Following her appeal in a case that divided trial on both sides of the Atlantic, Italy’s court has upheld Amanda Knox’s conviction. On Thursday, January 23, 2025, the lingering conviction against American Amanda Knox was upheld by the Italian top court.
Knox had filed her appeal following the rulings by a European Court of Human Rights decision that claimed her rights had been violated by police. According to the court’s decision, the police had failed to provide her with a lawyer and a sufficient translator during the night of interrogation.
The Italy court, which was presided over by Judge Monica Boni, had passed its decision in a near-empty courtroom, with few reporters and security personnel. During the court’s deliberation, the attorneys representing Knox and Patrick Lumumba, the man she falsely accused, were noticeably absent.
Back in 2007, Knox had accused her former boss, Lumumba, of murdering Meredith Kercher in two signed statements. The signed statements had been prepared by police regarding her accusation against Lumumba. However, Knox later wrote a handwritten note questioning her false accusation.
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Despite numerous appeals, Knox’s slander conviction stood, leading to her reconviction in June 2024. When contacted, Lumumba expressed his satisfaction with the decision. Lumumba said, “Amanda was wrong. This verdict has to accompany her for the rest of her life.”
Did Amanda Knox Receive a Wrongful Conviction for Murder?
In 2007, Knox was arrested following the murder of her 21-year-old roommate, Meredith Kercher, in the university town of Perugia. Knox became the center of attention in 2007 following the discovery of Kercher’s corpse in their Perugian student apartment.
Following the discovery, Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty of her murder in a protracted judicial battle. On November 2, 2007, Knox discovered Kercher dead from a knife wound in her bedroom of the apartment they shared with two Italian women.
However, Rudy Hermann Guede was ultimately found guilty of the murder following the discovery of his DNA at the crime site. After completing the majority of his 16-year sentence, he was released in 2021. Prior to their final acquittal in 2015, Knox and Sollecito were acquitted in 2011 and then reconvicted.
In 2015, the highest Cassation Court cleared Knox and Sollecito of all charges, ending a 17-year legal saga of convictions and acquittals. Following her final acquittal in 2015, the European Court ruled that Italy should compensate her for the police’s shortcomings.
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The court highlighted that Knox, a foreign student and a non-Italian speaker, was at a disadvantage during the interrogation. During the inquiry, the first murder trial, and the first appeal, Knox has already spent over four years in prison. However, Knox persisted in the legal dispute in an effort to exonerate her from any criminal misconduct.
When Did Amanda Knox’s Murder Conviction Occur?
Following her arrest on murder charges in November 2007, Amanda Knox was originally convicted of murder in 2009. Following her conviction in 2009, Knox was sentenced to a three-year jail sentence. However, following a series of appeals that saw her exonerated, Knox returned to the US in 2011.
In 2015, Italy’s top court dismissed the accusations due to a lack of evidence and a rushed decision, ending the back-and-forth case in different courts. Although she was acquitted of all charges relating to the murder, Knox was convicted on slander charges relating to Lumumba.
In 2019, Europe’s top human rights court ruled that Knox’s fair trial rights were violated when she was questioned without legal representation. The court then ordered Italy to pay her 18,400 euros in damages, costs and expenses.
The court questioned the interpreter’s role and noted that Knox’s statements during interrogation were made under intense psychological pressure. Subsequently, in 2023, the European Court of Human Rights confirmed her rights were violated during the 2007 interrogation, resulting in a false accusation against Lumumba.
Has Amanda Knox Been Reconvicted?
On Thursday, January 23, 2025, Italy’s highest court upheld its decision in Amanda Knox’s conviction. The court decision came following Knox’s decision to appeal the judgment in her slander case against Patrick Lumumba. Knox had named Lumumba as a suspect in the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher following her arrest in 2007.
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Following Knox’s claim, Lumumba was taken into custody and held for two weeks before being released by the police because there was insufficient forensic proof. He attributes the arrest to the closure of his club, Le Chic, which he lost soon after. In reaction to the verdict, Knox took to X to share her opinion as her lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, expressed surprise at the court’s decision.
Taking to X, Knox wrote, “I’ve just been found guilty yet again of a crime I didn’t commit. And I was just awarded the Innocence Network Impact Award, ‘created to honor an exonerated person who raises awareness of wrongful convictions, policy issues, or assists others post-release.’”
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