If you were in Amanda Knox’s place, would you ever return to Italy following four years in prison, a years-long legal case and a huge international controversy? I would not. My formerly incarcerated ass would stay in America forever. I would never even fly again. Amanda Knox is different. She’s been back to Italy several times since she was freed from an Italian prison in 2011, once her appeal was finally granted. In 2007, Knox’s study-abroad roommate Meredith Kercher was brutally murdered in their shared living space. The Italian police zeroed in on Knox and they made an absolute hash of the investigation. During the police questioning, Knox suggested alternative lines of investigation, including a bar owner. In addition to being charged with Kercher’s murder, Knox was also charged with slandering the bar owner. Well, Knox is still trying to get that conviction overturned. It didn’t work out.
An Italian court reconvicted Amanda Knox of slander Wednesday, quashing her hope of removing a legal stain against her that has persisted long after her exoneration in the brutal 2007 murder of her British roommate while the two were exchange students in Italy.
The decision by a Florence appeals court panel marked the sixth time that an Italian court found Knox had wrongly accused an innocent man, the Congolese owner of the bar where she worked part time, of the killing.
Knox has argued that her statements to police were forced during an intense night of questioning and relied on her then-remedial Italian when she was a 20-year-old university student.
But the panel of two judges and six jurors confirmed the three-year sentence, which she already served in four years in Italian custody while the investigation and multiple flip-flop trials ensued. The court’s reasoning will be released in 60 days.
Knox’s appearance Wednesday in Florence, in a bid to clear her name “once and for all,” was the first time she had returned to an Italian court since she was freed in 2011. She showed no visible emotion as the verdict was read aloud. She was accompanied by her husband, Christopher Robinson.
Again, if I was in her position, I wouldn’t have even flown back to Italy or pursued this at all. I get that she wants “to clear her name” once and for all, but enough. Like, her explanation makes sense. I also think it’s kind of sh-tty for the Italian police to prosecute people for throwing out accusations within a police interrogation? But enough is enough. Be thankful you’re not still in jail. Enjoy the rest of your life and your freedom.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Amanda Knox (L) and her boyfriend Christopher Robinson (R) attend the conference of the Criminal Justice Festival at the University of Modena, Italy, 14 June 2019. Knox, who was acquitted on appeal in 2011 of murdering her British flatmate Meredith Kercher in Perugia after a long legal battle and almost four years in jail, is in Modena where she takes part in an event at the Criminal Justice Festival. 14 Jun 2019,Image: 536277592, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Serena Campanini / AGF Foto / Avalon
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- MODENA. AMANDA KNOX DURING ITS INTERVENTION ON THE MEDIUM CRIMINAL PROCESS AT THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE FESTIVAL (ROBERTO BRANCOLINI/Fotogramma, MODENA – 2019-06-15) p.s. la foto e’ utilizzabile nel rispetto del contesto in cui e’ stata scattata, e senza intento diffamatorio del decoro delle persone rappresentate USA, CAN, AUS, ESP, POR, S AMERICA ONLY Photograph: © IPA/PacificCoastNews. Los Angeles Office (PCN): +1 310.822.0419 UK Office (Avalon): +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 sales@pacificcoastnews.com,Image: 536285508, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: USA, CAN, AUS, ESP, POR, S AMERICA ONLY – Los Angeles Office (PCN): +1 310.822.0419 UK Office (Avalon): +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 sales@pacificcoastnews.com, Model Release: no, Credit line: IPA/PacificCoastNews / Avalon
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- January 31, 2014: Amanda Knox at ABC Studios in New York City during an appearnce on “Good Morning America.” An Italian appeals court convicted Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito on murder charges Thursday night. Prosecutors said the couple had killed Meredith Kercher in November 2007. They were convicted two years later of murder, but those charges were overturned on appeal in 2011. A judge said Thursday that Knox, also convicted of slander, was sentenced in absentia to 28 1/2 years in prison. Sollecito’s sentence was 25 years. Mandatory Credit: RogerWong/INFphoto.com Ref: infusny-146|sp| Featuring: Amanda Knox Where: New York City, New York , United States When: 31 Jan 2014 Credit: Roger Wong/INFphoto.com
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- January 31, 2014: Amanda Knox at ABC Studios in New York City during an appearnce on “Good Morning America.” An Italian appeals court convicted Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito on murder charges Thursday night. Prosecutors said the couple had killed Meredith Kercher in November 2007. They were convicted two years later of murder, but those charges were overturned on appeal in 2011. A judge said Thursday that Knox, also convicted of slander, was sentenced in absentia to 28 1/2 years in prison. Sollecito’s sentence was 25 years. Mandatory Credit: RogerWong/INFphoto.com Ref: infusny-146|sp| Featuring: Amanda Knox Where: New York City, New York , United States When: 31 Jan 2014 Credit: Roger Wong/INFphoto.com
The fact that someone can be prosecuted CRIMINALLY for slander at all – let alone for what they say in a police interrogation room is WILD to me. If I were her I would be sitting in my house in the US giving the Italian courts a giant middle finger. I would never set foot in that country again.
