Archive for February, 2011

Well, tomorrow on t.v. is the Lifetime made-for-T.V. movie Amanda Knox, Murder on Trial in Italy. The movie seems like it takes a lot of artistic license as it tells the story of the arrest and trial of Amanda Knox.  I have decided that I will watch the movie even though it apparently depicts Amanda Knox brandishing a knife, a notion largely inconsistent with the evidence now on appeal. The movie seems like it tries to please both sides in the case, but both the Knox family and the family of Meredith Kercher despise the film so far. I will watch largely to see the depiction of Giuliano Mignini, the Italian “prosecutor” who is such a disgrace to the profession that it is hard to imagine how Lifetime will portray him in a “fair and balanced” way.  I would hope the movie drums up more interest in Amanda Knox’s case on the part of the American public, but who knows, maybe that is too much to hope for. I guess I am going to keep an open mind when I watch the movie. I am sure that Lifetime will at least approach the case with better intentions that the British press has.  Let me know what you think of the movie. No spoilers though because I will be watching the movie on Pacific time.

Since you have the T.V. on this week, you may also want to check out the new T.V. show The Chicago Code. I watched the pilot free on iTunes, but the show is also available to watch online free at the Fox.com site. I downloaded the show two weeks ago and gave up on it after the first 5 minutes after a corny chase scene.  I was lured back to it after Chicago blogger Mark Draughn kept talking about it.  The show stars Jason Clarke as the cop going after corrupt politicians. (In the past, he played the corrupt politician subject to a police investigation in Brotherhood.)  As a criminal defense lawyer, I usually don’t watch a lot of crime dramas on T.V.  I guess by 5 p.m., I have usually had my fill of that sort of thing. However, this show looks pretty good. Also, I think it is important for lawyers to have some familiarity with this genre because these shows really effect the way jurors look at cases.   On T.V. crime dramas the police are usually a lot rougher physically on suspects than real life, and don’t really stop interrogations just because the suspect has invoked his right to remain silent or his right to a lawyer.  The police on T.V. usually spend more time on investigations, whereas in my practice police hardly ever take the time to even try to dust for fingerprinting.

To see Mark Draughn’s opinions on the show, see here and here. Take the time to see his site. This guy has been a snarky blogger since before I even had an email address.

Americans are really starting to wonder about Italy.  This seemingly mild-mannered NATO ally is the birthplace of the renaissance, and the Roman Republic is a cultural antecedent to all Western democracies.

"About every two minutes a new wave of planes would be over. The motors seemed to grind rather than roar, and to have an angry pulsation like a bee buzzing in blind fury." -- Ernie Pyle

Italian soldiers have fought along side the U.S. in Afghanistan, and the country remains a popular tourist destination for Americans.   The U.S. public just hasn’t had any negative views toward Italy  since well, you know, that whole World War II Mussolini thing.  But now, the American public is just quietly watching with bewilderment as the Italian legal system spins out of control in this whole Amanda Knox fiasco.

I was just dumbfounded last November when Italian prosecutor Giuliano Mignini charged Amanda Knox with slander.  But today the newspapers were filled with the story that Amanda Knox’s parents have been charged with slander.  The news today was that Curt Knox and Edda Mellas have both been charged with the crime of slander in an Italian court for repeating their daughter’s complaints of police mistreatment to a British newspaper.  In November, I addressed Amanda Knox’s slander charge and wrote: “As a lawyer, and a former American prosecutor, I have seen some pretty petty moves pulled by prosecutors.  However, this “slander” charge I think would top them all.”  Little did I know as to what was to come.   The biggest problem I see with this prosecution, is how in the world can you charge someone with slander when they did not profess to have any independent knowledge of the occurrence?  All that Curt Knox and Edda Mellas did was relay complaints that their daughter made about being cuffed in the head by the Italian police during an all-night interrogation.  If the parents are being charged with slander, then why isn’t every newspaper in Europe being charged with slander for reporting the same information?  The reason is because the Italian prosecutors are completely out of control, they do whatever they want, and the Italian justice system is so dysfunctional that it doesn’t seem to have even the most elemental checks and balances that you would expect in any free country.