Amanda Knox Appeals Trial Resumes, Prosecution's Star Witness Discredited?

Last Saturday, an Italian appeals court heard six witnesses summoned by lawyers for Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito. The defense is attempting to discredit Antonio 'Toto' Curatolo, a homeless man who testified for the prosecution during the murder trial. Curatolo claims he remembers seeing Amanda and Raffaele near the scene of the crime - the flat shared by Amanda and Meredith - late on the evening of Meredith's murder. Curatolo is the only witness who has been able to visually contradict Amanda and Raffaele's claim that they spent the entire evening at Raffaele's flat.

Curatolo alleges that he saw the pair on the night of Thursday, November 1, 2007, as he remembers seeing the buses that drive students to the disco that evening and seeing police and an ambulance by the cottage the following morning. The defense says, nuh-uh, November 1 was an Italian bank holiday: the discos were closed and no buses were running that night. Witnesses from the bus company and public relations representatives for nightclubs have now been brought in to testify that no services were running on the night in question. From Perugia Shock:

It’s really a crime convening discotheque people at 9 o’clock in the morning, nearly the hour in which they usually go to sleep... Two disco PRs showed up with big circles under their eyes and stuttering through their testimony. They appeared quite confused, but they remembered without any doubt to have not used buses on the night of November 1 2007, since it was the day after Halloween, and big discotheques, that use buses to bring people in, were closed.

...The bus drivers confirmed that they didn’t send any bus that night. The director of SIAE (the Authors and Publishers Association that collects the copyrights for the music played in clubs) confirmed that as well. For all he knew (and he knows very well), all the big discotheques were closed that night.

Amanda's lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, says this testimony "removes the two from the scene of the crime." But the prosecution asserts there may be other shuttle bus services and other discos whose have not been heard. "If ever there is testimony that is completely useless — I don't want to say counterproductive — this is it," prosecutor Manuela Comodi said. Francesco Maresca, a lawyer for the Kercher family, told reporters, "I remain convinced of the reliability of this witness."

The appeals trial has resumed after nearly a break of two months, during which we saw the ill-timed and error-ridden premiere of the "Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy" Lifetime movie. Curatolo is expected to take the witness stand again when the appeals trial reconvenes on March 26.

Meanwhile, two new books claiming the wrongful convictions of Amanda and Raffaele have been released: "The Monster of Perugia: The Framing of Amanda Knox" by Dr. Mark Waterbury and "Injustice in Perugia" by Bruce Fisher. Reviews on both books to be posted soon.

In other news, Friends of Amanda are planning a fundraiser for the Knox Defense Fund. The "Bowling for Amanda Knox" event will be held at West Seattle Bowl on March 20; $125 will cover the cost of one lane and shoe rentals for up to six people.