American student Amanda Knox was found guilty of murder in Italy today, despite prosecutorial shenanigans and the lack of forensic evidence in a case where one would expect it to be abundant. If you're surprised, you may labor under a misapprehension or two about how things work in the land of my fathers.
Despite its wealth and nominal status, Italy's counterparts in Europe look at it with derision and dismay for the circuses of which the Knox case is but one more. Public life in Italy often evinces these pious but oddly inscrutable outcomes, produced with alarming regularity by legal and political institutions that are like cargo-cult copies of those possessed by other nations.
This institution, however, may be easier to understand than most. The jurors wore Italian flags while the judge read their verdict.
