Mark Saha's Blog, page 3
June 30, 2019
Rudy Guede enjoys day leave from prison
THE SUN - 29 Jun 2019
Ben Griffiths Nick Pisa
29 Jun 2019, 22:00Updated: 29 Jun 2019, 22:02
SMILE OF MURDERER Meredith Kercher’s smirking killer cycles to work after being granted day release from prison
Guede, 32, has been given a job as a researcher and librarian at a criminology centre in the Italian city of Viterbo.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9402121...
Ben Griffiths Nick Pisa
29 Jun 2019, 22:00Updated: 29 Jun 2019, 22:02
SMILE OF MURDERER Meredith Kercher’s smirking killer cycles to work after being granted day release from prison
Guede, 32, has been given a job as a researcher and librarian at a criminology centre in the Italian city of Viterbo.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9402121...
June 26, 2019
Italy loses appeal to European Court of Human Rights
Yesterday the European Court of Human Rights denied Italy’s appeal that the finding against Italy and for Amanda Knox be referred to a grand jury to be re-examined.
The ECHR finding is now final.
ABC News --
European Court of Human Rights reaffirms that Amanda Knox's rights were violated
By PHOEBE NATANSON ROME — Jun 25, 2019, 3:14 PM – ABC News
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, announced Tuesday that a closed court hearing reaffirmed the court's January decision that Amanda Knox's defense rights had been violated in 2007 during police questioning about the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher.
The court had ruled this January that Italy had to pay approximately $20,000 in damages and legal costs to Knox for failing to provide her with a lawyer or proper translator during hours of police questioning on Nov. 6, 2007, during the initial stages of the investigation into Kercher's murder in Perugia, Italy.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, announced Tuesday that a closed court hearing reaffirmed the court's January decision that Amanda Knox's defense rights had been violated in 2007 during police questioning about the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher.
The court had ruled this January that Italy had to pay approximately $20,000 in damages and legal costs to Knox for failing to provide her with a lawyer or proper translator during hours of police questioning on Nov. 6, 2007, during the initial stages of the investigation into Kercher's murder in Perugia, Italy.
On Monday, a panel of judges at the human rights court reviewed the January ruling and rejected a request from the Italian state that the case be referred to a grand jury to be re-examined.
In rejecting the request, the court made the ruling final, and the Italian state will have to pay Knox damages. The judgment will be transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which supervises the enforcement of European Court judgments. This should end Knox's legal proceedings in Italy.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/...
The ECHR finding is now final.
ABC News --
European Court of Human Rights reaffirms that Amanda Knox's rights were violated
By PHOEBE NATANSON ROME — Jun 25, 2019, 3:14 PM – ABC News
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, announced Tuesday that a closed court hearing reaffirmed the court's January decision that Amanda Knox's defense rights had been violated in 2007 during police questioning about the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher.
The court had ruled this January that Italy had to pay approximately $20,000 in damages and legal costs to Knox for failing to provide her with a lawyer or proper translator during hours of police questioning on Nov. 6, 2007, during the initial stages of the investigation into Kercher's murder in Perugia, Italy.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, announced Tuesday that a closed court hearing reaffirmed the court's January decision that Amanda Knox's defense rights had been violated in 2007 during police questioning about the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher.
The court had ruled this January that Italy had to pay approximately $20,000 in damages and legal costs to Knox for failing to provide her with a lawyer or proper translator during hours of police questioning on Nov. 6, 2007, during the initial stages of the investigation into Kercher's murder in Perugia, Italy.
On Monday, a panel of judges at the human rights court reviewed the January ruling and rejected a request from the Italian state that the case be referred to a grand jury to be re-examined.
In rejecting the request, the court made the ruling final, and the Italian state will have to pay Knox damages. The judgment will be transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which supervises the enforcement of European Court judgments. This should end Knox's legal proceedings in Italy.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/...
June 18, 2019
Should Amanda Knox shut up and go away?
On the 10th anniversary of Meredith Kercher’s murder, Italy’s national public television network (RAI) hosted a 1.5 hour symposium consisting of Knox prosecutors Giuliano Mignini and Manuela Comodi, and two defense attorneys for convicted murderer Rudy Guede. All four said “overwhelming evidence” pointed to the guilt of Amanda Knox, and all felt her Italian supreme court acquittal was somehow “illegal.” Nobody presented an opposition view and there were no critical questions for the participants.
