Mindhunters | Amanda Knox

The Disgrace of Italian Justice

By Mark Olshaker On January 31, 2014 · 12 Comments

Amanda Knox & Raffaele Sollecito

Now is not the time to present all of the evidence proving that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are completely innocent in the brutal murder of Meredith Kercher and that Rudy Guede is the sole killer. Now is not the time to use logic and reason to convince the “guilters.” Now is not the time to give the police, investigators, prosecutors, judges and juries the benefit of the doubt as to motives and methods. We’ve tried all of that and it hasn’t worked.

Now is the time to tell it like it is, straight and unvarnished by niceties:

The conviction of Amanda and Raffaele at their retrial in Florence is a scandalous corruption of justice that should wrap the Italian nation in shame.

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Amanda’s Unending Punishment

By John Douglas and Mark Olshaker On January 6, 2014 · 5 Comments

Amanda Knox

When we look back over the topics we’ve covered in the past year, the ongoing murder trials in Italy of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito take the prize for the greatest number of posts. And there is a good reason for that: No other case has provided such a glaring example of what can go wrong with a prosecution, and the horrifying repercussions when it does.

We have reviewed and detailed the seemingly endless mistakes and miscarriages of justice promulgated by the investigators, prosecutors and judges: police assumption of the killer(s) and type of crime before any evidence had been collected; Amanda’s coerced “confession;” nonsensical and changing theories of the case; unprofessional evidence collection; flagrant misinterpretation of the crime scene; complete lack of DNA and other evidence of Amanda and Raffaele’s presence coupled with overwhelming evidence of the actual killer’s; false statements to the media; the so-called murder weapon not fitting the wounds on Meredith Kercher’s body, and on and on and on.

And now one more has surfaced. There are several ways to state it, but essentially, Amanda has been denied the right to mourn.

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Knox-Sollecito Prosecution’s Case: In the Toilet

By Mark Olshaker On November 27, 2013 · 8 Comments

Prosecutor Alessandro Crini

When the story keeps changing, it’s a good bet it isn’t true, whether that story is an explanation for how the cookie jar happened to fall off the kitchen counter or why the United States went into Iraq. And it’s a even better bet that the teller of the story is growing increasingly desperate.

That’s what we’re witnessing in Florence, Italy, as the retrial of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito winds to its creaky close.

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Judges for Justice

By John Douglas and Mark Olshaker On November 4, 2013 · 4 Comments

Judge Mike Heavey

When we were researching, investigating and writing up the cases in Law & Disorder, it was quite an eye-opener to realize how many criminal convictions are flawed by bad evidence, bad science, bad publicity, bad lawyering and bad judging. We know, of course, that no system of justice is perfect, but the number of cases we came across – while still small in terms of percentages – was nonetheless alarming – far more than we could possibly write about.

In Seattle, retired Judge Mike Heavey feels the same way.

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In Memory of Meredith

By Mark Olshaker On November 1, 2013 · 7 Comments

Meredith Kercher December 28, 1985 - November 1, 2007

Meredith Kercher
12/28/1985 – 11/1/2007

Today marks the sixth anniversary of the brutal murder of Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher at the age of 21 in the city of Perugia, Italy. Ironically, her death occurred on a national holiday known as the Day of the Dead.

For the past several years, John Douglas and I have been investigating her murder, and since we concluded definitively that Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were innocent of the crime, we have been writing and speaking out in their defense. Just yesterday, John addressed a press briefing on Capitol Hill, along with Judge Mike Heavey of Seattle and former FBI Special Agent Steve Moore. The day before, I addressed undergraduate and graduate students in the Criminology Department of George Mason University in Virginia.

But as John says, “No matter who hires me or asks me to look at a case, I’m always working for the victim.” In this case, no one hired us, but we take John’s pledge very seriously.

And today is a day to remember Meredith.

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