In a shocking turn of events, Amanda Knox, now 36 years old, has been granted a retrial by Italy's highest court after appealing for the dropping of her slander conviction. Knox, an American student who was previously convicted and later acquitted of the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher, had wrongly accused bar owner Patrick Lumumba of committing the heinous crime. This latest development comes after the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2019 that Knox's defense rights had been violated during her police interrogation.
The Court of Cassation in Rome accepted Knox's appeal, overturning her slander conviction and ordering a new trial at the court of appeal in Florence. This ruling brings a glimmer of hope for Knox, who spent nearly four years in an Italian prison for a crime she did not commit. In 2011, she was sentenced to three years already served for falsely implicating Patrick Lumumba in Kercher's murder.
Taking to Twitter to announce the verdict, Knox expressed her relief, stating, "Though I was exonerated for murder, I remained wrongly convicted of slander." She went on to emphasize her determination to prove her innocence once and for all, now that she is no longer a convicted person due to a new judicial instrument provided by a recent reform.
Knox acknowledged the violation of her human rights during her interrogation, which also affected Lumumba. She revealed that her claims against Lumumba were prompted by the coercive pressure she experienced during the police questioning, which compromised the fairness of the proceedings. Lumumba, who suffered ten days of wrongful imprisonment, was eventually cleared of any involvement in the crime.
The 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher sent shockwaves through the international community. On November 1st, Kercher was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy. Rudy Guede was convicted of the sexual assault and murder of Kercher in 2008 and was sentenced to 30 years in prison, which was later reduced to 16 years. Guede was released from prison in November 2021.
Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were separately convicted of Kercher's murder in 2009. They spent nearly four years in an Italian prison before their convictions were overturned, leading to their final acquittal in March 2015.
Since her acquittal, Knox has been focusing on rebuilding her life. In 2020, she married Christopher Robinson, and the couple welcomed their first child in 2021. In August of this year, Knox shared the exciting news of her second pregnancy on Instagram, posting a photo of her baby bump.
The retrial ordered by Italy's top court marks a significant moment in Amanda Knox's ongoing fight for justice. As she awaits the opportunity to seek her full acquittal from the wrongful accusation of slander, the world watches to see if the truth behind Meredith Kercher's tragic murder will finally be unraveled.
