Mindhunters | Courts

Report From the Jury Room

By Mark Olshaker On April 23, 2013 · 1 Comment

United States Courthouse

Well, I completed my jury service in Federal District Court this past Friday and I did get on a case. I knew I was unlikely to be impanelled for a criminal case – you have to answer questions about your background and I think both sides would be scared of me. “You’d be too much of a loose cannon,” one public defender told me.

But I did get to sit on a weeklong wrongful death case, where I guess both attorneys figured my analytical skills might override their concerns with me asserting myself too strongly in the jury room.

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Knox Revisited: When Theory Trumps Evidence

By John Douglas and Mark Olshaker On April 4, 2013 · 3 Comments

GUILTY INNOCENT INNOCENT

What part of evidence-based jurisprudence do the judges of the Court of Cassation not understand? That is the question left hanging after the Italian high court’s decision to reverse the appeals court’s voiding the murder convictions of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, and ordering a new trial in the 2007 death of Meredith Kercher in a rented home she and Amanda shared as exchange students in Perugia, Italy.

In a protracted trial that alternately riveted, tantalized and titillated much of the world and all of the tabloid media, the beautiful American college girl and her handsome new Italian boyfriend were found guilty of brutally murdering her equally beautiful English flat mate in what has been described by prosecutor Giuliano Mignini both as a Satanic ritual killing and a violent sex orgy gone bad.

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Death for James Holmes?

By John Douglas and Mark Olshaker On April 1, 2013 · 7 Comments

James Holmes

Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler announced today that he will seek the death penalty for James Egan Holmes, accused of the mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater that killed 12 people and left 58 more wounded. According to several reports, Holmes’s defense team offered to have him plead guilty in return for a life sentence with no possibility of parole. Given that this guy seems to be at least something of a nutcase, the question we need to ask is: Is the death penalty an appropriate response if Holmes is tried and found guilty?

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Amanda Knox Releases Statement

By mindhunters On March 26, 2013 · Add Comment

Amanda Knox

Statement issued by Amanda Knox after Italy’s highest criminal court overturned her acquittal in the slaying of her British roommate Meredith Kercher. The statement was issued Tuesday by Knox family spokesman David Marriott.

“It was painful to receive the news that the Italian Supreme Court decided to send my case back for revision when the prosecution’s theory of my involvement in Meredith’s murder has been repeatedly revealed to be completely unfounded and unfair. I believe that any questions as to my innocence must be examined by an objective investigation and a capable prosecution. The prosecution responsible for the many discrepancies in their work must be made to answer for them, for Raffaele’s sake, my sake, and most especially for the sake of Meredith’s family. Our hearts go out to them. No matter what happens, my family and I will face this continuing legal battle as we always have, confident in the truth and with our heads held high in the face of wrongful accusations and unreasonable adversity.”

How Italian Police Attempted to Sink Amanda Knox

By Mark Olshaker On March 26, 2013 · 1 Comment

Bathroom Picture Released by Italian Police

When Italian police released this photo, many in the media and public wondered how an innocent Amanda Knox possibly could have missed a bloody scene this obvious when she entered the bathroom. But the red stains on the sink, cabinet and toilet are not blood, but rather the results fuming for latent fingerprints with cyanoacrylate and a staining reagent.

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