Leading up to the reading, you could see that Knox was anxiously awaiting the official word from the jury. You saw her breathing quite heavily and bring her hands up to her face several times. At one point her lawyer leaned in and was talking with Knox, it looked as though she could be sick at any moment.

Below are some powerful images from the verdict reading:

In the moments leading up to the jury’s announcement, you could see the anxiety in Knox’s eyes as she awaited the word on her fate, as he looked utterly terrified. The world saw her lawyer lean in and speak with her, one can only imagine what he was saying at that moment.

Earlier today Amanda Knox tearfully told an Italian appeals court Monday that she did not kill her British roommate. She asked the jury to set her free so she could return home to the United States.

If you’re unfamiliar with Amanda Knox situation, here is a quick refresher:

Knox was a 20-year-old University of Washington language student who shared a flat with Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old college student from Coulsdon, South London. The two shared a flat in Perugia while they attended the University of Foreigners for one year, studying Italian, German and creative writing. Kercher’s body was found in her bedroom on the afternoon of November 2, 2007 by police. It appeared that Kercher had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. Two mobile phones, two credit cards and 300 euros in cash had also been stolen from her.

A local resident of Perugia, Rudy Guede, was convicted on October 28, 2008 of sexual assault and murder. Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian student, and Kercher’s flatmate, Knox, were convicted of sexual assault and murder in a separate trial on December 4, 2009. They were each given sentences of 25 and 26 years. The duo have appealed the courts decision.

Many saw Knox and Sollecito as innocent and victims of a miscarriage of justice while others view pair has directly linked to the assault as well as the murder.

Do you think justice was served today? Let us know in the comments.

Twitter erupted over the the jury’s announcement:

During her speech paused for breath several times and visibly fought back tears as she spoke for 10-minutes. Shortly after her address was over, the court began deliberation.

Presiding Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann stated that the jury wouldn’t emerge from deliberations anytime before 1800 GMT (2 p.m. Eastern). The highly anticipated verdict is already garnering a huge audience online, as Amanda Knox is a trending topic on both Twitter and Google. People have turned to Twitter to share their thoughts on the Amanda Knox trial:

It happened in Arkansas as reported by Techdirt when a building company had a judgment against them for $12.6 million. That’s gonna leave a mark for sure. Unless of course one of your jurors tells his Tweeps the following:

“I just gave away TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of somebody else’s money”

“oh and nobody buy Stoam. Its bad mojo and they’ll probably cease to Exist, now that their wallet is 12m lighter”

Who knows what this person’s intent was and with the law that is often not even important. How it is being presented by the lawyers that represent the building company is that this juror was predisposed to a verdict that would “impress his audience”. I have to think that the leap from reaching a verdict to a predisposition to a verdict for Twitter recognition is a big one but anything is possible.

Let’s not focus on just one event like this though. In Philadelphia, there are accusations that a juror’s Twitter habit broke rules about disclosing deliberations. In a different twist there have been instances where jurors are accessing information on their phones during a trial that led to a mistrial in Florida. This wasn’t some minor case either; it was a federal drug trial.

So what’s the takeaway here? There are a million of them depending on your point of view. From where I sit though I have to say that if you can’t curb your desire to tell everyone about everything you are doing when it comes to a lawsuit you should probably have your social media membership card revoked. Even in a world where everyone knows everything about everyone else there are times that it’s not about us. We may think that what we are doing and thinking is important all the time but it’s not required that we tell everything all the time especially if other people are profoundly impacted by our narcissism. Think before you tweet!

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 The RIAA says it is abandoning new lawsuits against file sharers. but existing court actions are moving forward.  Thanks to a team of Harvard law students, one of these trials will be shared with the world in an unprecedent fashion. A Massachusetts District Court judge has granted the request of a Harvard Law legal team authorizing internet broadcast coverage of a case brought by the RIAA.

Professor Charles Nesson and his team of Harvard Law students had filed a motion to admit the Internet into the courtroom, which is traditionally prohibited. Nesson is defending Joel Tenenbaum, who has been sued by the RIAA with punishment of more than $1 million dollars for downloading 7 songs.

You wouldn’t blog about it, tweet it or write on your wall about it. Would you?

No such worries for a woman juror in Burnley, UK, who ran a poll on Facebook asking her friends to vote on whether they thought the accused were guilty or not.

[…] The woman posted details of the child abduction and sex assault case on the website. Then she told friends: “I don’t know which way to go, so I’m holding a poll.”

