Applying Ethics on Amanda Knoxs Memoir - Research Paper Example

? Applying Ethics on Amanda Knox’s Memoir Introduction Amanda Knox memoir involves the execution processes of Amanda over the death of a British student, Meredith Kercher. The case had been exposed to a lot of un-procedural hurdles and the whole process of interdicting Amanda and other suspects like Guede was not based on the criminal ethics. From the investigations of the case to the case hearing and judgment process which was interrupted, the police and the investigators seem to have ignored the candid fact about the cause of the death, and did not collect all the evidences to prove that the suspects were guilty of the murder charge. So much of the information was left untouched and the investigations were hurriedly handled (Bosman, 2013). The investigation process of the case was harsh and time bound. The criminal backgrounds of Amanda, Guede, Patrick and Raffaele were not traced so that they could be source of the possibility of linking them with the murder charge. As the ethical dispensation of any murder case would have it, the tremor of the link with a murder case would torment the feelings of an innocent person (Bosman, 2013). The implication that the situations could bumper into the person’s mind, and alter the information due to the need to relieve her was never considered. This is one of the instances in the case and the proceedings that justify the case was not fairly and ethically addressed and handled. The investigation of the case In the process of acquiring the data on the purported evidence that linked Amanda and the others to the case of murder, much of the investigative processes and procedures were left unrevealed. It could be true that Guede was at the scene where the British student was killed. This is because they had planned to meet at the restaurant, and the two had been seen to be in a social affair. However, this could be disputed by noting that being at a murder scene does not officially link one to being a criminal. The police ought to have investigated deeper into the matter, by letting him record a statement about the case and be left to roam. The immediate interdiction of a suspect causes more harm to the person, the reputation earned in years and the tremor causes more psychological arrest within oneself. During the interrogation by the police, she claims that the police made an attempt to convince her to accept the charges, and even beat her at the back of her head (Bosman, 2013). In the investigations, Guede was found to be escaping from the scene, but he got tangible reasons to overturn the perceptive reasoning of the police. Being that he was a black man and racism was in the core of every system in Italy, his conscience could not let him stay at the scene of such a prime crime. Philosophically, there are reasons that expose the urgency in the action one does in a criminal case. In a sober mind, none could wait and be lynched by the guilt of being a murder. Moving away from the scene was in a way appropriate for the sense of safety as well as having a direct view of the suspect trying to hide from the authorities. These two factors may determine the Guede’s action to run away. As well, this factor too was not taken into consideration by the investigative officers (Brygel, 2011). During the case hearing, the Judges were found to have refuted part of the evidences provided by the lawyers of the suspects. From the Court of Appeal directions to the judges, it is clear that in the previous court sessions; a lot of evidences were left and were not revealed to the court for they might have changed the profile of the case. Amanda being an American and Guede an Ivorian, it was apparent that the court and the entire prosecution process were predetermined to make the case be of a certain objective. The differences in the ethnicity of the people in a criminal case should not be used to implicate and determine the fate of the suspects and the prosecutors. The justice systems in every country should be based on rational dispensation of the truth behind the matter but not on negative ethnicity (Brygel, 2011). Amanda and her Italian boyfriend were accused of killing the 21-year old British student who was her roommate. She says that at the time Meredith was killed, she was in the bathroom. All the innocence in her could not be realized by the law enforcers since she was taken to the cells and the statements that her employer Patrick recorded against her were some of the reasons she was accused of guilty of the charge. Her employer had a negative attitude towards her for she stopped attending to his clients and customers immediately her roommate died. Her absence from the bar caused losses to the premises. This generated detestation between her and her employer, Patrick (Muller, 2013). She was the epitome and the cause of many customers who entered the premises. She flirted around with the customers and this ability to make impressive moods to the customers was the reason she was key to the progress of the bar. Her failure to explain to her employer the cause of her sudden absence in the bar, could lead to a negative statement about her reputation by her employer (Bosman, 2013). She felt Patrick hated her so much that he could not build her a platform to