As I covered a few weeks back, Netflix made a documentary about Amanda Knox and her years-long legal battle in Italy, after she was found guilty of killing her then-roommate Meredith Kercher. The conviction was later overturned and Knox was released and allowed to return home. Then she was re-convicted in absentia, then that conviction was overturned too. In the years since she returned to America, she’s been living a somewhat quiet life. She released a book a few years back and promoted it with TV interviews, then she went back to her quiet life. Now, with this Netflix documentary, Knox is back on the interview circuit. Even though the documentary wasn’t her idea – she merely agreed to sit for several interviews for it – she’s still promoting it, which is why there were several new interviews with Knox in the past week.
First she appeared on Good Morning America, where she talked about the process of being part of the Netflix documentary, and she feels like it’s “good journalism.” Knox also spoke to Nightline on Friday night’s episode, and she ended up explaining the circumstances around her lies to police about where she was on the night Kercher was killed.
I like that she’s not making it about how Italy is super-corrupt and America is perfect – her point that wrongful convictions can happen anywhere, to anyone, at any time is a message that works for all people. As for her explanation for why she gave a false confession to the police, this is how she explained what went down during her 53-hour interrogation:
“I was hit on the back of the head, I was yelled at. Police were coming in and out of the room telling me that I was a liar. It was chaos. It was utter chaos. The police told me that I had amnesia, and that I better remember the truth. And so what they were forcing me to consider was that my memories that I had spent the night with Raffaele were wrong and that I needed to re-scramble my brain around in order to bring out the truth.”
Soon Knox told investigators she was there in the house and covering her ears to block out Kercher’s screams. The confession was a false memory.
“A lot of cases of someone who is wrongfully convicted include a false confession, where someone was put through coercive interrogation techniques that led them to break,” she explained.
This was one of the moments used against Knox in court, and in the court of public opinion. But she was 20 years old, she didn’t 100% speak the language and yes, the interrogation lasted for more than 2 days. Many, many people would break under those circumstances. I also like what she says about “acting guilty” or “acting suspiciously” versus actual facts of the case.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
weirdo.
How is she a weirdo? She is putting her life back together after spending 4 years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. I thought she was very articulate.
ZERO empathy = psychopath, sociopath, call it whatever you like.
I think its weird… hence the term: weirdo.
Even if she lacks empathy and is a psychopath or sociopath, that doesn’t mean she killed her roommate. Plenty of sociopaths don’t kill.
Expounding on @Asiyah’s point: A lot of surgeons are sociopaths – makes it easier to do the job when you don’t feel the emotional strain. Though @Stinky never said Amanda is a killer, just that she’s a weirdo because she’s a sociopath… which, yeah most of society would probably agree with that. Not feeling empathy or sympathy is abnormal or “weird.”
Well in fact she was in prison for three years but because of false testimony. She accused someone who she worked for who was innocent. He was in prison for two weeks because of that testimony. Those were the years she deserved for that fact.
Plus she spent one year for the murder. That one year is called wrongful detention now because she was acquitted.
Anyway I still have the feeling that she and her boyfriend know something they are not telling. But who knows. Anyway sorry for Meredith that died so young and in such a horrible way.
@egla you are correct and thank you for reminding everyone that some of the time spent in prison was time she deserved for falsely accusing her former boss.
I do not think she is 100% innocent and I actually found the documentary off putting. She may not have committed murder but it does seem she knows something she isn’t telling.
Well, I think at the very least she’s weird for going into her house the morning after Meredith Kercher’s murder, even though the door was open. Then she proceeded to take a shower, even though there was blood on the bath mat and sink. How many people would behave like this if they came home and the door was open and there was blood? http://racerelations.about.com/od/thelegalsystem/fl/Why-Race-Matters-in-the-Amanda-Knox-Case.htm
…and? I’m a weirdo as many other people are weirdos compared to what we shallowly label “normal”. What does weirdo have to do with anything in our justice system? Weirdo isn’t a viable or legal defense case.
Are you a trained psychiatrist?
@stinky, psychopaths actually frequently have very high levels of empathy.
What? No.
DSM-5: Shared tendencies of sociopaths and psychopaths:
•A disregard for laws and social mores
•A disregard for the rights of others
•A failure to feel remorse or guilt
•A tendency to display violent behavior
Does Nick Pisa realize he came off like a totally scumbag?
Oh and the prosecutor saying he knew she was guilty when he brought her into the house the next day to look at possible murder weapons. And she broke down crying. He was like I knew then she was involved. Also his obsession with Sherlock and him starting to smoke a pipe!!!
I hope he realizes. Whenever his name came on screen I started referring to him as Nick Pis-a-shit in my head. What a freaking vulture. Anything for a story. Who cares if you ruin someone’s life in the process? Scumbag.
Great nickname! I literally growled when he made the comment that he didnt verify sources.
If anyone comes out looking like a psychopath, I think it was the journo. What an a**!
You’re in Europe not Iran or another non westernized country. I wouldn’t be confessing to blocking out screams if I hadn’t been! Not like they can throw you into an airless pit and forget you are there, you know?
If she had been that savvy, she might have even asked for the US consulate, refused to talk to them in the first place, or refused to answer questions in Italian since her Italian sucked.
She was a little naive, yes, but it is still not an easy situation to be in.
I’ve always wondered why she didn’t contact the US Consulate. I was an exchange student abroad at her age, and I was taught that if I had any trouble to contact the embassy. Why wouldn’t she have known this? It also seems she received no training about the proper way to behave in a foreign country, although in no country would some of her alleged antics after her roommate’s death been considered appropriate.
Her naïveté read as arrogance at times.
