Amanda Knox (Part I)

Amanda Marie Knox (born July 9, 1987) is an American woman who spent almost four years in an Italian prison following her conviction for the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a fellow exchange student who shared her apartment. In 2015, Knox was definitively acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation.

Knox, aged 20 at the time of the murder, had called the police after returning to her and Kercher's flat following a night spent with her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and finding Kercher's bedroom door locked and blood in the bathroom. During the police interrogations that followed, the conduct of which is a matter of dispute, Knox implicated herself and her employer, Patrick Lumumba, in the murder. Initially, Knox, Sollecito, and Lumumba were all arrested for Kercher's murder, but Lumumba was soon released. In the initial trial, Knox and Sollecito were convicted and sentenced to 26 and 25 years in prison, respectively. Known burglar Rudy Guede was arrested a short time later following the discovery of his bloodstained fingerprints on Kercher's possessions. He was later found guilty of murder in a fast-track trial and is currently (as of 2019) serving a 16-year prison sentence.

Pre-trial publicity in Italian media (and repeated by other media worldwide) portrayed Knox in a negative light, leading to complaints that the prosecution was using character assassination tactics. A guilty verdict at Knox's initial trial and her 26-year sentence caused international controversy, as U.S. forensic experts thought evidence at the crime scene was incompatible with her involvement. A prolonged legal process, including a successful prosecution appeal against her acquittal at a second-level trial, continued after Knox was freed in 2011. On March 27, 2015, Italy's highest court definitively exonerated Knox and Sollecito. However, Knox's conviction for committing calunnia (calumny) against Lumumba was upheld by all courts. On January 14, 2016, Knox was acquitted of calunnia for saying she had been struck by policewomen during the interrogation.

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.

Early life

Amanda Knox grew up in Seattle, Washington, with three younger sisters. Her 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. Her stepfather, Chris Mellas, is an information technology consultant.

Knox first traveled 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 graduated in 2005 from the Seattle Preparatory School and studied linguistics at the University of Washington, wherein 2007 she made the university's dean's list.  She worked at part-time jobs to fund an academic year in Italy. 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.

Italy

Perugia background

Perugia, the city where Meredith Kercher was murdered in her home, is known for its universities and large student population. The city had reportedly not had a murder for 20 years, but its prosecutors had been responsible for Italy's most controversial murder cases.  A charge originated by Perugia prosecutors resulted in the 2002 conviction of former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti for ordering the murder of journalist Carmine Pecorelli, and led to complaints that the justice system had "gone mad". The Supreme Court took the unusual step of definitively acquitting Andreotti the next year.

In early 2002, Perugia prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, who enjoyed taking a detective-like role and was later to be in charge of the Kercher investigation, arraigned members of a respectable Masonic lodge for an alleged conspiracy. Mignini reportedly based the case on a theory involving serial killings and Satanic rites. Mignini investigated fellow prosecutors for complicity in the supposed plot and appealed dismissals of the charges; there were no convictions in the case, which finally ended in 2010.  According to a scholar who researched comparative law in Italy, selective changes to the Italian legal system left it unable to cope when a prosecutor with Mignini's American-style adversarial approach used his powers to the fullest.

Via Della Pergola 7

In Perugia, Knox lived in a four-bedroom, ground-floor apartment in a house at Via Della Pergola 7 with 3 other women.  Her flatmates were Kercher (a British exchange student) and two Italian trainee lawyers in their late twenties. Kercher and Knox moved in on September 10 and 20, 2007, respectively, meeting each other for the first time. Knox was employed part-time at a bar, Le Chic, which was owned by a Congolese man, Diya Patrick Lumumba. She told flatmates that she was going to quit because he was not paying her; Lumumba denied this.  Kercher's English female friends saw relatively little of Knox, who preferred to mix with Italians.

The walk-out semi-basement apartment of the house was rented by young Italian men with whom both Kercher and Knox were friendly. One, Giacomo Silenzi spent time in the girls' flat due to a shared interest in music. Returning home at 2 am one night in mid-October, Knox, Kercher, Silenzi, and another basement resident met a basketball court acquaintance of the Italians, Rudy Guede.  Guede attached himself to the group and asked about Knox. He was invited into the basement by the Italians; Knox and then Kercher came down to join them. At 4:30 am Kercher left, saying she was going to bed, and Knox followed her out. Guede spent the rest of the night in the basement.  Knox recalled a second night out with Kercher and Silenzi in which Guede joined them and was allowed into the basement. He was never invited into the women's apartment.

Three weeks before her death, Kercher went with Knox to the EuroChocolate festival. On October 20, Kercher became romantically involved with Silenzi, after going to a nightclub with him as part of a small group that included Knox. Guede visited the basement later that day. On October 25, Kercher and Knox went to a concert, where Knox met Raffaele Sollecito, a 23-year-old software engineer student. She began spending her time at his flat, a five-minute walk from Via Della Pergola 7.

Discovery of body

November 1 was a public holiday, and the Italians living in the house were away. It is believed that after watching a movie at some friends' house, Kercher returned home around 9 pm that evening and was alone in the house. Just after midday on November 2, Knox called Kercher's English phone. But though Kercher kept the phone in her jeans and could always be reached on it, the call was not answered. Knox then called Filomena Romanelli, one of the two Italian trainee lawyers she and Kercher shared the apartment with, and in a mixture of Italian and English said she was worried something had happened to Kercher, as on going to Via Della Pergola 7 apartment earlier that morning Knox had noticed an open front door, bloodstains (including a footprint) in the bathroom, and Kercher's bedroom door locked. Knox and Sollecito then went to Via Della Pergola 7, and on getting no answer from Kercher unsuccessfully tried to break in the bedroom door, leaving it noticeably damaged.  At 12:47 pm, Knox called her mother and was told to contact the police as an emergency.