What about the poor man she accused of murder – A black male immigrant in a white country. Thank God a customer of his was speaking to him that night and so he had an alibi. What if he didn’t have an alibi… it would have been his word against hers. She didn ’t recant her malicious and false allegation even when her boss Lumumba , who she knew was innocent, was in prison.
I feel it for Meredith’s family and friends… their pain is now back in the news after so many years.
And even though thank god he had an alibi, he still lost everything- his bar, had to leave Italy. He was ruined financially and had to start completely over.
I feel for him – but I also think if I was being accused of murder and the police were coercing me and intimidating me for hours on end – I too might incriminate someone else. Or at the very least mention someone else as a possible suspect. The fault doesn’t lie with Knox – it lies with the crappy Italian police and their inability to investigate properly. Two innocent people were suspected – including Knox herself. The fault doesn’t lie with her.
Exactly – in a place like Italy, that is not known for it’s racial tolerance, her words put an innocent man in grave danger. She may have been innocent, but that does not give her the right to endanger others.
Why on earth is it up to a suspect to provide alternate theories or suspects? That makes no sense to me. Make them do their own damn work.
Sleep deprivation is considered a form of torture. They interrogated her without counsel, without stopping for 53 hours. You might like to think you wouldn’t accuse someone else to make that stop, but you can’t be sure of that.
I should add that she also insisted on retracting her accusation days later in writing. So it’s not like she was forced to admit the truth, she did so herself.
I’m sure that’s small comfort to Mr Lumumba, who was absolutely victimized, but I think Italian authorities hold the primary blame for that.
@Aurora – exactly to both of your comments. She did in fact try to clear his name once she was out of that interrogation room. And it’s very easy to say what we would or wouldn’t do in a situation like that but we have no idea.
THEY (the police) were the ones who suggested the bar owner, Patrick. They said his name over and over again to her in the interrogation room and insisted to her that Patrick killed Meredith until she finally broke. They are trying to put the blame on her to cover for their own screw up in this murder case, from start to finish.
This is 100% on the police. Those kind of tactics don’t work in a real investigation, and this is why.
The murder case was a slam dunk (they had DNA evidence, a runaway suspect with a motive, and his confession – he was also found guilty!) and they still screwed everything up because they were so eager to nail Amanda Knox, despite having absolutely no evidence against her. This is just one more way they failed and are trying to get Amanda to take the fall for them.
According to Amanda, the police deprived her of sleep for a couple of days, verbally berated her without respite, actually hit her in the head shouting at her “remember, remember,” and on and on, until she finally signed a couple of documents they ordered her to, in an exhausted state and not in a state of mind in which she knew exactly what she was doing. She also was quite young, did not speak the language, and was not allowed counsel during that time. So if that is true — or even part of it! — her statements should have be inadmissible in any court of law and for any legal purposes. The police utterly abused the system and the process. And yeah if I were her, obviously I don’t know what I’d do, but it would take a lot for me to ever step foot in that country again.
