If I'm innocent, it means that everyone is vulnerable. And that's everyone's nightmare.
Catalog
Amanda Knox
Amanda Marie Knox (born July 9, 1987) is an American woman who spent almost four years in an Italian prison following her conviction for the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a fellow exchange student who shared her apartment. In 2015, Knox was definitively acquitted by the Supreme Court of Cassation. Knox, then aged 20, had called the police after returning to her and Kercher's flat after spending the night with her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and finding Kercher's bedroom door locked and blood in the bathroom. Following an interrogation, the conduct of which is a matter of dispute, Knox implicated herself and her employer, Patrick Lumumba. Knox and Sollecito were initially accused of murdering Kercher while acting in concert with Lumumba, but Lumumba was soon released, and the known burglar Rudy Guede was arrested, after Guede's bloodstained fingerprints were found on Kercher's possessions. Pre-trial publicity in Italian media (and repeated by other media worldwide) portrayed Knox in a negative light, leading to complaints that the prosecution was using character assassination tactics. A guilty verdict at Knox's initial trial and her 26-year sentence caused international controversy, as U.S. forensic experts thought evidence at the crime scene was incompatible with her involvement. A prolonged legal process, including a successful prosecution appeal against her acquittal at a second-level trial, continued after Knox was freed in 2011. On March 27, 2015, Italy's highest court—the Supreme Court of Cassation—definitively exonerated Knox and Sollecito. However, Knox's conviction for committing calunnia (calumny) against Lamumba was upheld by all court
Suddenly, I found myself tossed into this dark place. I thought about suicide. I thought about all the ways that I could do it. Me not coming home again until I'm in my 50s, until members of my family have died - I was poisoned.
I think I'm trying to explain what it feels like to be wrongfully convicted - to either be this terrible monster or to be this regular person who is vulnerable.
You're trying to find the answer in my eyes when the answer is right over there. You're looking at me. Why? These are my eyes - they're not objective evidence
There are those who believe my innocence and there are those who believe in my guilt. There's no in between - either I'm a psychopath in sheep's clothing or I am you.
If I'm guilty, it means that I am the ultimate figure to fear. Because I'm not the obvious one.
This is impossible, this is impossible, this is a nightmare, this can't be true, it's not fair, it's not fair.
First I showed not enough emotion; then I showed too much.
I want you to know that I'm OK because I'm not dead inside, I promise, and I don't want you to be dead inside.
I was young enough to think that insecurity disappeared with maturity.
I would like to be reconsidered as a person.
I think everyone’s reaction to something horrible is different.
I didn't realize in the beginning how much attention was being put on me, and how very intensely I was being scrutinized. I thought that being myself was enough.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry I treated you as entertainment.
While on trial for a murder I didn’t commit, my prosecutor painted me as a sex-crazed femme fatale, and the media profited for years by sensationalizing an already sensational and utterly unjustified story. It’s on us to stop making and stop consuming such irresponsible media.