Today's first ruling in Amanda Knox's fourth trial for murder doesn't bode well for a fair trial. [View all]

[pnwmom]

In short, in a retrial for murder in which a young woman was stabbed and sexually assaulted, yet another judge has ruled against a very simple test: he refused to order a DNA test on the semen found on the pillow under the victim's body.

The longer version . . .

After being convicted in a first trial, and having that conviction tossed by an appeals court, and having that result tossed by the High Court, Amanda Knox's lawyers are back in a new Italian appeals court trying to prove her innocence.

One of the arguments made by the High Court in their written opinion was that they had already ruled in the case of Rudy Guede, who was also convicted in the murder in a separate trial, that he must have had help killing the petite woman. Therefore, even though Amanda hadn't been a part of that case, and couldn't offer any evidence in it or even have her lawyers question Guede, the High Court says the appeals court should use their ruling -- that Guede had unspecified helpers -- as evidence against her. (Guede was a friend of the downstairs tenants' and had a history of carrying a knife while burglarizing. He wasn't a friend of either Amanda or Raffaele, according to all the testimony.)

Guede's DNA was found both inside and outside the victim's body and Amanda's wasn't anywhere in the room. However, there was a semen stain left on the pillow under the victim's body, which was never tested. Up till now, the prosecution never saw any reason to test this stain for DNA. The defense recently requested the new judge to order a test of the sperm for DNA. Maybe it belonged to Guede or maybe it belonged to somebody else -- whose identity, if known, might point to another possible murderer. Other than Amanda or Raffaele.

The judge has just ruled against testing that semen sample. In other words, the semen sample under the murder victim's body will not be tested.

If they thought it might belong to Amanda's boyfriend Raffaele, don't you think the prosecution would be eager to have it tested? If they were interested in justice at all, wouldn't they want to have it tested?

This already appears to be another rigged trial, like the first one.