If you falsely incriminate someone during a murder investigation in the UK you need to serve time here too.
It’s not ‘slander’ per se. During my rape/DV criminal proceedings the accusation tried to send me to jail for slander (of the rapist)/waste of police time and the county sheriff declined charges against the rapist and had started criminal proceedings against me. I was exonerated before all the process because I brought black-on-white receipts that I was telling the truth but as it was the police who had messed up the investigations, charges were never brought against the perpetrator.
I am so sorry you went through that @alpinewitch
That is horrible.
Damn, it’s like the system is designed to keep people from bringing cases forward. So sorry you had to deal with that @AlpineWitch, that’s a travesty!
So, did they decide that that other guy, not the bar owner but some other guy, actually did it, or is it an unsolved murder now?
I’m with Kaiser, I would have never returned or fought that, and would probably try very hard stay under the radar for the rest of my life
I don’t remember his name but yeah someone was convicted and he’s actually already out on parole.
Which is why I don’t really understand her here. She cleared her name with the book, why would she feel it was necessary to go back to a country that poured hatred on her?
Rudy Guede was the man convicted of Meredith;s murder – he was a petty thief/drug dealer. I can’t remember all the details but he broke into the flat to rob it and found Meredith who was home alone. He raped and then murdered her.
She made false accusations, even thou it was under duress, and ruined an innocent mans life.
There was abundant DNA evidence that it was Rudy Guede that killed her, who had a history of violent crimes IIRC.
The actual killer’s DNA was at the crime scene. The prosecution knew this, but refused to let go of the theory that she and her boyfriend were somehow involved. The prosecutor is a nut who believes in witchcraft. He was also part of the infamous Monster of Florence case.
Hmmm no, she didn’t suggest other lines of investigation, she incriminated someone and the defence lawyer clearly brought ‘receipts’ to the new trial.
However, I do not understand why she went back either. She’s been absolved of the murder, someone has been jailed for it, and she already served her time for the slander accusation. To clear her name… in Italy when she doesn’t even live there? Seriously, there’s something weird about this all, I’d leave the Italian justice system alone as it is a lost cause, and I was born in Italy….
She puts her name out there bc I think she gets paid for speeches at those Presumed Innocent or whatever events. I don’t think she works in normal employment.
Read the books and the judgements (and I’m a qualified (non-practising) lawyer familiar). Follain and Nadeau’s books are highly recommended (along with Andrea Vogt’s coverage); these three are fluent in both English and Italian and attended the hearings.
The “rogue prosecutor” was replaced during the appeals process.
There’s a staggering amount of evidence against her. The crime scene was the whole cottage and not just Kercher’s room. The mobile phones, staged break-in where nothing was taken, mixed DNA-blood in bathroom, luminol footprints of Knox and Sollecito, Sollecito’s bizarre in-prison story about how he’d pricked Kercher and she’d accepted his apology when told about how they’d found Kercher’s DNA on a knife seized from his apartment by another police team cleared of any contamination or poor CSI practices, etc. The list goes on. If you want the truth, read the translated judgements or Nadeau or Follain’s books.
However, I do not think “normal” Amanda would have been capable of it; veering into theory territory, she got high with the knife-collector erstwhile boyfriend and something horrific, probably accidental, happened. Note, she’d already been caught staging a break-in back in Seattle before she went to Italy; her mother was very disappointed that Knox had a misdemeanor on her record. She was also known among her US classmates for being a heavy drinker.
I feel like there is a short circuit in her cognitive reasoning. I LOVE Italy, if I could I would have a home on the Almalfi coast or Cinque Terra and live out my life in total bliss. That being said, I think after everything she’s been through there, there is no way in a snowstorm in H E double hockey sticks that I would ever go back to Italy for any reason ever in her shoes. I think she likes courting disaster.
I’ve always wondered if she was neurodivergent and her lack of emotion made her an attractive suspect. I find her unconvincing and even chilling when she speaks.
