Yahoo Finance ‘I am a human being’: Amanda Knox on life after her wrongful conviction for Meredith Kercher’s murder
Amanda Knox delivers a speech during the Criminal Justice Festival, an event organised by The Italy Innocence Project and the local association of barristers, on 15 June 2019 in Modena
(Getty)Amanda Knox has spoken about the long-term impact of the Meredith Kercher case on her life, and her campaign work on wrongful conviction.
The 33-year-old spent almost four years in an Italian prison for her roommate Kercher’s murder in 2007 before being acquitted of the crime.
Now, Knox lives in her hometown of Seattle with her husband Christopher Robinson. She presents a podcast called The Truth About True Crime and campaigns against wrongful conviction.
In an interview with The SundayTimes, Knox spoke about how she is seen by the public, and why her campaign work is important to her.
She said: “I exist only through the lens of Meredith’s murder in some people’s minds. They forget that I’m a human being with my own life and my own experiences and I’ve literally had nothing to do with Meredith’s murder, except that I was her roommate at the time.”
Knox and her boyfriend of the time, Raffaele Sollecito, were exonerated of Kercher's murder in 2015. Rudy Guede remains convicted of the 21-year-old’s murder and sexual assault, and, in December 2020, it was ruled that he could complete his sentence doing community service.
Knox said: “The final legal reckoning in Meredith’s case is that Rudy Guede committed the rape and murder with others, who remain unknown. To this day, people point to this to mitigate Guede’s responsibility and point the finger at me and Raffaele.
“They say, ‘If it wasn’t Amanda and Raffaele, then who were the others who committed the crime alongside Guede? Who ultimately killed Meredith?’ When in fact, all the evidence points to Guede committing this crime alone.”
Knox said that true crime offerings are usually “badly done” and revel in “tragedy and trauma”. With her own podcast, she said she aims to “elevate the standard for how we think and talk about those whose lives are thrust into the judicial and media spotlight”.
Knox also penned a memoir about her own experiences in 2013 and was the subject of a Netflix documentary about the murder case in 2016. She regularly speaks publicly on issues of wrongful conviction and media coverage of crime.
“I’ve put myself in a position of trying to speak up about these issues publicly. I feel like I’m still processing it and trying to find a sense of peace,” Knox said. “It’s not that human beings are dark things, we’re just imperfect creatures.”
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