Books about Salem I

Raffaele Sollecito’s book about his experiences in Italy’s witch-burning capital (and until recently my provincial capital), Perugia, is out. I haven’t read it, but The Guardian has an early review.

There are no surprises about the tales of police brutality and incompetence, which I have discussed at length under the ‘Italy to Avoid’ tab.

The one thing that grabs me is that Sollecito says both his family and his lawyers urged him to not to provide evidence in support of Amanda Knox in the hope that the police might let him off (because all they really wanted to do was convict a witch). That is the Italian parenting and the Italian lawyers we know and love. It also explains Sollecito’s evidence in court that he ‘couldn’t remember’ precise details of Knox’s movements the night of the murder. He found some sort of moral half-way house between honesty and the demands of his family and lawyers.

Amanda Knox’s book, out next year, will be much more interesting than this one. It looks like she is taking the time to give Perugia and the Italian judicial system the deconstruction they deserve.

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2 Responses to “Books about Salem I”

  1. freeski Says:

    Sollecito didn’t give any evidence in court. So I don’t get your point about the moral half-way house. What did come out from the book was that when being interrogated on the night of 5/6 Nov 2007, he got confused about what day they were talking about and when he asked to look at a calendar they refused and insisted he answer the question. So he confused Knox’s movements the night before the murder with those on the murder night.

    What Raffaele did do was refuse to give in to Mignini’s pressure and pander to his parents’ requests to “throw Knox under the bus”. So all the time he was in jail he kept insisting she was with the night of the murder. Believe me, if she actually hadn’t been with him, he’d have said so a long time ago and saved himself a whole heap of (continuing) pain.

  2. joestudwell Says:

    The moral half-way house is that he didn’t testify against Knox – ‘throw her under a bus’, as you put it – but nor did he state openly in court that she was with him the night of the murder. Seems clear enough to me. Joe

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