The man expresses regret at failing the girl: ‘If I’d had another chance I would have helped you and I would have been much closer to you. Your image is burnt into my eyes.’
The letter ends with the words: ‘Forgive me.’
Amanda’s entry won third prize, and £90.
18 November 2009
Rudy appeared before an appeal court in an attempt to have his thirty-year jail sentence overturned. Speaking quickly and earnestly – he used no notes and had clearly rehearsed beforehand – Rudy began by dashing any hopes that he was going to confess to the murder.
‘For the last two years people have thought I’m hiding something, but I can’t talk about things I haven’t seen and that didn’t happen to me,’ he said.
He repeated his story about meeting Meredith on the night before the murder and how she agreed to see him again at her home on the evening she was murdered: ‘We started kissing each other until we realised we’d gone too far … We stroked each other’s intimate parts. She asked me if I had a condom and that’s when I realised we’d gone too far as it was only the first time we’d been together.’
He again described how he had gone to the toilet and heard the doorbell. Moments later he heard Meredith quarrelling with Amanda about some missing money, and had rushed out of the bathroom after hearing a scream. But this time he failed to testify that the man armed with a knife whom he saw ‘almost inside Meredith’s room’ could have been Raffaele, as he’d said previously. He did repeat however that he’d seen Amanda’s silhouette as she fled the cottage.
Rudy went on: ‘I didn’t know what to do but I had the clearness of mind to take the towels from the bathroom and try to stop the blood that was coming out of Meredith’s neck. Meredith was dying and she tried to speak. I took her hand. I was in a state of shock. I felt as if I was going mad. There were so many unanswered questions in my head. And I got scared.’
He described running home and added: ‘I’m not hiding anything, I’m not a liar. Even today, if I close my eyes and I think of those moments, everything goes red in front of my eyes.’
He sat down, only to get up again a few minutes later and turn to the Kerchers’ lawyer Maresca. ‘I want the Kercher family to know that I didn’t kill or rape their little girl. I’m not the one who took her life away. The only thing on my conscience, from which no court can absolve me, is not doing all I could to save her life, although I don’t even know if my actions would have saved her. That’s the only thing I can apologise for. Thank you.’
As Rudy addressed him, Maresca stared back at him for a few moments then looked down at his papers.
After the hearing, Maresca was scathing in his dismissal of Rudy’s latest account: ‘He’s lost yet another chance to explain what happened in that cottage.’
For Maresca, Rudy’s apology was too little, too late: ‘If Rudy was telling the truth, why didn’t he run out into the street and stop a car or something to ask for help? He says he was scared? Can you imagine how scared Meredith was when she saw the knife about to stab her in the throat? I just can’t feel any pity for him at all.’
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20 November 2009
Thick fog shrouded the valley below the law courts – only a few cypress-clad hilltops sticking out from it like islands in a grey sea – as Mignini, frowning slightly in concentration, paced up and down the Hall of Frescoes, waiting for the day’s hearing to begin. Today was the day he was to make his closing argument – his last chance to persuade the court of his case.
‘How do you feel this morning?’ a journalist asked him.
‘Fine, fine, I slept well. I just have a bit of a headache,’ Mignini replied.
‘Feeling nervous?’
The prosecutor smiled. ‘No. My worry is that there isn’t enough light in here. I’m long-sighted so I’ve brought a little electric torch with me in case I can’t read my papers. I’ve got a lot to get through.’
Mignini had left nothing to chance, or improvisation. He had spent long afternoons in his office, his desk cluttered with the files of the investigation and transcripts of the trial, painstakingly typing up everything he intended to say in court.
Just before 10 a.m., Mignini cleared his throat huskily three times and started his summing-up. As he did so Amanda – as if the sound of his voice had given her a sudden chill – slipped on over her beige pullover a red hooded sweatshirt with a photograph of The Beatles on the back. She then sat still, staring at Mignini and occasionally taking some notes. Raffaele, in a bright fuchsia-coloured sweater, swung his chair from side to side.
