Amanda Knox Innocent
Former University of Washington student Amanda Knox is back in the U.S. after her long ordeal in Italy. The now 24-year old woman was convicted of murdering her flat-mate back in 2007 in Perugia, but that conviction was vacated on appeal earlier this month. Knox spent over 1,000 days in an Italian prison before being set free.
People around the world are expressing their opinions about Knox’s guilt or innocence. But I want to focus on one aspect of this case that is largely being overlooked. Knox was freed because she won her appeal of the murder conviction, which the Italian jurisprudence system automatically allows in these cases. (A second appeal is also allowed if the first is upheld.)
This automatic appeal essentially permits a defendant to receive a second trial once the initial media publicity surrounding the crime (and the resulting pressure on prosecutors) has subsided. It also gives the defendant a chance to investigate certain aspects of the case which may not have been thoroughly addressed at the original trial. In Knox’s case, her attorneys were able to determine that the DNA evidence collected at the crime scene was not as conclusive as previously thought, and the jury subsequently overturned her murder charge.
What would happen if convicted criminals in America had the same right to an automatic appeal?
Civil rights advocates might claim that a significant number of cases would follow the path as Knox’s, with juries given the chance to right the wrongs of the justice system and setting innocent people free. But opponents of such a rule may opine that the automatic appeal would just clog up an already-overcrowded criminal court docket while allowing well-funded criminals to mount a second defense in a retrial in hopes of persuading different jurors that the original verdict was incorrect.
There are good arguments to be made on both sides. But one thing is certain – Amanda Knox and her family are very happy that the Italian justice system gave their daughter a chance to gain her release from prison – and come home to Seattle.