Who is Amanda Knox?
Amanda Knox was born on July 9, 1987, in Seattle, Washington. Her parents were Edda Mellas, a German math teacher, and Curt Knox, a vice president at Macy’s.
She is the oldest of three daughters. When she was 10 years old, her parents divorced, and her mother later remarried Chris Mellas, an IT consultant.
At the age of 15, Knox’s initial trip to Italy was on a family vacation. During her time there, she explored Rome, Pisa, the Amalfi Coast, and the ancient remains of Pompeii. After receiving a copy of Under the Tuscan Sun from her mother, her fascination with the country only deepened.
In 2005, Knox completed her education at Seattle Preparatory School and pursued linguistics at the University of Washington. Two years later, she achieved the honor of making the dean’s list at the university while also working part-time to support a year of studying abroad in Italy.
Despite being described as extroverted, Knox’s family members expressed concerns about her naivety, leading her stepfather to have reservations about her trip to Italy that year.
Meredith Kercher Case
Amanda Knox was wrongly convicted of the 2007 murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, while studying abroad in Italy. As a result, she spent nearly four years in prison in Perugia.
Knox, who was 20 at the time, told the police after coming back to her and Kercher’s home after spending the night with her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito.
Upon discovering the bathroom stained with blood and Kercher’s bedroom door locked, the police questioned Knox, the manner of which is subject to disagreement. It is claimed that during these interrogations, Knox incriminated both herself and her employer, Patrick Lumumba, in the killing.
At first, Knox, Sollecito, and Lumumba were all taken into custody for the murder of Kercher. However, Lumumba was quickly released due to having a solid alibi.
Shortly after, a known burglar named Rudy Guede was arrested after his bloody fingerprints were discovered on Kercher’s belongings.
He was found guilty of murder in a speedy trial and received a 30-year prison sentence, which was later reduced to 16 years. In December 2020, an Italian court decided that Guede could serve the remainder of his sentence through community service.
In 2009, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were initially found guilty and given prison sentences of 26 and 25 years, respectively. The Italian media, which spread the same narrative globally, had already painted a negative picture of Knox before the trial. This sparked objections that the prosecution was engaging in character assassination.
After Knox’s first trial, she was found guilty. This caused a lot of controversy because American experts thought the evidence at the crime scene did not prove she was guilty.
After she was released in 2011, Amanda Knox had a long legal process. The prosecution won an appeal to overturn her acquittal at a second-level trial. Finally, on March 27, 2015, Italy’s highest court completely cleared Knox and Sollecito of any wrongdoing.
However, Amanda Knox’s conviction for defamation against Lumumba remained upheld by all courts. It wasn’t until January 14, 2016, that she was finally found not guilty of lying about being attacked by police women during her questioning.
Afterwards, Knox pursued a career as a writer, a social advocate, and a reporter. Her book, Waiting to Be Heard, achieved great success as a top-selling piece. In 2018, she took on the role of host for The Scarlet Letter Reports, a TV show that delved into the topic of gender-based public shaming.
In June 2024, an Italian appellate court confirmed Amanda Knox’s conviction for defamation for wrongly accusing Patrick Lumumba of killing Meredith Kercher in 2007. Since she had already spent four years in custody for the initial charge, she did not receive any further jail time.
In the year 2016, Netflix debuted a documentary titled “Amanda Knox,” which focused on the story of Knox, who was charged and then cleared of the 2007 homicide of Meredith Kercher. The film first screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2016, and was later released on Netflix on September 30, 2016.
Personal Life
Amanda Knox and author Christopher Robinson tied the knot on February 29, 2020. Robinson has ties to the Robinson Newspapers. The couple first crossed paths when Knox moved back to Seattle in 2011.
They got engaged in 2019, and in October 2021, Knox confirmed the arrival of their first child, a daughter, who was born a few months earlier. In September 2023, their second child, a son, was born.