That same year (2017), RAI gave killer Rudy Guede a 2 hour softball interview in which he declared his total innocence. Guede repeated his story that he met Meredith in a bar. She invited him to her place to have sex, and somebody murdered her while he was on the toilet. He quietly stated, in a tight close shot, that he was “101 percent certain” he saw Knox flee the scene. The host did not ask why, when on the run in Germany, he told a friend in a recorded Skype conversation, in a reference to tabloid headlines of the moment, that “Amanda was not there” and “she had nothing to do with it.”
An official for the Institute for Criminal Studies in Viterbo appeared on that show on Rudy’s behalf. He stated that after six years of working with Guede as his rehabilitation officer, he had become convinced the man is “a gentle soul” who “could not hurt a fly.”
The family of Meredith Kercher, speaking from U.K. this month, said they continue to believe Knox killed their daughter. They are hurt and appalled that she is being allowed back into Italy at the invitation of the Italian Innocence Project to address that body in Modena.
Kercher attorney Francesco Maresca voiced shock and disgust that nobody consulted him about whether Knox should be allowed into Italy. Maresca at trial had pursued a civil suit against Knox on behalf of the Kerchers seeking about 4 million dollars compensation. He provided the tabloids with endless lurid slanders about young Knox, for which he and the Kerchers have never apologized.
And Knox’s acquittal has been an economic catastrophe for Perugia. This ancient city, sensitive about tourists who want to see the murder house rather than their cultural attractions, has remodeled the structure and changed its address, to make it difficult for anyone to locate. A common belief among locals is that Knox surely had something to do with the murder and is the cause of their troubles.
Many seem to feel, in light of popular opinion that persists against her in Italy especially but also the U.K. and U.S., it is high time for Knox to shut up and go away. Once the public has embraced a tabloid story, they are unlikely to be swayed by an acquittal.
“We’re … stunned that so many years later there’s still this hatred, this loathing,” said an official at the Modena Innocence Project.
Yet Knox insists upon exercising her right as an ordinary person to stand up to her embittered accusers rather than seek shelter in anonymity. She spoke eloquently, in fluent Italian, in Modena, and received a standing ovation.
WaPo video link with subtitles:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...
That same year (2017), RAI gave killer Rudy Guede a 2 hour softball interview in which he declared his total innocence. Guede repeated his story that he met Meredith in a bar. She invited him to her place to have sex, and somebody murdered her while he was on the toilet. He quietly stated, in a tight close shot, that he was “101 percent certain” he saw Knox flee the scene. The host did not ask why, when on the run in Germany, he told a friend in a recorded Skype conversation, in a reference to tabloid headlines of the moment, that “Amanda was not there” and “she had nothing to do with it.”
An official for the Institute for Criminal Studies in Viterbo appeared on that show on Rudy’s behalf. He stated that after six years of working with Guede as his rehabilitation officer, he had become convinced the man is “a gentle soul” who “could not hurt a fly.”
The family of Meredith Kercher, speaking from U.K. this month, said they continue to believe Knox killed their daughter. They are hurt and appalled that she is being allowed back into Italy at the invitation of the Italian Innocence Project to address that body in Modena.
Kercher attorney Francesco Maresca voiced shock and disgust that nobody consulted him about whether Knox should be allowed into Italy. Maresca at trial had pursued a civil suit against Knox on behalf of the Kerchers seeking about 4 million dollars compensation. He provided the tabloids with endless lurid slanders about young Knox, for which he and the Kerchers have never apologized.
And Knox’s acquittal has been an economic catastrophe for Perugia. This ancient city, sensitive about tourists who want to see the murder house rather than their cultural attractions, has remodeled the structure and changed its address, to make it difficult for anyone to locate. A common belief among locals is that Knox surely had something to do with the murder and is the cause of their troubles.
Many seem to feel, in light of popular opinion that persists against her in Italy especially but also the U.K. and U.S., it is high time for Knox to shut up and go away. Once the public has embraced a tabloid story, they are unlikely to be swayed by an acquittal.
“We’re … stunned that so many years later there’s still this hatred, this loathing,” said an official at the Modena Innocence Project.
Yet Knox insists upon exercising her right as an ordinary person to stand up to her embittered accusers rather than seek shelter in anonymity. She spoke eloquently, in fluent Italian, in Modena, and received a standing ovation.
WaPo video link with subtitles:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...
