Murder scene cut from Knox movie
Feb 20, 2011, 3:09 PM | Updated: Mar 28, 2011, 3:46 pm
A controversial, gruesome scene in which a half-naked Meredith Kercher screams for her life as she is pinned down and stabbed by three killers has been dropped from made-for-TV movie that airs Monday night.
The movie “Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy” stars Hayden Panettiere playing Knox.
The scene showed Kercher wearing jeans and a grey bra writhing on the floor while being subjected to a brutal attack by a knife-wielding Amanda Knox, Knox’s Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and an Ivory Coast national, Rudy Guede.
All three were found guilty of murder and sexual assault by a court in Perugia, Italy, where the crime took place, in December of 2009.
Both families of Kercher and Knox have objected to the scene, and the Knox family has been outraged by the way their daughter is portrayed in the movie. Both families have also threatened to sue the producers of the Lifetime channel movie.
A spokeswoman for the Lifetime channel confirmed to me in an email statement they will go ahead with the movie, regardless of legal threats.
Other controversial scenes were left in the movie, including one that shows Guede watching in a panic as he sees blood squirting from Kercher’s neck after she was stabbed with a knife.
Knox is appealing her murder conviction. Meanwhile, her parents will face a trial in July for slander, for repeating Knox’s claim that Italian police roughed her up during questioning.
Photo from a scene in “Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy” courtesy Lifetime
