As Nur wrote to Dr.

Math
On 10/24/2011 at 05:18:41 (Eastern Time),
>[Question]
>Suppose that on an island there are three types of people, knights,
>knaves and normals. Knights always tell the truth; knaves always lie;
>and normals sometimes lie and sometimes tell the truth. Detectives
>questioned three inhabitants of the island [?][?][?] Amy, Brenda, and Claire [?][?][?]
>as part of the investigation of a crime. The detectives knew that one
>of the three committed the crime, but not which one. They also knew
>that the criminal was a knight, and that the other two were not.
>Additionally, the detectives recorded these statements: Amy: [?][?][?]I am
>innocent.[?][?][?] Brenda: [?][?][?]What Amy says is true.[?][?][?] Claire: [?][?][?]Brenda is not
>normal.[?][?][?] After analyzing their information, the detectives positively
>identified the guilty party. Who was it? Explain.
>
>[Difficulty]
>The three statements that lead the detective to conclude that Brenda
>is the guilty person.
>
>[Thoughts]
>It seems that it is difficult to determine who is a knight, a knave,
>and a normal person from the three statements

Nur

Let's see what happens when we consider each person as a possible knight.

Amy cannot be the knight because knights tell the truth and we know that a knight did the
crime. Amy cannot say 'I am innocent' if she is the knight. She would have to say 'I am
guilty'.

What if Brenda is the knight? She has to tell the truth. Thus, her saying that Amy told
the truth works because Brenda would be the guilty person as the knight. Claire's
statement that Brenda is not normal would also work.

Conclusion so far:
Amy is not knight and Brenda could be.

What if Claire is the knight? Her statement that Brenda is not normal would have to be true.
This means that Brenda is the knight or the knave. Brenda cannot be the knight because we
are supposing that Claire is. This means Brenda is the knave. As the knave, Brenda must
lie. This means that Brenda's statement about Amy saying truth must be false. Therefore
Amy must be guilty and thus be the knight. We would have two knights (Amy and Claire).
Therefore Claire cannot be the knight because her statement leads us to conclude that
there are two knights which contradicts the info we were given.

So, Brenda must be the knight by this elimination process.

Hope this helps