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Gals too pretty to convict

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The world has a new, sleeker, prettier and more sympathetic Casey Anthony.

Casey — say hey to Amanda Knox! You gals have a lot in common.

Knox is an American who was locked four years in an Italian prison, convicted of gouging the throat and sexually assaulting her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, who died in agony at age 21. But last week, Knox, along with her beau, Raffaele Sollecito, was set free by an Italian appeals court and shipped into the loving arms of her family, friends and fan club.

As she sprinted out of court for the last time, Knox made a pretty spectacle, sobbing and sniffling as onlookers mobbed her. But then, I caught sight of something Knox didn’t want me to see.

She grinned, and heartily.

I’m outta here, suckers!

At 24, Knox has her looks, her vitality and her life. She can write a book. Finish her education. Marry and divorce. But she deserves to be haunted by one question until the day she meets a more comfortable end than poor Meredith did.

Is Amanda Knox innocent?

The truth is murkier than a Florida swamp.

Following in the footsteps of her role model, Casey Anthony — another 20-something hottie, acquitted in Orlando for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee — Knox played the “I’m too pretty to kill” card.

Knox convinced the majority of the planet that she was nailed for no reasons other than she was too attractive, too weird, too American. She was freed for the same reasons. A brilliant strategy.

Kercher died in agony — naked and raped, her throat slashed clumsily with a kitchen knife. It may have taken 10 minutes for her life to ebb.

But the world that embraced Amanda has forgotten Meredith. In terms of looks, star power and public-relations savvy, she never could compete with Foxy Knoxy.

So, who killed her?

Rudy Guede, a drifter and drug dealer from the Ivory Coast, is serving 16 years in an Italian prison for the slaying. There is no question he was with Meredith on the night she was killed, although he says Knox and Sollecito did it.

It’s never been clear that Guede acted alone.

When the police questioned her, Knox confessed that she was in the house she shared with Kercher on the night of the murder. She repeated this the next day, in writing.

She blamed not Guede, but a Congolese bar owner, Patrick Lumumba, for the killing. This was a lie — Lumumba was nowhere near. Is this, as prosecutors say, a sign of Knox’s guilt?

During the police investigation, Knox and her boyfriend and co-defendant, Sollecito, did not freak out in fear that, had Knox been home at the time of Kercher’s murder, she could have been the victim. The pair of kooky cretins kissed, hugged and made out like horny schoolkids, right in the lockup. Knox did cartwheels.

Knox said she spent the evening smoking pot, watching a movie and making love with Sollecito. But the smitten suitor couldn’t remember this. Impossible! Was Knox hiding something?

Before she was sprung from prison, Knox used perfect Italian to protest her innocence. “I didn’t do what they say I did. I didn’t kill. I didn’t rape. I didn’t steal. I was not there.”

But evidence used to free her didn’t exactly point to her innocence, either.

Shades of OJ Simpson! DNA evidence was found by court-appointed experts in the appeal to have been collected, stored and analyzed below international standards. So, whose DNA was it?

The experts said Meredith’s bra clasp, which allegedly contained Sollecito’s DNA, had been improperly handled. A knife found in Sollecito’s kitchen that contained DNA from both Knox and Kercher bore too small a sample to be tested again.

So, confessions are rejected. Negative reactions to guilty behavior is chalked up to “anti-Americanism.’’ And DNA is rendered useless.

Knox was released from her nightmare. Guede, who continues to profess his innocence, is ignored. And while Kercher’s murder is considered mysterious, no one wants to dig up the truth.

Amanda Knox. Freed for being too pretty. This is justice?

Better to tune out this scary cartoon

Holy indoctrination, Batman!

A year ago, I brought word of the latest scourge set to hit your TV — a bunch of Sharia-compliant Muslim cartoon superheroes, slinging truth, justice and Islamic values into your kids’ bedrooms. Called “The 99,’’ the show stars characters who possess the 99 attributes of Allah.

So there’s Batina the Hidden, who fights crime wrapped head-to-toe in a burqa. Plus, male and female superheroes are forbidden to be alone in a room, in accordance with strict Muslim law. No telling if breaking the rule is punishable by a super-strong stoning.

After my column ran, TV channel The Hub yanked the show. A year later, the network won’t say when, or if, “The 99’’ will air. This has royally peeved the show’s creator, Kuwaiti psychologist Naif al-Mustawa. He whined in a new PBS documentary, “Wham! Bam! Islam!’’ premiering Thursday, that critics (like me) poisoned his cartoon in the Western market.

“One way or the other,’’ al-Mustawa vowed, “ ‘The 99’ will get air in the US.’’

Not if I have anything to say about it.

A nixed blessing

A California high-school teacher docked students’ scores 25 points whenever they said — are you ready? — “God bless you’’ to a classmate’s sneeze. I sense a trend.

Politically correct members of New York’s Community Board 1 last week moved a Jewish sukkah from Duane Park. Santa Claus was replaced at the 14th Street McBurney YMCA with the religiously neutral Frosty the Snowman. But this teacher wins the insanity sweepstakes.

Vacaville health teacher Steve Cuckovich punished students for every “Gesundheit,’’ until the district began investigating.

Kids, if you value your grades, don’t even try reciting “The Pledge of Allegiance.’’ Under God? Not in school.

Mrs. O, mystery bargain hunter

Michelle Obama was photographed in an unfortunate floral-print blouse and Nike baseball cap, trolling the aisles of a Virginia Target store in search of bargains — just like real people!

The first lady, drubbed for her pricey vacations and designer duds, denies, through her flack, that the photo op was staged to make her look down with us coupon cutters. But the contents of her shopping cart remain a state secret.

Conspiracy theorists want to know — did Mrs. O score some of Target’s impossible-to-get Missoni duds?

Cops’ misguided blame game

Here’s a protest I can wrap my arms around.

Ten women have been sexually attacked since March in yuppie Park Slope and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Police have responded — by warning ladies not to wear skirts or short shorts.

Fact is, old women, kids and men have all been victims of pervs and creeps. To focus on the size of a woman’s outfit constitutes a blame-the-victim mentality. What do cops want — hijabs?

This month, 1,000 scantily clad women “slut-walked” in Union Square against the idea that rape is their fault.

Catch a pervert; don’t shame women.

This isn’t Saudi Arabia.