June 15, 2019
New York Times on Amanda Knox return to Italy
Excerpts --
“We’re still stunned that so many years later there’s still this hatred, this loathing,” Mr. Maimone said.
“This does not absolve the state of having tried me for eight long years, with no real proof and on the basis of an absurd theory, and it does not absolve the media who profited from selling a scandalous story,” she said.
At the end, the audience gave her a standing ovation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/15/wo...
“We’re still stunned that so many years later there’s still this hatred, this loathing,” Mr. Maimone said.
“This does not absolve the state of having tried me for eight long years, with no real proof and on the basis of an absurd theory, and it does not absolve the media who profited from selling a scandalous story,” she said.
At the end, the audience gave her a standing ovation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/15/wo...
June 8, 2019
U.S. Navy and Climate Change
Few people are aware that the Navy has taken climate change seriously for years. I recently came across this 2010 link to the U.S. Navy Climate Change Roadmap. For more recent related news, google “U.S. Navy climate change”.
Excerpt:
“Climate change is a national security challenge with strategic implications for the Navy. Climate change will lead to increased tensions in nations with weak economies and political institutions. While climate change alone is not likely to lead to future conflict, it may be a contributing factor. Climate change is affecting, and will continue to affect, U.S. military installations and access to natural resources worldwide. It will affect the type, scope, and location of future Navy missions.”
https://www.navy.mil/navydata/documen...
Excerpt:
“Climate change is a national security challenge with strategic implications for the Navy. Climate change will lead to increased tensions in nations with weak economies and political institutions. While climate change alone is not likely to lead to future conflict, it may be a contributing factor. Climate change is affecting, and will continue to affect, U.S. military installations and access to natural resources worldwide. It will affect the type, scope, and location of future Navy missions.”
https://www.navy.mil/navydata/documen...
May 9, 2019
Amanda Knox invited to speak in Italy
San Francisco Gate – 8 May 2019 / AP:
The 31-year-old American was invited to attend a conference June 13-15 organized in Modena by the Criminal Chamber of the northern city and the Italy Innocence Project, which seeks to help people who have been convicted of crimes they did not commit.
Knox will be speaking on the role of the media in judicial errors on the last day of the conference.
"The Italy Innocence Project didn't yet exist when I was wrongly convicted in Perugia. I'm honored to accept their invitation to speak to the Italian people at this historic event and return to Italy for the first time," Knox, who is from Seattle, said Tuesday on Twitter.
"We decided to invite her because we believe she is an icon of the mass media process," said Guido Sola, president of the Criminal Chamber, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.
The trials of Knox and Sollecito drew international media attention, with early allegations appearing in Italian media that apparently affected their initial verdicts.
* *
Guido Sola, one of the festival's organizers, told CNN:
"Amanda has been definitively acquitted in court, but in the popular imagination she is still guilty, because she has been the victim of a barbaric media trial."
https://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/art...
The 31-year-old American was invited to attend a conference June 13-15 organized in Modena by the Criminal Chamber of the northern city and the Italy Innocence Project, which seeks to help people who have been convicted of crimes they did not commit.
Knox will be speaking on the role of the media in judicial errors on the last day of the conference.
"The Italy Innocence Project didn't yet exist when I was wrongly convicted in Perugia. I'm honored to accept their invitation to speak to the Italian people at this historic event and return to Italy for the first time," Knox, who is from Seattle, said Tuesday on Twitter.
"We decided to invite her because we believe she is an icon of the mass media process," said Guido Sola, president of the Criminal Chamber, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.
The trials of Knox and Sollecito drew international media attention, with early allegations appearing in Italian media that apparently affected their initial verdicts.
* *
Guido Sola, one of the festival's organizers, told CNN:
"Amanda has been definitively acquitted in court, but in the popular imagination she is still guilty, because she has been the victim of a barbaric media trial."
https://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/art...
April 20, 2019
Opening Lines and Voice in Fiction
Compare The Great Gatsby with The Catcher in the Rye for an example of two novels with strikingly different but distinctive voices. It occurred to me the voice of each has probably contributed much to its endurance as a literary classic.
These thoughts came to mind after reading some comments by Stephen King which I pass along for anyone interested. (This is my good deed for today.)
Stephen King on Openings and Voices:
… for me, a good opening sentence really begins with voice. … People come to books looking for something. But they don't come for the story, or even for the characters. They certainly don't come for the genre. I think readers come for the voice.
With really good books, a powerful sense of voice is established in the first line. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.
