he currently has an arrest warrant out. While presumably back in Italy, “Frank” hasn’t bothered to attend his trial there either.

Let’s move on to other issues. There was sufficient evidence to convict you in your first level trial for Meredith’s murder, and many of my viewers are surely interested in specific items of evidence. Let’s talk about The Double DNA Knife. Gulp. This knife was from Sollecito’s kitchen, it was found to contain DNA from both Meredith and you. Unfortunately, there was only enough DNA that with the technology available at the time of the initial police investigation, the test could not be repeated, perhaps reducing its value as evidence The “experts” at the first appeal trial did not do what they were asked to do, which was to attempt to test the knife again, and instead turned in links and references that could be associated with Knox’s own defense criticism of the initial testing.

Gulp. This knife was from Sollecito’s kitchen, it was found to contain DNA from both Meredith and you. Unfortunately, there was only enough DNA that with the technology available at the time of the initial police investigation, the test could not be repeated, perhaps reducing its value as evidence The “experts” at the first appeal trial did not do what they were asked to do, which was to attempt to test the knife again, and instead turned in links and references that could be associated with Knox’s own defense criticism of the initial testing. I’m sure that not only Amanda, but also all our viewing audience will be thankful to know that today the state-of-the-art of DNA testing technology probably will permit retesting of the Double DNA Knife, should the next phase of Knox’s murder trial so require.

Oh, and of course, Ms. Knox, those DNA “experts” in the appeal trial did agree that it would have been impossible for the Double DNA Knife to have become contaminated with your or Meredith’s DNA, given the physical movements of the knife in the investigation and the calendar dates of its testing in Rome. Gulp. While we’re talking about DNA, Ms. Knox, your supporters cry out about Meredith’s bra clasp, where a strong sample of Raffaele’s DNA was detected. They complain that the clasp was not collected from the sealed cottage until a few weeks after the crime, and somehow contamination might have occurred. However, we’re all aware of news stories of criminal cases that have been solved thanks to DNA testing years after the crime happened. Double gulp. Sigh Can I complain that I don’t have a translator?

In any case, were there never any crimes prosecuted before the advent of DNA testing? In this crime, there is substantial evidence beyond the Double DNA Knife and the bra clasp. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson and their real-life counterparts solved serious crime cases long before the helpful introduction of DNA testing

After you say you were with Raffaele and he’s not so sure, he says he received a call on his landline from his father but it does not appear in phone records. You both turned off your phones around the same time that evening, and you say that you both slept in until 10 a. m. the next day – except that the telecom records show your phones were switched on at 6 a. m. , and a shop keeper in Raffaele’s street testified that he saw you in the early morning. Another witness claims to have seen you the night before, around the time Meredith was murdered, in the park, watching the access to the cottage. Other witnesses heard blood curdling screams around the time of the murder. A witness heard more than one person running away from the cottage. What you stated to police in your self-incriminating statements on the night of November 5 is fully supported and extended by other witnesses and facts of evidence.

Marriott!!? ? Dad said you would be here to help Use that great “The best truth you can think of” line Even though I claim to have little memory of what I did on the night of November 1, 2007 – except for that image of blood covering Raffaele’s hands from gutting fish – I also know positively that I did not kill Meredith. As I have said before: “That is the best truth I can think of. ”

The bathroom tap that Amanda The bathmat that Amanda But Amanda, the use of imagination on was bloodied the accused inbloodied due defies the limits of plausible this case to says she believed the part of thought was due to “menstrual issues” of her deniability: When Raffaele heard that the Double DNA “Knife showedof her menstrual issues” positive for you and Meredith, housemates, yet she did the he announced through his prison diary that he remembered cooking with Meredith using that knife, “boogie on, dripping wet when he accidentally pricked her and” apologized … Not a good card player, is he? More imagination at work: When you heard there were footprints detected in various shapes and sizes in the corridor, you added a new detail: after having gone to your house on the cool morning of November 1 st, finding your front door open and thinking that someone had taken out the trash (even though you just passed the trash bins coming in), you left the front door open, went to shower, saw blood on bathroom fixtures, including the sink, and also a footprint in blood on the bathmat but dismissed those as “menstrual issues” of your housemates, had no towel when you finished your supposed shower, and did a “bathmat boogie” naked in the cold with an open front door so you could slide on the menstrual-bloodied bathmat on your clean feet back to your room… momentarily stepping off the bathmat in order to keep balance, and conveniently, have an explanation for barely visible barefoot prints in diluted blood that could potentially be matched to your feet. Yet more imagination at work: you went to dry your hair (having supposedly washed it) in the other bathroom, which allowed you to find co-accused Rudy Guede’s feces deposited there.