I don’t see her as unemotional at all; I’ve seen plenty of interviews with her where she showed a full range of emotion, so comments like this are just bizarre to me.
This entire case was predicted on her not being hysterical after murder, like her flatmates were, and staying calm. That’s how some people cope with trauma, especially in front of other people. The Italian and British press played this up every single chance they could.
I agree. After reading dozens of pages of court transcripts during the trial I am certain Rudy Guede murdered Meredith Kercher but he didnt act alone. I say Knox planned it and both she and her boyfriend Solecito held Kercher down as there were no defensive wounds on Kercher’s hands and arms. Knox I am sure is a sociopath. I shudder when I look into her eyes.
I remember this case being flagged as the ultimate example of when not to talk to police in a foreign country, and that she should’ve gone home, got lawyered up, or at least waited until she had counsel and parents with her in Italy. It’s possible she underestimated what the Italian police strategy would be, the intensity of it, and how much they would wear her down. Elizabeth Bowman comments below about how the police mistreated her in interviews. I don’t like her, goodness I don’t know her not to like her, but she seems totally cold to me, but that doesn’t make her guilty. It makes her hard to like. And doubt therefore persists. I am not convinced by her completely.
She didn’t know she was a suspect. She thought she was giving helpful information to the police to catch her roommate’s killer, and then they blindsided her (after they realized they couldn’t use the coerced accusation of Patrick). It took her a while to realize they suspected her.
She knows she was naive to trust they had good intentions.
I blame the press, mostly, for making her seem cold. Their case depended on it and two countries were doing a media blitz to make her look like she didn’t give a s*** about anything that was happening. I have no idea what she is truly like as a person, but I do know they were working overtime to make her seem evil and callous.
I hear Greece is nice.
I was studying abroad in Florence during her trial and the day the verdict was coming in was wild. The school told us to be prepared to leave the country immediately if she were found innocent, like keep your passports on you at all times kind of thing. That they had been told that American students especially would not be safe given the situation. They were also told not too worry to much because even with the questionable evidence the jury “knew to find her guilty”.
It was really clear that the whole trial was a sham and things were being pushed through when we were there.
That’s weird and an out-of-proportion reaction.
By the way, by Italian law one needs to have an ID on themselves at all times, this is the same for us Italian citizens as well.
While it is one thing to suggest that to tourists in a foreign country, it’s not a thing here in Canada. If you are Canadian you don’t need to have id with you at all times.
Yeah it felt super weird at the time. They were basically worried about riots/the American students being targeted as retaliation for her being found innocent. So they wanted us to be able to leave the country at a moment’s notice in the event things went sideways.
All of us had id but didn’t carry our passports on us at all the time at that point per their initial instructions. It died out fast but was so bizarre at the time.
This whole part of this sage is absolutely awful. There’s so much racism and xenophobia packed into it. What happened to the Congolese bar owner is horrible. He was arrested, lost his bar, had to leave Italy- his whole life was really upended and ruined. Amanda has spoken about how kind and helpful he was to her and how much she wishes she had resisted the police pushing her to incriminate him. I feel terrible for him and for her, and I understand the guilt she feels. She should absolutely not be convicted of slander when her actual conviction was overturned in large part due to the massive violations (including violence) during her marathon hours-long interrogation. I understand why she caved and went a long with pointing the finger at him. She was in a no win situation and very much coerced. But, it’s also true that a black, African immigrant was the one thrown under the bus and suffered massively and he was just as innocent as her. The system, police specifically, are at fault and to blame, but I do wish (not blame! just wish) Amanda had the strength to resist pointing the finger at him.
She DID resist, but they were using interrogation techniques you’re not supposed to use for a reason.
I feel bad for both of them, too, and I know Patrick Lumumba was still upset with her, last I read. I can’t blame him, but it does seem like his anger is best placed with the police. She didn’t come up with his name on her own and didn’t go along with it just to get the heat off herself. Ironically, the police did that to Amanda to cover up their own failings in this case.
