A judge in Tuscany on Wednesday accepted a plea agreement from Costa Crociere, a unit of Carnival Corp., which required the company to pay a fine of $1.31 million for a deadly cruise ship wreck in January 2012. The plea agreement will settle any criminal charges stemming from the accident that occurred off the coast of the Tuscan island of Giglio that resulted in the deaths of 32 people.

The cruise ship captained by Francesco Schettino, carrying over 4,000 passengers and crew, ran into a reef on January 13, 2012, which caused the ship to take on water and overturn. The Concordia is still in the water awaiting recovery. The settlement does not shield the Concordia from civil suits. Schettino remains accused on manslaughter, and could see a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Schettino is not the only member of the ship’s crew that still faces legal repercussions however, as five other members also face indictment on criminal charges.

John Arthur Eaves, Jr., an American lawyer representing 150 passengers and crew members, blames the disaster mostly on the shoulders of Carnival and Costa, and termed the plea agreement a “tragedy.” Eaves is striving for $5 million in compensation for each of his clients. Similarly, the Italian consumer group Codacons described the monetary settlement as a “slap to the survivors and most of all to the relatives of the victims of the shipwreck.” Passengers who were onboard that day contend that poor training on the part of the ship’s staff resulted in a chaotic evacuation.

As to the salvage of the Concordia, the ship is planned to be corrected in early August of this year and then floated off the reef in the fall.

For more information:

http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-costa-concordia-fine-20130410,0,2757099.story

http://www.examiner.com/article/cruise-ship-fines-set-concordia-wreck-brings-1-3m-fine-from-judge

http://www.today.com/travel/costa-cruises-accepts-1-3-million-fine-over-concordia-disaster-1C9291241

Amanda Knox, a United States citizen attending college in Italy, was tried and convicted for the 2007 murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher.  After serving four years of her 26 year sentence, Knox was acquitted in 2011.  Since her release, Knox has been attending college in Oregon.  Last week Italy’s highest criminal court overturned the acquittal and ordered a retrial.

Italy’s criminal justice system that is based in a civil law tradition seems very foreign to Americans who are accustomed to common law.  Unlike the US justice system, in Italy prosecutors can appeal a case when they receive a poor verdict, which makes it routine for criminal cases to be appealed.  In the United States only five percent of verdicts are overturned on appeal.  Conversely, in Italy this occurs in 95% of appeals.

But what is most startling about Knox’s upcoming post-acquittal retrial is that it clashes with the American constitutional prohibition of double jeopardy.  While American courts do not allow a person to be tried twice on the same allegations, Italian law does not have such a prohibition.  Because of this, many people are wondering whether the United States will even be willing to extradite Knox if the Italian courts make such a demand.

While Knox can be tried in absentia, if the court finds that she is guilty Italy will likely demand her extradition.  The United States has an extradition treaty with Italy, and it regularly delivers people convicted of crimes by Italian courts.  If Italy makes such a demand, a United States judge would be required to ratify Knox’s guilt using a “probable cause” standard before she could be extradited.  And indeed, the aforementioned treaty forbids extradition where the defendant was previously acquitted.  However, many legal experts think that Knox would be extradited in this situation because Italy would likely argue that Knox’s acquittal was not final within the context of the Italian justice system.  It will be interesting to see how the US courts reconcile the constitutional issues of this case with the foreign treaty.

For more information:

 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-26/italy-extradition-of-amanda-knox-seen-as-difficult.html

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/26/world/europe/italy-amanda-knox-case/index.html

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/26/17468473-italy-court-amanda-knox-to-be-retried-for-meredith-kercher-murder?lite

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/03/30/can-amanda-knox-be-forced-back-to-italy/