Nope, they can just scream and hit you while demanding you admit to being participant in a horrifying crime for 53 hours straight.
The European scenery totally makes it less scary and un-Iranlike.
Beautiful use of sarcasm ESE. Unfortunately, those convinced of her guilt won’t let facts or rationale stand in the way. Someone used this term yesterday but it’s applicable here too. Twas ever thus.
I was studying in Florence at the same time as this and a friend of mine in our group had been arrested and thrown in jail for getting into an altercation with undercover police. He spent nearly a month in jail and he was treated like a piece of trash. I have no trouble believing the circumstances she was under that led to this false confession.
53 hours. More than 2 days, no sleep, with no signs of it stopping until you come up with some sort of confession. You really think you’d have held out?
That’s incorrect. She accused her boss in under 1 hour 45 minutes and probably just after 1 hour. The context for her accusation was being told Raff (in separate interview room) had just given up her alibi and said she asked him to lie. Above all, the interview wasn’t even admissible for her murder trial. But after rest and in the early morning she writes up an unprompted statement in English that was worded in a way that she wanted to keep accusing her boss.
None of these facts were even challenged by her legal team in court (for murder and calunnia trials) so it’s all established fact. The 53 hours, 40 hours were lies spread by her parents in the US media as part of her PR campaign. Check out the translated motivation reports / judges reports for the established facts.
People always think they won’t make false statements until it happens to them. Unless you have been brought in for questioning about a crime you did not commit, then you really have no idea what you will say.
Amanda did make a mistake in not listening to her parents. Her mother told her to get in touch with the US consulate and Amanda blew it off because she didn’t think anything was going to happen. Her story is a cautionary tale. If something happens while you are abroad, call the consulate or embassy. If she had a rep from the consulate with her, things never would have escalated the way they did.
Exactly.
Agree absolutely. There are so many examples of false confessions and it is a very real phenomenon. Having read about so many instances of it, I would never say that it couldn’t happen to me or a loved one.
@ Pandy
It’s easy for you to make such a statement when you’ve never been in that situation. It’s easy for you to judge from the comfort of your own home. And your orientalism is showing. As if people in Iran and other “nonwestern” countries are more likely to be coerced or wrongfully accused. As if that never happens in “western” countries. This is a VERY COMMON phenomenon that happens EVERYWHERE and psychologists and sociologists have been studying this for years. As if only “nonwestern” countries are capable of such injustice. If that’s how you seriously think then you have a lot of waking up to do.
@Asiyah +100 about the orientalism statement.
One of my friends is on a team that studies the interogations and investigations in murder cases and checks procedures and blind spots. In three years they have found three wrongful convictions. We live in The Netherlands, our cops are pretty good, but these things still happen. What I do like about our system is that the team my friend is on is hired by the police themselves to check them on blind spots.
@Pandy: You do know that forced confessions happen in the US? All the time. It’s well documented and has been studied by countless experts and yes, it’s bizarre, but it’s a real thing under extremely stressful circumstances. You have absolutely no idea what you’d do in that situation so be careful before you act so self-righteous.
We have problems with false confessions after lengthy interrogation by police here in the USA also. People have spent years in prison for crimes they never committed, sometimes DNA evidence eventually clears them today. You really can doubt your own memory under such circumstances and just tell them whatever they want, especially after a traumatic event. This is why it’s crucial to always have a lawyer when questioned by the police, no matter how innocent you are. There is no way to tell ahead of time if you are dealing with the good guys or the bad guys. We can hope most police are good guys and realize how unreliable such confessions are, but your life will never be the same if you end up with abusive police officers who just want to close the case quickly (as was a motivation for the Italian police officers also).
If Amanda had hired a lawyer immediately, we wouldn’t even know her name. And she wouldn’t have implicated her boss, because that was also one of the things they wanted from her. The whole thing is tainted because she was interrogated in a way that does indeed mess with people’s memories, especially if they are not neurotypical to begin with (which seems to be the case with her, and is why some of you think she is “weird”). She made the mistake of thinking it would be okay to be questioned without a lawyer because she hadn’t done anything. Operating in a foreign language and a foreign justice system made it even more complicated.
I don’t have an opinion on this case but there’s documented studies about the prevalence of false confessions under circumstances like those she described. End of story never talk to any police without a lawyer present.
Thank you! MTE
Good points Kaiser! I couldn’t agree with your assessment more.
I am pretty familiar with the case and another case the prosecutor on Knox’s case (Mignini) investigated (via the book by Douglas Preston, which may or may not become a tom cruise movie) and I thought the Netflix documentary fairly presented both sides of the story, though I wish more background on Mignini was given.
The British so-called “journalist” aspect was the most telling imo.
Mignini worked with Comodo, another prosecutor with equal say, to present what they though was the case in front of something like 30 or so judges (including Guede’s proceedings) on pretrial, preliminary evidence stuff, and whether the evidence suggests the defendants should remain in jail during trial. I don’t know why people think prosecutors actually power to go rogue. The judges have final say. Knox is never, ever asked about that when she uses the oh-I-was-railroaded-by-a-rogue-prosecutor line in interviews. Poor journalism.
Mignini also accused American journalist Douglas Preston of serial murders that had happened 25+ years ago, when Douglas Preston was never in Italy at those times.
Mignini has been censured for his conduct btw.
Also I assume you mean comodi…from my research into the Italian legal system, prosecutors in Italy have considerable power to leak stories and crime theories through the press. Neither judge nor jury is sequestered from media.
