Italy’s highest court docket on Thursday upheld the libel conviction of Amanda Knox, an American who was first convicted after which acquitted of murdering her roommate in 2007, for accusing an harmless individual within the case.
The court docket’s determination might finish a authorized saga that has focused followers in Europe and america. It lasted greater than 17 years and went by way of varied Italian and European courts. The court docket upheld Ms Knox’s three-year sentence, however she is not going to need to serve any extra time as she has already spent 4 years in jail, from 2007 to 2011.
Ms. Knox, now 37, who lives close to Seattle, didn’t attend Thursday’s listening to. Considered one of her legal professionals, Carlo Dalla Vedova, spoke to her after the decision and stated she was “very, very disillusioned”.
“She hoped to shut that chapter,” he stated.
Ms Knox is making an attempt to clear the final authorized stain on her identify, 10 years after Italy’s highest court docket lastly acquitted her of murdering Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British scholar.
In November 2007 the Italian authorities Arrest Mrs. Knoxthen 20 and her boyfriend on the time, Raffaele Sollecito, then 23, for the loss of life of Ms Kercher, who was discovered mendacity on her mattress along with her throat slit; All three studied within the picturesque central Italian metropolis of Perugia. The involvement of privileged and enticing younger folks from a number of nations and what prosecutors described as a intercourse sport gone fallacious fueled intense worldwide curiosity within the case.
Initially convicted in 2009. for the homicide, however acquitted on enchantment, Ms. Knox returned to america in 2011. Her case bounced between completely different courts till 2015, when Italy’s highest court docket in Italy threw The fees are stated to have been clouded by sketchy proof and a rush to judgment.
Rudi Guede, a Perugia resident with a police historical past of burglaries, was tried individually and convicted within the homicide case. He’s serving 13 years of a 16-year sentence and is released in 2021..
The defamation case concerned Dia Lumumba, also called Patrick, who in 2007 runs a bar known as Le Stylish the place Mrs. Knox works part-time.
Ms Knox and her legal professionals say she was pressured by police to accuse Mr Lumumba after a night-time interrogation throughout which she stated she slapped him. Mr Lumumba was arrested, held in jail for 2 weeks and launched solely after certainly one of his shoppers offered an alibi.
Ms Knox was initially discovered responsible of stabbing him in 2009. and was sentenced to a few years in jail, in a sentence that was upheld by varied Italian courts.
In 2019 one of the best court docket in Europe dominated that Mrs. Knox was deprived of adequate legal aid Whereas being questioned, violated 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 court docket additionally raised questions in regards to the position of Ms Knox’s translator and stated her statements throughout questioning “had been taken in an environment of intense psychological strain”.
Italy’s Supreme Court docket ordered a brand new defamation trial based mostly on this ruling, however she was once more convicted by Florence Court last year. Her enchantment was rejected on Thursday by the Rome-based Court docket of Cassation, Italy’s highest court docket.
Throughout Thursday’s listening to, Mr Dala Vedova stated Mr Lumumba “was not victimized by Ms Knox, however collectively with Ms Knox”.
Luca Luparia Donati, one other of her legal professionals, stated they might wait to learn the court docket’s reasoning earlier than deciding whether or not to enchantment once more to the European Court docket of Human Rights. “We’re curious to learn what they are saying,” he stated of Thursday’s ruling, because it “diminished what the European Court docket of Justice dominated.”
“It is one thing that I discover very unfair to Amanda,” he stated.
Ms. Knox speaks incessantly on her podcast, Labyrinthsfrom the psychological and emotional toll the conviction has taken on her. There are additionally sensible results – she wrote to X this week that she lately needed to cancel a visit to Australia as a result of she could not get a visa due to her “felony” background.
Since returning to america, Ms. Knox, now a mom of two, has change into an advocate for the wrongly imprisoned and a campaigner for felony justice reform. She additionally co-produced a A Hulu series for the occasion That is at present being filmed in Italy and Hungary.
Due to the accusation, Mr. Lumumba misplaced his enterprise and he left Italy together with his household. He now lives in Krakow, Poland, the place he runs an import-export enterprise, however he misses his life in Perugia, the courthouse stated Thursday.
He additionally stated he was keen to place the case behind him. The countless trials “at all times recall to mind that morning after they got here to arrest me and the times in jail,” he stated.
Carlo Pacelli, his lawyer, stated Thursday that not solely did Ms. Knox by no means apologize for falsely accusing his shopper, however she by no means supplied to make monetary amends.
In Florence final yr, Mrs Knox supplied an apology of kinds, saying: “I’m very sorry that I used to be not robust sufficient to withstand the strain of the police and that he suffered for it.”
After the decision, Mr Pacelli stated his shopper might use the decision to hunt damages, however that there could be insurmountable obstacles “as a result of Amanda lives in america and it isn’t straightforward to prosecute.”
