Italy’s perfect courtroom on Thursday upheld the slander conviction of Amanda Knox, an American who used to be first convicted after which acquitted of killing her housemate in 2007, for accusing an blameless guy within the case.
The courtroom ruling may put an finish to a prison saga that has riveted fans in Europe and america. It has lasted greater than 17 years and has long gone via more than a few Italian and Eu-level courts. The courtroom upheld Ms. Knox’s 3-year jail sentence, however she won’t need to serve any further time, as she already spent 4 years in jail, from 2007 to 2011.
Ms. Knox, now 37, who lives close to Seattle, used to be now not provide on the listening to on Thursday. One among her attorneys, Carlo Dalla Vedova, spoke to her after the decision and mentioned she used to be “very, very disenchanted.”
“She were hoping to near this bankruptcy,” he mentioned.
Ms. Knox has been attempting to take away the closing prison stain from her title, 10 years after Italy’s perfect courtroom definitively acquitted her of killing Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British pupil.
In November, 2007, the Italian government arrested Ms. Knox, then 20, and her boyfriend on the time, Raffaele Sollecito, then 23, for the dying of Ms. Kercher, who used to be discovered mendacity on her mattress together with her throat slashed; all 3 have been learning within the picturesque central Italian town of Perugia. The involvement of privileged and engaging younger other people from more than one nations, and what prosecutors described as a intercourse recreation long gone unsuitable, fueled intense world passion within the case.
First of all convicted in 2009 of the killing however acquitted on enchantment, Ms Knox returned to america in 2011. Her case bounced between more than a few courts till, in 2015, when Italy’s perfect courtroom threw out fees it mentioned were marred through flimsy proof and a hurry to judgment.
Rudy Guede, a Perugia resident with a police historical past of break-ins, used to be attempted one at a time and convicted within the homicide case. He served 13 years of a 16-year sentence and was released in 2021.
The slander case concerned Diya Lumumba, often referred to as Patrick, who in 2007 ran a bar known as Le Elegant the place Ms. Knox labored part-time.
Ms. Knox and her attorneys have argued that she used to be careworn through police into accusing Mr. Lumumba after a nightlong interrogation all the way through which she mentioned she used to be slapped. Mr. Lumumba used to be arrested, held in jail for 2 weeks, and launched best after considered one of his purchasers supplied an alibi.
Ms. Knox used to be first of all discovered accountable of slandering him in 2009, and sentenced to 3 years in jail, in a conviction that used to be upheld through more than a few Italian courts.
In 2019, Europe’s best human rights courtroom dominated that Ms. Knox were deprived of adequate legal assistance whilst being interrogated, violating her proper to a good trial, and ordered Italy to pay her 18,400 euros, or about $21,000 on the time, in damages, prices and bills. The courtroom additionally raised questions in regards to the position of Ms. Knox’s interpreter, and mentioned that her statements all the way through the interrogation “were taken in an environment of intense mental force.”
Italy’s prime courtroom ordered a brand new slander trial in keeping with that ruling, however she used to be convicted once more through a Florence court last year. Her enchantment used to be rejected on Thursday through the Rome-based Courtroom of Cassation, Italy’s perfect courtroom.
Right through the listening to on Thursday, Mr. Dalla Vedova, had mentioned that Mr. Lumumba had “now not been a sufferer of Ms. Knox however along Ms. Knox.”
Luca Lupária Donati, some other of her attorneys, mentioned they’d wait to learn the courtroom’s reasoning earlier than deciding whether or not to enchantment once more to the Eu human rights courtroom. “We’re curious to learn what they are saying,” he of Thursday’s ruling, because it “decreased what the Eu courtroom had dominated.”
“That is one thing I in finding very unjust for Amanda,” he mentioned.
Ms. Knox has spoken steadily on her podcast, Labyrinths, of the mental and emotional toll that the conviction has taken on her. There have additionally been sensible results — she wrote on X this week that she just lately needed to cancel a commute to Australia as she used to be not able to get a visa as a result of her “prison” background.
Since returning to america, Ms. Knox, now a mom of 2, has grow to be an suggest for other people unjustly incarcercerated and a campaigner for prison justice reform. She could also be co-producing a Hulu series about the case this is these days being shot in Italy and Hungary.
As a result of the accusation, Mr. Lumumba misplaced his industry, and he left Italy along with his circle of relatives. He now lives in Krakow, Poland, the place he runs an import-export industry, however he misses his lifestyles in Perugia, he mentioned on the courthouse on Thursday.
He, too, mentioned he may now not wait to position the case at the back of him. The unending trials “at all times recall to mind that morning after they got here to arrest me, and the times in jail,” he mentioned.
Carlo Pacelli, his attorney, mentioned Thursday that now not best had Ms. Knox by no means apologized for falsely accusing his consumer, she had by no means introduced to make monetary amends.
In Florence closing yr, Ms. Knox introduced an apology of varieties, pronouncing: “I’m very sorry I used to be now not sturdy sufficient to withstand the force of the police and that he suffered for it.”
After the decision, Mr. Pacelli mentioned his consumer may use the sentence to invite for damages, however that there might be insurmountable hindrances, “as a result of Amanda lives in america and it’s now not simple to pursue.”
