Her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito was also convicted and sentenced to 25 years. They were also convicted of sexual assault in the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old student from England.

There is an automatic appeal, but that process could take as long as two years. The Prosecuting Attorney had sought life imprisonment, Italy’s stiffest sentence.

The defense maintained there was not enough evidence for a conviction and no clear motive. The prosecution responded that violent crimes can lack a motive, saying, “We live at a time where violence is purposeless”.

Amanda’s family insists she is innocent and a victim of character assassination with prosecutors portraying Amanda as a sex-crazed, drugs and booze addled, typical, young American girl. The nickname “Foxy Knoxy” (such a rockin’ “moniker”) was actually given to Amanda by her soccer pals when she was eight years old, apparently for fancy footwork.

The Meredith Kercher Timeline -

The house where Meredith Kercher was murdered is a converted cowshed next to a two-story parking ramp, just yards from the city’s busiest junkie hangout. She shared the house with three other girls – Amanda, an A-student at one of the oldest universities in Europe and two Italians.

Nov. 2, 2007
The body of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher is found in a pool of blood in her bedroom. Investigators say she died from a stab wound to the neck.

Nov. 6, 2007
Knox is arrested in connection with the slaying. Also arrested are Knox’s then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito of Italy; and the Congolese owner of a Perugia bar where Knox worked, Diya Lumumba.

Nov. 20, 2007
Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede is arrested in Germany after an international manhunt. He was wanted in Italy in connection to the slaying. Lumumba, who had been implicated by Knox’s statements to the police in the aftermath of the killing, is released from jail for lack of evidence.

Nov. 21, 2007
Guede, awaiting extradition to Italy, tells German court that he was in Kercher’s room but insists he didn’t kill her. Said Kercher and Knox were arguing about missing money.

Dec. 6, 2007
Guede is extradited from Germany. He is picked up by Italian authorities and jailed.

Dec. 14, 2007
Kercher is laid to rest after a private funeral service in south London.

April 1, 2008.
The Court of Cassation, Italy’s top criminal court, rejects requests by defense lawyers for the release of Knox, Sollecito and Guede and orders them to remain in jail.

Sept. 9, 2008
Guede’s lawyers ask for a fast-track trial. The procedure, in which evidence is presented in document form and no witnesses testify, is quicker and leads to lesser sentences if the suspect is found guilty.

Sept. 16, 2008
Knox appears in court at the opening of a preliminary hearing to determine whether she and the other two suspects must face trial. Sollecito is not in court. Guede, who attends the hearing, is granted the fast-track trial sought by his lawyers.

Oct. 28, 2008
Judge Paolo Micheli orders Knox and Sollecito to stand trial on charges of murder and sexual assault. The same judge also convicts Guede of murder and sexual assault and sentences him to 30 years in prison.

Jan. 16, 2009
Trial of Knox and Sollecito opens in Perugia before presiding Judge Giancarlo Massei.

June 6, 2009
Kercher’s mother, Arline Kercher, tells court in emotional testimony that she will never get over her daughter’s brutal death.

June 12, 2009
Knox takes the stand. She tells the court that she was shocked by Kercher’s death, offers an alibi for the night of the murder and says police beat her into making a false statement in the case.

Nov. 18, 2009
Guede’s appeals trial opens. Guede testifies that he heard Kercher arguing with Knox minutes before she was slain.

Nov 21, 2009
Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini requests life sentences for Knox and Sollecito. Knox addresses the court minutes later to say the accusations against her are “pure fantasy.”

Dec. 4, 2009
An eight-member jury convicts Amanda Knox of murdering her British roommate, and sentences her to 26 years. The jury ialso convicts Knox’s ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and sentences him to 25 years.

The prosecutors contend on the night of the murder, Knox and her new boyfriend Sollecito met at the apartment where Kercher and Knox lived. They say a fourth person was there, Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast citizen who has been convicted in the murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Guede, who is appealing his conviction, says he was in the house the night of the murder but did not kill Kercher.

The prosecution says Knox and Kercher started arguing, and that Knox joined the two men in brutally attacking and sexually assaulting the Briton under “the fumes of drugs and possibly alcohol.”

Throughout the trial, prosecutors depicted Knox as a promiscuous and manipulative she-devil whose personality clashed with her roommate’s. They say Knox had grown to hate Kercher.

Knox said Kercher was a friend whose slaying shocked and saddened her. Strangely, Amanda is witnessed doing Cartwheels around the police station.

Knox and Sollecito say they were watching a video at his home on the night of the murder, where they say they smoked marijuana and had sex. Knox said she went home the next morning to find the door to the house open and Kercher dead.

Knox gave contradictory versions of the night of the slaying, saying at one point she was home and had to cover her ears to block out Kercher’s screams and accusing a Congolese man of the killing. The man, Patrick Diya Lumumba, owns a pub in Perugia where Knox worked. He was jailed briefly but was later cleared and is seeking defamation damages from Knox.

Knox later contended that police pressure led her to initially accuse an innocent man.