Perhaps what’s most curious about the aspects of this case generated by your own statements following the crime, are those related to your family. Your long explanatory email to family and friends shortly after Meredith’s murder would only serve to warn readers that something was amiss. Remember your phone call to your mother before police had been alerted (supposedly)? Oops, you claimed in court that you couldn’t recall placing that strange call, and even your own mother thought it strange that you would wake them up in the middle of the night halfway around the world when nothing yet had been discovered, according to your narrative. That only fuels further doubts about the veracity of that narrative.

I don’t know about you, viewers, but I think that the facts of this case are before me, and are very clear. . . … the spin doctors are going to have a hard time making book sales and subsequent royalties out of the sad, tragic, avoidable, criminal, brutal murder of Meredith Kercher. Maybe once all the murderers are in jail there will be some minimal closure for the Kercher family In that regard, just as Meredith managed to be glimpsed during the book peddling of Raffaele’s tome of falsehoods, I can only ask you to please look into the truth of the case before submitting yourselves to the PR spin meant to position the two persons who are currently co-accused with Rudy Guede of murdering Meredith Kercher.

We’ve seen, Ms. Knox, that in the last few days, your publisher Harper. Collins has decided not to sell your book in the U. K. due to possible libel suits. What specific allegations could you be so unsure of or not hold supporting facts for, that you would decide that your statements are shaky in the U. K. ? Don’t worry, you’re safe in an American television studio, your words here as protected as the words in your book when it is sold in America. Or is Harper. Collins worried not about specific statements, but the overall truth of the whole book? These are questions that she should better ask the ghostwriter.

I don’t want this interview turn into an investigative journalism show, Ms. Knox, but I see that pro-Knox promoter “Bob Graham” – self-described as “the man who knows the Kercher case best” - is selling the idea that there is something new in your book. He makes reference to alleged sexual approaches from a male guard in your Italian jail. Now what was his name? Argonaut? Something like that? Where’s Marriott and his teleprompter when I However, those allegations aren’t new at all. The need him? only thing new is that you name the man. If this allegedly inappropriate behavior had been true, then why, years ago when you were already talking about it and it was being reported in the press, didn’t you make a formal complaint? You also make the “shocking” statement that a female inmate wanted to start a lesbian relationship with you. But really now, what is so shocking about same-sex relationships in a prison? Will book buyers be sufficiently titillated in sufficient numbers for Harper. Collins to be able to offset your royalties?

The reticence of Harper. Collins’ lawyers to not publish your allegations in Europe makes me think of a similar situation, with familiar faces … pro-Knox authors Preston and Spezi wrote their joint volume about the Monster of Florence first in Italian, for the Italian market. In the Italian version of their book, Preston and Spezi say they identify and interview their favored Monster suspect, the object being to show that the official Mo. F investigation – a branch of which Mignini is involved in - is far off course. They demurely give their blue collar worker suspect the pseudonym “Carlo”, and ascribe to him 14 murders – starting when he was 14 years old and serious psycho-sexual problems. In the American version of their book, in addition to including a strange “Afterword” riddled with errors about the Meredith Kercher case and linking it to the Mo. F via Mignini and his supposed occultism tendencies, suspect “Carlo” is named directly and explicitly with his real name!!! There is no real legal nor journalistic evidence in either book that truck driver “Carlo” is the Monster.

