Amanda Knox is once again facing a trial in Italy, this time for a slander case that has the potential to remove the last legal stain against her following her exoneration nine years ago in the murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher in 2007. Despite the conviction of another man for the murder and a 2015 high court verdict clearing Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, doubts about her role persist, especially in Italy and among members of Kercher’s family.
The slander case against Knox stems from her accusing the owner of a bar where she worked of the murder, based on statements typed by police that she signed during a long night of questioning just days after Kercher’s murder. Knox recanted the next afternoon in a four-page handwritten note, but the confusion in the memo showed her struggle to reconcile the conflicting statements with her own recollections. The slander conviction and three-year sentence were overturned by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that her rights were violated during questioning without a lawyer or qualified translator. The highest court in Italy threw out the conviction, ruling that the statements typed by police were inadmissible.
Amanda Knox was a 20-year-old student when her roommate Meredith Kercher was found dead in their shared apartment in Perugia in 2007. Knox and Sollecito were initially convicted in their first trial but were ultimately exonerated by Italy’s highest court in 2015. Knox returned to the United States after the appeals court threw out her first conviction in 2011, following four years in prison. She has faced continued public scrutiny as her legal cases in Italy continued, but she has since focused on campaigning for criminal justice reform and against forced confessions, drawing on her own experience. Knox, now 36 and a mother of two, has a podcast, a limited series in development for Hulu, and has recorded a series on resilience for a meditation app.
In Wednesday’s hearing, an appeals court panel heard arguments from the prosecution and the lawyer for the bar owner falsely accused by Knox, who maintained that she committed slander. Knox’s defense attorneys highlighted her overturned murder conviction and the interrogation techniques that were criticized by Europe’s human rights court. The trial will continue on June 5, with a verdict expected at that time. Knox’s case continues to attract attention, both in Italy and internationally, as she fights to clear her name and move on from the legal challenges that have clouded her life for many years.
