Welcome to RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through today’s top five controversial stories in the world of law and policy. Who’s ranting and raving right now? Check it out below:

Brown University Provides Free Tampons for all!

Brown University, located in Providence, Rhode Island, has started providing free tampons and pads to its students. The university put pads and tampons in the women’s, men’s, and gender neutral bathrooms on campus, indicating that they’re a necessity, not a luxury item.

But the fact that the sanitary products were placed in men’s bathrooms has, of course, led some people to get their panties in a wad over trans bathroom access…again. For example, Daily Caller writer Blake Neff stated:

The decision reflects the view, embraced by Brown’s student government, that not all who menstruate are women. After all, a biological woman could declare herself to be man and start using the men’s restroom, while continuing to menstruate like usual.

But let’s just ignore the haters and embrace the good news here–this is a really cool thing for Brown University to do.

Rant Crush

RantCrush collects the top trending topics in the law and policy world each day just for you.

The post RantCrush Top 5: September 9, 2016 appeared first on Law Street.

Hey y’all!

It’s been a while but let’s jump right into what is going on in the news this week.

The Italian Court of Cassation (the top criminal court in Italy) has officially thrown out the guilty verdicts of Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend  Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian native.

On November 2, 2007 the body of 21-year-old UK citizen, Meredith Kercher, was found in the home that she shared with Amanda Knox in the college town of Perugia, Italy. Amanda Knox, her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and Rudy Guede (from the Ivory Coast) were all prime suspects and were eventually tried and convicted of Kercher’s murder.

In the first trial in 2009, Amanda Knox was convicted of murder, sexual assault, and slander with an original sentence of 26 years in prison. Raffaele Sollecito was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Rudy Guede was later tried and convicted of murder with a 16 year sentence; he admitted to being inside the home when Kercher was murdered and his DNA was found all over her bedroom where her body was found.

In 2011, Knox and Sollecito appealed and the court throw out the original convictions, except for Knox’s slander charge which required only a year of prison time that was counted as served in the four years that Knox had already spent there. But in 2013, the high court in Italy reversed the acquittal and required another appeals trial. Then in 2014 the new appeals trial held the original 2009 conviction and ordered Amanda Knox to serve 28 1/2 years in prison (including the one year for slander) but kept Sollecito’s time to 25 years.

But finally, in March of this year the Italian high court found that Knox and Sollecito did not murder Kercher, and just a couple of days ago the court released its final statement and reasoning behind this decision.

The Court of Cassation wrote that there was an “absolute lack of biological traces” of Knox and Sollecito in Kercher’s bedroom or even on her body. The Court also noted that there was a plethora of omissions and poorly executed investigations into this case.

Case in point, the original prosecutor Giuliano Mignini was one piece of work. While he was prosecuting Amanda Knox, he was making his own court appearances for indictments starting in 2006 for “abuse of office power” and “abetting” in connection to another high profile case. So, essentially the prosecutor seemingly liked getting his way by any means necessary and encouraging others to break the law too.

Now, I have been following along with this case for quite sometime and I have a hard time distinguishing the truth. Sometimes I believe that Knox was not involved but then other times I have to wonder if she really was. Some of Knox’s actions are consistent of a scared 20-something living in a foreign country but then there are other things that scream she knew at least that something was going on. We may never know the truth, but this latest ruling by the court should put an end to the saga of Amanda Knox’s fate, and let the family of Meredith Kercher move on with their lives.

Allison Dawson

Allison Dawson was born in Germany and raised in Mississippi and Texas. A graduate of Texas Tech University and Arizona State University, she’s currently dedicating her life to studying for the LSAT. Twitter junkie. Conservative. Get in touch with Allison at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Amanda Knox…Free at Last! appeared first on Law Street.

She was convicted, then acquitted, and then re-convicted. Today, after more than seven years of legal limbo in the Italian justice system, Amanda Knox is expected to hear a verdict from Italy’s highest court to determine if her murder conviction will be upheld. If found guilty for a third time, Knox may find herself in an extradition battle between the U.S. and Italy.

Judgment day: Court to decide Amanda Knox’s future http://t.co/uS1fyoEhHH via http://t.co/nyDdMYjJKC pic.twitter.com/D4oULavgWT

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 27, 2015

If you are not familiar with the Knox case, or just a little hazy on all of the details, here’s a quick refresher:

In 2009 Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of murdering 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher, who in 2007 was found stabbed to death in the Perugia, Italy villa that she shared with Knox. Knox was sentenced to 26 years, and Sollecito to 25 years. Then in 2011, after having already served four years behind Italian bars, both Knox and Sollecito were found not guilty on appeal and released. Knox returned to Seattle. That acquittal was short lived because in 2014, the Italian Supreme Court overturned the appeal, convicting Knox yet again. This time, Knox was sentenced to 28.5 years in prison, Sollecito received 25 years. Now the Italian Supreme Court will decide if they will uphold Knox and Sollecito’s murder convictions, enter a new appeals round, or issue a ruling that amounts to an acquittal.

Knox, who never returned to Italy after being released, awaits a verdict from Seattle, while Sollecito, who has had his passport seized, has attended court proceedings in Italy.

So what does this all mean for Amanda Knox?

If found guilty, again, the Italian government may attempt to extradite the 27-year-old to Italy in order to serve out the remainder of her sentence. Normally that would be the case because of a 1983 extradition treaty between Washington and Rome, which allows individuals charged or convicted of certain crimes in one country to be detained and sent back to the other. However, it’s doubtful this will ever happen for Knox. In accordance with that treaty, the United States will not extradite a person who has previously been acquitted, which Knox was at one point. The U.S. Constitution also protects Knox from double jeopardy, which forbids an individual from being retried for the same charges they’ve been legitimately acquitted or convicted of.

According to CNN, the statute of limitations is double the sentence, meaning the Italians have 57 years to bring her back to the country. In order for Knox to be sent back to Italy, the American Secretary of State must first sign off. But due to the high profile nature of the case, including Amanda’s large number of supporters, and accusations of Italian police mishandling, this outcome is highly unlikely.

If Knox is found guilty and refuses to go back to Italy she will have an international arrest warrant lingering over her head, essentially making international travel for her an impossibility. Sollecito, on the other hand, has way more to lose, given that he is already in Italy and can be taken into custody immediately following the verdict.

Both Knox and Sollecito have never wavered in insisting their innocence in Kirchner’s murder. A judgment is expected to be handed out sometime Friday. We’ll continue to watch with the rest of the world to see what Amanda’s fate may be, but as of now it’s very uncertain.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Amanda Knox’s Legal Limbo Almost Over appeared first on Law Street.