iPod Defense Rocks Student Murder Case
11:12 am, January 3rd, 2009, Nicole Martinelli
In 2007, British student Meredith Kercher was murdered in Italy, during a study abroad program in hill town Perugia.
About a year later, Rudy Guede was sentenced to 30 years for his part in the killing, for which Kercher’s roommate, American student Amanda “Foxy Knoxy” Knox and her boyfriend, Italian IT grad, Raffaele Sollecito, are still awaiting trial.
Guede’s appeal now before the Italian court hinges on an iPod.
During what has been hypothesized was some sort of late-night Halloween sex game where the 21-year-old Kercher was an unwilling participant, Guede maintains he was in the bathroom of the young women’s apartment.
While she was being killed with a knife, he was listening to music on iCarta, a toilet paper holder roll that doubles as an iPod dock.
Guede’s lawyers tried to head off what they thought might be viewed as a sort of Twinkie defense for the digital age in a statement to Italian media (below translation mine):
“It is nothing more than a confirmation of how some abnormal behaviors are apparently normal among young people today,” said laywers Valter Biscotti and Nicodemo Gentile. “Just as Facebook is their virtual world, they now listen to music everywhere, even in the bathroom. The marketing of such products implies a certain routine use.”
The statement was published today in Italian papers, without information on how the legal team might use or prove the bathroom listening alibi.
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in News, iPod, iPod Accessories | Comment on this article
If this post gets slashdotted, your clever link will crash the BBC server. Way to go.
Dann, on January 3rd, 2009 at 10:38 pm
I remember reading about this case shortly after Kercher was killed. Amazing to get an update about it on an Apple site. Just amazing.
lonbud, on January 4th, 2009 at 9:04 pm