Mignini read his text over half-moon glasses – he didn’t need the torch he’d brought with him. He called Meredith by her nickname – ‘Mez’ – and spoke in a tone that was mostly slow and calm, even chatty at times.
Mignini began by demolishing the claim that Meredith had been killed by a lone burglar – in other words, Rudy. No burglar would have chosen Filomena’s window to break into the cottage; it was too visible from the road, and besides it was too high to reach from the ground. Nothing was stolen, and the glass from the shattered window was found lying on top of the jumble of clothes on the floor of Filomena’s room, meaning it had been broken after the clothes were thrown around. The truth was that Amanda and Raffaele had faked the burglary to ward off suspicion.
‘The aim was to make it look as if an outsider had broken in and to divert suspicion from those who had the keys to the flat that night … The key to the mystery is in Filomena’s room,’ he said.
He poured scorn on Amanda’s claim that she took a shower when she went back to the cottage despite finding the front door open and blood in the bathroom.
‘Is this normal?’ Mignini asked, raising his voice and waving the papers in his hands. ‘Why would anyone do that?’
Drugs had undoubtedly had their part to play in the murder. Both Amanda and Raffaele had smoked hashish that evening. And, according to Amanda, Raffaele had once confided in her that he had in the past taken cocaine and acid. Cocaine, Mignini said, could cause aggressiveness – together with paranoia, in extreme cases – followed, in the ‘down’ phase, by depression. But acid or hallucinogenic drugs could cause, particularly in young and psychologically immature individuals, ‘lasting and permanent psychoses’; Amanda had also said that Raffaele suffered from depression. And Rudy had also taken drugs in the past, including cocaine.
It was likely, Mignini argued, that Amanda had met Rudy shortly after 8 p.m. on her way home on the night of the murder; she may have arranged to see him at the cottage later, and that he would bring drugs with him.
The tramp Curatolo – one of the many witnesses whose testimony Mignini related in detail even though, he charged, the defence had tried to ‘demonise’ them – had seen Amanda and Raffaele together in Piazza Grimana near the cottage for the first time between 9.30 and 10 p.m. The couple left the square between 11 and 11.30 p.m. and arrived at the cottage, with Rudy, soon afterwards.
The judges and jurors kept their eyes riveted on Mignini.
Shortly after a lunch break, the prosecutor gave the court a new reconstruction of how Meredith had died. He was careful to point out that nobody knew for certain how events spiralled into sexual abuse and murder. Nevertheless, the reconstruction was based on examination of Meredith’s wounds and bruises, on forensic evidence such as Amanda and Meredith’s DNA on the kitchen knife, and Raffaele and Rudy’s DNA on Meredith’s bra, and on studies such as the blood-splatter analysis on the cupboard in Meredith’s room. Based also on the new testimony at the trial of witnesses who heard a scream on the night of the murder and expert consultants, it was much more detailed than the one he’d given another court at the preliminary hearings just over a year earlier.
When Amanda, Raffaele and Rudy entered the cottage, Mignini hypothesised, Meredith may have been stretched out on her bed, working on an essay she had to hand in soon. Meredith was probably annoyed to see that although it was so late, Amanda had brought home not only Raffaele bu
t also Rudy, and told her so; she may also have reprimanded Amanda about some money that had gone missing.
Amanda, Raffaele and Rudy were ‘under the influence of drugs and, probably, of alcohol too,’ Mignini continued. Amanda had been nurturing hatred for Meredith for some time and this evening – the first on which the two were the only flatmates in the cottage – was for Amanda ‘an opportunity to take revenge on this English girl who was too serious and too “quiet” for her liking … on that “simpering” girl.’
Rudy asked to use the bathroom, while Amanda, with Raffaele next to her, quarrelled ever more sharply in Meredith’s room. Suddenly, as the three stood near the cupboard, Amanda reached out and banged Meredith’s head against the wall, while Raffaele, standing on Amanda’s left, pulled her hair in one hand and grabbed her right arm in the other.
As Mignini described Meredith’s last moments, Amanda, who had until then been staring almost fixedly at him, bowed her head and started crying noiselessly, her cheeks flushed. It was the first time in the eleven-month trial that she cried in court.
