Washington’s Amanda Knox to go on trial again in Italy

Oct 13, 2023, 4:40 PM | Updated: 6:31 pm

Image: American Amanda Knox delivers a speech during a panel session entitled "Trial by Media" duri...

American Amanda Knox delivers a speech during a panel session entitled "Trial by Media" during the first edition of the Criminal Justice Festival, an event organized by The Italy Innocence Project and the local association of barristers, on June 15, 2019 in Modena, Italy. (Photo: Emanuele Cremaschi, Getty Images)

(Photo: Emanuele Cremaschi, Getty Images)

BY STEVE COOGAN

Former MyNorthwest Lead Editor

Italy’s highest court overturned Seattle native Amanda Knox’s slander conviction Friday, ordering a new trial in the city of Florence.

Knox is in favor of the ruling.

“I’m on trial in Italy again…and this is a good thing,” Knox wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, Friday.

As part of a thread she authored, she noted she ended up exonerated in the 2007 killing of her British roommate Meredith Kercher, but one conviction remained on her record.

“(Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassations) sentenced me to time served for the slander charge, which meant that according to the state of Italy, three of my four years of imprisonment were rightfully served,” Knox wrote on X. “Though I was exonerated for murder, I remained wrongly convicted of slander.”

I’m on trial in Italy again…and this is a good thing.

As everyone knows, on March 27th, 2015, the Court of Cassation definitively acquitted me and Raffaele Sollecito of the murder of Meredith Kercher, per non aver commesso il fatto—for not having committed the act.

/thread

— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox) October 13, 2023

Knox’s ordeal in Italy began in 2007

Knox, who was an exchange student, was accused with her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and Rudy Guede of killing her British roommate, Meredith Kercher in November 2007, in the university town of Perugia. Kercher was found nude and stabbed dozens of times. There also was evidence she was sexually assaulted.

The trials of Knox and Sollecito drew international media attention, with early allegations appearing in Italian media that apparently affected their initial verdicts.

From 2022: KIRO Newsradio’s Gee Scott interviews Amanda Knox

Knox, initially, was found guilty and ended up serving nearly four years in prison for Kercher’s murder.

After multiple rulings, an appeals court acquitted Knox in 2011 and Italy’s highest court definitively acquitted Knox and Sollecito in 2015. Judges in that final ruling cited flaws in the investigation and said there was a lack of evidence to prove the defendants’ wrongdoing beyond reasonable doubt, including a lack of “biological traces” connecting them to the crime.

Guede, who was the only person convicted in the murder of Kercher, was released from prison in 2021 after serving nearly all of his 16-year sentence.

Knox’s slander conviction

Italy’s highest court, however, did confirm the damaging 2011 slander conviction — which included a three-year prison sentence — against Knox for falsely accusing Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba of the murder. Knox sometimes worked at the establishment Lumumba owned.

From the Dori Monson archives: Let Amanda Knox lead her life

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, in 2019 ordered Italy to pay Knox financial damages — 18,400 euros ($20,000) — for police failure to provide legal assistance and an independent interpreter during a long night of questioning following Kercher’s murder.

The court said in its ruling Italy hadn’t succeeded in proving that “the restriction of Ms. Knox’s access to a lawyer … had not irreparably undermined the fairness of the proceedings as a whole.” It said Italy must pay Knox in damages, costs and expenses.

At that time, Knox wrote in her blog “that my slander conviction was unjust.”

“I never should have been charged, much less convicted, of slander,” she wrote.

Her position remains the same in 2023.

“It has given me the opportunity to seek my full acquittal from this wrongful accusation of slander,” Knox wrote on X. “I am no longer a convicted person. And I will fight with my lawyers to prove my innocence once and for all.”

She completed her X thread by expressing gratitude to her attorneys and the Italy Innocence Project, for “their tireless support and pursuit of justice.”

Knox added that, “One day in prison as an innocent person is one day too many.”

What’s next for Knox?

According to their website, Knox and her husband Christopher Robinson run Knox Robinson Productions, “a multimedia production company dedicated to creating content that embodies curiosity, compassion, and courage.”

The pair have published a book of poems called “The Cardio Tesseract” and they currently write, produce, and host the podcast Labyrinths. Their company is also “actively developing and seeking partnerships for projects in TV, film, podcasting, gaming, voice-acting, journalism, and more.”

One of those TV projects could see her teaming up with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky on a “big-budget TV drama” for Hulu, according to a report. The project will tell “the chilling real-life story of the murder of (Knox’s) roommate Meredith Kercher, (Knox’s) subsequent conviction for the harrowing crime, and (Knox’s) ultimate exoneration,” the Daily Mail says. The outlet claims the two women have “formed a ‘close’ bond while working on the project, which will see (Knox) shedding new and dramatic light on the untimely death” of Kercher.

Knox also helps to raise money for the Innocence Project and sits on the board of the Frederick Douglass Project for Justice, whose mission is to humanize the incarcerated.

Finally, a special event with Knox has been scheduled to take place at the Edmonds Center for the Arts on Friday, Nov. 29 and attendees will be able to participate in a Q&A with her.

Contributing: The Associated Press; KIRO 7