The Perugia Court of Appeals in Italy acquitted Amanda Knox and her co-defendan,t Rafaelle Solicit,o of the murder of her former roommate, Meredith Kercher. The prosecution stated they will appeal the verdict to the highest criminal court in Italy, the Court of Cassation. Meanwhile, Knox plans on returning home to Seattle, Washington with her family on Tuesday. The court had two options to acquit: that either there was not evidence to convict her or that she did not commit the crime at all. They chose the latter option. However, they did uphold the conviction on slander against a bar owner whom she had accused of murdering Kercher. The 3-year prison sentence for the slander charge was considered served, as Knox has been imprisoned for four years since the accusation that she murdered her former roommate.
I wonder how much of the original conviction was due to the general prejudice against Americans, and the U.S. in general. I think I'm going to have to research this case to find out what evidence the court based the original guilty verdict on and more about the Italian legal system. My internal sense of justice is outraged when I hear about this kind of situation, but I realize it happens a lot in the U.S. too. And short of some absolute truth-telling device, we never actually know if the defendant is innocent or guilty in the end.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Vladimir Putin: potentially Russian President until 2024?
Vladimir Putin was the Russian president from 2000-2008, then stepped down due to a constitutional prohibition on more than two consecutive four-year terms. During the interlude, he has served as the Prime Minister of Russia. He hand-picked his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, as his political party's nominee for the presidency, who was successfully elected as president. Putin has been chosen as his party's nominee for president in the 2012 election and in turn suggested that Medvedev be his replacement as Prime Minister. Due to a change in the Russian constitution, presidential terms are now six years. If Putin wins the 2012 and 2018 elections, he could serve as president until 2024...
Perhaps its the paranoid American coming out in me, but the idea of one person having that much of a monopoly on the political process makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I'm curious about the process in changing the Russian constitution. Is it as rigorous a process as changing the American constitution? I'm aware that FDR was elected four times to the presidency in the U.S., but this happened during the Great Depression and into World War II. These were very unstable and uncertain times and he represented stability to the American people. Shortly after his death, the American constitution was amended to prohibit anyone from serving as president for more than two terms total, whether consecutive or not. Thoughts?
Perhaps its the paranoid American coming out in me, but the idea of one person having that much of a monopoly on the political process makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I'm curious about the process in changing the Russian constitution. Is it as rigorous a process as changing the American constitution? I'm aware that FDR was elected four times to the presidency in the U.S., but this happened during the Great Depression and into World War II. These were very unstable and uncertain times and he represented stability to the American people. Shortly after his death, the American constitution was amended to prohibit anyone from serving as president for more than two terms total, whether consecutive or not. Thoughts?
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