Amanda Accuser Couldnt Read Own Accusations - Seattle Post Intelligencer (blog)

Rudy Guede, Amanda Knox accuser. He came, he saw, he didn't exactly conquer the court.

By Candace Dempsey, author of MURDER IN ITALY, the true story of Amanda Knox. Best True Crime Book 2010 Editor's, Reader's Choice awards. Library Journal Bestseller.

Rudy Guede, Amanda Knox's chief accuser, was forced at last to speak in open court today. Sort of. He's the only person in the world who claims that he can place Knox and Raffaele Sollecito at the murder scene in 2007, when Knox's British roommate was slashed to death–a crime for which Rudy has already been convicted.

Rudy had a chance to say, loud and clear:  "I am innocent." But he didn't. He didn't even do a good job of implicating Amanda and Raffaele.

Instead of sealing the deal for the prosecution,  Rudy offered no new evidence. He  left the fate of this case hanging on the DNA report that the court's independent witnesses will file on Wednesday.  An outcome that Italy's Nazione newspaper had predicted.

Nor did Knox and Sollecito,  convicted of the murder in a separate trial, finally get a chance (if only through their lawyers), to defend themselves against Rudy's accusations. Instead, the judge allowed them to make spontaneous statements, but only after Rudy left the court. All of this was captured on camera (see Umbria24?s video below).

Rudy was expected to strike out at the defense witnesses who testified last week. Prisoners one and all, they claimed he had confided in them–or in another prisoner–that Amanda and Raffaele were innocent. His accusers ranged from a convicted child killer to a mobster snitch.

Bizarrely, instead of explaining himself, Rudy relied on a handwritten letter he'd sent to the court beforehand, already leaked to the press. Even more bizarrely, he claimed that he could not read his own handwriting–a task that Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini magically achieved when he read the letter outloud.

Highlights:

*Accusations against me? "Baseless gossip."

*My jailhouse accusers. "Pigs."

*Why does child killer Mario Alessi claim that Rudy told him the two college students were innocent. "Purely and simply the ravings of a sick and twisted mind."

After that, Rudy Guede slipped out of the courtroom and back to prison, where he will be confined for the next 16 years.

Stayed tuned for Wednesday, when the experts' DNA reports will be leaked, no doubt, as soon as they're deposited in court.

Umbria24 captured the entire Rudy Guede questioning on tape. Amanda and Raffaele also speak out.


ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas has an excellent wrap-up on the Amanda Knox case and today's developments. She's heading to Perugia in July, she says.

MURDER IN ITALY, my book on the spell-binding Amanda Knox case, is a Library Journal Bestseller. Winner of Best True Crime 2010 Editor's Choice and Reader's Choice awards. Called "a real-life murder mystery as terrifying and compelling as fiction," it's built on diary excerpts, wiretaps, court scenes, trial transcripts, first-hand experience and interviews with key players for all sides.

MURDER IN ITALY is online at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound and bookstores. It's also a Kindle & ebook. I'll blog about the Knox case until the final appeal.

I invite you to comment on MURDER IN ITALY'S Facebook.