After the international publicity announcing Amanda Knox’s ex-lover, Raffaele Sollecito being hired as a crime expert on Italian TV, thousands of people signed a petition to stop him. A Change.org petition was created in Italian to be sent to the director of Tgcom24, Paul Landry, asking him to remove Sollecito from their program, ‘The Yellow of the week.’
The arguments against Sollecito’s spot as a crime expert included the fact that he and Amanda were not found innocent for the murder of Meredith Kercher but were acquitted due to lack of evidence. In other words, had the evidence been collected better, they’d be in prison with Rudy Guede now.
Another argument against him was his previous hostility towards the Italian justice system. Raffele was,”not known for judgments particularly benevolent towards the judiciary so much so that even in 2009 he was sentenced to pay compensation of 25,000 euro for commenting on the arrest of judgment Marcello Dell’Utri comparing the work of the Turin judges to that of the Serbian militias against the Bosnian population.”
A third strike against the knife collector is that he does not hold a degree in criminology. The author of the petition points out the obvious fact that a former prisoner can not justify describing himself as an expert in the justice system. If that were the case, then all criminals would be on TV and calling themselves “criminologists.”
Finally, probably the most compelling reason people cannot bear to watch Sollecito give his speil on TV is that they won’t be able to hold down their dinner. As one Italian tweeted about him, “Sollecito mi fai venire i conati.” (Translation: Sollecito makes me vomit.) While another viewer wrote, “Sollecito mi fa paura: ha la classica espressione di persona incapace di provare sentimenti.” (Translation: Sollecito scares me, has the classic expression of the person incapable of feeling.)
As opinion of Sollecito lowers, the tally of TV viewers wanting to vote him off the show grows higher. The count of signatures as of this writing is 19,520 and growing. That is over 15,000 more signatures than Amanda Knox advocates got on their petition that supported Knox and Sollecito.
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