How can a writer extend an appealing invitation -- one that's difficult, even, to refuse?
We've all heard the advice writing teachers give: Open a book in the middle of a dramatic or compelling situation, because right away you engage the reader's interest. This is what we call a "hook," and it's true, to a point. This sentence from James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice certainly plunges you into a specific time and place, just as something is happening:
“They threw me off the hay truck about noon.”
Of course, it's a little do-or-die here for the writer. A really bad first line can convince me not to buy a book -- because, god, I've got plenty of books already -- and an unappealing style in the first moments is reason enough to scurry off.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...
These thoughts came to mind after reading some comments by Stephen King which I pass along for anyone interested. (This is my good deed for today.)
Stephen King on Openings and Voices:
… for me, a good opening sentence really begins with voice. … People come to books looking for something. But they don't come for the story, or even for the characters. They certainly don't come for the genre. I think readers come for the voice.
With really good books, a powerful sense of voice is established in the first line. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.
How can a writer extend an appealing invitation -- one that's difficult, even, to refuse?
We've all heard the advice writing teachers give: Open a book in the middle of a dramatic or compelling situation, because right away you engage the reader's interest. This is what we call a "hook," and it's true, to a point. This sentence from James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice certainly plunges you into a specific time and place, just as something is happening:
“They threw me off the hay truck about noon.”
Of course, it's a little do-or-die here for the writer. A really bad first line can convince me not to buy a book -- because, god, I've got plenty of books already -- and an unappealing style in the first moments is reason enough to scurry off.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...
April 5, 2019
Right and Wrong in Fiction
Goodreads has a somewhat peculiar policy, in that they allow an author to rate and review his own book. For a while I resisted this for what seemed to me sound ethical reasons. First, it felt blatantly wrong to boost the ratings of your own book by voting for it. And second, I’ve always felt a story has failed somehow if its author has to explain it. Any work that aspires to artistic merit is a statement that speaks for itself. The public is entitled to think of it whatever they will, because the author has had his say, and it is now their turn. He should not be entitled to further elaborate or defend himself.
Nonetheless, the weakness of human flesh being what it is, I eventually succumbed to temptation. So here is my review:
LOST HORSES – 5 stars
I notice in retrospect that my narrator’s voice in these tales advocates nothing, takes no sides, and passes no judgment upon the characters.
That’s not to say I don’t care, because I know these people extremely well, or like to think I do, and certainly have my opinions about them. But what I think doesn’t matter here, because my purpose was to recreate them artistically, hopefully well enough that the reader is left with something to ponder, and will want to pass his own judgment.
The same goes for issues like horse slaughter. “Wide River” raises some of the moral conundrums of that economic paradox, which is what I wanted to do. But rather than tell readers what they “ought” to think, I simply raise awareness of the issue in passing, during the course of what is essentially a coming of age story.
“Why Men Cheat in August” is likely inspired in part by Eric Rohmer’s French comedy Pauline at the Beach (1983), a depiction of how differently young people and supposedly mature adults see the same world.
“Whiskey Creek” is a stark depiction of the power of alcohol to destroy the moral fabric of a human being. It advocates neither the “disease” nor the “moral failing” theory of alcoholism, yet exploits that dichotomy to play a little trick on the reader. We first see Gus as a reprobate bereft of redeeming qualities, likely causing most to despise and dismiss him as unworthy of a story. Then he is unjustly deprived of his beloved Misty, and we feel whipsawed by an unexpected rush of compassion. The reader is left to work out what is to be made of this conundrum.
Call me old fashioned, but I like to use the omniscient third person voice with no point of view and without prejudice so that a reader is left with something to grapple with personally. That goes against the grain of much contemporary genre fiction in which we expect the author to leave no doubt about what we are supposed to think or how we ought to feel. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the pleasures of sincere genre fiction as much as anyone. But it is good to remember an author has a lot more choices than that; see, e.g., Booth’s The Rhetoric of Fiction (1961).
I’m not a calculating writer and didn’t do any of these things deliberately. The book just came out this way. Looking back, I guess it must have seemed to me the best way to write these stories.
If anyone wants to kick the above literary comments around further, I’m open to discussion on my author’s page.
Nonetheless, the weakness of human flesh being what it is, I eventually succumbed to temptation. So here is my review:
LOST HORSES – 5 stars
I notice in retrospect that my narrator’s voice in these tales advocates nothing, takes no sides, and passes no judgment upon the characters.
