Amanda Knox

Amanda Knox

Amanda Marie Knox is an American woman who spent almost four years in an Italian prison following her conviction for the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher. Knox implicated herself and her employer, Patrick Lumumba, in the murder. In 2015, Knox was definitively acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation. Knox subsequently became an author, an activist, and a journalist. Her memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, became a best seller.

About Amanda Knox in brief

Summary Amanda KnoxAmanda Marie Knox is an American woman who spent almost four years in an Italian prison following her conviction for the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher. Knox, aged 20 at the time of the murder, had called the police after returning to her and Kercher’s apartment following a night spent with her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. Knox implicated herself and her employer, Patrick Lumumba, in the murder. In 2015, Knox was definitively acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation. Knox subsequently became an author, an activist, and a journalist. Her memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, became a best seller. In December 2017, Facebook Watch announced that Knox would be hosting a show, The Scarlet Letter Reports, produced by Vice Media on its service. Knox graduated in 2005 from the Seattle Preparatory School and studied linguistics at the University of Washington, where in 2007 she made the university’s dean’s list. She worked at part-time jobs to fund an academic year in Italy. Knox first travelled to Italy at the age of 15, when she visited Rome, Pisa, the Amalfi Coast, and the ruins of Pompeii on a family holiday. Her interest in the country was increased by the book Under the Tuscan Sun, which her mother gave to her. Knox’s mother, Edda Mellas, a mathematics teacher, and her father, Curt Knox, a vice president of finance at the local Macy’s, divorced when Amanda was a few years old.

Relatives described the 20-year-old Knox as outgoing but unwary. Her stepfather had strong reservations about her going to Italy that year, as he felt she was still too naïve. Knox lived in a four-bedroom, 7-floor apartment in a Via degola 3-floor house with other women with other exchange students in Perugia, Italy. In early 2002, Perugian prosecutor Giuliano Mignini was in charge of the investigation of a respectable Masonic lodge for an alleged serial killings and Satanic rites. Giulio Andreotti was later convicted of ordering the murder of journalist Carmine Pecorelli, and led to complaints that the justice system had “gone mad” The city had reportedly not had a murder for 20 years, but its prosecutors had been responsible for Italy’s most controversial murder cases. In 2010, selective changes to the Italian legal system left it unable to cope with a prosecutor who had a detective-like approach to the case, which led to the acquittal of Andreotti the next year. As of December 4, 2020, an Italian court ruled that Rudy Guede could complete his term doing community service. He was later found guilty of murder in a fast-track trial and was sentenced to a 16-year prison sentence. Knox was acquitted of calunnia for saying she had been struck by policewomen during the interrogation. On March 27, 2015, Italy’s highest court definitively exonerated Knox and SolleCito.