Amanda Knox acquitted of Meredith Kercher’s murder in Italy

[caption id="attachment_9732" align="alignleft" width="262" caption="Amanda Knox"][/caption]

Ernest Dempsey - American exchange student Amanda Knox has been acquitted of murder charges in Perugia, Italy, today, ending the four-year-long ordeal that kept circling in news in three countries all along.

24-year-old Knox had been in prison in Italy along with former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the past 4 years, both of them charged with the brutal murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher. The British student was found bled to death after she was sexually assaulted and stabbed repeatedly, in November 2007, in her flat which Kercher shared with Knox. In December 2009, Knox and Sollecito were convicted with Kercher’s murder, thus initiating the riveting trial that would last four years.
When Knox was announced acquitted of the murder charges in a Perugia court, she almost collapsed, with tears of relief on her face, as reported by ABC News. While Kercher's mother sat still in the courtroom after the verdict, the Knox family was elated. They came out to noise of greetings, mixed with a few voices of condemnation, in the street. Amanda Knox’s younger sister and mother both cried inside the court.

Earlier, Knox’s lawyer told the court that Knox had been "crucified" by the media throughout her trial years with seven books and a movie already produced on her case. The claim of the prosecution to have found Knox’s DNA on the murder weapon, a knife, was countered by the expert opinion that the collection, sorting, and analysis of the DNA was substandard and that it came from bread. The other piece of evidence speaking against Sollecito, i.e. his DNA on Kercher’s bra, was also dismissed by the experts as improperly handled and probably contaminated piece of evidence. Sollecito was also quitted of the murder along with Knox.

NWCN notes that Amanda Knox’s acquittal was made possible by the DNA analysis work initiated by Professor Greg Hampikian of Boise State University. By showing that DNA can undergo “casual transfer” on objects like the knife used in Kercher’s murder, Professor Hampikian’s team showed Knox could be innocent despite the presence of her DNA on the murder weapon.

Having been acquitted of her conviction of murder, which would otherwise have her imprisoned for 26 years, an emotionally overwhelmed Amanda Knox is ready to fly back to her home in Seattle, US, where her friends wept in joy over her release, reports The Telegraph.

With three young people, at the peak of their youth, involved in this real-life mystery, the most interesting and legally important aspect of the tragedy was the manner in which forensic evidence was countered by a more detailed analysis of the DNA remains on the weapon. Historically, this legal trial will be remembered for the “microscopically narrow” escape of a young woman and man from serving lifetime in prison. What does remain is the mystery of who killed Meredith Kercher.

Oregon suspected arson death like others opens door to forensic workfor solving the crime

Klamath
Falls, Oregon - GHN News --Oregon State Police (OSP) troopers and
detectives, with the assistance of the State Fire Marshal's office and
local agencies, are starting an investigation of possible arson murder and will likely use forensics to solve the case.

An unindentified body

was found in a burned single wide mobile home in rural Oregon.  Officials located the trailer and body south of Highway 58 in the Two Rivers North subdivision in Klamath County, Oregon.

The
remains of the deceased adult male have been tentatively identified but
his name and age are not being released pending confirmation with the
medical examiner.

According to OSP Sergeant Mark Crisp, on September 28, 2010 at
approximately 12 noon firefighters from numerous surrounding agencies,
OSP troopers and U.S. Forest Service law enforcement personnel responded
to a reported fire at a single wide mobile home in the Two Rivers North
subdivision on Surveyor Road.  The fire destroyed the residence where a
body was found inside.

This
is the kind of case where careful forensic work is needed and often
used to determine the type of instruments used in setting the blaze and
the crime scene itself documented for presentation as evidence.

Arson
crimes are far more frequent than the public knows.  Annually there are
many cases documented, as those who commit murder and want to hide
their crime believe a fire will destroy the evidence.  In 1979 in a
small English city called Hull,  Bruce George Peter Lee
set fire to a house that killed three children in a spree that included
11 men in a retirement home and others along the way.  He enjoyed not
just the fire but the killing as well and was finally caught.

Then
there are those who just enjoy the setting of fires.  That's how
juveniles for a thrill or firefighters themselves get involved.  When
killing is the object of the arson, it's a whole different matter, of
course.

2010
began with a story in Brooklyn of the death of five people from a
building fire labeled likely to have been arson.  AP reported five people were
killed at the time in a three alarm blaze at 2033 86th Street broke out
at 2:30 a.m., with no suspect identified at the
time.  There have been numerous
incidents reported across the country since, as it is a crime reported
often and said to be inexpensive enough to make killing easier to do and
to hide than other types of murder.  Sometimes arson is used to cover
up some bizarre fact in either the killer or victim's life, like the
arson death of the owner of a bondage club that took place in
July.

But arsonists may think they can get away with the crime, but forensic investigation can often determine the key elements of the crime enough to solve it.  Trained forensic
experts, despite killers' belief in their ability to elude
investigators, are often able to identify the method of arson used as a
way of finding the perpetrator of this type of crime and to determine
some of the specifics of it as it may relate to motive as well as
details of the killing.   Forensic analyzes can be done through
laboratory work on the evidence itself.  This can identify what is
called pour patterns, where the pouring of the accelerant used in the
fire was done.  Forensic photographers can detail the information for
presentation to a jury through a series of pictures that include the
layout of the scene and the orientation of any injured or killed
individuals.

In
this recent Oregon case on Tuesday OSP Criminal Investigations Division
detectives from Klamath Falls have already initiated an investigation of
the suspicious death in the mobile home.  OSP Arson & Explosives
Section detectives and a deputy State Fire Marshal have been assigned to
investigate the cause of the fire.