The Italian Supreme Court recently upheld the defamation conviction against American defendant Amanda Knox for accusing an innocent man of murdering her British roommate in a sensational case 17 years ago. This case had sparked significant controversy among trial observers on both sides of the Atlantic.
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02-13, 2025Knox had previously appealed based on a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which found that police violated her rights by failing to provide a lawyer and adequate translation during lengthy interrogations. This occurred just days after Meredith Kercher was murdered in the university town of Perugia.
Judge Monica Boni read out the verdict in an empty courtroom, with only a few journalists and guards present. The lawyers for Knox and Patrick Lumumba, the man she falsely accused, had both left during the deliberations. Lumumba stated via telephone that he was satisfied with the verdict, emphasizing that "Amanda was wrong, and this conviction will follow her for life."
Knox's lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, expressed surprise at the court's decision, telling reporters at the court via telephone: "We are incredulous, it was totally unexpected and completely unfair to Amanda." The ruling appears to close the book on a 17-year legal battle, after Knox and her former Italian boyfriend were previously convicted and acquitted for the brutal murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, ultimately being declared innocent by the Supreme Court in 2015.
The defamation conviction against Knox remains valid after multiple appeals, and she was again found guilty of the crime this June after the European Court ruling cleared the way for a new trial. Knox recently stated on her podcast, "Labyrinth," "I hate having to take consequences for something I didn't do." She mentioned that she struggles to obtain visas for some countries due to her criminal record. Her defense team stated that she accused Lumumba, a Congolese man who employed her at a bar in the central Italian university town of Perugia, under lengthy police interrogation and pressure, with police feeding her false information. The European Court of Human Rights found that police deprived her of a lawyer and provided a translator who was more of a mediator.
Knox, now 37, no longer faces any risk of imprisonment, having already served nearly four years during the investigation, the initial murder trial, and the first appeal. However, Knox has continued to pursue legal battles to clear her name of all wrongdoing. Knox returned to the United States after being released by the Perugia Court of Appeal in 2011 and has become a global activist for wrongful convictions. She co-hosts a podcast with her husband and is about to publish a memoir titled "Freedom: My Journey to Find Meaning."
On November 2, 2007, while Knox was a 20-year-old student in Perugia, Kercher was found dead in the bedroom of the apartment she shared with two Italian women, having suffered multiple stab wounds. The case quickly became global news, and suspicion quickly fell on Knox and her boyfriend of just a few days, Raffaele Sollecito. However, ultimately, another man, Rudy Hermann Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was convicted of murder after his DNA was found at the crime scene. He was released in 2021 after serving most of his 16-year sentence.
The European Court ordered Italy to compensate Knox for the damages caused by police misconduct, noting that she was particularly vulnerable as a foreign student who did not speak Italian fluently. The Italian Supreme Court ordered a new defamation trial based on that ruling, overturning two signed statements drafted by the police that falsely accused Lumumba of murder and instructing the appeals court that the only evidence it could consider was a handwritten letter she later wrote in English attempting to retract the accusations. However, the appeals court stated in its reasoning that the four-page memo supported the finding of defamation.
According to Knox's statements, Lumumba was taken in for questioning despite having a solid alibi. His business suffered, and he and his Polish wife eventually moved to Poland. Upon arriving at court, he emphasized that Knox "never apologized to me."