Power of media is not quite going rogue, but it is tremendous power…
53 hours?! Wow. It’s not like she was waterboarded or anything, but still. A 20 year old woman, interrogated for 53 hours. In a foreign nation. I wouldn’t have made it 5 hours without confessing to being Santa Claus in the flesh just to make it stop. She went for 53 hours. I’m not saying she’s innocent and I’m not saying she’s guilty. I wasn’t there. But sheesh, that’s crazy.
Actually, this is a misconception. Amanda Knox was interviewed for 2hrs max during the session that resulted in both the confession and the unsolicited confession letter. The investigation was lengthy and the Italian police must have been under a lot of pressure, but she spoke with police for no longer than a couple hrs before “coming up with” the story. Something is off and it isn’t her “look” or her promiscuity.
“Amanda Knox was interviewed for 2hrs max during the session that resulted in both the confession and the unsolicited confession letter. ”
Yes. But I think you’ll find many people don’t want to be reminded of this little fact.
One of the reasons our justice system has developed to the level it is (and that’s saying something) is because WE DID ALL THESE THINGS and realized they didn’t work. That given enough pressure and fear a person will confess to anything to make immediate pain stop even if it’s not true.
Great if you’re a beat cop in the 50’s just trying to make it home while his meatloaf is still warm. Bad if you’re actually interested in the pursuit of justice. WE DID THESE THINGS.
We used aggressive interrogation tactics. We interviewed people for days at a time. We got concessions to crime after crime and ended up with a prison system where a disturbingly large number of people were wrongly convicted because “Well they confessed, innocent people don’t do that”
They did put words in her mouth because she used American slang in Italian and they used the literal translation against her.
She texted “see you later” in Italian and they were like “this actually means ‘I’ll see you later tonight’ so you’re lying and meant that you would see him that night.”
I read somewhere that if she did it, there would be evidence that would have to be there such as soiled clothes etc.
The documentary also discussed contaminated evidence.
And yes Nick Pisa is a tw*t
I will never be 100% convinced that she is 100% innocent.
I agree. I just finished watching the Netflix documentary and something about her just seems…off.
because she’s a weirdo.
and this is exactly what psychologists have pointed out in various studies. when we perceive someone as weird we find them more likely to be guilty of certain things. keep repeating that she’s a weirdo, she might just be, but that doesn’t make her a killer.
Are you in high school? What adult uses the word “weirdo”? It’s people like you who 400 years ago would have convicted innocent women of witchcraft just because they didn’t fit into your facile definitions of what’s “normal.” You may not like someone’s manner, but that doesn’t make them a murderer, ffs.
yes – no argument about psychological studies & perceptions & witchery. its my right to weirdo-shame if I choose – and in her case I will be the first to do so. happily.
I’ve followed the case very closely, though not meticulously (as many have).
her demeanor was & remains puzzling – to many.
she always came across as someone who wanted out of prison, to be sure.
but she NEVER came across as an innocent to me – false confession or no false-confession.
had I been a juror, I’d likely have found her not guilty by virtue of reasonable doubt & reasonable doubt alone. Rudy was convicted and that spoke volumes. it made no sense for her to do such a thing. that’s why I didn’t call her a murderer. (co-signing with MoreSalt below about the name-changing & disappearing act)
Not a viable defense. J h Christ I seriously hope a lot of people that would convict on weirdo never get a jury summons or sit on a jury. More dangerous than our legal system, are juries that convict on “weirdo” or feelings. This is why we have innocent people in prison.
@ stinky you can go right ahead and think she’s a weirdo but what is the point of expressing that opinion here if not to allude that because she’s a weirdo she’s somehow guilty? her demeanor is puzzling and she might not be what you consider normal but again does that make her guilty of this crime? no.
its called a ‘forum’.
its where people say things.
agree or don’t, its why we’re here.
you don’t see me getting my chonies in a twist at her sympathizers, do you?
y’all are whiny.
@stinky
You would have only found her “not guilty” due to reasonable doubt? Ok, so the large amount of DNA evidence that show that Guede was the only one attacking Meredith that night would have been meaningless to you.
@Stinky you’re entitled to your opinion, just as we are entitled to point out all the fallacies of your argument and get our knickers in a twist about your strange statements. People like you make me wish that the jury system would be abolished once and for all. No one should ever have to be tried by armchair psychology, only hard facts. The police failed to find scientific evidence (the supreme court’s investigation found massive flaws and contamination in the evidence testing process) or establish actual motive beyond conjecture without proof. Just because someone is awkward or doesn’t behave the way society expects you to does not mean you’re a psychopath. In fact, I would be more wary of people who perform what they’re supposed to do in a perfunctory manner.
The evidence says different. There wasn’t anything linking her to Meredith Kercher’s murecer. She’s guilty of being a weirdo apparently.
@ Nancy “I will never be 100% convinced that she is 100% innocent.”
You don’t have to be, the court has to be sure beyond reasonable doubt that she is guilty.
In the UK if she had been treated like that by the police the whole interview would have been barred from being used – no legal representation, they can only hold you for so long without charging you, interviews have to be double recorded – one copy for the police, one for the suspect. The whole idea that the police found dna WEEKS after the murder was farcical. The fact is she acted oddly (not a crime, not proof of guilt) and the police fouled up big time.
There are no winners in this, especially the Kercher family.
Nancy, I agree. After following this trial and keeping an open mind, I read Nadeau and Follain’s books on this as well as the motivation reports (judge’s decisions), which basically contain all the evidence. She’s involved at some level and the PR spin has been amazingly effective. Even the highest court of Italy, finding her not guilty definitively, said she was there that night and had washed her hands of Kercher’s blood. So many lies that her parents and PR advisors have put out there. This Netflix document plays on the did-she-didn’t-she titillating factor without asking her the hard questions. And when she goes on about the so-called rogue prosecutor, the interviewers never ask her why something like 30 judges thought the evidence was enough to go to trial and keep her in jail while the trial was ongoing. She never, ever gets asked the hard questions.
