In this report from Aug. 15, 2008, “48 Hours” investigates the case of the American student who was jailed in Italy for her roommate’s murder. Correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.
Tag: Amanda Knox
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Inside Amanda Knox’s Unlikely Friendship With the Prosecutor Who Accused Her of Being a ‘Sexual Deviant’ During Meredith Kercher’s Murder Trial
All eyes are back onto Amanda Knox after a new drama series based on Meredith Kercher’s murder case. Hulu‘s The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox focuses on the 15 years of the author’s life—from when she was accused of murdering her roommate to returning to the crime scene in 2022.
Amanda Knox was studying abroad in Perugia, Italy, and was living with Kercher. in a shared space with two other roomates. Kercher was murdered on Nov. 1, 2007, in their house. Knox claimed she was with her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito. However, both were found guilty of murder in 2009, but both were exonerated by the Italian Supreme Court in 2015. She served four years in prison before being released in 2011.
In the years following the case, Amanda Knox has recounted her times going back to the country where her infamous case was held.
Why did Amanda Knox go back to Italy?
Amanda Knox admitted she regularly goes back to Italy as she feels pretty connected to the Mediterranean country.
In a conversation with NPR’s Fresh Air, Knox says she feels rooted as an Italian American and wants to make the best out of her travels. “One of the things that my husband and I [said] on one of our trips back to Italy was, ‘make good memories.’
The author also talked about the clear experiences she has when going back to the house where she lived in. “And even when I revisited my house in Perugia, where this whole crime happened, I had this shocking realization that it was just a place. Like there was somebody else living in it as if nothing bad had ever happened. It wasn’t like this set-in-amber place of tragedy. It was a place. This was a place where someone had lost their life and also someone had made love and other people had lived their lives and like it was just a place. And every place is the place of someone’s worst tragedy and someone’s best moments.
In 2022, she reunited with her ex-boyfriend in the country on the anniversary of Kercher’s murder. “It was bittersweet to go back as we were supposed to go there in such different circumstances, but it was just nice for us to be able to talk about something that wasn’t the case,” Sollecito told The Mirror at the time.
The following year, she cleared the air with the lead prosecutor in the case, Dr. Giuliano Mignini. During the case, Mignini had painted Knox as a sexual deviant and a cold-blooded murderer. They have since developed an unlikely friendship despite looking at him as a “boogeyman figure” in her life.
“I think that’s an important point to make as I’m not a person whose faith, for example, compels them to forgive,” she told People. “That was not my goal. My goal was to understand him… there was this deep curiosity in me to try to understand this person who decided that I was a dangerous person, who deserved to spend the most years of my life in prison.”
“He was a real person,” she continued. “He wasn’t this dark, dark, mythical figure. He was a real human being who had real feelings and real thoughts, not a boogeyman. And as soon as I saw that, I could empathize with him. And as soon as you empathize with someone, you have compassion for them.”
When the drama series premiered, Knox told NPR that she’s still in frequent contact with Mignini. “Me and my prosecutor are still in contact today,” she said. “I’ve been receiving text messages from him this morning.”
Lea Veloso
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What Is Amanda Knox’s True Story That Inspired Hulu’s Miniseries?
Fans are wondering if the upcoming Hulu series, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, is based on a true story. It is a crime drama with Grace Van Patten in the lead role as Amanda Knox. With its August 20, 2025 release, the series has already caught the attention of crime drama fans.
Here’s what we know about the story so far.
Is Hulu’s The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox based on a true story?
Yes, Hulu’s The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is based on a real incident.
Amanda Knox was an exchange student in Perugia, Italy, in 2007. She was wrongfully accused of murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher, after Kercher was found dead in their apartment.
What is the real-world incident that inspired The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox?
Knox shared an apartment with Kercher while studying in Perugia. On November 1, 2007, Kercher was found dead in her room, having been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death (via The New York Times).
After discovering Kercher’s body, Amanda Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were arrested and interrogated without legal representation. During questioning, Knox falsely accused her employer, Patrick Lumumba, of involvement in the murder. Lumumba was jailed for two weeks before police proved his innocence and cleared him. This shifted attention back to Knox and Sollecito, who were then officially charged with Meredith Kercher’s murder.
Later, Rudy Guede, a known drug dealer, was arrested after his DNA was found at the crime scene. Despite Guede’s arrest, Knox and Sollecito remained on trial.
During the trial, Knox was sentenced to 28 and a half years in prison. When the case went to the appeal court in 2010, experts argued that evidence might have been contaminated. The alleged murder weapon did not contain Kercher’s or Knox’s DNA, and lapses in forensic procedures were highlighted. The court eventually found the couple not guilty, and they were released from prison in 2011.
Years later, Amanda Knox returned to Italy and spoke about how the media twisted her image and what it was like to endure the trial.