That’s not to say I don’t care, because I know these people extremely well, or like to think I do, and certainly have my opinions about them. But what I think doesn’t matter here, because my purpose was to recreate them artistically, hopefully well enough that the reader is left with something to ponder, and will want to pass his own judgment.
The same goes for issues like horse slaughter. “Wide River” raises some of the moral conundrums of that economic paradox, which is what I wanted to do. But rather than tell readers what they “ought” to think, I simply raise awareness of the issue in passing, during the course of what is essentially a coming of age story.
“Why Men Cheat in August” is likely inspired in part by Eric Rohmer’s French comedy Pauline at the Beach (1983), a depiction of how differently young people and supposedly mature adults see the same world.
“Whiskey Creek” is a stark depiction of the power of alcohol to destroy the moral fabric of a human being. It advocates neither the “disease” nor the “moral failing” theory of alcoholism, yet exploits that dichotomy to play a little trick on the reader. We first see Gus as a reprobate bereft of redeeming qualities, likely causing most to despise and dismiss him as unworthy of a story. Then he is unjustly deprived of his beloved Misty, and we feel whipsawed by an unexpected rush of compassion. The reader is left to work out what is to be made of this conundrum.
Call me old fashioned, but I like to use the omniscient third person voice with no point of view and without prejudice so that a reader is left with something to grapple with personally. That goes against the grain of much contemporary genre fiction in which we expect the author to leave no doubt about what we are supposed to think or how we ought to feel. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the pleasures of sincere genre fiction as much as anyone. But it is good to remember an author has a lot more choices than that; see, e.g., Booth’s The Rhetoric of Fiction (1961).
I’m not a calculating writer and didn’t do any of these things deliberately. The book just came out this way. Looking back, I guess it must have seemed to me the best way to write these stories.
If anyone wants to kick the above literary comments around further, I’m open to discussion on my author’s page.
January 29, 2019
January 25, 2019
ECHR rules for Amanda Knox
FINAL JUSTICE FOR AMANDA KNOX
Yesterday the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of Amanda Knox and ordered Italy to pay her 18,000 EURO. Three of the four years she spent in an Italian prison were for her false accusation against Patrick Lumumba. The ECHR ruled that the interrogation which produced that accusation was a violation of her human rights.
While the ECHR cannot overturn her conviction for the offense, Knox can request a revisionist trial in Italy with the evidence obtained by the interrogation omitted; essentially, without the documents she signed as result of an illegal and unrecorded interrogation, the revisionist court would have no choice but to acquit her.
She was acquitted of the murder of roommate Meredith Kercher in 2015, so this is the final step toward total vindication.
From the ECHR press release --
Italy: European court awards €18,000 to Amanda Knox after human rights complaint
Human rights judges in Strasbourg have backed American Amanda Knox in her human rights battle against Italy.
Under Article 41 (just satisfaction), the European Court held that Italy was to pay Knox 10,400 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage and EUR 8,000 for costs and expenses.
Today’s European Court of Human Rights judgment concerned the proceedings which lead to the conviction of Amanda Knox for malicious accusation.
COMPLETE LINK W/ LINK TO PDF DOCUMENTS
http://www.humanrightseurope.org/2019...
Yesterday the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of Amanda Knox and ordered Italy to pay her 18,000 EURO. Three of the four years she spent in an Italian prison were for her false accusation against Patrick Lumumba. The ECHR ruled that the interrogation which produced that accusation was a violation of her human rights.
While the ECHR cannot overturn her conviction for the offense, Knox can request a revisionist trial in Italy with the evidence obtained by the interrogation omitted; essentially, without the documents she signed as result of an illegal and unrecorded interrogation, the revisionist court would have no choice but to acquit her.
She was acquitted of the murder of roommate Meredith Kercher in 2015, so this is the final step toward total vindication.
From the ECHR press release --
Italy: European court awards €18,000 to Amanda Knox after human rights complaint
Human rights judges in Strasbourg have backed American Amanda Knox in her human rights battle against Italy.
Under Article 41 (just satisfaction), the European Court held that Italy was to pay Knox 10,400 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage and EUR 8,000 for costs and expenses.
Today’s European Court of Human Rights judgment concerned the proceedings which lead to the conviction of Amanda Knox for malicious accusation.
COMPLETE LINK W/ LINK TO PDF DOCUMENTS
http://www.humanrightseurope.org/2019...
