Mez: Defense Firecracker (3#) -

Meredith Kercher Murder Case -

Grab yer smelling salts, Granny!
The Sacred Chain may have been broken . . .

Arguably, it's not nice to throw a legal firecracker into the courtroom just before ending your case, but that seems to be what Defense did on Saturday. Dramatic? Yes. But it leaves people feeling feeling uneasy and unresolved.

First, Defense DNA expert Sarah Gino challenged the validity of the DNA evidence on the butcher knife. I am not equipped to argue about DNA here. The Court may invite an outside, independent DNA expert to contribute an opinion. Moving on...

Computer expert Antonio D'Ambrosio for the Defense testified that "someone had used the young man's computer, which the defence said might have erased data that could prove his innocence."

Let's unpack this. Defense is making two claims here.

The first allegation is that the Sacred Chain of Custody was broken here. In a murder case, evidence must be secured, sequestered and signed for. It is being alleged that the Sollecito computer was left somehow unsecured and, as a result, it suffered outside interference. That's very bad.

But Defense goes on to make yet a second claim:

"Whoever it was cancelled valuable data that showed
Raffaele was on the computer the night of the murder."

Let's clarify this. There are at least 3
file "cabinets" involved, as far as I know:

-- 1) the Temporary Internet Cache file cabinet,
-- 2) the Browser History Log,
-- 3) and the Connections Log Viewer.

Even if the Temporary Cache of Internet material was overwritten, that operation would not impact the other two cabinets which are entirely separate. Defense's claim that the history of that computer's usage was "cancelled" does not seem credible to me. I'm not a computer whiz, but it looks like double talk to me.

Just short of dripping a bottle of nail polish onto the naked hard drive, how could the other two entirely separate record logs be cancelled, erased or corrupted? Sorry, but I don't buy that. Let's say I'm a bit dubious. I expect that the second claim is going to need some further clarification.

Court will reconvene Oct 9th. We haven't heard final summations yet. Also, Rudy Guede's appeal is due in November with the possibility that he could contribute more information.

:: Andrea Vogt at SPI ::

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