prosper. This was a situation that was not scrutinized too, while the rationality in any criminal proceeding, more so for the prime crimes like murder, should have provided for this. The investigative unit ought to have been very devoted in all the processes they carried (International Business, 2012). The general ethical sense in the investigations of the case The investigations of any case amid the issue of death should be carried out in an open manner. All the proceedings should be open and truthful to the persons involved, and the entire criminal justice system. The case investigation unit should realize the need to help in realization of justice to both the accused and the victim. Justice is met in a two way dimension; this implies that both the criminal or the accused and the victim should find justice. There are possibilities of the police being corrupt or rather biased in the sense of the rate at which the case was investigated, revealed and the prosecution rushed to inflict the suspects. Any crime report should be clear and the results of the investigations explained to the stakeholders in the crime (Muller, 2013). The criminal ethics and the philosophical framework of the investigations condemn the use of deceptive tactics that the police implied during the investigations. In many instances in the case of Amanda, the police are found of being guided by thoughts, feelings and emotions in their handling of the case (Brygel, 2011). The institutional design for the criminal justice system in Italy states that the judges, prosecutors and the prison wardens should ensure that in the employing the tactics, police should not overstep into the boundaries of their authorities. The coming of the police into conducting of tasks which are meant for the judges and the prosecutors. This manipulation leads to the flawed presentation of evidences and the entire trial process. This is particularly true once an argument is flawed and the process of releasing the records of the case is interrupted by the biasness in the process (Muller, 2013). The trial of Amanda in the case Amanda accuses the trial chamber of her case as having been biased to a single side. It was clear that the police did not do proper investigations in the murder case that she was accused for in which her roommate was killed. In the hearing of the case, the judges did not expose to the lawyers and the other persons present at the courts the reasons for the negligence in the case (Muller, 2013). The most significant evidences that were presented by Amanda were deliberately declared outdated and sidelined in the case. As she claimed that the whole of the hearing and the trial of her case were corruptly handled, and linked to insincerity in the dispensation, it was worth testifying that. As much as the case was tricky and needed some time to fully investigate into the matter and flag off the hearing and the case proceedings, it was not rational in any civil court process to detain a suspect for over two years in the custody without trial (International Business, 2013). The delay in the case was a means to impair her psychologically. It was a way to traumatize her consciousness on the case. In such a critical case the proceedings are supposed to be favorable for everyone in the case. In her case, some factors hindered the due process of the case and her psychological torture due to the dubious proceedings in the case made her to be more tormented. As she describes, her innocence and the conviction to see the impact of true justice held her in control with great hopes. Her last belief to realize the new style of dealing with crimes in Italy changed her perception on the power of true justice (International Business, 2013). Having been exposed to a lot of mental torture in the cells for over two years, Amanda feels that the Criminal Justice System in Italy is not fair and free from outside influences. All the verdicts that the court released on her were seen to be influenced by the other factors from the shadows of great nightmares (Brygel, 2011). When the Court of Appeal directs the lower courts proceedings and demands the judges not to cut out the evidences presented by the suspect, it was clear that a lot had been happening in the case. These were the same evidence presented by Amanda’s defense team to help improve the case in her favor and leap her over the other side of true hopes to win the case (International Business, 2013). After being convicted in the cells for over two years, the two were released and they were presented with the opportunity to try their best motives to clear their reputations of the case. The Italians highest court in the land overturned this ruling to redirect the court that the two were to be retried for a second time. This action did not stop her from publishing her book, Amanda Knox, waiting to be Heard, the memoir for she believed this was to help her in the fight for her justice, and reveal to the world the hell that befell her in the Italian Criminal Justice System (International Business, 2013). The outside factors, which might have involved the killer, she suspects to be her former employer, Mr. Patrick, who was released to create space for Guede. From the beginning of the case, it was clear there was a concern among the police in which they tended