The innocent man that was falsely accused and jailed was Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba. He lost his whole life in Italy, his business and had to move out of the country to Poland where his wife is from.
The sad part about Amanda Knox is much of the whole story has been about her. Less about the other victims, Meredith Kercher and Mr. Lumumba. Knox has a new life as an activist, self style journalist and a bestselling author. She wants her vindication by putting Italy’s judicial system on trial again, in Italy. That’s her right and money. Rightly or wrongly, she’ll get publicity and stir up the debate all over again.
How is slander a criminal offence under those circumstances. It should have been a civil matter and she pays him for the damages.
It’s because the prosecutor wants her in prison one way or another. This keeps her out of the country if she’s smart enough to actually do that, because if she returns they can arrest her right on the plane.
I support Amanda. She also needs to never return to Italy. It is not a safe place for her.
Amanda went to jail for 4 years. So did Raffaele, her boyfriend. That is even worse than what happened to Patrick. They are all victims of a crazy prosecutor.
I would love to go to Italy, but given my age and economic situation, it’s probably never going to happen. Having said that, Americans should be really careful when on foreign soil even in Europe. Few other countries have the safeguards for defendents in criminal cases that we have in America. There was probably no way Knox could have avoided being falsely accused of murder in this case no matter how careful she was, but this just shows how unjust some legal systems are. There is much that is wrong with the criminal justice system in the US but I will take it any day over most others. And I would much rather stand convicted of slander than murder.
This is a really ignorant comment. The rule of law is followed in most European countries and the judicial systems are at least as good, if not better, than the American system. Do not tar the judicial systems of other European countries with the same brush as Italy.
Hate to break it to you, but many horrible things have been done in the US judicial system, especially to people of color. Your court appointed attorney fell asleep during the trial? No problem. He’s drunk? Again, no problem. You have the mental capacity of a child? Death penalty is fine. There are long and detailed histories of prosecutors hiding exculpatory evidence where black men are on trial. And you probably have no idea how many rape cases are stone cold because evidence isn’t even collected, or is collected but never processed. We have many organizations that spend years freeing innocent people from jail. The US is in love with the eye-witness, one of the least reliable types of evidence yet we put people to death with nothing more. And with prosecutors being elected, you see all sorts of unfair decisions being made.
I think the US system does a good job with most cases, but let’s not pretend that it is a fair system for everyone who moves through the system. And let’s not pretend that a single case in Italy paints the entire system.
And Trump days our judicial systems is messed up. She was innocent then guilty then innocent.. I agree Kaiser I would stay in Washington State
Not saying she killed Meredith, but I’ve never believed her story.
Same. She was innocent of the murder but she has never come across to me as someone I’d ever want to know personally.
Never. And she ruined that man’s life.
she literally had an alibi- she was with her Italian boyfriend (who was not given the nth degree as she was by some obsessed sex crimes weirdo investigator who fancied himself Sherlock Holmes). I hate that the global media put this very young woman on trial in the public arena with what amounted to slander about her (slut, temptress etc) and people still can’t see that the simplest and most obvious answer (a multi time violent criminal with DNA all over the scene) was responsible. geez
As I said, I’m not saying she killed her, but I do not believe her story. The End.
For real. There is absolutely no reason to think Amanda wasn’t exactly where she said she was, especially since witnesses and CCTV put her there. The Italian police, the prosecutor, and the guy who ACTUALLY killed Meredith were the sketchballs here, not Amanda. But people have made up their minds about her based on a hunch. It’s all up and down every post about her I’ve seen online – including here, where I generally think posters are more thoughtful – and it drives me up a wall.
I feel bad for this woman, who is still guilty in the court of many people’s uninformed opinions. That prosecutor literally should be in prison himself with the number of lives he has ruined with his recklessness.
Skim-read the translated judgments and read Barbie Nadeau and John Follain’s books. She did it, 100%, IMO.
I do theorise she was out of her mind high and it was an accident, but she did it. The entire crime scene is the cottage; plus another forensics team picked up Sollecito’s knife from his apartment, ruling out contamination issues in that part.
