sexual orgies, satanic rituals, how she bought bleach to clean up the crime scene. all of it according to the prosecutor himself lies. with no conclusive evidence their daughter was guilty, the knox family would enter the courtroom just after midnight on saturday, december 5th, 2009 believing prosecutors had simply not proved their case. the jury had deliberated for 13 hours. in a moment that haunts him to this day, curt knox heard the verdict in italian. guilty. these two kids were innocent, and to have them say guilty, it was just devastating. it was literally devastating. you know, i mean, literally the people that were in the courtroom just kind of went ah! reporter: dust preston is a best-selling author that dreams up chilling murder plots in his writing shack on the cold coast
reporter: but for this proud judicial official of perugia, the public humiliation was humbling. it was during this very time when guilianio mignini was facing embarrassing charges of abusing his office he arrived at the crime scene of meredith kircher s murder. his investigation into her death would not wait for the forensic evidence to be processed. he already had his suspicions. within days he announced the horrific crime was solved. dr. mignini, is it possible that a prosecutor who was facing his own troubles perhaps rushed to judgment to solve a sensational crime? translator: i did not take any opportunity because that day i just happened to be on duty. a tour of duty of a week. i did not take an opportunity.
one spot on meredith s bra clasp, prosecutor mignini told us no additional dna could be retested because the clasp was ruined in police storage. translator: the material from the hook had, i believe, deteriorated due to the presence of rust. and rust cannot be avoided because if you use some antirust product, you destroy any genetic material that is left. i don t want to go into this. but the material that was taken 3 1/2 years ago was definitive. reporter: dna expert says even if the dna was preserved, it doesn t explain how a single sample of rafaelle s dna is all that was found in a bloody and violent crime scene. if that s all there is, and from what i ve seen, that s all there is, then it s a very weak piece of evidence and inconsistent with every other piece of evidence in the case.
arrests. before the judge enters knox s mouths to rafaelle, it was a tender moment in what would be a strange hearing. this morning amanda knox s attorneys are to cross-examine an old witness. he is the homeless man who lived in this park and originally told the court he saw amanda and rafaelle near the crime scene the night of the murder. before testimony begins, cameras are ushered out of the court, and police bring in a star prosecution witness that the jury would find laughable. the homeless heroin addict could no longer remember the exact night he saw the couple. he was confused. it could have been halloween. actually, the night before the murder. then the star witness dropped a bombshell. admitting he was under investigation by mignini s office for heroin dealing at the exact moment he became one of the star witnesses.
eight couples in the tuscan hills. prosecutor guilianio mignini s investigation would also end in failure. his case against journalist mario spezzi was completely thrown out, and his theory of a satanic cult and massive coverup in the monster case was being ridiculed by other italian justices, and mignini s tactics, including the wiretapping of offices, became part of a new case. mignini himself was accused, convicted, and sentenced to a 16-month suspended sentence for abusing his office. mignini, who is appealing the conviction, explained to us it s nothing. translator: i have seen this many times. when they say convicted of abuse of office, it does not mean abuse of power. abuse of office is a minor crime in italy. i mean, it wasn t corruption, just to be clear.