The only movements she made were to quickly, furtively wipe her eyes and nose. Her lawyer Ghirga patted her briefly on the shoulder. The female guard standing behind her bent forward, apparently asking her if she needed anything.
Raffaele, emotionless, leafed slowly through the closing argument prepared by one of his lawyers. Amanda continued to cry.
Two of the jurors, shocked by the scene Mignini described, were staring at him, their hands covering their mouths. Oblivious to Amanda’s tears, and looking only at the judges and the jurors, the prosecutor continued. Again and again, he said, Amanda banged Meredith’s head against the wall near the window. Her fingers left bruises around Meredith’s nose and under her chin.
Rudy returned from the bathroom and joined in the assault – ‘there’s a competition between him and Raffaele to please Amanda … Rudy does all he can to win Amanda’s approval,’ Mignini said.
Meredith fell to the floor in front of the cupboard, her head towards the window and her feet towards the bed. Amanda was on her right, Raffaele on her left, and Rudy facing her.
‘By now it’s an uncontrolled crescendo of violence and a sexual “game”. The three tried to undress Mez, and slipped off her jeans … Amanda had pulled out the kitchen knife … Rudy sexually abused Mez with his fingers. She tried to defend herself, suffering wounds to her right hand,’ Mignini said.
It was easy to imagine, Mignini continued, that Amanda was so angry with Meredith for criticising her uninhibited attitude to sex that she insulted her flatmate and perhaps shouted at her: ‘You acted the goody-goody so much, now we’re going to show you. Now you’re going to be forced to have sex!’
With Meredith on her knees, facing the cupboard, Raffaele used his knife to cut off her bra. Like Amanda, Raffaele also used his knife to threaten and wound Meredith.
By now it had become clear to the attackers that Meredith would not yield to sexual violence; ‘at that point, the “game” had to come to an end,’ Mignini said. Amanda tried to strangle Meredith, and Raffaele stabbed her once in the neck, then a second time. Realising the violence was unstoppable and that the three were like ‘frenzied furies’, Meredith gave ‘that terrible and desperate scream’ heard by two neighbours, the elderly Capezzali and the schoolteacher Monacchia. Mignini raised his voice when he reminded the court that Capezzali had said she thought she was in ‘a house of horrors’.
Mignini lifted his right hand as if holding the kitchen knife. It was after the scream, he said, that Amanda stabbed Meredith in the throat, inflicting the deepest – and fatal – wound.
Rudy went to the bathroom to fetch some towels to stop the blood; Amanda also went to the bathroom where she left traces of her blood mixed with Meredith’s. Amanda and Raffaele then grabbed Meredith’s mobile phones and fled. Mignini estimated the time of death at between 11.20 p.m. and midnight.
Sitting practically immobile with her head bowed, Amanda was still crying. The guard behind her bent forward to speak to her a second and third time but Amanda just shook her head.
Soon afterwards, Amanda whispered to Ghirga: ‘It’s not right, it’s not true.’
She told Ghirga that she wanted to get up and tell the court that Meredith was her friend and that she’d never had anything to do with Rudy. But she then told him she didn’t have the strength, and said she wanted to leave the courtroom and go back to jail.
Ghirga talked gently to her and squeezed her hand; he persuaded her to stay and Amanda soon stopped crying.
In the small hours of the night, Mignini continued, Amanda and Raffaele returned to the cottage. Amanda covered the body with the quilt. She and Raffaele cleaned up as best they could, mopping the floor to remove traces of blood, then they staged the fake burglary in Filomena’s room.
Later, Raffaele told the police that nothing had been stolen. ‘How could Raffaele have known with such certainty that nothing had been taken from Filomena’s room, long before she found out and told the police, if it wasn’t Raffaele and Amanda who staged the burglary?’ Mignini asked.
There was a similar reason for Amanda saying shortly after the murder that Meredith’s body was ‘inside the cupboard’. Mignini explained: ‘Only someone who was at the scene at the moment of the crime could have “placed” the victim inside the cupboard. “Inside the cupboard” mustn’t be taken literally; it meant the victim was in front of the cupboard when she received the fatal blow.’ When the body was discovered by the police, it had been shifted a few feet away, by the bed.