Jurors are forbidden from discussing details of cases even with their closest family members. The woman was dismissed after a tip-off to Burnley Crown Court, Lancs. The trial continued with 11 jurors. It was thought she did not use privacy settings, meaning the Facebook posts could be read by anyone.

Last night a legal source said the juror could have been charged with contempt of court — and the trial scrapped. The expert added: “It defies belief. She obviously has no grasp of how the judicial process works in this country. She had been asking her mates what they thought — and some people came back with guilty verdicts.”

Amazing but true according to The Sun and lots of mainstream media reports, via BrandRepublic.

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Tongue firmly in cheek Greg cites supporters of his claim that use of a social media press release is, well, useless.

There are always two sides to a story and any defendant in this justice system is innocent until proven guilty.  Brian Solis of PR 2.0 stepped up to the plate as Defense Attorney.

Here’s what he had to say:

I propose for those who cast stones without New Media experience, that they are not punished at all.stop pretending to know what you’re talking about when you haven’t even experimented with the very things you bury without experience or intelligence.

Theory doesn’t count here. Especially when we’re already proving otherwise.
You’re opinion will only count when, as they say in anthropology, you’ve "gone native" and come back to tell the story.

If you wish to plead a case in front of your peers, then please call forth witnesses who have credible and legitimate experience in the field you’re spotlighting. Just because you refer to bloggers or "social" experts doesn’t mean they’re experienced in PR or Social Media Releases. Not one person you called to testify has ever releases one, so all of their testimony should be stricken from the record.

Good point.

The SMR grew out of journalists’ irritation with PR spin on a story.  A journalist will always prefer ‘"just the facts, Jack.." After all, they are journalists.  It’s their job to write the story.

In a social media environment, when you are engaging with your public directly, facts and bullet points may not be the best presentation of your  content.

And some bloggers probably won’t want it that way either. 

Our profession is called public relations.  Make relaitonships with the people you are engaging with. and when you’ve figured out who you are talking to, and what they want from you, you can craft your content in the format best suited for that individual.

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With the adoption of OpenID, commenters on Blogger blogs will be able to use their “one login fits all” username and password when leaving a comment.

Google hopes to test the feature before deploying it to all Blogger accounts and also hints at letting you use your Blogger domain as your ID for commenting at other blogs.

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In addition, Google will likely have to address copyright issues. Allowing consumers to share different types of files such as music with other users could trigger the sort of copyright complaints the company already faces over videos on its YouTube video sharing site. One person familiar with the matter says Google is discussing with copyright holders how to approach the issue and has some preliminary solutions.

They also mentioned the C word:

Google will likely have to address copyright issues. Allowing consumers to share different types of files such as music with other users could trigger the sort of copyright complaints the company already faces over videos on its YouTube video sharing site. One person familiar with the matter says Google is discussing with copyright holders how to approach the issue and has some preliminary solutions.

This is going to move Google up the value system by

• giving them a unique data source
• giving them unique relevancy signals
• keeping users locked into their services and using their services longer
• shift power from copyright holders to Google
• eventually allow Google to sell content (if they want to – the Google Video trial did not work too well)

But there will also be a big upside, especially to marketers and content creators who are willing to give away high value content to gain mindshare and marketshare. By creating content that people would want to store and share on Google, you get cheap or free exposure for your business interests.

As DaveN said, Google eventually has to move away from links because links are too polluted. What better relevancy signals can they come up with than attention data and how often people cite and share data ON THEIR NETWORK? Feedburner, Google Reader, iGoogle, Gmail, and Youtube are already part of the Google network. Soon your hard drive will be too.

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eBay employee Kevin Morgan arrived in Exeter on Sunday, but left on Wednesday before taking the stand because he was frustrated with the wait.

"The trial has effectively been torpedoed by his leaving the country," prosecutor Martin Kenny, according to the Herald Express. "I would have thought eBay would have been keen to give evidence to allow the court to get to the bottom of this case."

Judge Philip Wassall told the jury he thought about having the plane that Morgan was on turn around in mid air so he could provide his testimony. The judge chose not to do so after considering the disruption it would cause other passengers.

The trial involves 20-year-old Alisdair Noon of Torquay and alleges conspiracy to defraud eBay buyers by not shipping low cost items on the site. Two other men in the case have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and will be sentenced in December.

Judge Wassall has issued a witness summons for Morgan and said he would also consider an order for wasted court costs.