This episode is brought to you by Dashlane; never forget another password and keep all
your credentials secure by signing up for a free account today!
An American student was tried and convicted of murder when her British roommate was found
stabbed to death in the house they shared.
All evidence suggested she was not at home when the murder took place.
Nevertheless, she was sentenced to a quarter of a century in an Italian prison, until she
won an appeal and was set free until standing trial once again.
She was found guilty once more, until finally the decision was overturned once more, in
a legal case with more twist and turns than a theme park rollercoaster.
So, just who was this American woman, and how did she find herself in this wild situation?
That’s what we’ll find out, in this episode of the Infographics Show – Who is Amanda
Knox and is she innocent?
Amanda Knox grew up in Seattle with a younger sister and two step sisters.
Her mother was a teacher and her father worked in the finance department of a local Macy’s
department store.
She grew up in a middle-class neighborhood and was an athlete, excelling at soccer and
earning the nickname “Foxy Knoxy”.
Amanda first went to Italy when she was a teenager and visited Rome, Pisa, the Amalfi
Coast, and the ruins of Pompeii with her family.
She became fascinated with the country after reading Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes.
She graduated from Seattle Preparatory school in 2005 and studied linguistics at the University
of Washington.
She worked part-time jobs to fund an academic year in Italy.
Amanda was a normal college student.
She liked to throw wild parties and was well liked by her peers.
To further her studies in linguistics, she left Washington for Perugia, Italy, where
she intended to spend a year at a university foreign student program.
As things turned out, she ended up staying much longer.
She roomed with 21-year old Meredith Kercher from London who was studying in the same program.
A little while after their arrival at Perugia, Amanda and Meredith attended a classical music
concert where they bumped into engineering student Raffaele Sollecito.
Amanda fell head over heels for the dude, who she said looked like a young, Italian
Harry Potter with rimless glasses and a floppy fringe.
She soon started living with the young Italian.
She liked crashing at Sollecito’s student apartment.
Because he was a bit of a loner, he lived by himself, and the couple could get some
privacy in the place set up by Sollecito’s wealthy urologist father.
The only problem with the apartment was that it was prone to flooding, and on one fateful
morning, Amanda decided to leave the building while her boyfriend spoke to his dad about
the plumbing.
Knox left for her own building that she shared with Kercher and the two Italians, to grab
a shower and freshen up.
Arriving back at the place, she noticed things weren’t quite right.
The front door to the premises had been left ajar.
She called out and silence answered her.
Kercher’s door was shut and Amanda assumed she was asleep.
After taking a shower, she noticed drops of blood in the sink.
Then after going into the second bathroom, she noticed somebody had defecated in the
toilet without flushing.
This was most strange.
Knowing her roommates wouldn’t have forgotten to flush, she began to panic.
She fled back to her Italian lover.
She returned later with her boyfriend Sollecito to check for signs of a break-in.
Her own room appeared to be untouched.
They were unable to break into Kercher’s room.
Sollecito called the Italian military police, and two officers arrived at the scene.
The officers who arrived were postal police officers and not equipped to deal with a violent
crime.
As a result, the crime scene was botched with untrained officers letting the students roam
around, and when they finally broke into the bedroom and found Kercher’s body, all the
students present ran out onto the street screaming.
Both Amanda Knox and Raffaelle Sollecito were taken in for questioning for five days.
They were heavily interrogated.
Amanda’s mother pleaded with her to flee the country but she remained in Perugia despite
the increasing implications.
Under heavy questioning, Sollecito admitted that Amanda may have been able to leave his
apartment at night and go back to her main residence.
Cops presented this scenario to Amanda, who signed a report saying that she had indeed
returned to the house on the night in question, but later she reported that force was used
to acquire confessions from her during the interrogation.
Several days later, both Sollecito and Amanda were charged with murder.
This led to an international controversy, as US forensic experts thought the evidence
at the crime scene was flimsy.
In fact, not a single piece of Amanda’s DNA was found in the room where Meredith Kercher
was brutally murdered.
A person would normally shed DNA as he/she sits or walks around a room.
Giuliano Mignini (the Italian investigator/prosecutor and avid Sherlock Holmes fan) was convinced
that a woman had committed the crime because the body was found with a blanket covering
it, and, according to him, a man would never think to cover a body in such a way.
The DNA evidence pointed towards Rudy Guede, a friend of the Italians who also lived at
the apartment.
Guede had been accused of several burglaries but was yet to have any convictions.
He was arrested in Germany and admitted to being at the murder scene, but stated he didn’t
kill Kercher.
He also said that neither Knox nor Sollecito were involved in any way.
Despite this, the Italian Sherlock Holmes Mignini was convinced Amanda Knox and Sollecito
were also murderers.
Guede was tried in October 2008.
He was found guilty of the murder and sexual assault of Meredith Kercher and was sentenced
to 30 years.
He is currently still serving the sentence.
Knox and Sollecito were tried together in a separate trial.
Mignini painted Amanda as a wildly sexual young American who had dragged the influential
young Italian into a world of reefer madness and murder.
The jury bought the story and they were sentenced to 25 and 26 years, respectively.
Support from the media in America helped fund an appeal case.
A 2011 appeal was successful and the pair was freed, however in a tragic twist, they
were once again found guilty in 2014 after the appeal was successfully overturned and
a new trial found the pair guilty once more.
The world looked on at a legal case with all the thrills of a soap opera drama.
For Amanda, it was more like a horror story.
Closure was finally at hand in 2015 when the Supreme court of Italy acquitted Knox and
Sollecito of any involvement in the murder of Meredith Kercher.
Knox fled Italy as fast as she could.
But in August 2017, she announced that she is returning to Perugia in 2018 as part of
a follow-up to her bestselling memoir about her Italian struggle – Waiting to be Heard.
This girl’s got some balls!
So, what do you think?
Was Amanda Knox innocent or guilty?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Also, be sure to watch our other video called – The Presidents Escape Plan if the US is
attacked.
Thanks for watching, and as always, don't forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time!