The prosecution maintains that a 6½-inch knife authorities found at Sollecito’s house could be the murder weapon; they say Kercher’s DNA was found on the blade and Knox’s on the handle. However, defense lawyers argue the knife was too big to match Kercher’s wounds and the amount of DNA collected was too small to determine with certainty whose it was.

So, how much DNA do you need anyway? …to for instance, clone someone.

Go Home from Amanda Knox.

Being from the Southern U.S. (a long way from P.C. ASPCA and NAMBLA), I appreciate the frankness, self-deprecation and lack of guile from this beautiful, stalwart of the Right-wing. Just think, my two imaginary lovers are a blonde and a brunette (Ann Coulter for V.P.). Wow, that’s the ticket!, and every Yuppie’s wet dream.

The “Anti-Christs” miss no opportunity lambasting Sarah (and another beautiful Christian, Prejean) for their personal beliefs, family and the necessarily “private” events in ther lives.

Saints aren’t running for the Whitehouse (are you listening Jack and Bill?). And, with all due respect to Mrs. Palin, “Who da fuck would want to be President of the United States anyway? (that ass is too fine to be shaking for Ahmajinedad.)

Sarah, Dearie, fugetabout Barney’s “Franksfurters”, Harry “Hard Rider” Reid, Barak Husein Obama and anyone else that might know their way around “Lawn Guyland”, and remember that elections are too important for politics. As a great American President (Richard Nixon) said, “It’s not who you are but who you appear to be that’s important.” (and we thank you Adolf).

Palin on Katie Couric

Ann Coulter on Sarah, “Payback!

Fox News Story -
President Obama’s political arm, Organizing for America, has sent a fundraising e-mail seeking to raise $500,000 in the next week to stop a “dangerous” Palin from derailing the Democrats’ effort to overhaul health care.

With the media spotlight squarely on Sarah Palin and her “Going Rogue” book tour across the nation, Democrats are gearing up for a battle — and trying to cash in.

“Remember, this is the person who coined the term ‘Death Panels’ — and opened the flood gates for months of false attacks by special interests and partisan extremists,” the e-mail read.

“Whatever lie comes next will be widely covered by the media, then constantly echoed by right-wing attack groups and others who are trying to defeat reform,” the e-mail said.

Palin began a promotional tour this week for her memoir, with plans to travel through several states that were key to the 2008 election. The memoir was released Tuesday but has topped best-seller lists for weeks.

Her tour has already attracted controversy -
The U.S. Army had planned to ban the media from Palin’s book signing next week at Fort Bragg, fearing it would turn into political grandstanding against Obama. But the Army decided to allow the media limited coverage after the the Associated Press and a local newspaper protested.

Insiders who’ve spoken with Palin recently said she seems eager to run in 2012, and opinion polls show she has the most public support of any Republican hopeful.

Among self-identified Republicans in a recent Fox News poll, Palin gets the highest favorable ratings (70 percent) amid a group of other possible contenders for the GOP nomination, including Mike Huckabee (63 percent), Mitt Romney (60 percent) and Newt Gingrich (58 percent). Palin’s favorable score among all voters is 47 percent, up 9 percentage points over last July’s reading of 38 percent.

“Going Rogue” follows Palin from childhood to her departure last summer as Alaska governor. The title refers to her independent streak as a candidate, stemming from complaints within the campaign of GOP presidential nominee John McCain that she had gone “rogue” by disagreeing with the campaign’s decision to pull out of Michigan last October.

Bristol Palin filed a legal petition Nov. 3 seeking sole custody of her 1-year-old son and child support payments from Levi Johnston in accordance with Alaska law. She also asked the Alaska court to keep the proceedings closed – a request which was denied on Christmas Eve.

Despite Bristol’s interest in keeping this matter private, Levi has requested that this matter remain public (Jeez, somebody put this 20 year old out of his ass-olescent misery).

Bristol’s petition for custody asks for the status quo: primary custody with Bristol while allowing Levi visitation. Bristol says her ex-fiance has only made “sporadic” visits to see their child.

For his part, Johnston insists in court documents that he has fulfilled his fatherly responsibilities, and can support his son with the proceeds of his nude calendars, and wants to retain shared custody of Tripp.

Bristol and Johnston were thrust into the national spotlight late last year after their pregnancy was announced days after Sarah Palin, then Alaska’s governor, was named Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate.

The couple called off their engagement soon after their son Tripp Easton Mitchell was born.

Johnston has publicly accused Palin of calling her son Trig “the retarded baby” and also alleged that the Palins are on the verge of divorce – accusations which Palin denied in a November interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters.

Fox News has just announced that Sarah will be appearing on its channel regularly as part of a multi-year deal. She will not have her own program. Financial details have not been released.

“I am thrilled to be joining the great talent and management team at Fox News,” Mrs Palin said in a statement on the network’s website.
“It’s wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news.”

Fox’s executive vice-president for programming, Bill Shine, said Mrs Palin had “captivated everyone on both sides of the political spectrum”.

News of her resignation as governor 17 months before her term in office was up had prompted speculation that she was planning to pursue a career in television.

