The nightmare of the Meredith Kercher murder happened in 2007 but is still ongoing for her roommate, Amanda Knox. Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were accused and found guilty of stabbing Meredith over 40 times in a sexual fantasy gone wrong, even though fingerprints and DNA at the scene were traced to Ivorian migrant Rudy Guede, who was eventually charged. Although Knox was ultimately exonerated of the accusations, she is still not free of the many convictions held against her. In fact, she is currently facing trial again in Rome, Italy for accusations of slander. At the time of the murder, Amanda was found guilty of falsely accusing Congolese Patrick Lumumba, owner of the bar where she was employed, of murdering Kercher.
Knox’s defense is that she was subjected to 53 hours of interrogation, without a lawyer or translator and even experienced some physical abuse by her interrogators. Eventually, she was led to sign a statement accusing Lumumba that had been written by police in Italian. Immediately after signing the police statement, Knox wrote a statement of her own in English declaring, “..I’m very doubtful of the veritity of my statements because they were made under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion.” She goes on to say she was threatened with 30 years of jail and hit in the head.
Even if convicted, Knox will not face jail time. Italy’s highest court has annulled the slander conviction and during this retrial the police statement cannot be used. She has also served enough time behind bars for the overturned murder conviction to avoid additional time for this sentencing if found guilty.
In the meantime, Hulu has announced a limited series about Amanda Knox’s 16 year story of being wrongfully accused of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher, including the 4 years she was imprisoned in Italy. Knox will be one of the executive producers and Margaret Qualley has been chosen to star as Amanda Knox. Compromised of 8 hour-long episodes, “This is Us” executive producer KJ Steinburg created the show along with Qualley and Monica Lewinsky.
