March 27, 2015

Women and their hard-fought court cases.

1.  "Italy’s highest court overturned the murder convictions of Amanda Knox and her Italian former boyfriend on Friday, throwing out all charges and ending a long-running courtroom drama over the killing of a British student in 2007."

2. "One of Silicon Valley’s most famous venture capital firms prevailed on Friday over a former partner in a closely watched suit claiming gender discrimination.... The plaintiff, Ellen Pao, had accused the firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, of discriminating against her in the course of her employment and eventual dismissal."

26 comments:

Simon said...

I had absolutely no intention of pretending that a wrong decision about Ms.Knox would have the slightest seriousness, which, I suppose, precludes me from pretending that a right decision about her has the slightest seriousness. Italy has first-rate cuisine but a third-rate legal system, and we should never have permitted it to try Knox in the first place.

Ambrose said...

Yes, but Google gave $70 million to some dame to be their CFO. Even stevens?

Achilles said...

Can we still use the term gold-digger? If I was a hillary bot trying to ban words or terms I would go after that one too.

SGT Ted said...

Ellen Pao appears to be a professional victim working the system for a big payout.

Gahrie said...

Hillary Clinton appears to be a professional victim working the system for a big payout.

ftfy

Jim Gust said...

Here's the likely result of the Pao lawsuit, even though the jury got it right:

http://recode.net/2015/03/16/the-most-dangerous-meme-in-the-paokleiner-trial-now-no-one-will-hire-women/

I did not realize that her husband also filed a discrimination lawsuit against his employer, because he is black. What an unlucky couple!

Popville said...

Pao was an unsympathetic figure, tho that still doesn't make Bay Area venture capitalists look any better. I cannot think of any group here that deserves a dose of their own bad karma. Truely despicable people, with only a few exceptions.

When robots & software finally put everyone out of work, who will buy the products & services they provide? Where's the planning for that day, which likes Moore's law gets exponentially closer every few years? Maybe we'll have hippie nirvana, tho more likely chos followed by societal collapse. I will likely be dead, but I cry for my children & grandchildren.

Sebastian said...

"Yes, but Google gave $70 million to some dame to be their CFO"

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. In spite of her loss, Pao signals risk. Given the potential for legal blackmail, rational firms would higher fewer women. But given the potential for legal blackmail, rational firms would pay protection money to some women.

Several sectors have already caved. Tech and finance are next. Prediction: half-way competent women and minorities (real minorities, not Asians) will be able to name their price.

chickelit said...

Silver lining for the ladies:

Lynne C. Hermle, lead counsel for defendants, is still undefeated!

MayBee said...

So happy for Amanda Knox. What a circus. And I'm happy for me, because I don't have the willpower to boycott Italy. So this takes the pressure off me. Whew!

n.n said...

Pao gambled and lost with an archaic argument. Due process prevails over emotional appeals.

Virgil Hilts said...

I got interested in the Knox case and read Fatal Case of Beauty by Nina Burleigh (of Clinton BJ fame) a year or so ago. The thing that was surprising to me is how a good majority of people in the UK are still convinced Knox is guilty and an evil witch. I think all of the UK tabloids assumed guilt from the get go (Bambi Eyed Killer!) and cognitive dissonance took over from there.

Anonymous said...

Althouse, do you get a cut of NYT subscriptions flowing from your site similar to the cut you get from Amazon? You sure do love you some New York Times.

Steven said...

Those Italian cops are plainly incompetent. A sleep-deprived teenage girl, who didn't speak the local language more than brokenly, held without assistance of counsel for hours? Any real cop would have gotten her to confess to shooting Abraham Lincoln from the grassy knoll on the Ides of March while giving a blowjob to St. Nicholas.

Paco Wové said...

"The thing that was surprising to me is how a good majority of people in the UK are still convinced Knox is guilty and an evil witch."

Yeah, that's always struck me about this case as well. Despite an almost complete lack of evidence, most European (and especially British) commenters seem vehemently convinced of Knox's guilt. Scratch the surface and a lot of anti-American feeling comes out.

Whereas most American commentary I've seen reasons that the real murderer is already in jail, and the idea that Knox was some kind of sex criminal mastermind is just a creepy old man's fantasy.

Anonymous said...

Irony is of course is that Pao husband Buddy hosted a party when Obama was sworn in 2009. Phish fund is bankrupt. No one wants to work with him or her. That is of course the face of Democratic Party.

Yet your POTUS will be Deadbroke HRC:
1. GOP has no accomplishments.
2. No women in leadership (house or senate)
3. No appreciation of American science.
4. No understanding of immigration in our economy.

Are you ready for HRC?

Xmas said...

I think the Brits are still angry about how our tabloids went after that poor British Au Pair a few years ago. Amanda Knox was their revenge.

Paco Wové said...

John Doerr, Haven Monahan, and Now Amanda Knox: Great White Defendant Privilege in Action

Tank said...

Paco's search for a gentle giant teen youth preparing for college.

Ban all those words, and I mean now !!!

SGT Ted said...

I want a bag of what America's Politico is smoking.

David said...

Pao had a electrical engineering degree from Princeton. Also Harvard Law and Harvard Business School. Hired and promised by the top vc firm in its field. Now a senior exec with Reddit. Poor thing.

Big Mike said...

I wouldn't have voted to convict a dog of chasing a cat if presented with the "evidence" presented against Amanda Knox.

Zach said...

The Amanda Knox case was really a travesty of justice. There was no evidence against her. That's not hyperbole -- there was literally no evidence. Some self interested people decided she was behaving oddly during an all night interrogation in a foreign country, in a language she didn't speak fluently. The end. Meanwhile, they found and convicted the real killer, who had no connection to Knox.

A legitimate justice system shouldn't have allowed her to go to trial with so little evidence against her. Juries aren't perfect, and they're not allowed to see the big picture. They're not allowed to compare one criminal case another, and realize that the case they're heaing is far below the normal standard.

Zach said...

The Ellen Pao case is interesting. It seems like there's a big disconnect between what the case was billed as -- appalling allegations! shocking revelations! -- and what was actually proven at trial (nothing).

It's always dangerous to take one case as a symbol of a larger social movement. But wasn't that the focus of all the coverage? That Ellen Pao was the symbol of a bigger problem that needed to be addressed?

There's an interesting parallel between the two cases. Media coverage of a trial always has the subtext that one side's case deserves to be heard -- that their case should prevail in a perfect world.

Knox's story is fundamentally not interesting if she was guilty all along. The obvious innocence is what makes it a story.

Pao's case -- was it ever really a story, or was it a disgruntled employee making a stink on the way out? Getting nothing at all from the jury makes me wonder if the coverage shouldn't have been more skeptical.

CatherineM said...

Lord the comments on the Pao case at the NYT. They think she is a hero and "at least she brought attention to discrimination," reminds me so much of the UVA story. Of course it matters if it's true.

Happy for Amanda Knox. I hope she gets to fade into obscurity and lead a happy life.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Wow, women, you've really fought hard lately! Why don't you take a little time off, maybe a "mental health day", and put your feet up for a spell?