As well as appearing as a commentator on a variety of shows on the channel, she would occasionally host a program featuring “inspirational tales involving ordinary Americans”. Correspondents say hiring Sarah Palin is likely to further increase the network’s ratings with conservative viewers.

A number of Republican commentators already work for the network, among them George W Bush’s former aide Karl Rove, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, and John McCain’s rival for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Mike Huckabee.

Until now, Mrs Palin has mainly used her page on the social networking site Facebook to update her more than one million followers. Regular appearances on a major network could further increase her support among conservatives.

Her appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in November 2009, during which she said a run for the White House in 2012 was “not on my radar screen right now”, boosted the program’s ailing ratings.

It is not the first time Mrs Palin will be signing on with a TV station. In the 1980s she worked part-time as a sports presenter for the KTUU station in Anchorage, Alaska.

Back to the top of Sarah Palin .

Bankruptcy is a legal means by which an individual or a company declares an inability to pay creditors and petitions the Courts to discharge debts. The U. S. Bankruptcy Code provides several options which address different circumstances, that are designed to give petitioners a “fresh start”.

Filing for bankruptcy is a serious decision with long lasting consequences and should not be undertaken without understanding the basic process and options.

Many people wait until their situation is dire before contacting a bankruptcy attorney only to find that there is little time for the lawyer to prepare and file the petition that will stop foreclosure, vehicle repossession or other legal actions of creditors.

Within two weeks of filing the petition, the court will send a Notice of Commencement of Case to the bankruptcy petitioner and to all of the creditors listed in the bankruptcy petition.

This notice will include the time, date and location of the creditors meeting and the deadlines for claims and/or objections from creditors.

Schedules containing information about the petitioner’s debts, assets, income and expenses must be filed within 15 days after the case is commenced.

These schedules often are filed with the petition; but in an emergency situation the petition may be filed immediately and the schedules filed later after collecting the required information and documentation.

In most cases, the court will enter an “automatic stay” as soon as the case is filed, prohibiting creditors from taking any further collection action while the bankruptcy case is pending or until further order of the court.

This “stay” prohibits all collection activity and stops any lawsuits filed against you and almost any other action against your property and your paycheck. Phone calls, letters, attempts to foreclose or repossess property are all forms of collection that are in violation of the court order.

The automatic stay applies to both Chapter 13 and Chapter 7 bankruptcies. In the case of Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the automatic stay may continue in effect for the duration of the repayment period, which could be up to 5 years.

All petitioners filing for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection are required to complete a U.S. Trustee approved Credit Counseling Briefing.

It’s important that your bankruptcy attorney file the Credit Counseling certificate with your bankruptcy petition.

Bankruptcy petitions filed without a Credit Counseling certificate may be dismissed. This can have disastrous consequences since creditors can then take action, such as moving forward with a foreclosure or repossession.

• Are you heavily in debt, with little prospect of getting out of that debt in the near future?
• Have you had, or are your creditors threatening, a foreclosure on your home, a repossession of your car or other legal action to take your property?
• Have you experienced a dramatic drop in income?
• Are you frequently late paying bills?
• Do you only pay the minimum on your credit cards?
• Are you unable to make even the minimum payments?
• Do you have to sacrifice basic necessities just to make ends meet?
• Have you bounced more than one check in the last two months?
• Are your wages being garnished?
• Are you going through a divorce resulting in a decrease of income but an increase in expenses?

If you can answer yes to more that half of these questions, you may want to talk with a Bankruptcy Attorney.

If you are charged with a crime that could send you to jail and you cannot afford legal counsel, you have a right to a lawyer at no charge and the court will supply you with one who is well qualified to give you a competent defense.

In order to qualify for an attorney at no cost, you must be able to show that you are unable to pay because of lack of finances. Some Courts may require that documents be filled out in order to prove your inability to pay. If you are unable to afford an attorney, the Court must supply you with a free attorney. This is your right under the law.

In criminal cases, if you qualify for a free attorney, the judge will assign a lawyer to represent you. In such cases the attorney is paid for by public funds. The attorneys appointed by the court are trained attorneys. They are as prepared to represent a private citizen accused of a crime as the District Attorney General is prepared to prosecute that crime.

If the Court appoints an attorney to represent you but you are able to pay a part of the cost, the Court may require you to make payments into the Court. This will of course depend on your ability to pay.

Go Home from Atlanta Attorney.

Picking a lawyer is a personal judgment you must make. You should be comfortable with your choice. Ask questions and shop around. Get referrals from relatives, friends, real estate agents, and others who have had similar issues to deal with. In the end it is important to select someone you can trust to do the best job possible for you. Realize however, that there are no guarantees, be wary of anyone who assures you of a victory.

Before any work begins, ask what the cost will be for the lawyer’s services and whether you will be responsible for other fees and charges. State ethics rules require lawyers to charge a reasonable fee. The American Bar Association advises that lawyers explain their fees, preferably in writing, within a reasonable time after beginning to represent you.

Some state bars require that lawyers put their fees in writing before they take a case. Your lawyer may charge you extra for copying documents, courier services, court filing fees, or research services. Be sure you understand what you will be charged for and how much.

Go Home from Alaska Lawyer.