Amanda had accused the police of pressuring her into accusing Patrick of killing Meredith, but as her own testimony had made clear, they had never done anything of the kind; they had only asked her about a text message she had sent him. At no time had they ‘suggested’ his name to her.
‘Amanda knowingly accused an innocent man … Amanda didn’t lift a finger to clear him while he languished in jail – neither her nor her mother, whom she’d confided in about the accusation being false. And as luck would have it, she’d accused a coloured man – as Rudy is,’ Mignini said.
Mignini ended his closing argument after seven and a half hours.
As Judge Massei ordered a break, Amanda hugged one of her female lawyers, and rested her head on her breast for a moment. She then walked out of the courtroom, her cheeks flushed and her eyes red and swollen. That day, her family told the media that they had bought a ticket for Amanda’s return home, confident that she would be acquitted.
‘She knows she’s innocent. We know she’s innocent … Hopefully we’ll get to bring her back before Christmas,’ her father Curt said.
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21 November 2009
The day after Mignini had described how the prosecution believed Meredith died, his colleague Comodi requested permission to screen an animated film reconstructing the murder and made with digital imaging. Amanda’s lawyers protested that the film would be sensationalist and an unfair influence on the court but the judges and jurors gave her permission to go ahead.
The film was Comodi’s idea. At first she simply wanted to demonstrate that there was plenty of space in Meredith’s room for the victim and three killers – the defence had argued it was too small for more than one attacker. But when she realised the film’s potential, she decided to show the entire reconstruction. ‘It’s one thing to hear a reconstruction, and it’s another to actually see it,’ she told Mignini. ‘For lots of people, what they see on TV exists; what they don’t see on TV doesn’t exist.’ She instructed the production company making the film to base it solely on the evidence, showing only what was in the case files.
With lights dimmed, a crowded courtroom watched in tense silence as the twenty-minute film showed figures resembling Amanda, Raffaele and Rudy entering the cottage, the assault that followed and the murder, with the scene shown from different angles. Graphic photographs of the wounds on Meredith’s face and neck, and the bruises on her body appeared alongside the im
ages. When the fatal stab wound was inflicted, the screen turned red.
Other scenes showed Amanda and Raffaele return to the cottage, take their shoes off and, after fetching a lamp from Amanda’s room, stripping Meredith of some of her clothes, placing the quilt over her and then cleaning part of the flat with a mop. The film ended with the staging of the burglary, and Amanda and Raffaele standing outside the cottage while the recording of his calls to the police were played to the courtroom. Amanda, her chair turned away from the screen, never even glanced at the film; Raffaele watched it all attentively.
Moments after the sound of Raffaele’s voice had faded away, and with many in the courtroom still shaken by the film, Mignini rose and began his final request for the sentencing of the accused. Amanda took a deep breath as he started to speak.
The prosecutor began with a devastating description of the characters of Amanda and Raffaele. Amanda was a narcissist, he said, who nurtured anger and was unusually aggressive. She manipulated people, indulging in theatricals and in transgressive behaviour. She had little empathy for others, suffered from ‘emotional anaesthesia’, and had a tendency to dominate relationships in order to satisfy her immediate needs. She was quick to dislike those who didn’t share her opinions, and had a deep disregard for the dictates of authority.
As for Raffaele, he was remarkably emotionless and dependent on others. ‘He has never shown any regret, he’s always been impassive and ice-cold,’ Mignini said.
But the prosecutor did have something positive to say about Rudy: ‘He at least showed a flicker of pity. He stayed on, he tried to stop the blood from Mez’s wounds and he didn’t slander anyone,’ Mignini said.
As he spoke, Amanda scribbled on a sheet of paper which she then showed her lawyers – ‘Why does he say this about me?’ she wrote. ‘He doesn’t know me!’ she added, and then: ‘How can he think I did this?’
A Death in Italy: The Definitive Account of the Amanda Knox Case Page 33
