Amanda Knox attends the opening ceremony of the Innocence Project conference in Modena, Italy, on June 13, 2019. Defend yourself against defamation.
Antonio Calani/AP
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Antonio Calani/AP
MILAN — Amanda Knox will return to an Italian court this week to defend herself against a 16-year-old defamation conviction she hopes will be overturned once and for all.
After the murder of Knox’s British roommate in November 2007, the European Court of Justice ruled that Italy violated her human rights during a long night of trial, opening up opportunities for Knox, who turns 37 next month.
Defamation charges accusing a Congolese bar owner of involvement in a murder were the only charges against Knox that withstood five court rulings, ultimately proving that she was involved in the murder of her roommate, 21-year-old Meredith. Meredith Kercher was cleared of any wrongdoing in the brutal murder in the apartment they shared.
The defamation case ordered to be retried by Italy’s Supreme Court is expected to be decided on Wednesday, with Knox appearing in an Italian court for the first time in 12 1/2 years.
“I will be walking into the same courtroom where I was re-convicted of a crime I did not commit, this time to defend myself again,” Knox wrote on social media. “I hope to be able to Wish me the best of luck in clearing me once and for all of all false accusations.
The defamation charge is based primarily on two statements printed by the police and signed by Knox during a lengthy police interrogation in Italian in the early hours of November 6, 2007, without a lawyer or qualified interpreter. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the conditions violated her human rights.
Kercher’s murder drew worldwide attention and raised suspicions about Knox, then 20, and her then-Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, whom she had been dating for only about a week.
Knox and Sollecito were convicted in the first trial, but after a series of erratic verdicts, Italy’s Supreme Court finally acquitted them in 2015. Returned to the United States in October. She is now a mother of two and creates a podcast with her husband while campaigning against wrongful convictions.
However, Knox’s defamation conviction persists, a legal stain that continues to raise suspicions about her role in the killings, particularly in Italy – despite the criticism of Rudy Hermann Guade from Ivory Coast. Rudy Hermann Guede was convicted and his DNA was found at the crime scene.
Guede was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a speedy trial. He has already served 13 years and is expected to receive a lighter sentence under Italian law.
Italy’s Supreme Court in November dismissed Knox’s defamation conviction and ruled that two police statements were inadmissible, following a ruling by the European Court of Justice. It ordered a new trial, instructing the Florence court to consider only Knox’s handwritten statement, written in English hours later.
“Regarding the ‘confession’ I made last night, I want to make it clear that I have serious doubts about the veracity of my statements as they were made under pressure, shock and extreme exhaustion,” her statement said .
Sal Kassin, a pioneer in the study of false confessions, said the statement Knox signed followed the false confession playbook.
“The empirical fact is that most false confessions contain accurate details and ‘false facts’ not yet known to the public that are consistent with the police theory of the crime but are later proven to be untrue,” said Cashin, a psychologist.
Cashin said police “tainted” Knox’s confession, which was consistent with police theories at the time.
“It is absurd to hold her accountable for statements that she was involved in,” he wrote.
