perugia shock

We shouldn’t make conclusions about the discussion over DNA, since it’s in progress, but the feeling you have while witnessing it is of a sinking battleship.

And the torpedos can even come from friendly fire.

Stamina, determination, perseverance, that’s what you need to get results in life…

At the last hearing we had seen Comodi’s insistence in getting the document with the negative controls acquired. And that got a result, as we remember: judge Hellmann ended up explaining that it was useless, since the contamination could have occurred before… We have to thank Comodi’s perseverance if Hellmann revealed his thought about Meredith’s DNA on the blade.

Today Maresca’s performance was almost of equal value. He wouldn’t leave Carla Vecchiotti alone about the mixed DNA on the clasps. And it was the right move.

It wasn’t really clear, indeed, why C&V’s report said that there wasn’t Raffaele’s DNA on that exhibit, since, even after adding two new profiles, his alleles were still all perfectly there.
But what should Vecchiotti have done, disappoint Meredith’s lawyer? So, she explained to him.

She explained that the recovered alleles, able to form two more profiles, were not all. She had just picked those to explain the concept in the report. But, in truth, she recovered more alleles, much more –so many that it would have been too long putting them in the report.

Indeed, Vecchiotti explained, “After examining just the first 4 markers (over 17) of the Y chromosome, there were already new alleles for forming at least 8 profiles”! So she didn’t really continue to find the all of them.

For the autosomic STRs, Vecchiotti explained, “There were so many alleles that even my own profile was a match in 9 markers!” (over 16).

“Your own profile, President, could likely be found in that DNA”, Vecchiotti told Hellmann.
And she probably didn’t mean accusing him of having killed Meredith…

If we then add that 4 of the 16 autosomic markers, as Vecchiotti explained, were wrongly attributed to Raffaele’s profile, we understand why the report had concluded that there wasn’t Raffaele’s DNA on the clasps.

We finally have full comprehension of it, and we owe it to Maresca’s perseverance.

STEFANONI’S SELF DEFENSE, DAY 1

Then it was the time of Stefanoni’s self-defense, under the friendly questions coming from Comodi.

Stefanoni explained to us why the certification doesn’t count too much. Only three labs in the world have the “ISO17120” certification, Stefanoni revealed, and for investigations on fire accidents (as a matter of fact that should mean that nobody in the world has the right certification..). You guys can verify it on the EMSI website. I trust her.

Also, the guidelines, according to Stefanoni, don’t really exist for the whole world. The ones cited by C&V are guidelines that every single institution issued, but there’s not a recognized international protocol, not yet.

She also revealed why you can put samples in plastic bags without that to cause problems: because you can store them in the victims freezer… That’s what she did on November 2 and 3, before bringing the samples to Rome: she froze the samples in the refrigerator of the house. That little freezer was quite capacious, it seems.

So, she could be the one putting down the international protocols. One of the rules would say: “make sure that there’s room in the victim’s freezer”, something like that.  It implies also a recommendation for future victims :”Tell your murderer to only kill you near a working refrigerator”.

Apart from that, Stefanoni appeared very excited and anxious, almost breathless, about her self-defense.  A bit hard to follow, especially if you are not familiar with the Neapolitan accent. But in the end, it was interesting as always. An interesting insight about DNA, I promise you.

She even showed two charts which should represent the negative/positive controls, and she inserted them in a detailed explanation of why Meredith’s alleles are, according to her, genuine. Hopefully Hellmann will acquire these by now famous controls, so that we can see if they have been done for sure.

Then the discussion got lost in picograms, nanograms, microliters and other minutiae. But the main point, for Carla Vecchiotti, remains the same: that those tests couldn’t be repeated, therefore they will never be certain, even if  the negative and positive controls seem to have been done for real. You have to have faith in them, and that’s it.

Maresca also has a main point, and he keeps repeating it: there are other tests to be considered besides those two.

Indeed there is another test to be considered, a test that was never performed: those stains on the pillow. The real main evidence. Can you believe that they have been testing the shit, they have been testing the imagination, but they haven’t been testing the real MAIN EVIDENCE, the semen, the substance that every coroner looks for in case of rape! Only in Italy…

But let’s not blame Mignini’s investigation for that, let’s not “defame” it. Maybe there was a valid reason for not testing the main piece of evidence: maybe the refrigerator was full.

Curiously, we all want that test to be done, we all want to know who raped and killed Meredith, because we, who didn’t know her, love her in some way, and hope she has justice.
But her lawyer, her family, don’t look too interested!

Stefanoni’s examination will resume tomorrow. Then the private experts will take the stand.
Will they be able to explain to the prosecution that no matter how perfect (to say so) Stefanoni’s tests may have been, there would still be no certainty?