Claudio pratillo hellmann biography of barack

By NICK PISA FOR MAILONLINE
Updated:

Police and prosecutors were today slammed by a judge for their harsh treatment of Amanda Knox during questioning and for sloppy investigative methods.

Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman was critical of prosecutor Giuliano Mignini for his outlandish theories in the murder case of British student Meredith Kercher, 21, who was found semi naked and with her throat cut.

Miss Knox, 24, and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 27, were initially found guilty of her murder and sexual assault but then sensationally cleared on appeal two months ago.

In his 142 page report Judge Hellman attacked the original 2009 trial - which had seen Miss Knox given a 26 year prison sentence and Mr Sollecito one of 25 years - and prosecutor Mr Mignini saying the verdict had been reached 'with contradictions in logic and facts'.

Judge Hellman noted how in his summing up Mr Mignini - who has been convicted for abuse of office - had said the word 'probably no fewer than 39 times' as he sought frantically to have Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito both convicted.

The report also pointed out how Miss Knox had been subjected to a 'long and arduous' police interrogation, following the murder four years ago in the Italian hilltop town of Perugia, noting that she was a 'foreigner and spoke barely a word of Italian'.

At both trials the court had heard how Miss Knox had told police she was in the house at the time of the murder and had 'covered her ears' as she heard barman Patrick Lumumba murder Meredith.

As a result Mr Lumumba was arrested and spent two weeks in jail before being cleared of any involvement and although Miss Knox was found guilty of slandering him Judge Hellman underlined how she had only name

An Italian judge who was part of the jury that acquitted Amanda Knox said Wednesday that she and her ex-boyfriend were cleared of murder based on the evidence, but the “real truth” could be different.

Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann said in a state TV interview that Knox and Italian Raffaele Sollecito may know what happened in the 2007 slaying of Meredith Kercher, Knox’s British roommate.

In his first public comments since the appeals court verdict Monday, the judge stressed the ruling was the fruit of the “the truth that was created in the trial.”

“But the real truth could be different,” Pratillo Hellmann added. “They could also be responsible, but the proof isn’t there.”

Pratillo Hellmann, the presiding judge, was one of eight jurors in the case.

Knox and Sollecito have vehemently denied wrongdoing in Kercher’s murder. Knox flew home to Seattle on Tuesday, her first full day out of jail since she was arrested a few days after the murder. Sollecito was resting at his hometown in southern Italy, his lawyers said.

Asked who knew the truth about the slaying, Pratillo Hellmann referred to a third defendant, Rudy Guede, who was convicted of Kercher’s murder in a separate trial and is serving a 16-year sentence in Italy.

“Certainly Rudy Guede” knows, he said. “I won’t say he’s the only one to know,” the judge added.

Referring to Knox and Sollecito, who were both convicted of sexual assault and murder in a lower court trial, the judge said that “maybe the two defendants also know” what really happened.

Guede, of the Ivory Coast, has denied wrongdoing but has acknowledged being in the house when Kercher was slain. The court in convicting Guede indicated in its ruling that he committed the murder along with someone else. But it never said who that was.

The judge described Knox and Sollecito as “two kids barely in their 20s, normal, like so many of today’s (youth). Indeed, they were polite, composed, put to the test and matured by this kind of experience.”

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A police forensic chief has dismissed suggestions that evidence crucial to the murder conviction of Amanda Knox had been contaminated.

Patrizia Stefanoni spoke out after two court-appointed experts heavily criticised methods used by her and her colleagues during the original investigation.

The appeal in Perugia, Italy, has heard how vital evidence was not correctly collected and kept, with dirty gloves being and items picked up by hand instead of using tweezers - all breaches of international regulations.

But in a long and detailed testimony, Stefanoni insisted there was no evidence of contamination and that all traces of DNA belonging to Knox, 24, and her co-accused Raffaele Sollecito, 27, were properly identified.

The pair were found guilty of murdering student Meredith Kercher, 21, who was found semi-naked and with her throat cut in her bedroom of the house she shared with Knox and two other women in 2007.

Key to the case is a 30cm kitchen knife found in Sollecito's apartment on which DNA from Knox was said to be on the handle and that of Kercher on the blade.

But the court-appointed experts have said the genetic traces of Kercher are so low they should not be considered as strong enough evidence to convict Knox.

In complex technical language - which at one point led to the judge asking her to simplify her answers - Ms Stefanoni dismissed the claims and insisted the traces of Knox and Kercher were on the blade in sufficient amounts.

Attention also focused on Meredith's bloodied bra clasp which was initially found at the scene but then not gathered by forensic police for six weeks - prompting suggestions of contamination.

Stefanoni said: ''The clasp was found upright after six weeks, yes it had moved but it was found still facing upwards, it had not been kicked or overturned.''

At this point Knox's lawyer Luciano Ghirga shouted out how she could know for sure - but judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman ask

Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann said in a state TV interview that "maybe" the two defendants knew what happened in the 2007 slaying of Meredith Kercher in the flat the two women shared in Perugia, the Umbrian town where they were students.

Hellmann, who was also one of the eight jurors, said "the real truth could be different." But based on trial evidence, the jury acquitted them, he said. In Italy, the presiding judge is part of the jury, along with another judge, and six civilians.

In his first public comments since Knox and her Italian co-defendant, Raffaele Sollecito, were acquitted on Monday night (local time), the judge stressed on state TV that the verdict was the fruit of the "the truth that was created in the trial."

"But the real truth could be different," Pratillo Hellmann added. "They could also be responsible, but the proof isn't there."

"So maybe they know, too, but as far as we (the jury) go, they didn't," he added.

Speaking of Knox and Sollecito, Pratillo Hellmann told the interviewer: "I felt emotion because they are two young people who suffered, justly or unjustly, I repeat, we can never say with certainty."

Knox and Sollecito have vehemently denied wrongdoing in Kercher's murder. Knox flew home to Seattle on Tuesday, her first full day out of jail since she was arrested a few days after the murder. Sollecito was resting at his family home, his lawyers said.

Asked who knew the truth about the slaying, Pratillo Hellmann referred to a third defendant, Rudy Guede, who was convicted of Kercher's murder in a separate trial and is serving a 16-year sentence in Italy.

"Certainly Rudy Guede" knows, he said. "I won't say he's the only one to know," the judge added.

Referring to Knox and Sollecito, who were