I think it would be extremely difficult to commit libel in a comment on a message board or blog. Comments are opinions, and no matter how wrong an opinion is, it is protected speech. To win a libel case, you have to prove that the published article caused damage. How does your reputation get damaged any further by an electronically posted opinion, when you are already being held in an Italian prison for an infamous sex crime murder?
Mike Schuler | 07.12.08 - 3:01 pm | #

Steve, the "redacted" address shows up.
Chris | Homepage | 07.13.08 - 12:15 am | #

Chris, I left the street in. The "redacted portions" take out tell-tale numbers. It wasn't a tag.

Thanks.
Steve Huff | 07.13.08 - 12:30 am | #

Personally, I have stayed away from the comments section of this case since the beginning. I read some a few times and it was just overwhelming to even attempt to keep up.

I'm with you Steve on having no idea what occurred that night in that apt. Every reasonable explanation still seems bizarre and even far fetched, barring a simple rape and murder, by one person.

The diary pages they released from Amanda's prison diary were supposed to be further proof of her innocence. Not quite sure why they thought that, but to an outside observer who really has no hard and fast beliefs of guilt, those notes seemed very self involved, narcissistic even. In short, the entries just came off as strange.

It will be interesting to see what happens in this case. I hope they are able to really put all doubts aside with the case, whoever ends up on trial, because as of now it just seems like a big mess with no clear evidence.
Emerson | 07.13.08 - 2:33 am | #

So, does this mean the HaloScan comments from cmellas, chris mellas, goofy, and abdar were all fakes? I left the discussion at that time because I didn't believe they were authentic, even after Skeptical Bystander and others claimed to have verified them.
Pinecone | 07.15.08 - 11:47 pm | #

Pinecone,
Steve will certainly correct me if this is wrong, but I don't think he is saying that the characters you allude to above were fakes. The most recent email message (which Steve posted) indeed tracks to an IP address that is registered to Chris Mellas. More than one person (i.e. someone other than Chris Mellas) has access to that IP and can send emails from it. He is not someone who is unknown to Mr. Mellas or to you when you were part of the discussion at haloscan. Mr. Mellas has also posted extensively elsewhere in the blogosphere, most recently on the Big Bang news blog of the PI. He could step in right now and say those postings were not made by him, but in the absence of that denial, I would bet that they were made by him, signing as Chris Mellas and identifying himself as Amanda's stepfather. In addition, I have been contacted by Chris Mellas via the True Crime message board. Given the content of the private messages I received, I can tell you that they were in fact from Amanda Knox's stepfather. In addition,they were sent from his personal email address and server. The content of those messages is personal, so I won't divulge it here, but I see no reason why Mr. Mellas would have any interest in denying that "he" sent them.
Skeptical Bystander | 07.16.08 - 11:12 am | #

Hi everybody,

here's a new article (in italian, sorry...)
http://www.tgcom.mediaset.it/ cro...olo422943.shtml

and here's an interesting photogallery within the original ILE pictures on the crime scene...
http://www.tgcom.mediaset.it/ fot...llery3634.shtml

ciao a tutti
Middie | Homepage | 07.31.08 - 3:54 am | #