And Sollecito’s story about having pricked Meredith Kercher with that knife during a dinner party that never happened was just laughable and further evidence these two were hiding something.
Just go to the translated judgements and read the coverage by the fluent-in-Italian journalists who didn’t have exclusive deals with Knox’s parents (ie., not Nina Burleigh but others like Barbie Nadea, Andrea Vogt, and John Follain) if you really want the truth.
If you don’t believe she killed her then what don’t you believe about her story??
Knox is a textbook sociopath, imo. But that doesn’t mean she’s guilty. It’s definitely been part of her struggle though, her general lack of traditional emotive affect. I also think it made her react in atypical ways throughout the process. It would be interesting if they retested everything with today’s DNA technology.
I’ve never believed she is 100% innocent.
I don’t either.
💯 agree
It is possible that Knox is neurodivergent in some way that makes her emotional reactions atypical, appear flat, etc. Maybe she doesn’t have the empathy level of your average person. But that doesn’t mean she was guilty of killing her roommate. It really doesn’t seem like the evidence adds up. The prosecutor was a bit of a weirdo himself and seemed to have it out for her based on the way she dressed and her alleged promiscuity (in his eyes). Also, they convicted someone else based on actual physical evidence and he served time for the murder.
If I were her I wouldn’t have gone back there. It doesn’t seem worth re-living the trauma. I don’t know what happened that night, but I’m not inclined to condemn her based on my incomplete picture of the situation.
I understand that she was active with helping other prisoners while she was incarcerated, and that she was well liked by them. So at least she had the impulse to try to make some good of her time behind bars.
Thank you for your information regarding her life in prison and what she did for others. I appreciate that kind of insight. She didn’t do it imo. But I don’t know – there’s something off about her, which makes me wonder. Speculation wouldn’t be so great had the case been handled better. I think she’s fundamentally an unsympathetic character.
I just want to chime in and support your comment. Not everyone with a flat affect is a sociopath. This can also be due to being on the Autism spectrum. I also encourage everyone to hold off on armchair diagnosing celebrities. Amanda was tortured during her interrogation (sleep deprived, hit in the head, verbally harangued, etc) and it probably traumatized her which could also result in a flatter affect.
I’m not sure what you think another DNA test would find. She shared a bathroom with Meredith, so her DNA was found in the bathroom. The only DNA found in Meredith’s room was Meredith’s and Rudy Guede’s, in, on, and around her body.
As much as you guys want to believe Amanda had something to do with it because you think she is weird or whatever, all the evidence points to a single killer with a simple motive – he was a violent man who was robbing the apartment, and Meredith was either home or came home. He also told other people (when a reduced sentence wasn’t on the line) that he did it and Amanda had nothing to do with it.
She is pretty clearly not a sociopath, if you’ve ever actually listened to her speak about this case – maybe without the voice of the British and Italian press whispering in your ears at the same time.
Amanda Knox was not tortured, sleep deprived. The police did not ask to interrogate her, they had asked her boyfriend at the time to come in for questioning, and she came with him and wouldn’t go away. They told her they didn’t need her at the time, and she refused to go home. Especially after she was told that he was not supporting her story, and saying that she wasn’t with him. Her father hired a PR firm before he hired a lawyer for her. Rudy Guede was there, but the Italian courts have always said that he did not kill Meredith Kercher alone. Among a lot of other evidence, Meredith did not have defensive wounds, showing that she was held by at least one other person (as her family said, she was very strong and athletic): there was luminol mixing Amanda’s DNA with Meredith’s blood throughout the house; her blood was mixed with Meredith’s according to the luminol, there was irrefutable evidence that the break-in was staged (among other things – the window on the second floor broken from the inside, not outside). Meredith’s other friends gave evidence that she complained of her rent money being stolen when only Amanda was there, supposedly for drugs. The Italian courts never said Amanda was innocent, they said they could not convict her on what they had. Also massive pressure from Americans including Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. Amanda’s PR campaign has been massively effective, but not everyone has believed the stories she has put out. Read the Justice for Meredith website that is still up, that translated the Italian court proceedings and the massive amount of evidence against her. The crime scene was cleaned. How did Amanda know to tell the police what position Meredith would be found in, when the door to her room was locked, and she supposedly hadn’t been in there. Had this happened in America, had the deceased been another American, considering the substantial actual evidence against Amanda, she would still be in jail, if not on death row. Read other accounts instead of Amanda’s PR. I’ll never believe she is innocent. Why do you think she can’t leave this alone? Why does she keep returning? She will carry this with her the rest of her life.