to be silent and feared to be revealed. The alteration of the statements she recorded and the presentation of the evidences, and the maltreatments she received in the prison, were heavy in their contempt to kill justice for the American, Amanda. In several instances she was exposed to sexual violence in the prison by the prison guards. She was taken into the cages that were meant for the most dangerous criminals in the land (Brygel, 2011). At the prisons when she tried to communicate to her mother, the guards realized and took her into another cell, where communication was a mess and it was real the conversation was cut. This interruption exposed the intent action of the courts, prosecutors and the jurors’ to block her from leaking her situation and knowledge on the case out to the public while she was in the prison. The Italian court system took great advantage of her innocence and naivety to pound on her the wistful judgment and prosecution. The use of the language that was not familiar to Amanda only made it complex in her understanding of the proceedings. The interpreter was only able to tell her the condensed version in the hearing and the entire case (Brygel, 2011). This was not fair since ethically, the suspects and the accuser are supposed to get understand and analyze the proceedings in their case. The court was in a way sidelining her from the case, something which was not rational and ethically outstanding. In most occurrences in the case proceedings, the prosecutor told much more false stories about her relationship with Meredith. The court was told that, “Meredith was prettier, smarter, more popular, neater and less into drugs and sex than I was. For some of all these reasons, she was a better person, and I, unable to compete had hated her for it. I had cut her throat in rage and revenge. It was idiotic,” Amanda says in her memoir. “The prosecutor, Mignini relied heavily on the testimony of Meredith’s British girlfriends. It was candid that the fellow British people could not testify anything in her favor hence, all the court expected was all of the bad things I had done. Being spelt out as a murderer, everyone who testified in the case was against me, but all was absorbed with the contempt of my innocence as my naivety imposed in my conscience” (Brygel, 2011). My belief on Amanda In the case, numerous irregularities happened to the American. The proceedings were in many occurrences interrupted by a number of unclear reasons. The manner at which the case was handled and everything conducted in the name of criminal case issue was a true contrast of what the ethical criminology procedures say and expected. The court was biased against Amanda in several events within the court system. She was denied freedoms that were core and fundamentally could define the direction of her case. She could not coordinate with anyone and at any point when she was realized to be conversing to anyone, it was to be interrupted in an unorthodox way (International Business, 2012). The police mistreated her and she was even beaten up in the first instance when the investigations just began. The prison wardens insulted her in sexual urges and this was extremely beyond the law. She was exposed to international scrutiny and the lack of freedom to share her thoughts and knowledge on the murder case, the “wanted” post in her search and the warnings that were sent to the public about her tabloid ability to the people (International Business, 2012). This is what should be done to an affirmed criminal in frequent cases of murder but not a one-time suspect like her. The maltreatments and the unexpected actions of a national and well-framed Criminal Justice System for a Sovereign state like Italy openly showed there were unethical and un-philosophical frameworks followed by the courts. Amanda was tried falsely, without grounded truth and evidence but, rather on perceptive thoughts about her. It was absurd and unfair. Conclusion The case was unscrupulously conducted by the Italian court systems. The prosecutors in the case, acted outside the provisions of true justice and outside the law and the entire process was flawed. In this respect the determination of Amanda as being guilty of the charges was complex and was not truthful. Her experiences in the prison and the entire criminal system revealed that she was ill-treated. The reality could not be determined for the whole process was flawed (International Business, 2012). The judicial system was not independent in its ruling and it was open that some factors influenced the process. Amanda was not judged and treated fairly by the Italian Judicial System. References Bosman, J. (2013). In New Memoir, Public Testimony on Italian Murder Case.(Amanda Knox's memoir 'Waiting to Be Heard')(Foreign Desk). The New York Times. pp. 3 Brygel, J. (2011). Amanda Knox's: SECRET PRISON DIARY. Woman's Day (Australian Consolidated Press), vol. 63 (no. 42). Pp. 29. International Business, T. (2012, November 29). Amanda Knox to Publish Memoirs, Waiting to be Heard. International Business Times. International Business, T. (2013). Amanda Knox's Double Jeopardy: How and Why The Italian Cassation Court Is Retrying Her. International Business Times - US ed. Muller, J. (2013). Amanda Knox Case. Good Morning America (Abc).vol. 1. Read More