Sollecito called the Carabinieri, one of Italy's national police forces, getting through at 12:51 PM. He was recorded telling them there had been a break-in with nothing taken, and the emergency was that Kercher's door was locked, she was not answering calls to her phone, and there were bloodstains.  Police telecommunications investigators arrived to inquire about an abandoned phone, which was, in fact, Kercher's Italian unit. Romanelli arrived and took over, explaining the situation to the police who were informed about Kercher's English phone, which had been handed in as a result of its ringing when Knox called it. On discovering Kercher's English phone had been found dumped, Romanelli demanded that the policemen force Kercher's bedroom door open, but they did not think the circumstances warranted damaging private property.  The door was then kicked in by a friend of Romanelli, and Kercher's body was discovered on the floor. She had been stabbed and died from exsanguination due to neck wounds.

Investigation

The first detectives on the scene were Monica Napoleoni and her superior Marco Chiacchiera. Napoleoni conducted the initial interviews and quizzed Knox about her failure to immediately raise the alarm, which was later widely seen as an anomalous feature of Knox's behavior.  According to Knox, Napoleoni was hostile to her from the outset.  Chiacchiera discounted the signs of a break-in, deeming them clearly faked by the killer.  The police were not told the extent of Kercher's relationship with Silenzi in initial interviews.  On November 4, the same day Chiacchiera was quoted as saying that someone known to Kercher and let into the house by her might be responsible for her murder, Guede is believed to have left Perugia.

Interviews, arrest, and arraignment

Over the following days, Knox was repeatedly interviewed, ostensibly as someone who might become a witness. She told police that on November 1 she received a text from Lumumba advising that her evening waitressing shift had been canceled and she had stayed over at Sollecito's apartment, only going back to the house she shared with Kercher on the morning the body was discovered. Knox was not provided with legal counsel, as Italian law only mandates the appointment of a lawyer for someone suspected of a crime. On the night of November 5, Knox voluntarily went to the police station, although what followed is a matter of dispute. Police arrested Knox, Sollecito, and Patrick Lumumba on November 6, 2007. Charges against Lumumba were dropped a short time later.

At her trial, Knox testified that she had spent hours maintaining her original story, that she had been with Sollecito at his flat all night and had no knowledge of the murder, but a group of police would not believe her.  Knox said, "I wasn't just stressed and pressurized; I was manipulated"; she testified to being told by the interpreter, "probably I didn't remember well because I was traumatized. So I should try to remember something else.”  Knox stated, "they said they were convinced that I was protecting someone. They were saying 'Who is it? Who is it?' They were saying: 'Here's the message on your telephone, you wanted to meet up with him, you are a stupid liar." Knox also said that a policewoman "was saying 'Come on, come on, remember' and then – slap – she hit me. Then 'come on, come on' and – slap – another one".

Knox said she had requested a lawyer but was told it would make things worse for her, and that she would go to jail for thirty years; she also said she was not allowed access to food, water, or the bathroom.  Ficarra and policewoman Lorena Zugarini testified that during the interview Knox was given access to food, water, hot drinks, and the lavatory. They further said Knox was asked about a lawyer but did not have one, was not hit at any time, and interviewed "firmly but politely".  Under pressure, Knox falsely stated that she had been in the house when Kercher was killed and that she thought the murderer was Lumumba (who Knox knew had been serving customers at his bar all that night). Knox, Sollecito, and Lumumba were taken into custody and charged with the murder. Her first meeting with her legal counsel was on November 11.  Chiacchiera, who thought the arrests were premature, dropped out of the investigation soon afterward, leaving Napoleoni in charge of a major investigation for the first time in her career.

Customers who Lumumba had been serving at his bar on the night of the murder gave him a complete alibi.  After his bloodstained fingerprints were found on bedding under Kercher's body, Guede (who had fled to Germany) was extradited back to Italy. Guede, Knox, and Sollecito were then charged with committing the murder together. On November 30, a panel of three judges endorsed the charges and ordered Knox and Sollecito held in detention pending a trial.  In a formal interview with Mignini, Knox said she had been brainwashed by police interrogators into accusing Lumumba and implicating herself.

Knox became the subject of unprecedented pre-trial media coverage drawing on unattributed leaks from the prosecution, including a best-selling Italian book whose author imagined or invented incidents that were purported to have occurred in Knox's private life.

Italian legal procedure

In 1989, Italy reformed its inquisitorial system, introducing elements of US-style adversarial procedure. The changes were intended to remove an inquisitorial continuity between the investigatory phase and the basis for a decision at trial, but in practice, they took control of inquiries away from police and gave prosecutors authority over the preliminary investigation.  Although they have considerable authority over early inquiries and discretion in bringing charges, Italian prosecutors do not customarily use their powers in the aggressive way common in the US system.

Unless the defendant opts for a fast track trial (a relatively inquisitorial procedure), murder trials are heard by a Corte d'Assise, which is less likely to exclude evidence as prejudicial as a US court. Two presiding professional trial judges, who also vote on the verdict, are expected to correct any bias of the six lay-judges during their deliberations.  An acquittal can be appealed by the prosecution, and faulty application of legal principles in the judges' detailed report on their decision can be grounds for overturning the verdict.

A defendant who gives evidence is not given an oath, because he or she is not considered to be a witness. The settled verdict of another court can be used without collaboration to support circumstantial evidence; in Knox's case the official report on Guede's conviction was introduced as showing that Guede had accomplices.  If the Supreme Court grants an appeal against a guilty verdict, it usually sends the case back to be re-heard. It can also dismiss the prosecution case, although this is rare.