Amanda Knox

Amanda Marie Knox (born July 9, 1987) is an American author. She came to international prominence after her wrongful conviction for the November 2007 murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Perugia, Italy.

She was convicted of the murder of Kercher at her initial trial in 2009 and was sentenced to 26 years in prison. In 2011, the conviction was overturned by an appeals court and Knox was released, whereupon she returned to America. In 2013, her acquittal was overturned after a successful prosecution appeal and a retrial was ordered. In 2014, an appeals court in Florence convicted Knox of murder for a second time. In 2015, the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation definitively acquitted Knox of Kercher's murder.

Knox called the police upon returning to her and Kercher's apartment after spending the night with her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and finding Kercher's bedroom door locked and blood in the bathroom. During the police interrogations that followed, which have been disputed, Knox falsely accused Patrick Lumumba as the murderer. Initially, Knox, Sollecito, and Lumumba were all arrested for Kercher's murder, but Lumumba was soon released as his innocence came to light. Pre-trial publicity in Italian media, which was repeated by international media, portrayed Knox in a negative light.

A guilty verdict at Knox's initial trial and her 26-year sentence caused international controversy, because American forensic experts thought evidence at the crime scene was incompatible with her involvement. A known burglar, Rudy Guede, was arrested in December 2007 after his bloody fingerprints were found on Kercher's possessions. He was convicted of murder in a fast-track trial and was sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment, later reduced to 16 years.