Harsha Panduranga
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Amanda Knox will defend herself in an Italian court against a 16-year-old slander charge
Amanda Knox will be back in an Italian courtroom this week to defend herself against a 16-year-old slander conviction that she hopes to beat once and for all.Her chance was made possible when a European court ruled that Italy violated her human rights during a long night of questioning after the murder of her British roommate in November 2007.The slander conviction for accusing a Congolese bar owner in the murder is the only charge against Knox that withstood five court rulings that ultimately cleared her in the brutal murder of her roommate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, in the apartment they shared in the idyllic central Italian university town of Perugia.A verdict in the slander case retrial ordered by Italy’s highest court is expected on Wednesday, with Knox appearing in an Italian court for the first time in more than 12 1/2 years.The slander charge was largely based on two statements typed by police that Knox signed during the early hours of Nov. 6, 2007, under extended questioning in Italian from police without a lawyer or a competent translator. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the conditions violated her human rights.Kercher’s brutal murder grabbed worldwide attention as suspicion fell on Knox, then 20, and her then-Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, with whom she had been involved for just about a week.Knox and Sollecito were convicted in their first trial, but after a series of flip-flop verdicts, they were ultimately exonerated by Italy’s highest court in 2015. Knox returned to the United States in October 2011, after her first acquittal. She is now the mother of two small children, and has a podcast with her husband while campaigning against wrongful convictions.However, the slander conviction against Knox endured, a legal stain that continued to fuel doubts about her role in the killing, particularly in Italy — and despite the conviction of Rudy Hermann Guede, a man from Ivory Coast whose DNA was found at the crime scene.Guede served 13 years of a 16-year prison sentence handed down after a fast-track trial that foresees lighter sentences under Italian law.Based on the ruling by the European court, Italy’s highest court threw out Knox’s slander conviction last November and ruled that the two statements typed by police were inadmissible. It ordered a new trial, instructing the Florence court to consider only a handwritten statement that Knox wrote in English some hours later.“In regards to this ‘confession’ that I made last night, I want to make it clear that I’m very doubtful of the verity of my statements, because they were made under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion,” her statement said.A pioneer of the study of false confessions, Sal Kassin, says Knox’s signed statements follow a playbook of false confessions.“It is empirical fact that most false confessions contain accurate details not yet known to the public and ‘false-fed facts’ that are consistent with the police theory of the crime, but that later prove to be untrue,” Kassin, a psychologist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, wrote about the case in his book “Duped,” which examines the phenomenon of false confessions.Kassin said police “contaminated” Knox’s confession, which aligned with police theory at the time.”To hold her accountable for a statement in which she also implicated herself is absurd,’’ he wrote.
MILAN —Amanda Knox will be back in an Italian courtroom this week to defend herself against a 16-year-old slander conviction that she hopes to beat once and for all.
Her chance was made possible when a European court ruled that Italy violated her human rights during a long night of questioning after the murder of her British roommate in November 2007.
The slander conviction for accusing a Congolese bar owner in the murder is the only charge against Knox that withstood five court rulings that ultimately cleared her in the brutal murder of her roommate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, in the apartment they shared in the idyllic central Italian university town of Perugia.
A verdict in the slander case retrial ordered by Italy’s highest court is expected on Wednesday, with Knox appearing in an Italian court for the first time in more than 12 1/2 years.
The slander charge was largely based on two statements typed by police that Knox signed during the early hours of Nov. 6, 2007, under extended questioning in Italian from police without a lawyer or a competent translator. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the conditions violated her human rights.
Kercher’s brutal murder grabbed worldwide attention as suspicion fell on Knox, then 20, and her then-Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, with whom she had been involved for just about a week.
Knox and Sollecito were convicted in their first trial, but after a series of flip-flop verdicts, they were ultimately exonerated by Italy’s highest court in 2015. Knox returned to the United States in October 2011, after her first acquittal. She is now the mother of two small children, and has a podcast with her husband while campaigning against wrongful convictions.
However, the slander conviction against Knox endured, a legal stain that continued to fuel doubts about her role in the killing, particularly in Italy — and despite the conviction of Rudy Hermann Guede, a man from Ivory Coast whose DNA was found at the crime scene.
Guede served 13 years of a 16-year prison sentence handed down after a fast-track trial that foresees lighter sentences under Italian law.
Based on the ruling by the European court, Italy’s highest court threw out Knox’s slander conviction last November and ruled that the two statements typed by police were inadmissible. It ordered a new trial, instructing the Florence court to consider only a handwritten statement that Knox wrote in English some hours later.
“In regards to this ‘confession’ that I made last night, I want to make it clear that I’m very doubtful of the verity of my statements, because they were made under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion,” her statement said.
A pioneer of the study of false confessions, Sal Kassin, says Knox’s signed statements follow a playbook of false confessions.
“It is empirical fact that most false confessions contain accurate details not yet known to the public and ‘false-fed facts’ that are consistent with the police theory of the crime, but that later prove to be untrue,” Kassin, a psychologist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, wrote about the case in his book “Duped,” which examines the phenomenon of false confessions.