The website is http://www.truejustice.org
Counter: Injustice in Perugia and Famous-Trials (run by UMKC School of Law) have show all the different ways the detectives created a narrative they wanted, including building a case on items they cross contaminated in a lab, and creating evidence to fit their agenda, even when better explanations were available.
Wow, a lot of haters have shown up here. Can’t believe anybody would link to that awful vicious website. Knox is a college grad, a married woman with 2 kids and a successful career. But sure, call her a sociopath.
That site is full of discredited evidence.
I’m not going to bother with correcting most of what you got wrong here and leave it to the most salient point: Rudy Guede’s DNA was found in, on, and around Meredith’s body. His and Meredith’s in the room – no one else’s. How did Amanda scrub her own DNA out of the crime scene while leaving his intact? Yes, they found her DNA in the bathroom she shared with Meredith – do you think your DNA is in your bathroom? Rudy admitted he did it alone and only changed his story when it cut his sentence in half.
I thought she was guilty at first, when the press was reporting on the so called “double DNA” knife and all the other stuff that turned out to be lies. Then it became pretty apparent that this case was built on absurd conjecture and wild theories they were changing every couple weeks. Some people never changed their minds in spite of all the discredited evidence. But you should. That investigation, and the way they prosecuted it, was corrupt from start to finish. You don’t pick a murderer and try to make the crime fit, and that’s exactly what they did. They ruined Amanda’s life in the process and made her and her boyfriend victims, too.
Unlike many on this site, and other places too, I’ve always believed that she was guilty of being involved in the murder of that poor British woman. It’s been a long time, but I listened to all of the evidence, both pro and con, and was convinced that she was guilty, not innocent, a long with her boyfriend (and the other man in the room). I know her very wealthy family applied a lot of pressure and fed a lot of stories to the media. Also, maybe the pro-American attitude of Americans may have applied. But I believe she and her boyfriend got away with murder. Only one person, the African man, spent time in jail, but I think even he got out early. Again, it was a long time ago and my memory is sketchy. But in my opinion, she was guilty.
Yeah, it wasn’t a pro-American nationalistic vibe like you might think. Even in Seattle back when this case was adjudicated in Italy and later the appeal, there were big debates over the case. Lots of people on this side of the pond and in her hometown felt that she was complicit in some way along with her then well off, well connected Italian boyfriend at the time. Knox’s family isn’t rich, but she went to a private school and her family was able to take advantage of the connections made at the school.
Regardless, I always thought the way the global press covered this story was pretty voyeuristic and sensationalist and that in itself was a miscarriage of justice. Justice for Meredith to this day is not fully served.
I thought she was guilty at first because all the news coming over to the US about the case made it sound like she was clearly involved. Later, when it turned out that evidence was discredited, it became clear that they picked Amanda to be the murderer and created false evidence to fit that narrative, and I changed my mind.
That’s what gets so under my skin about this case. People picked sides and now refuse to admit that they were wrong, in spite of obvious evidence to the contrary.
Yep, followed this case and read the translated judgements, along with Follain, Nadeau, and Vogt’s books/articles (Nina Burleigh didn’t speak Italian and had a deal with Knox’s parents to push a certain message in exchange for exclusive access). No doubt she and Sollecito did it and cleaned up.
Guede was party to the torture of Kercher (she was trying to study; the other three were prob off their heads high, with Knox and Sollecito probably on “Hard A”, Knox’s favourite combo back in Seattle).