Where did she say she washed blood off her hands? Or are you being metaphorical?
A violent struggle happened in that home yet Amanda’s DNA was nowhere to be found. The situation remains that you can’t clean your own DNA and fingerprints and leave those of another. How was she involved? I don’t see it, looking at the credible non tainted evidence.
Not Knox but the Supreme Court of Italy said she’d washed her hands of Kercher’s blood.
Knox’s DNA was actually found mixed right in with Kercher’s blood in the bathroom. One footprint (made in Kercher’s blood) consistent with Sollecito and inconsistent with Guede was found on the bathroom mat. Discount the visible blood traces in the bathroom and you’ve still got the traces revealed by luminol that had Knox and Sollecito’s bare footprints mixed with MK’s DNA (luminol reveals blood, among other things) and Knox + Kercher DNA in the room of the staged break-in.
The Supreme Court of Italy, in the final judgement report that found Knox not guilty for the very last time, said at 9.4.1 that the large amount of Knox DNA (you don’t leave that much DNA around just from everyday things) in the Kercher blood spots in the bathroom were credible and could have only been the result of “epithelial rubbing,” and that she had been washing her hands of her roommate’s blood at some stage. This is a huge point that is never reported in US media and Knox never has to answer any hard questions about any of these things.
There’s actually substantial physical evidence that can’t be that easily explained away by contamination. Take away that and you’ve still got consistencies, witness testimonies about behaviour and lies, and outright lies. My theory is that after Patrick called Knox about not needing her to work that night, the couple planned to get smashed and very high (hence turning off the phones early which they never did before) and the drugs, drink, and roommate tensions led to a terrible tragedy. Guede might have been the drug dealer or just happened on the cottage (he was good friends with the downstairs boys).
As a fellow “wierdo,” my heart hurts for Amanda and everything she’s been through. I do wish she would stay out of the media. I’m assuming she needs the money? I’d change my name, dye my hair and move somewhere far, far away.
I would imagine so. She’s not terribly employable as herself, and after being in jail and essentially sequestered from society for that long, what kind of job skills does she have? I wouldn’t think too many businesses would want to hire her since her face is highly recognized and her name (if she doesn’t change it) even more so. She herself might not want to be out in public much, and at a job it probably wouldn’t overly long for someone to recognize her. Every potential social media post, even just a picture with her in the background, has a danger of exposure and ridicule. Regardless of what happened, what is proved or disproved, there is going to be a large number of people who think she’s guilty as hell. Or shady as hell at the very least.
You have no idea, MoreSalt. I live in a constant state of tension and one of the reasons for this is because I know that if something like this ever happens around me I’d be the first suspect (and maybe the only one) BECAUSE I’m a “weirdo.”
Hear, hear, fellow weirdos. People are so shallowly judgemental, it’s appalling.
…and these people sit on juries and we wonder how innocent people ended being convicted of crimes they never commit.
Her parents spent a fortune on legal fees, so I would guess she does need the money.
Most people are “weirdos”. It is only when we are under a microscope that people start attacking us for it. Just imagine having every seemingly inconsequential detail of your history scrutinized.
The whole situation is weird. I think she’s a strange person to begin with. But that doesn’t mean that all weirdos are murders. They just don’t do things the way the majority of us would.
I actually watch the documentary this weekend and I remember when all of this went down with Amanda but I don’t know how closely I followed it but I definitely remember “foxy knoxy” and all of the media.
What really stood out for me and maybe it’s because I’m 40 now or maybe it’s because I also travelled abroad in school, but hearing her tell it she had just met this guy for five days, she was traveling abroad in Italy and her roommate was horrifically murdered.
HOWEVER It seemed pretty apparent to me as she recalled the experience and you see the footage that for her, while Meredith’s murder was atrocious and scary, Amanda seemed to perceive it as happening around her and not TO her. She had just met a boy and was having sexual relations and then her roommate is murdered. I think at the initial stages it was something that didn’t really affect her? I got the impression that she assumed something horrible happened while she was out, she’d deal with the police and then let them figure it out while she continued her travels.
I don’t think she knew Meredith that well (they may have known each other for 5 weeks at that point? I don’t recall the exact length of time), so that likely contributed to Amanda not appearing as upset as we think she should be.
That was my takeaway too. I was also so surprised to realize that she and Raffael OMG knew each other for a total of 5 days.
She said she and Meredith were not too close.
I had roommates in grad school for a year or more each and I wouldn’t describe them as good friends. Just vague acquaintances who shared the rent. We hardly saw each other. Not everybody bonds with roommates like on tv, it often is just a financial arrangement and they mainly go their separate ways. I can’t even remember their last names.
I have watched half of the documentary,
but you have expressed my feelings about Amanda perfectly, and I am the same age as you and studied abroad while in college. I certainly don’t think Amanda killed Meredith, but I can’t relate at all to her 20 year old self. At 20, if I saw a bloody foot print on the bathroom floor with additional drops around, I would step out as quickly as possible and find help. Not take a shower. She saw a poo in the toilet though and that is when she felt something was off even though toilets clog all the time. Then to find out your roommate was murdered and kind of have this attitude like, “That sucks. Hope tomorrow is better,” is again something I can’t relate to because something like that would profoundly impact me. Also, in the documentary to they address Rudy Guadai (sp?). It seems I remember thinking that when this story was breaking Amanda knew RG, and maybe invited him in the home the night he killed Meredith.
