Salon.com > amanda knox

Amanda Knox appeals to Meredith Kercher’s family

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

In an exclusive interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, 25-year-old Amanda Knox tells her side of the story that made her an international headline six years ago.

Knox was convicted for the murder of her study abroad roommate, Meredith Kercher, and released in 2011 when the charges were dismissed. Italian courts recently overturned Knox's acquittal, however, and viewers are reminded that "every word she says here and in the pages of her new book...could affect her freedom."

In the interview, Knox recounts the night of Kercher's death, maintaining that Knox was at her Italian boyfriend's home that night. When she learned of the death, the Italian media scrutinized her reaction as callous. Knox admits to Sawyer,"I wish I could have been more mature about it."

"I felt very lost, very alone and very vulnerable," she explained. "My friend had been murdered, and it could have just as easily been me."

Knox also appealed to Kercher's family, saying "Eventually I can have their permission to pay my respects at her grave and I would also like them to know that she talked about them to me," she said.

Watch Part I of the interview, below:

Amanda Knox to Diane Sawyer: “I’d like to be reconsidered as a person”

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:07:00 +0000

In her first televised interview since she was acquitted for murder in 2011, Amanda Knox sat down with ABC's Diane Sawyer to maintain her innocence. "I'd like the truth to come out. I'd like to be reconsidered as a person," Knox told Sawyer. “What happened to me was surreal but it could’ve happened to anyone."

Knox made headlines in 2009 when she was first suspected -- later, convicted -- of the grisly murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, while the two were studying abroad in Italy. She was released from prison in 2011, but in March 2013, Italian courts overturned her acquittal.

“A Special Edition of 20/20: Murder. Mystery. Amanda Knox Speaks” airs on ABC at 10 p.m. ET Tuesday evening. The interview coincides with the release of her memoir, "Waiting to Be Heard."

“Wild Things” director planning sequel based on Amanda Knox case

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:32:00 +0000

The 1998 erotic noir movie "Wild Things" is getting (another) sequel. Film director John McNaughton, whose only feature release since has been "Speaking of Sex" in 2001, told Hollywood.com that he and screenwriter Stephen Peters are hashing out a script that would follow up straight-to-DVD releases "Wild Things 2" and "Wild Things: Diamonds in the Rough" with a fourth "Wild Things" movie.

From Hollywood.com:

"It's not one of the sequels, but about their children," he says. OK, that sounds odd, but just wait. It gets real crazy. "Do you know the Amanda Knox case? It's something like that. Something that's like the child of Suzie Toller [Campbell's character], she claimed that Matt Dillon's [character] had raped her a long time ago and maybe there is a child and maybe Bill Murray's character had a child and they're exchange students and things get out of hand. We're calling it Wild Child Things."

Knox case means more scrutiny for Italian justice system

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:21:00 +0000

ROME (AP) — When crooked American financier Bernie Madoff was sentenced in New York, the leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published a front-page cartoon mocking Italy's trial system.

On one side was a U.S. courtroom, where a judge was handing down a 150-year sentence after a six-month trial. On the other, an Italian courtroom with a judge handing down a six-month sentence after a 150-year trial.

That's how the country's No. 1 newspaper summed up Italy's slow-moving, and at times inconclusive, justice system.

The decision by Italy's highest criminal appeals court to overturn the acquittals of American student Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, and order a new trial in the 2007 slaying of her British roommate, is once again raising concerns both at home and abroad about how justice works in Italy.

It's a system where people cleared of serious crimes can have the threat of prison hanging over them for years, while powerful politicians such as former premier Silvio Berlusconi can avoid jail sentences almost indefinitely by filing appeal after appeal until the statute of limitations runs out.

Amanda Knox’s memoir and interview to go forward as planned

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 20:40:00 +0000

Today, Italy's highest appeal court overturned the acquittal of Amanda Knox, the 25-year-old who in 2009 was convicted, along with her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, for murdering British roommate Meredith Kercher while studying abroad in Italy.

The Italian legal system has ordered a retrial for the highly-publicized murder case due to procedural missteps in the original trial. As the AP notes, it's not clear what would happen if Knox was convicted, but it could launch an extradition battle between the U.S. and Italy.

The news comes only weeks before Knox's first television interview, scheduled with ABC's Diane Sawyer. The interview coincides with the release of her tell-all memoir, "Waiting to be Heard," both to take place on April 30.

Though the acquittal adds another (metaphorical, for now) chapter in the book, publisher HarperCollins has a released a statement saying that it will "move forward with the interviews we have scheduled" and release the memoir as planned.

Amanda Knox saga reopens

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:00:00 +0000

British tabloid press, rejoice! -- The Amanda Knox saga has returned. Italy's highest appeal court has overturned the acquittals of now-25-year-old Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, 29, ordering a retrial in the case of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher and paving the way for a potential extradition battle between Italy and the U.S.

The appellate court's new ruling came after prosecutors argued that the court, which acquitted Knox and her former lover in 2011, had not conducted proceedings properly. According to the AP, "Italian law cannot compel Knox to return for the new trial, and her lawyer said she had no plans to do so. The appellate court hearing the new case could declare her in contempt of court but that carries no additional penalties."

Knox's original trial fueled a media frenzy, especially in Italy and Britain, with salacious accusations of student group sex gone murderously awry. The rumors, although headline gold, infected public perception and -- commentators noted -- the court proceedings. The foreign exchange student, who was studying in Italy and shared a Perugia apartment with Kercher, earned the epithet "Foxy Knoxy" from the ravenous paparazzi.

ABC to air Amanda Knox’s first TV interview on April 30

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Amanda Knox, the media obsession who was wrongly convicted for the grisly murder of roommate Meredith Kercher while studying abroad in Italy in 2009, is ready to speak on-air about the tailspin her life has been in since then. The New York Times reports that ABC has successfully vied for Knox's first television interview, whose air date coincides with the release of her memoir, "Waiting to Be Heard."

The Knox case captured so much attention originally because of its incongruity: Knox, by all accounts, was a good student, attractive and described as quiet and kind by those who knew her. Yet when her roommate in Italy was found dead, police determined that the scattered evidence pointed towards her and her then-boyfriend, an engineering student named Raffaele Sollecito. Knox's ruling was later overturned, but not before she spent almost four years in jail, where she claims to have been sexually harassed by prison officials and was misdiagnosed with having HIV.

The Times reports that ABC has offered Knox "an hour in prime time; teases of the interview on 'World News,' the newly first-place morning show 'Good Morning America,' 'Nightline,' and ABC’s local TV and radio affiliates; and exposure on Yahoo through ABCNews.com’s alliance with that popular search engine." The interview will air on April 30.