Judge's Opinion in Amanda Knox Case Will Likely Play Part in Appeal

Seattlepi.com's correspondent in Italy for the Amanda Knox trial(s), Andrea Vogt, has just filed a story on the 427-page ("front and back") judge's opinion, which sheds light on the jury's verdict. Vogt says Judge Giancarlo Massei's document "leaves ample room for a number of criticisms that will likely feature prominently in her upcoming appeal." For her defenders, that day can't come soon enough.

Though the jury came to the conclusion that Knox was involved in the murder, they "disagreed with the murder dynamic that prosecutors put forth," reports Vogt. They believed Guede started the sexual violence and that Knox aided in it to some degree. The forensic evidence against Knox was compelling for the jury.

ABC News says that Massei wrote that Knox "killed her roommate 'without any animosity or feeling of resentment,' and that the grisly homicide was the result of 'casual contingencies.'" That puts the judge in disagreement with the prosecution's theory that Amanda Knox murdered Meredith Kercher because of differing hygienic standards. For Massei, the best explanation is that things got out of hand.

Despite arriving at a substantially different accounting of events, the judge wrote that the prosecution "presents a comprehensive and coherent picture, without holes or inconsistencies."