Italian judge rejects defense request for a fair trial

Judge Nencini has denied ALL the new tests requested by the defense, except one minor one. In contrast, he agreed to the prosecution’s request to test only the blade of the knife. Never mind that the blade was likely contaminated, as was shown by two independent forensic scientists in 2011. And who’s going to run the test? Right, the Carabinieri. Hardly independent experts.

If it’s not a railroading, a slap in the face of common sense, of justice, and of the United States of America, what is it?

Update: Vanessa Sollecito, Raffaele’s sister, had served with the Carabinieri for years, poised for a great career, until she was abruptly fired for little else but being Raffaele’s sister. She sued, has lost so far, and plans to appeal to the ECHR. Naturally the Carabinieri must hate the Sollecito family.

Anyway, it’s extremely unlikely that the Carabinieri – in contrast to some of Italy’s universities and private labs – have the facilities for low-template DNA testing (the issue of contamination aside).

General Garofano, a patriarch of the Carabinieri’s forensic service, was a prosecution witness. He later co-wrote an anti-Knox book where he made a few bizarre claims, such as “high RFU peaks imply blood” and “blood decays fast” (fast being a week or two).

One can only wonder if all of Italy’s Carabinieri are as irresponsible/incompetent. To Garofano’s credit, he kept wondering why the police lab had not opened up the handle. If there had been blood on the knife, undoubtedly it would have remained inside the handle.

I can answer that: because the cops knew there was no blood there.

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