PERUGIA, Italy - The Amanda Knox trial is being closely watched from the largest cities to the smallest villages in Italy.
The tiny Umbrian village of San Martino dei Colli looks down upon the Capanne prison where Knox is locked away on murder charges. On a Sunday afternoon, the Bartolocci family is gathered in the 15th century villa for a family feast.
The Bartoloccis say they have followed the trial and have not seen compelling evidence that Knox was involved in Kercher's murder. We talked to the family with the help of researcher and interpreter, Giulia Alagna. "They say there is no proof," Alagna told us. "Maybe in the beginning they (police) thought they had it, but at this point they did not see any proof," said Alagna.
Prosecutors say Kercher died during a sex game that went awry. They allege that Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, held down Kercher while another man, Rudy Guede, tried to sexually assault her. Prosecutors accuse Knox of holding a knife to Kercher's throat and killing her when she would not take part in the game.
After the crime scene evidence was processed, it was Guede's prints and DNA that were found all over the room and on Kercher's body. Guede opted for a "fast track" trial and was convicted last year. After his arrest, many people expected the charges would be dropped against Knox and Sollecito. When that didn't happen they assumed prosecutors must have a "smoking gun" implicating the two students and that it would come out at trial. It never surfaced. Guede was called to the stand during the Knox and Sollecito trials but he refused to testify. He's appealing his case and is expected to implicate Knox during his court hearing on November 18. But that information can't be used against Knox in her trial.
The Bartoloccis sum up what we heard from many Italians - they believe Guede was involved in the murder, but "for Amanda and Raffaele, the trial has not cleared anything and they are at zero."
It's that kind of sentiment that's putting prosecutor Giuliano Mignini on trial in the court of public opinion. Mignini is a Public Minister in Perugia, which means he's not only a prosecutor, he represents the people during the investigation and can direct police.
Mignini is not backing down in the face of defense experts who attacked his case, testifying that the alleged murder weapon could not have caused the stab wounds, the crime scene was contaminated, the DNA evidence against Knox and Sollecito was inconclusive, and Knox's confession coerced.
It wasn't easy convincing Mignini to talk to us.
"I've been called intellectually dishonest in some articles," Mignini said through an interpreter. "I can say it's not true, but these are personal attacks. It's not easy for me in my person and in my position to defend myself."
We asked why he has been so focused on Knox and Sollecito from the beginning.
"There was a lot of evidence of their guilt, strong reasons to think that they were guilty," said Mignini.
"Anything I can say about the Amanda Knox case is that my work has been in any case backed up by other judges," said Mignini. "There's been various judges in these two years of her being in prison, have looked at her case, looked at her arrest, and they've all confirmed her arrest."
Mignini characterizes the case as a puzzle. He says that while individual pieces can be picked apart, put together there is a compelling picture of guilt. "We will do what we think is right to find the truth," he said.
But what critics find puzzling is why Mignini is even allowed to prosecute the case. Mignini is currently on trial himself in connection with a decades old serial murder case. Seven couples were killed while making love in the Tuscan hills between the mid 1970s and 1980s and the killer, dubbed the "Monster of Florence" was never caught. The case was recently re-opened and Mignini is accused by a Florentine judge of intimidation and illegal wiretapping in his zeal to help the lead detective prove that satanists were behind the "Monster" slayings.
Mignini passes off the charges as a power struggle between prosecutors and judges from competing jurisdictions.
"Who has examined my case, did not suspend me because they saw that there wasn't any basis to suspend me from my job," Mignini said. He told us that he expects to be exonerated. A ruling in his case is expected on November 27th, one week after Mignini is scheduled to deliver closing arguments against Knox and Sollecito.
One question Mignini would not answer is why he's so convinced that Kercher died during a drug-fueled orgy and that Amanda Knox wielded the knife. "This is something I cannot answer to now, if you come to the trial on the 20th you can hear it in my closing arguments!" Mignini said.
The case has been called "the trial of the century" in Italy. The lurid story of an angel-faced American student going wild in the idyllic hill town of Perugia has dominated the headlines from the biggest cities to the tiniest villages where everyone is waiting for a verdict.
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