Amanda Knox vindicated

Thank God she's coming home. This entire case has been a travesty.

For me, the primary lesson of this outrageous episode concerns a conflict of archetypes. For as long as I can remember, citizens of the United States have either flattered or amused themselves with the belief that Americans are sexually prudish and innocent, especially when compared with Europeans. Europeans (we have long told ourselves) are far freer, far more knowing, far more experimental, far more worldly, far more tolerant, far sexier. Think Mary Pickford in her petticoat versus Sophia Loren in her slip -- Marie Osmond versus Laura Antonelli -- the all-American corn-fed farm girl in pigtails versus the topless countess walking her ocelot in St Tropez.

Those stereotypes remained lodged in our minds before, during and after the sexual revolution. We've told this story to ourselves so often that it comes as a shock to realize that Europeans have a very different narrative lodged in their heads -- a story about sexually rapacious Americans who pose a threat to the virtuous sons and daughters of the homeland.

Amanda was the victim of a psychological (or literary) construct of which she, like most other Americans, was previously unaware. Of the case itself, I can only repeat the words published here on December 4, 2009:

Rudy Guede has already been convicted in the death of Meredith Kercher. Nothing links him to either Knox or Raffaele Sollecito. If he were part of a conspiracy, why would he not lessen his sentence by testifying against the others? To this day, he insists that Knox was not present. (Frankly, the evidence against Guede might not have held up in an American court.)

The case against Knox is laughable. No genuine physical evidence links her to the crime. None. Neither is there any eyewitness testimony against her.

I'll say it again: An American woman has been convicted of murder despite a complete lack of forensic evidence or eyewitness testimony. There is no evidence that more than one person committed the crime. Another person, unconnected to her, has already been convicted.

The entire case rests on the twisted imaginations of the investigators, who formed their bizarre theories early on, and who refused to rethink their presumptions even after Guede came to their attention.

The prosecutor actually put these words into Knox's mouth as she allegedly assailed Kercher:

“You are always behaving like a little saint. Now we will show you. Now we will make you have sex.”

It is ludicrous to presume that any American would talk this way. This piece of dialogue was purely imaginary -- an example of bad screenwriting which should never have been allowed in any courtroom.

Judge Claudia Matteini suggested that Knox and Sollecito had been seeking to "experience extreme sensations, intense sexual relations which break up the monotony of everyday life..."

The judge is obviously a sexual fantasist. Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini (under indictment for misconduct in another case) is another sick fantasist with a history of seeing inane Satanic conspiracies everywhere. This deranged freak actually believes that Amanda Knox was involved in some form of devil worship, even though no evidence indicates that she ever took any interest in any form of occultism, and no evidence links occultism to this crime.

At the very end, the prosecutors seemed to go even madder:

Why are italian lawyers calling amanda knox “satanic” and “lucifer-like” – is it because their evidence has fallen apart?

Defenders for Raffaele Sollecito spent most time rehabbing Amanda Knox’s character after she was called she devil, Nazi, dirty etc. They have alibis until 9:20 p.m. Murder probably happened around 9 p.m. Lawyers say no reason to believe this was group attack, point to Rudy Guede and the grave evidence against him, indicating lone killer.

Ugliest quote of entire trial: ‎”Amanda was muddy on the outside and dirty on the inside. She has two souls – the clean one you see her before you and the other … She is borderline. She likes alcohol, drugs and she likes hot, wild sex.” (By civil attorney Carlo Pacelli, representing falsely accused bar owner Patrick Lumumba, who employed Knox as barmaid.).

The astonishing thing is that Amanda was not (by modern standards) any kind of erotomaniac. She is a studious, ambitious young woman who knows several languages. Alas, she served as a blank screen onto which many Italians projected their sick anti-American fantasies.

It’s official, Amanda Knox is a witch of deception and a Nazi, according to the prosecution. She’s survived three days of insults as well as nonstop pandering to convicted murderer Rudy Guede. How careless were the Italian cops who collected the evidence against Amanda and Raffaele Sollecito? See Injustice in Perugia’s fascinating video.

Many, both inside and outside of the U.S., seem to be under the impression that fundamentalist religious mania exists only in this country, especially in our depraved southern states. But the disease has also made its presence known in Italy. Anyone who has (for example) read Paolo Apolito's book about the bizarre events in Oliveta Citra in 1985 will know that Italy is not immune to outbreaks of mass weirdness. Mignini's thinking was colored by a reactionary subculture every bit as bizarre as anything you'll find in Mississippi.

The vindication of Amanda Knox comes not long after the release of the West Memphis Three. Taken together, these cases demonstrate that Western society is finally starting to understand the dangers of falling back into the brutish irrationality of Medieval thinking. We have come to the edge of the cliff and we are pushing our way back to safety.

Then again...

The continuing popularity of Perry, Bachmann and the Tea Party reminds us that we remain haunted by monsters of the unconscious.