Having learned how to get away with publishing the name of an innocent man in a New York Times bestseller as being a good possibility for being the Monster of Florence serial killer, perhaps Preston’s team of 5 lawyers that he crowed proudly about on the pages of the Committee to Protect Journalists should give some hints to Harper. Collins. New and improved U. K. and European Edition Here’s how I see it: you go ahead with the publication of your “tell-all” book in America, naming the guard who you say constantly talked to you about sex, or claiming that you were slapped around in questioning, or that police induced you into having visions that you confused with reality in your “confession”. In the European version of your book, you say that a guard whom you’ll call “Carlo” chatted you up, or that a satanic-obsessed prosecutor whom you’ll call “Gentilo” forced you abusively into not only falsely accusing your boss of murder but also to admitting that you were in the cottage at the time!

Dear viewers, above all, I ask you to separate the facts from the spinners, the people who are selling books or movie rights off of this tragedy, those seeking the limelight or with personal interests in seeing one outcome in this case, and in general, those who peddle a certain version of “the best truth that could be thought of”.

Dear viewers, above all, I ask you to separate the facts from the spinners, the people who are selling books or movie rights off of this tragedy, those seeking the limelight or with personal interests in seeing one outcome in this case, and in general, those who peddle a certain version of “the best truth that could be thought of”.

Dear viewers, above all, I ask you to separate the facts from the spinners, the people who are selling books or movie rights off of this tragedy, those seeking the limelight or with personal interests in seeing one outcome in this case, and in general, those who peddle a certain version of “the best truth that could be thought of”.

Dear viewers, above all, I ask you to separate the facts from the spinners, the people who are selling books or movie rights off of this tragedy, those seeking the limelight or with personal interests in seeing one outcome in this case, and in general, those who peddle a certain version of “the best truth that could be thought of”.

PETER VAN SANT: She`s an innocent woman and I would stake my reputation as a-as a journalist. I have been in this business for a quarter century, she is an innocent woman. CBS Evening News, 5/12/09 (transcript)

Personally, instead of betting my reputation on the guilt or innocence of an ex-convict in another serious crime they are being accused of (and in fact that they have been found guilty of at the first level trial), I think that journalists of the 21 st century should follow tried and traditional journalistic ethics, such as maintaining independence with the persons involved in a story (and their families, PR agencies and book publishers), developing both sides of a story, contrasting facts, and not inserting oneself into the story. Thanks for joining me, valued audience. I hope I met your expectations. I’m Diana Sawyer for this ABC News Special.

Post Script As we discuss, the ongoing legal process in the murder of Meredith Kercher, it’s important to maintain an overall perspective on the case: there were three suspects who were brought to trial on the basis of the same block of evidence that resulted from the investigation. One of the suspects – Perugian Rudy Guede – chose the Italian option of a “fast track” trial, where the case is tried in a few short weeks only on the basis of the investigative report. He was found guilty, with the judges’ sentence basing this conviction on, among other things, Rudy’s actions being in conjunction with third persons, not as a solitary criminal. The two other suspects – Amanda Knox of Seattle and her erstwhile lover of a week, Raffaele Sollecito – decided for a longer, traditional format trial which would allow their lawyers to introduce their own witnesses and well-paid experts. In their first trial they were both found guilty of Meredith’s murder, joining Rudy Guede in prison, despite having the top lawyers in Italy. Following their initial conviction, the first level appeal saw a curious combination of new experts and legal manoeuvring, which got the two sprung from prison, but not out of the legal battle. However, Knox and Sollecito are effectively back to their original condition of being found guilty of murder, given the Supreme Court’s overruling of the Appeals level decision. To help prepare for any final eventuality, I suggest that the suspects’ families read up on the laudable declarations of the family of Raymond Clark following the guilty plea of their son for the murder of Yale student Annie Le. I recommend the following two sites for further information and debate concerning this case: True Justice For Meredith Kercher - Perugia Murder File Any irony or sarcasm which may be encountered in the presentation or our discussions is not meant by any means to trivialise the pain and suffering, and brutal, senseless murder that Meredith experienced, nor to reduce her memory. I can only hope that there will be one single ending to this crime, that justice is served to those responsible for each of the crimes involved in this case. - Kermit (14 April 2013) email: krmt 123@gmail. com