Verdict in Study Abroad Murders in Perugia

A British woman studying abroad in Perugia is found in her bathroom with her throat cut.  Suspicions swirl around a number of people who naturally appear in the acquaintanceship circle of students abroad, including a young non-student Afro-Italian on whom suspicion settled first.  But the police extracted a confession - under duress and possible physical abuse - from a University of Washington woman who was the victim's flatmate.  Yesterday this woman, Amanda Knox, was convicted of the murder.   See the best overview of the case, the verdict, the Daily Beast tabloid version. The Knox family plans to appeal.

I find the murder scenario -- in which Knox's boyfriend holds one knife while Knox cuts her roommate's throat with the other -- to be unconvincing.  The plausibility of it for some seems to come entirely from a MySpace story Knox wrote, Halloween costume shots, some stupid comments, and other standard stuff.  The scenario in which a thief is surprised in the act by the victim and kills her in a panic is somewhat more plausible, but the cops hit only on the local black guy - the classic "usual suspsect" - and to repeat throat slashing is not the most obvious way to shut somebody up long enough for you to get away.  I'm not feeling anything right about this case.