Poor Patrick Lumumba lost his livelihood (the bar) and will never get the 20,000 Euro or whatever he was awarded from her. He was actually her employer.
Amanda’s DNA was present in her own home? Wow, what a smoking gun
So are her footprints in Meredith’s blood.
That didn’t happen. You are using the propaganda version of events.
Luminol reveals blood, and at no point in the trial did Knox or Sollecito explain why their shoe prints lit up in reaction to luminol. Yes, it was Kercher’s blood in their footprints. Read the judgements; they’ve been translated.
Fruity, that is incorrect. All of the shoe prints in the room were Guede’s and match the tread of his shoes and yes, Amanda and Rafaelle DID dispute it.
Francesco Vinci’s report on the shoe prints is linked on the injustice in Perugia website. Its getting blocked by the spam filter, but it’s easy to find the page on the shoe prints in Meredith’s room and the proof that they were all Rudy Guede’s prints.
Y’all are going off the police work that would make any good detective blush and contaminated lab results.
“in the room”. There was a partial in MK’s blood on the pillowcase; this matched Knox’s shoe size and was proven to be too small to be Guede’s.
Luminol-revealed footprints matching AK were found OUTSIDE the room; RS’s (bf) bare footprint in MK’s blood was on the bathroom mat. https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/expert-says-footprints-belong-to-knox-1303840.php
Again, the whole cottage is the crime scene. You will notice a lot of commenters try to limit the evidence to MK’s bedroom. The crime scene is the whole cottage, and even if that were completely left out of the equation, what about the knife found in RS’s apartment, with MK’s DNA on it and collected by another team without any controversy about contamination, and why did RS make up that story about having pricked MK at a dinner party and later admit he made it up?
Also consider the mobile phones, staged break-in in Filomena’s room where there was a laptop and designer goods/jewellery yet nothing was stolen (Knox had a minor misdemeanor on her record back in Seattle when she staged a break-in as well), mixed DNA-blood in bathroom, etc.
Read the judgements, Nadeau’s book, and Follain’s book.
Again. Your information is based on faulty evidence and conjecture. So much of what you’re saying has been proven to be false.
There is literally nothing that supports Amanda being at the scene of the crime or having anything to do with it. All the “evidence” they had against her was shown to be the result of bad police work and lab contamination. The prosecutor that went after her already had a reputation for coming up with weird sex-cult theories for murders; this was his brand. I don’t understand how anybody can believe this foolishness. After the first trial, when all that misleading evidence was thrown out, she was declared innocent – not just “not guilty.”
Y’all need to update your information and stop relying on the info from the first trial that they threw out. And the insane theories they tried to come up with (how many motives was it again?). They tossed that evidence for a very good reason and it would have NEVER held up in a competent court.
I mention specifics, including points from all the judgements, and you rehash the old general points and accusations. Mignini the so-called “rogue prosecutor” was just one of multiple prosecutors. He was replaced at the appeal stage by Alessandro Crini. At any rate, prosecutors have little power; only the judges have the final say.
Anyone in doubt, read the book by John Follain and skim-read the translated judgements.
I guess she trauma bonded
Therese, I’m with you. Amanda is/was not innocent of the murder.
100% agree. Read on this case extensively, including Follain and Nadeau’s books and the translated judgements.
I don’t know if my comments to specific people are being limited or just my comments on this post, but some of you need to update your sources and STOP 🛑 making a case against Amanda based on evidence that was thrown out for being uncredible.
There is literally no evidence that passed a credibility check which places her at the scene of the crime, or indicates she knew about it in any way. And if you think you can decide someone is guilty because you just don’t like them, I hope you are never on a jury. This is also why trials are moved to other places, because the impact of press reporting is real, and the coverage of this trial (including all those smoking guns they manufactured) were all widely publicized.
The site, Injustice In Perugia, and the UKMC Law School site, Famous-Trials, both have pages up which dispute the key evidence used to implicate Knox and Solleceto. You’ll understand very quickly that this trial was a sham.