You get it exactly Rhiley! I remember looking up at the screen intently when it registered to me that she saw blood in three places and yet a poop (while having three roommates?) set her suspicions off?
But yeah, that’s kind of the way that I felt listening to some of her phone calls where she’s talking about it and she’s just, “like oh my god, yeah totally it could’ve been me. Like I totally saw that guy twice.”
It reminds me a little bit of like a 16-18 year-old who is completely self absorbed and you let them know that there’s been a tragedy in the family and they say “oh my goodness that’s so horrible. Does that affect my getting a ride later?”
Clearly she was a VERY young 20 year old.
I read the entire transcript of the initial case, and the netflix docimentary made me really angry. It left out a ton of circumstantial evidence against Amanda such as:
She allegedly stole Merideth’s wallet a few days prior to the murder. Merideth suspected Amanda and accused her. Motive?
When Merideth wasn’t opening up her locked bedroom door, Amanda made calls to merideth’s cell phone in an attempt to make it appear she was worried about her friend and trying to figure out if she was ok. However cell phones records show that each time she called, she hung up after only several seconds (ie didn’t let it ring hardly at all.)
Also a witness (store owner) said she was waiting outside super early that morning to get into the store. What did she buy? Cleaning products only. And she was known to be an uncleanly person.
Also, police reported overpowering stench of bleach in Rafealles’ apartment.
I thought the cleaning products and bleach claims had been proven to be false?
And your wallet goes missing, isn’t your natural instinct to be to suspect your brand-new roommate? Suspicion of stealing a wallet means pretty much nothing.
The bleach story is a myth. There was never any evidence that Amanda bought cleaning products after the murder. Also Meredith was murdered at the house she was sharing with Amanda and other people. There would be no reason to be give Raffaele’s apartment such a cleaning.
They found bottles of bleach at Raffy’s apartment – that’s established. When first questioned, his maid said she never bought it. After a meeting with Raffy’s lawyers, she changed her story and said she forgot she bought it. Established in the trial papers (known as motivation reports).
So? Like I said there was never evidence that Amanda bought bleach after the murder. Also bleach is a standard household item.
Just another circumstantial piece of the puzzle that is consistent with a clean-up. Well, the very credible shopkeeper (at first reluctant to get involved) testified she was up bright and early at 7:00 waiting for him to open and went into the cleaning aisle. But he couldn’t remember if she bought anything. Knox and Sollecito claimed they’d slept in until 10 or something. The detectives said RS’s apartment smelled intensely of bleach. Also, forgot to add, the maid said bleach had never, ever been used at the apartment. So I guess the shopkeeper just wanted his 15 minutes, and Raff, a young bachelor with a busy schedule and a maid on demand, just happened to decide clean his apartment with bleach at some stage. Coincidence, totally.
But a cell phone bill does not record the call until the line was picked up. It only takes a few seconds to leave a voicemail. This is hardly a smoking gun.
Zooyork, none of those claims are true. Meredith never accused Amanda of theft; the bleach story is a total fabrication; the store owner initially testified that neither Amanda nor Raffaele was in his store that day, much less bought bleach, but a year later, he had a completely different story that he dramatically related….on TV.
Case was bungled from the start, the evidence handling, the interrogations, the press-parade. It was doomed.
She always came off as cold and self involved to me.
Doesn’t mean she’s a killer, or the killer.
Poor Meredith. This shit show has always been about Amanda. I wish someone would make a story about Meredith.
I agree with you, I feel so badly for Meredith and her family. Get over Amanda. Let her be a ‘weirdo’, focus on the reality of the situation. All they did from the beginning was focus on media shit show.
I don’t know if Netflix reached out to the Kercher family but they do use footage of press conferences with the family. Wouldn’t be surprised if they refused to be part of it.
I watched the documentary and I was always of the mindset she was never involved and I still believe this to be the case. She barely knew Raffaele–5 days yet the media completely ignored it and kept referring him as a boyfriend. She also barely knew Meredith-they had probably met only 2 months prior. Not sure I would be devastated if someone I barely knew was found murdered. Shocked yes, but devastated probably not. Guess that makes me a weirdo too.
There was no DNA evidence linking her to any crime and the crime scene was highly contaminated. Statement such as “only a woman would have covered the body with a blanket”–um, where does the prosecutor get these conclusions? That is not evidence, it’s called a hypothesis. Basically Amanda became a scapegoat because she acted kind of oddly and was forced to a false confession after 53 hours of interrogation. I also was horrified by her appearance in this documentary. It could be intentional but she looks really haggard, extremely thin, and just not healthy in general which is not a surprising after a nearly 10 year ordeal. And Raffaele–I felt pretty bad for him. He gets kind of forgotten because everyone focuses on Amanda but he had to go back to jail after they were released the first time.
I believe they caught the right guy–Rudy Guede who is in jail though I read somewhere he also may be released as well?
Amanda may not be a saint but I just think don’t she did it. The media twisted this case into something far beyond the original crime until there were no real facts to piece together.
If it was Rudy alone: than what was with the staged break-in?
Even Raffaele ultimately admitted there was a period of time when Amanda was NOT with him on that fateful night (which was in dispute of her ultimate story). That came out as he was about to return to prison and she was already out of the country.
There was no staged break in. That’s a claim made by the prosecution. They made a lot of wild claims. People conveniently forget that Mignini initially claimed Meredith was killed because she wouldn’t participate in Satanic sex games. He also claimed the Monster of Florence had something to do with Satan.
Yes, there was a staged break-in! A broken window! Evidence showed from the way the glass was that it was actually smashed from the inside. Also, if someone had thrown the rock from the outside, there was actually no way to scale that wall from the outside! LOL!
