The Meredith Kercher case

Along with the rest of the world, it seemed, I watched the final minutes of the murder appeal in Perugia with alarm and morbid fascination.

I am alarmed by the apparent injustice of the Italian system which seems to arrive at the right verdict only after many years of judicial review. Four years is an awfully long time to imprison somebody and then decide that they were innocent after all. This has apparently been on almost a fast track.

I have felt for a long time that Amanda Knox along with her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, were innocent and found the tension at the end almost unbearable. The story that was put out about their alleged sex games sounded just too implausible from the start.

The DNA tampering and shoddy investigation has echoes of the Madeline McCain disappearance in Portugal. The consequence: questions left unanswered and thought (if not fact) that somebody might have slipped through the net.

The arrival of Meredith Kercher's mother, brother and sister at the court on the final day appalled me. Their hastily called press conference and statement after the closing statements, the stories of million dollar book deals, lurid detail and the like, was designed by the prosecution to achieve just one thing: to swing the response of the jury away from the evidence back to an opinion based purely on emotion.

The family still hold to the idea - and that is all that is - that a second and possibly a third person was involved. That idea (with no supporting evidence at all) comes from the prosecution. Sadly they have not yet come to terms with that fact and until they do, until there is some other evidence now produced that actually proves this point, there will be no closure for them.

I feel the Italian prosecution service has destroyed more than just the reputations of the innocent parties here - the Kercher family will remain the victims of this appalling murder and seriously botched investigation. Meredith would clearly never have wished for this either. She, her family, the innocent parties (and their families) so wrongly accused and indeed the people of Italy deserve better.


And now we hear how the BBC has uncovered sufficient doubt in the Colin Norris case to almost certainly warrant a re-trial. Norris was convicted of murder as five very elderly and sick, diabetic women died whilst in his care from alleged insulin overdoses. It turns out this is neither an unnatural event nor rare condition in similarly infirm women and has occurred on other shifts in the Leeds Hospital where he worked. 


Another young person wrongly convicted of an awful crime due to shoddy investigation and aggressive "adversarial"  prosecution? 

The tragedy of Tucson

It has been an awful start to the year for the community in Tucson, Arizona. However that has been made worse in my mind by the manner in which it has been reported.

The shooting of the congresswoman and killing of six people has been widely reported around the world. The politician has received the greatest attention followed by the eminent judge - which suggests they are more important than the rest. I have to disagree with that premise and feel that for anyone who supports the weapon carrying amendment to be killed or injured is unfortunate but also quite possibly poetic justice: promote weapons and expect the consequences. I don't condone the act - just recognise the principle of cause and effect.

A child was killed - she, rather than her 9/11 birthday, should be mourned first.

The deranged young man who carried out the shooting is deserving of our prayers and sympathy. His family must be in absolute despair.

We will no doubt hear a great deal about the need for justice in order to avenge these killings. The question that should be upper-most, though, is how to prevent a recurrence. Sadly that will be a call for the death penalty and more guns rather than real help for the vulnerable and mentally ill in our society.