Kassin said police “contaminated” Knox’s confession, which aligned with police theory at the time.
“To hold her accountable for a statement in which she also implicated herself is absurd,’’ he wrote.
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Today in History: October 3, MLB’s first Black manager
Today in History
Today is Monday, Oct. 3, the 276th day of 2022. There are 89 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 3, 1995, the jury in the O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles found the former star not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was later found liable for damages in a civil trial).
On this date:
In 1941, Adolf Hitler declared in a speech in Berlin that Russia had been “broken” and would “never rise again.”
In 1944, during World War II, U.S. Army troops cracked the Siegfried Line north of Aachen, Germany.
In 1951, the New York Giants captured the National League pennant by a score of 5-4 as Bobby Thomson hit a three-run homer off Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the “shot heard ‘round the world.”
In 1961, “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” also starring Mary Tyler Moore, made its debut on CBS.
In 1970, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was established under the Department of Commerce.
In 1974, Frank Robinson was named major league baseball’s first Black manager as he was placed in charge of the Cleveland Indians.
In 1981, Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison near Belfast, Northern Ireland, ended seven months of hunger strikes that had claimed 10 lives.
In 1990, West Germany and East Germany ended 45 years of postwar division, declaring the creation of a reunified country.
In 2001, the Senate approved an agreement normalizing trade between the United States and Vietnam.
In 2003, a tiger attacked magician Roy Horn of duo “Siegfried & Roy” during a performance in Las Vegas, leaving the superstar illusionist in critical condition on his 59th birthday.
In 2008, O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. (Simpson was later sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was granted parole in July 2017 and released from prison in October of that year.)
In 2011, an Italian appeals court freed Amanda Knox of Seattle after four years in prison, tossing murder convictions against Knox and an ex-boyfriend in the stabbing of their British roommate, Meredith Kercher.
Ten years ago: An aggressive Mitt Romney sparred with President Barack Obama on the economy and domestic issues in their first campaign debate. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promised a full and transparent probe of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.
Five years ago: President Donald Trump, visiting Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, congratulated the U.S. island territory for escaping the higher death toll of what he called “a real catastrophe like Katrina”; at a church used to distribute supplies, Trump handed out flashlights and tossed rolls of paper towels into the friendly crowd. The United States expelled 15 of Cuba’s diplomats to protest Cuba’s failure to protect Americans from unexplained attacks in Havana. Yahoo announced that the largest data breach in history had affected all 3 billion accounts on its service, not the 1 billion it had revealed earlier.
One year ago: A report from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists found that hundreds of world leaders, politicians, billionaires, religious leaders and drug dealers had been hiding investments in mansions, beachfront property, yachts and other assets for decades, using shell companies and offshore accounts to keep trillions of dollars out of government treasuries; those identified as beneficiaries of the secret accounts included Jordan’s King Abdullah II and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. An EgyptAir jet landed in Tel Aviv, making the first official direct flight by the Egyptian national carrier since the two countries signed a 1979 peace treaty. Tom Brady rallied the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 19-17 victory over the Patriots on a rainy Sunday night in his return to New England.
Today’s Birthdays: Composer Steve Reich is 86. Rock and roll star Chubby Checker is 81. Actor Alan Rachins is 80. Former Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., is 79. Singer Lindsey Buckingham is 73. Jazz musician Ronnie Laws is 72. Blues singer Keb’ Mo’ is 71. Former astronaut Kathryn Sullivan is 71. Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield is 71. Baseball Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley is 68. Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton is 68. Actor Hart Bochner is 66. Actor Peter Frechette is 66. World Golf Hall of Famer Fred Couples is 63. Actor-comedian Greg Proops is 63. Actor Jack Wagner is 63. Actor/musician Marcus Giamatti is 61. Rock musician Tommy Lee is 60. Actor Clive Owen is 58. Actor Janel Moloney is 53. Singer Gwen Stefani (No Doubt) is 53. Pop singer Kevin Richardson is 51. Rock singer G. Love is 50. Actor Keiko Agena is 49. Actor Neve Campbell is 49. Actor Lena Headey is 49. Singer India.Arie is 47. Rapper Talib Kweli is 47. Actor Alanna Ubach is 47. Actor Seann (cq) William Scott is 46. Actor Shannyn Sossamon is 44. Rock musician Josh Klinghoffer (Red Hot Chili Peppers) is 43. Actor Seth Gabel is 41. Rock musician Mark King (Hinder) is 40. Actor Erik Von Detten is 40. Actor Tessa Thompson is 39. Country singer Drake White is 39. Actor Meagan Holder is 38. Actor Christopher Marquette is 38. Actor-singer Ashlee Simpson is 38. Rapper A$AP Rocky is 34. Actor Alicia Vikander is 34. Actor Noah Schnapp (TV: “Stranger Things”) is 18.