Agreed. She’s not a warm and fuzzy “feeler” by physical presentation (and I think her most recent interview above reiterates that) but that doesn’t make her a murderer.
Kind of gives me shades of Amber Heard, we only accept female ‘perfect Saint’ victims. She could be a cold calculating bitchy type but again, not all bitches are murderers.
Murderers sometimes cover the body as a sign of remorse, it’s not a man/woman thing. Forensic psychiatry 101.
Interesting. Italian prosecutor clearly stated he thought a woman was behind it because Meredith’s body was found covered with a blanket and only women would do such a thing. As for the staged break in-again could have been Rudy Guede. His DNA was found all over Meredith’s bedroom. A lot of pieces are missing in this case… We’ll never fully know.
Amanda said that she thought it was a burglary gone wrong so maybe Rudy felt some remorse for what he had done.
Amelie, Rudy’s DNA was not found “all over Meredith’s bedroom.” Completely fabricated statement from Amanda’s supporters. (Don’t get me wrong – I believe he was there. Just not the only culprit and probably not the actual killer.)
I just have to say something about the “Amanda barely knew Meredith so why would she be upset about the murder” question. Whatever you may believe about who the killer(s) was/where, the murder happened in the apartment where Amanda (and the 2 Italian roommates) lived. I would be terrified if someone was murdered in my apartment, in the bedroom next to mine no less. I can guarantee that I would never set foot in the place again other than to pick up my stuff. And maybe not even then!
This was the first thing I thought of. I watch enough Investigation Discovery to know that the covering of the body is not only a “female” thing. Yes, I know ID doesn’t make me an expert, but I also have some relevant background in criminal law.
As a poster said below, this alarming fact alone set off my doubts about the prosecutor.
I am not a legal expert, but she might face a wrongful dead suite by the victims parents.
Bit difficult if she has been (eventually) acquitted and someone else is in jail for the crime?
Anyone who bought the PR story should know the following brief points:
1) It’s been established at trial and not even challenged by her legal team she accused her boss after just 1 hour 45 minutes (and prob much less). The 53 hours, 40 hours torture stuff is made up by her parents – completely. Look it up.
2) Her false confession (really an accusation) wasn’t even admissible for her murder trial. But after rest he spontaneously wrote up an accusation in English that if you read the full text, you’ll realise she wanted to keep her options open. Only that written statement was admissible.
3) The “rogue prosecutor” story is poor journalism and part of the PR spin. Mignini had a partner with equal decision-making power, Comodo or something. And both he and she were replaced for the Nencini trial. Above all, he just presented one story that something like 30 JUDGES had to rule on as part of pretrial proceedings, to rule on whether there was enough evidence to go to court and keep the three of them in court while the trial went on.
4) There is convincing physical evidence not discounted by the so-called contamination. And so many inconsistencies and circumstantial evidence. You need to read up on it at a great site that sums it all up, the murder of meredith kercher dot com.
Lots more. Bottom line: she wasn’t railroaded because she’s a “weirdo.”
I don’t agree. The people that really behaved badly here are the media (daily mail unethical hacks), the prosecutors especially Mignini (jeepers, Monster of Florence is a scaryass book on a terrorising serial killer and a insane, criminally stupid prosecutor Mignini plus awful lack of policing) and ourselves as a as a less than objective sub judice audience. Knox seems like a naive, idiotic, self-absorbed weirdo and then she was interrogated for hours by police, framed by a crazed prosecutorial team and, also, worked over for years by a misogynistic media frame.
She may have *seemed* somewhat/hugely guilty to some but that’s partly by years of framing and her own flat affect. She was finally and rightly found not-guilty: one cautionary note should be that to all unsympathetic, ‘something’s off’ women…we can all be found guilty with a few weird moves and actions – irregardless of preponderance of evidence or our trust in the a fair representation in the legal system, media or even in our communities 🙁
Most importantly, rest in peace Meredith Kercher.
You’re unaware of the true timeline of her so-called interrogation and the details of the evidence. Go back over the case files, transcripts, and evidence list as contained in the motivations reports covering what was covered and confirmed at trial. The Italians treated her well.
Also, you appear to be unaware of Mignini’s true role. His flamboyant statements and the subsequent storytelling of Mignini as some all-powerful god with the power to hypnotise around 30 judges into accepting there was (1) enough evidence to go to trial, (2) enough ev to keep Knox, RS, and RG in jail during trial, and (3) enough to convict her twice before final annulment – all of that is a powerful illustration of the ability of PR and US diplomatic power to sway cases. Mignini was a BIT PLAYER in all of this. Just as in the US, prosecutors have next to zero power. They’re the kid raising their hand to ask a question in class and that’s it. The dozens of judges held the power in the Knox trials.
Aside, I’m actually just about to read James Raper’s latest book on this case. He’s the lawyer who maintains the murder of meredith kercher site.
Actually, Flyover, not one single thing you’ve said about the case is true. You’re repeating the claims of the prosecution and yellow tabloids.
Amanda never accused Patrick Lumumba. The cops told her he was there, there was proof. She was slapped on the head repeatedly. They told her she was guilty, they had proof, and that she better remember.
I don’t know where you get the idea Mignini—or American prosecutors, for that matter— are powerless. That’s not true. Juries in Italy are not sequestered, so every one of Mignini’s numerous lies wound up before the jury pool.
My favorite Mignini lie—aside from accusing sixteen-year-old Douglas Preston of being the Monster of Florence—–was where he accused Know of wiping away just HER and Sollecito’s DNA. Wait, no, there’s the bloody bathroom story. Mignini leaked a photo to the press which—-he claimed—-depicted the bathroom Amanda showered in. It looked splashed with blood. It was actually Luminol, a chemical that can detect blood, among other things. When Amanda showered, the bathroom looked nothing like that.
