Originally Posted by
Bill Williams
I don't see how it's possible to conclude that the US State Dept did not "interfere" in this case - it all depends on what you mean by the word "interfere".
At the very least the US State Dept might have been formally asked by someone from Italy what American politicians like Senator Cantwell meant with her own remarks about the way the prosecution(s) proceeded. Informally, it is easy to imagine one rep from each government sitting down over a glass of wine, with the American laying out what American forensic-DNA experts (for instance) were saying about the nature of the evidence.
Given that no one can name one - not even one - forensic-DNA expert in either the US or in Italy who agreed with Stefanoni's work, all the Italian would have been able to fall back upon (over wine) would be the implied insult to the Italian legal system.
What would not be forthcoming from the Italian would be anyone - Italian, American or otherwise - who would stand by Stefanoni's work. It might even resemble the last 2 years of posting here on ISF - one guilter, Vixen, makes citationless claims, and the rest of us ask for citations which never come.
It's not much of a stretch to imagine a State Department official saying something akin to, "Do what you want with your own citizen, but on the basis of what we've seen there would be no extradition from the US over this."
As an aside, Andrea Vogt claims to have some info in this regard, but even she has admitted that the 2015 acquittals were definitive, and there's no point in trying to suggest otherwise.
Exactly. I don't consider the state department discussing it as "interfering" but as "doing their job". The implication that pressure was put on Hellmann and Marasca/Bruno to acquit/annul against their wishes is absurd.