How much does the choice of words bias peoples’ thinking?
“Lone wolf theory” - If you google this term, what comes up is, sadly, the Amanda Knox case, and then terrorist cases like the DC sniper and the holocaust museum shooting. Rudy was not a terrorist, so some people may unconsciously dismiss the likelihood that he was a “lone wolf.” And although it’s a “theory,” the phrase “Lone Wolf theory” sounds like something nutty, whereas it’s really the normal scenario in such murders. The onus should lay on disproving this scenario, not proving it.
“Cartwheels”—Amanda Knox is said to have done cartwheels during her interrogation. Cartwheels have a connotation of joy. To prove my point, if you google “cartwheels of joy”, it gets 82,400 hits. If the police had chosen the term “gymnastics,” then it might be easier to understand why a young girl cooped up for 30 hours might engage in such behavior. Even if she did cartwheels and only cartwheels, she wasn’t joyful.
“Foxy Knoxy”—Amanda’s character was assassinated by the press long before her trial, and this catchy phrase was responsible for much of it. Ironically, the phrase came from Amanda Knox herself on her Facebook page, according to one of her old friends who stood up for her character.
Words played a powerful role in bias in Amanda’s case. I don’t think I even need to qualify that as my opinion.
This is what the article was talking about: privileging the hypothesis. Amanda’s boyfriend said that she was simply buying clean underwear, because she had no access to her clothes in the apartment, which should kinda be obvious, no?
Another example is Amanda’s internet-posted story about rape. Did you know that rape is the number one sexual fantasy of women? Well, that’s according to my surveys. Askmen.com puts the rape fantasy at #3. Whatever… it’s up there. I’m saying that it’s dangerous when people bring in the murder hypothesis to explain “weird” behavior, because that “weird” behavior may be normal.
If you were being interrogated for 30 hours straight, would you stand up and do some stretches at any point? Is that so different from doing a little gymnastics?
However, it’s a mistake to even go down this path. Let the evidence lead you. None of Amanda’s DNA was found at the crime scene, whereas Rudy’s DNA was all over the place. Therefore, Amanda likely never set foot in that room… and Rudy likely did.
The bigger question here is how can the court system (in Italy, America, and elsewhere) be fixed or at least improved? What can be done?