Amanda Knox: "48 Hours" reporter Doug Longhini describes his journey reporting on Amanda Knox through the years - and his increasing cynicism as he learned more and more about the prosecution's case. (Really neat read. HL);

GIST:  "In the wake of Amanda Knox's acquittal last Friday of the murder of her former roommate Meredith Kercher in November 2007 in Perugia, Italy, critiques of Italy's justice system are inevitable. Had the system initially erred because it relied on a false confession, a dodgy witnesses, or flawed forensics? Probably yes to all those failings, but when 48 Hours sent me to Perugia to cover the story, I learned something pretty basic was being ignored - common sense.........Now a bit skeptical, on February 8, 2008, we met Knox lead prosecutor Giuliano Mignini at the Kefe Bar in Perugia for a drink -- apertivo -- and, hopefully, insight. Mignini told us there was no cause for our confusion. He assured us that he had a key witness who could prove the three people in custody (Knox, Raffaele Sollecito, and Rudy Guede) had killed Meredith Kercher in the late hours of November 1, 2007 and then fled the scene together.The witness, Mignini explained, was an elderly woman who lived near the house Knox shared with Kercher. The witness described a terrifying scream in the night she'd heard coming from the house. Then she claimed to have heard - not seen - three people running away from the crime scene. Mignini said he was completely convinced that the witness's account of hearing exactly three people running was the proof he needed to show that Knox, Sollecito and Guede were the killers. But we asked ourselves, how could anyone "hear" exactly three people running? Sure, you can hear multiple footsteps, but to say exactly three, made no sense. So we next turned to forensic science and on Valentine's Day 2008, we went to the sprawling headquarters of Italy's Scientific Police in Rome. Some of the hallways are lined with photos of mafia dons, drug kingpins, and infamous killers. And to our surprise, there, among the framed images on this walk of shame, was a photo of Amanda Knox. Even though Knox would not be formally indicted for murder for another eight months, Italian police had, at least figuratively, nailed her trophy to the wall. Eduardo Giobbi, part of the top echelon of the Scientific Police, told us his agency - one steeped in fingerprints, DNA, and forensic methods - had not used scientific evidence to lead them to Amanda Knox for the murder of Meredith Kercher. Instead, Giobbi bragged, he and his fellow investigators had noted Knox's often quirky behavior and found a killer hiding behind her antics. Forensic science in the Knox case, it seemed, be damned, at least in the critical initial days."