No, actually, my all-time, favorite, ultimate moment came when the crack forensic team depicted themselves—in their own video—-picking up the bra clasp with visibly-stained gloves, passing it from stained glove to stained glove, then placing it on the floor again, approximately, kind of, sort of, where they had initially found it. This was forty five days after the murder, after the room had been searched several times.
Italy was the country whose Supreme Court declared that women wearing tight jeans coukd not claim they were raped because such jeans could not be removed without “help.” Eventually the decision was struck down but it stood for ten years, being struck down around the time of one of Knox’s trials. The same decision claimed that women who don’t fight weren’t raped.
Actually my points are all taken from the motivations reports (judges’ statements of reason), which include witness testimony, etc. You can look them up easily now.
Prosecutors in Italy have just about the same power as those in the US: they raise points and present evidence but they face a massive hurdle – the judges.
You can take a number of examples from EVERY SINGLE country around the world and conclude that their justice system is horrible (Brock Turner, OJ). So that’s really not useful. Taking the Knox case on its own merits, you’ve got totally open proceedings, extensively documented evidence and witness transcripts, and much more. If you’ve read the motivations reports, you’ll know she was treat very, very well. It’s not useful to focus on one teeny bit player (Mignini) and pretend he could effect a conspiracy that involved literally hundreds of people, from police to witnesses. Pointless to talk about him, though I know he is Knox’s favourite go-to fault person.
I’ve read the transcripts and gone over Knox’s account and everyone else’s account of her interview, which in reality was just under an hour. Her attempt to claim she was “suggested” into imagining Patrick/the boss is not convincing. What’s interesting is she blamed him right after she was told Sollecito was not longer giving her an alibi and that he in fact said she’d asked him to lie at his behest. Again, her interview wasn’t admissible for her murder trial, but her spontaneous statement she wrote up after rest, without prompting, and in English, certainly was.
There were problems with dirty gloves but discount all that and you’ve still got things like that luminol traces which Knox and Sollecito’s teams never explained. If it’s not blood, when did the two of them rub bleach or fruit juice on their feet and walk around the apartment? And why was MK’s DNA mixed in right with these traces? And why was Knox’s DNA mixed right in with MK’s DNA with a luminol trace in the room of the staged break-in? Even the Supreme Court, in the final ruling that found her not guilty, said the solid DNA evidence showed she’d washed her hands of Kercher’s blood because that was the only possible explanation for why there was so much Knox DNA in the Kercher blood spots in the bathroom.
There’s a lot more evidence but these are just some of the highlights. Can’t blame the solid evidence on a so-called rogue prosecutor who was basically a bit player in all of this. Otherwise you’re talking a conspiracy of hundreds of people.
*Correction: her interview was probably around an hour but certainly less than 1 hour 45 minutes.
John Douglas, along with another American FBI agent, specifically rejects that site as one that just regurgitates Mignini’s claims, almost all of which have been disproven.
Mignini got Knox’s name right. That’s about it. The case can be summed up by how they took a nickname for the then-nine-year-old Knox—-Foxy Knoxy—-and turned it into something salacious.
Lots of these cottage industry people made/making money off the Knox PR spin. I know this case pretty much inside out and I know what Knox’s parents did to control PR – work only with certain journalists who would amplify their version, prevent the hard questions being put to Knox – and they had the bargaining power to do so because this attracted so much media coverage in the US. And of course they paid millions to Seattle’s biggest PR firm to control the story from the start.
Actually, Flyover, again, you’re doing the same thing I pointed out elsewhere: you simply keep reciting Mignini’s lies as facts. “You can read the transcript” is not a source, and nor is “This happened,” when, again, it’s Mignini.
Justice systems may vary all over the world, but only the Italian justice system lets Mignini threaten reporters and writers with arrest as murderers just a year before he botched the Knox case with salacious lies he leaked to the press. I notice you preferred to ignore that.
Also, dismissing the horrifying way they handled evidence with visibly-bloody gloves is shocking. That alone is enough to dismiss the case. That alone is enough to doubt their “evidence collection” and claims. They might as well have just played soccer with the thing, to say nothing of the fact that it took them forty five days to find it.
Itchy, you’re repeating the same point. Mignini was replaced in 2013 by Crini. He had little power but to present a case before around 30 judges. His conduct left much to be desired but you have to remember this case was dealt with in OPEN COURTS, with evidence and witnesses testifying quite openly. Records were made public. So, do you have information about the each of 30 or so judges being crazies and exactly how they railroaded Knox?
The reused gloves was JUST ONE collection session. They can’t explain away the double-DNA knife (separately collected by different detectives at Raff’s apartment) nor the luminol (yet another collection session). The 45 days for collection is just for the bra clasp. Take away that and you’ve still got other super compelling physical evidence. You need to go back and read the court transcripts and motivation reports again. They’ve been translated and are available at the murder of meredith kercher dot com. Can’t get more specific than that, unless you want to do a Skype session and we can go through the evidence dealt with in the motivation reports.
What derailed this trial and true justice was PR, US diplomacy, and one bit player (Mignini being presented as an all-powerful player with an ability to effect a conspiracy of hundreds of police, witnesses, and forensic scientists). Before the final ruling in 2015 by Cassation, some “unnamed” State Department source was quoted as saying she’ll never be let back. The extradition treaty arrangements are such that had Cassation (Supreme Court) upheld the Nencini court’s ruling, Knox would have had to go back or all future US requests for fugitives in Italy would be put at peril.
