FOXY KNOXY
Who is Amanda Knox and was she found guilty in Meredith Kercher murder slander case?
Amanda Knox was called back to the same court that wrongly convicted her of murder in 2007
AMANDA Knox has been back up in an Italian court, after previously serving a prison sentence when she was wrongly convicted of killing her former roommate.
Read more about the latest updates in the slander case against her, and what she’s been up to since her murder conviction was overturned.
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Who is Amanda Knox?
Amanda Knox is an American author and journalist, best known for being wrongly convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in 2007.
Knox was attending the University for Foreigners in Perugia on an exchange year from the University of Washington.
While there, she started dating Raffaele Sollecito, a 23-year-old Italian student, and worked in a bar.
But on November 2, 2007, Amanda's life changed forever.
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Knox arrived at her home, later telling police that she noticed that the front door was open and there was dried blood in the bathroom.
After calling the police, the body of roommate Meredith was found inside her locked bedroom.
Knox and then-boyfriend Sollecito were convicted of stabbing 21-year-old Kercher to death at a flat in Perugia, Italy, in 2007.
In 2009, the pair were jailed, with Know receiving a 26 year sentence, and Sollecito receiving 25 years.
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Knox and Sollecito were acquitted of murder on March 27, 2015, by the Italian supreme court.
Judges said that there were a litany of errors regarding the case, including a stark lack of evidence to suggest that either Knox or Sollecito were involved.
After her experience, she said that people had flocked to apologise to her - even stopping her in the street to say sorry for jumping to conclusions about her.
Knox recently spoke to a panel of lawyers and discussed the effect the case had on her family and how the case came to define her; and featured in a Netflix documentary about her experiences.
She married poet and author Christopher Robinson in 2018.
In 2021, Knox and Robinson welcomed their first child together.
The baby was named Eureka Know Robinson.
She took to Instagram to share her news.
Since my exoneration, I've struggled to reclaim my identity and protect the people I love from being exploited as tabloid content. It's not easy, and I often feel like I'm trying to invent good choices out of bad whole cloth. I know that I cannot 100% protect my daughter from the kind of treatment I've suffered, but I'm doing the best I can. Which is why this will be the only picture of her I will ever share on social media. I'm so grateful to everyone who has wished @emceecarbon and I well on our journey to parenthood. Thank you for believing in us."
Amanda Knox
Knox believes that she has had to carry the burden for the murder of Kercher, saying that her real killer, Rudy Guede, is almost forgotten due to the high media presence surrounding the case.
In 2024, Knox was back in court in Italy.
She was re-convicted of a charge related to the brutal 2007 killing of Meredith Kercher.
On June 5th, I will walk into the very same courtroom where I was reconvicted of a crime I didn't commit, this time to defend myself yet again. I hope to clear my name once and for all of the false charges against me. Wish me luck."
Amanda Knox
Knox was found guilty of slander for falsely accusing Patrick Lumumba, a Congolese bar owner, of killing Kercher.
Lumumba was held for two weeks in 2007 before he was freed without charge.
But despite being sentenced to three years in jail, the mum-of-two will not serve any more jail time, as the three years count as time already served.
Who was Meredith Kercher?
Meredith Kercher was born in Southwark, South London on 28 December, 1985.
She lived in Coulsdon, a town within the London borough of Croydon.
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The 21-year-old was last seen on November 1 of that year, with her body found in a pool of blood in her bedroom the next day.
An autopsy conducted on her body found that her throat had been cut and she had been stabbed almost 50 times.
It also found that she had 16 bruises, including on her nose and mouth, as well as suffering injuries related to sexual assault.
In 2007, fingerprints were identified at the scene as belonging to Rudy Guede, who was ultimately charged and sentenced for the brutal murder.
He was granted early release in November 2021.
The case attracted global media interest, with Knox at the centre.
Did Amanda Knox get any compensation?
Knox was awarded a £16,000 payout after winning a European Human Rights Court case against the Italian government on January 24, 2019.
At the Court, she said Italian police had infringed her rights by failing to provide her with a lawyer, an interpreter, and not following proper procedure.
She also insisted she had been slapped by cops during questioning but judges ruled there was no proof of that.
They wrote: "There was insufficient evidence to conclude that Ms Knox had actually sustained the inhuman or degrading treatment of which she had complained."
Within minutes of the decision, Knox, who now lives in Seattle, issued a statement again insisting she was hit.
She said: "I was interrogated for 53 hours over five days, without a lawyer, in a language I understood maybe as well as a ten-year-old.
"When I told police I had no idea who had killed Meredith I was slapped in the back of the head and told to 'Remember.'"
Sources in Italy said Knox had been looking for £1.7m compensation but the ECHR gave her £9,000 damages and £6,900 towards costs.
There was no immediate response from the Italian government, which has three months to reply.
What happened to Raffaele Sollecito?
Raffaele Sollecito was cleared of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher after spending nearly four years in jail.
The Italian man has since said that the convictions ruined his life, demanding £400,000 to cover legal costs that he incurred while trying to clear his name.
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This bid was rejected in 2017, on the grounds that Sollecito made "contradictory or even frankly untrue" statements in the early stages of the investigation, which equated to "intent or gross negligence."
He said: "There were many victims in this case. Amanda [Knox] 's parents, my parents, all our families... there are many others made by the prosecution's mistakes."
He then added that people did not understand why he had been acquitted, saying: "I have to face this kind of society. I have to face anybody that doesn't support me."
Sollecito now works as a computer engineer in Milan.
He reunited with Knox in 2022 to visit the historic Italian town of Gubbio, a town they were planning to visit before being arrested for Kercher's murder.
What happened to Rudy Guede?
Rudy Guede was born December 26, 1986, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
He was convicted of the murder and sexual assault of Meredith Kercher in October 2008, and sentenced to 30 years behind bars.
However, this was reduced to 16 years.
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Guede was released from prison on November 24, 2021 after having served 13 years of his sentence.
He was allowed out 45 days early for good behaviour.
What's in the Netflix documentary?
Amanda Knox flatly denied being involved in the murder of Meredith Kercher in a 2016 documentary, saying: "Either I'm a psychopath in sheep's clothing, or, I am you."
The documentary, titled Amanda Knox, was released on Netflix on September 10, 2016.
Directed by Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn, the documentary followed other successful Netflix documentaries examining murder cases, including Making A Murderer.
The Netflix documentary promised to tell "the other side" of Knox's story and included direct interviews with the woman almost 10 years on from the case.
In the trailer, Knox speaks about how she had travelled to Italy to grow up – but her life was turned upside down by the case.
How to watch the Amanda Knox documentary
The Amanda Knox documentary is available to watch on streaming platform Netflix.
Knox herself stars in the programme, which is billed as an illuminating and provocative investigation into the circumstances surrounding her wrongful imprisonment.
UK viewers can sign up to watch Netflix on smart devices or through the TV.
Packages start from £4.99 a month.
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