Something happened behind the diplomatic scenes in favour of Knox, because the circumstantial evidence was extremely strong and lots of the physical evidence was free of contamination.
I don’t understand why everyone focuses on Amanda. The evidence shows Rudy did it. Case closed.
(1) She’s still making money off her notoriety (I’m assuming she was paid for the Netflix documentary and for promoting it with her appearance). (2) Her family accepted a lot of money in donations from the US public for her legal fees and for flying and staying in Italy during her trial, and of course probably for her massive PR campaign.
She needs to be held accountable for what happened and should be made to answer the tough questions, not just what her PR advisors okay from a pre-approved question list. Also, the journalists interviewing her don’t seem to know the complexities of the case and evidence, and so often they can’t really put the hard questions to her.
I just watched the documentary, as well as followed the case closely from the beginning. But I’m struck all over again by how Giuliani sounds like an inexperienced tweener making things up as he goes along, deducing “facts” along the way. For instance, stating that he saw the blanket covering Meredith and knew the crime had been committed by a woman, because a man would never cover a body up. WTF?? And that by the little nicks in Meredith’s chin he could tell she had been taunted for not wanting to have sex. HUH?
I don’t know if Knox had anything to do with the crime, and I agree with the poster above, who said plain and simply, the young woman is a weirdo. But there wasn’t enough evidence to tie her to the crime, and the prosecutor is just a joke, and I shudder to think of any other people he’s been responsible for being locked away due to his corny, child-like investigative deductions.
**Giuliano**, not Giuliani
Colleen, I totally agree with you. I watched the documentary and thought that Giuliano was despicable and bumbling and most of all, incredibly sexist and misogynistic in his “assumptions” about Knox. They made many sexist assumptions about the facts that made no sense (as you pointed out). Then, when she was arrested they lied to her and said she had AIDS. She kept a diary and listed her 7 lovers and wondered who had infected her. They stole the diary and leaked it to the press and shamed her for being sexually active (as any girl her age would be) and turned her into a “sex killer.” It was despicable.
The second thing that struck me was how culpable that reporter was in all of this. He refused to reveal his sources for the diary, reported untruths, rushed in like a vulture and destroyed two people’s lives because he wanted to be first to get “the scoop.” He admitted it in the documentary.
I watched the documentary, too. I have no idea how correct it is. If I were to take it at face value and base my opinion on it, I’d say she’s not guilty and got railroaded. I mean, with all those salacious headlines about the devil worshipping and the voodoo rituals… come on.
One of my “favorite” lines in the documentary is when Giuliano Mignini says, “Pleasure at any cost. That is the heart of most crimes. ” I don’t need need to be a professional to know this is something he bent over and pulled out of his ass. This man is seriously an immense danger to any potential defendants. Why he was allowed to practice in his field is beyond me.
Yes, but he had a very sane partner prosecutor with equal professional status and decision-marking power (Manuela Comodi), and he still had to answer to around 30 judges throughout all the trials. He was replaced before the penultimate appeal (by Alessandro Crini).
Very creative of Knox’s PR team to turn the focus on a bit player in all this and unfortunate he was so media-hungry. If you’re interested, the true justice for MK site has stuff and interviews on why Mignini wasn’t as out there as the media presented him to be.
It’s the dozens judges who actually had the final say: they ruled on Knox’s pretrial stuff, on the need to keep her and RS in jail during trial, and on the actual case put forward by the prosecution and of course the defense.
My prayers family and mayMeridith rest in peace
I’m very grateful to hear somebody keep their head about this. She came up to the police station with Rafael when he was requested to give an interview, and they asked her to go home, and she refused. She voluntarily gave a statement, and they had her wait until they called an interpreter. Many, many witnesses say that her interview was short, they were kind and solicitous of her and considered her age and being a foreigner. In the trial, both she and her lawyers said that she was treated well by the police. Italy is considering slapping her with calumny for her false statements against the police and the courts in her interviews and in her book.
Her father’s first step was to hire a public relations firm, instead of a lawyer.
This is called rewriting history. The Nazi’s used to say if you repeated a lie often enough, it would eventually become accepted as truth. And the highest court in Italy NEVER said that she and Rafael were NOT Guilty: they said that they didn’t have enough to convict. I think they did, but they were under political pressure to let her go.
Were she in the US; had she killed another American student; she would be vilified and probably on death row. I don’t care how young she was. They have more than enough evidence to convict her. It really makes me angry when people let themselves be led and repeat hearsay instead of investigating the available documentation for themselves. The court that let her go said that evidence proved that the murder was committed by several persons. Knox’s DNA and blood is mixed with the murdered girl’s blood in several places in the apartment.
She’s just been miraculously lucky in her parents and the people that decided to champion her cause, and see her as another victim, instead of the truth that she was a careless girl that committed a heinous crime and got away with it. I refuse to let myself be led around by the nose.
Therese…..that’s not true. With all due respect, “many people say” is not a source and neither is “I read all this” or “you can read the trial transcripts.”
Mignini’s case and accusations are NOT facts. It is terrifying how many people believe this guy and just keep regurgitating his claims.
This case is like OJ in reverse; she’s innocent but people are extremely invested in her being evil.
And I can’t help but look at Kim K’s treatment (or Amber Heard’s) and think they all come from the same place.
Itchy, rest assured people have read more than the trashy rags to understand the legalities behind headlines. Recommend you start with the outstanding murder of meredith kercher dot com website. On the left bar you can link to extensive translated court transcripts, full evidence list, and most importantly the official motivation reports by judges (ruling reports) that detail in excruciating detail the evidence.