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Did They Set A Brutal Killer Free_ _ Amanda Knox · The conspiracy

0:00
Speaker 1: It began as a dream.
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Speaker 2: A twenty year old college student from Seattle boards a
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Speaker 2: plane for Italy, chasing language, culture, and independence, a semester
0:08
Speaker 2: abroad and the picturesque hilltop town of Perugia, and she
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Speaker 2: expected past books and adventure, But what she found was
0:16
Speaker 2: something else entirely because just weeks into her stay, Amanda
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Speaker 2: Knox would find herself at the center of an international firestorm,
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Speaker 2: and her roommate, Miranda Kircher, was found brutally murdered, and
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Speaker 2: Amanda was suddenly thrust into the role of a suspect,
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Speaker 2: then seductress, and then killer, and the media devoured it
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Speaker 2: and the prosecutors leaned into it, and soon the entire
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Speaker 2: world knew her name. But behind the headlines, the devilish nicknames,
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Speaker 2: and the courtroom, Theatrix was a case that raised a
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Speaker 2: bigger question, questions about justice, truth, and the stories we
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Speaker 2: choose to believe in.
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Speaker 1: So this is not just a story of murder.
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Speaker 2: It's a story of what happens when a flawed investigation,
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Speaker 2: a global press machine, and the court of public opinioned
1:00
Speaker 2: at the expense of real people, real lives, and real justice.
1:04
Speaker 2: This is the case of Amanda Knox crime, conspiracy, cults,
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Speaker 2: serial killers and murder, all.
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Speaker 1: Things that I love to consume. And I know you did.
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Speaker 2: You sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually minded, and today we're getting
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Speaker 2: into a controversial case, a conspiratorial case, to say the least.
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Speaker 1: So without further ado, let's.
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Speaker 2: En Bucala seatbelts, go Mark five down the highway, slam
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Speaker 2: on the brakes, and must do this.
1:29
Speaker 1: Wouldn't she have the into this controversial case together?
1:46
Speaker 2: So? Amanda Knox was born on July ninth, nineteen eighty
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Speaker 2: seven in Seattle, Washington, and she was the eldest of
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Speaker 2: two daughters born to Kurt Knox and Eta melass and
1:55
Speaker 2: their other daughter's name was Indiana, and she later would
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Speaker 2: have two half sisters as well, Ashley and Delaney. Stability
2:02
Speaker 2: her parents worked to provide her after their divorce, and
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Speaker 2: Amanda grew up middle class in West Seattle, and she
2:08
Speaker 2: would go back and forth between homes of her parents,
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Speaker 2: who did remain on friendly terms. And in this supportive environment,
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Speaker 2: Amanda grew up outgoing and smart and even a bit quirky.
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Speaker 1: She loved sports, especially soccer.
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Speaker 2: It was like her passion, and so much so that
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Speaker 2: her quirk, which was clever footwork on the field gave
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Speaker 2: her the nickname Foxy Noxie from her teammates when she
2:30
Speaker 2: was younger, and that nickname would come back in the future,
2:32
Speaker 2: but we are not even close to there yet, and
2:34
Speaker 2: it was for a completely different reason. But friends and
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Speaker 2: family remember Amanda as very fun, loving and friendly when
2:40
Speaker 2: she was younger, yet kind of naive about harsher realities
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Speaker 2: of the world. And she would attend a very rigorous
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Speaker 2: prep school in Seattle, and there she would perform in
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Speaker 2: school plays and was known for some goofy behavior, like
2:53
Speaker 2: bursting into song in the halls, and a high school
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Speaker 2: friend would even recall that she's not crazy and she's
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Speaker 2: not stupid. However, her her thoughts get muddled, noting that
3:01
Speaker 2: Amanda could be vulnerable to confusion and seemingly didn't have
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Speaker 2: a full grasp of reality in certain moments. Whatever that
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Speaker 2: means right now, we don't really know, but we'll get
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Speaker 2: into it. But despite the ditzy outwardly demeanor, Amanda was intelligent.
3:17
Speaker 2: She earned good grades, and she even made the dean's
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Speaker 2: list when she went to the University of Washington, and
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Speaker 2: relatives described the college aged Amanda as outgoing and unwary,
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Speaker 2: someone with a very adventurous spirit who lacked some street
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Speaker 2: smarts about the dangers of life. Kind of thinking she's
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Speaker 2: invincible at this point, but you know, a lot of
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Speaker 2: us do around that age. I know I did very stupid,
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Speaker 2: very stupid as a late teenager. Oh my loh, my goodness.
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Speaker 2: And her stepfather, Chris, worried that Amanda's trusting nature and
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Speaker 2: naive outlook might be problematic when she ventured out on
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Speaker 2: her own, and during these formative years, Amanda would develop
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Speaker 2: a relationship that would shape her path because, in addition
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Speaker 2: to soccer and Theata, she had a love for language
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Speaker 2: and writing, and she studied German, Italian and creative writing.
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Speaker 2: So while pursuing a degree in linguistics at the University
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Speaker 2: of Washington, she had dreams of traveling and immersing herself
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Speaker 2: into foreign languages. So the seed of her Italy dream
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Speaker 2: had been planted actually on a family vacation she took
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Speaker 2: there at the age of fifteen, and it only grew
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Speaker 2: in time, and by her late teens, Amanda was determined
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Speaker 2: to experience life abroad, so she would work part time
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Speaker 2: jobs to fund a year of study in Italy, and
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Speaker 2: her family would support her goal, though Chris cautioned that
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Speaker 2: she might not be ready for such a big adventure
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Speaker 2: just yet. But Amanda's mind was completely set and she
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Speaker 2: would go to Italy and immerse herself in a new
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Speaker 2: culture and carve out her own story. So by two
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Speaker 2: thousand and seven, Amennaox was twenty years old and she
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Speaker 2: was ready to spread her wings beyond Seattle, and Italy
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Speaker 2: called her name because she had fell in love with
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Speaker 2: the country and culture when she was fifteen and visited.
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Speaker 2: Between the art, history and the language, the idea of
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Speaker 2: Italy just captivated her. So Amanda would arrange to spend
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Speaker 2: an academic year in Italy to refine her Italian and
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Speaker 2: seek adventures. And when choosing a destination, she skipped tourists
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Speaker 2: heavy cities like Rome or Florence and she would end
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Speaker 2: up picking Perusia, which is a smaller university town and
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Speaker 2: Perusia had a significant student population and just this authentic
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Speaker 2: Italian charm, which was exactly what Amanda was looking for
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Speaker 2: in order to experience the real Italy, because she told
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Speaker 2: her friends that she wanted to be somewhere where she
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Speaker 2: could really mingle with the locals and not just other Americans.
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Speaker 2: So Perusia, with its medieval cobblestone alleyways and vibrant students scene,
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Speaker 2: just seemed perfect. And it was set against a lush
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Speaker 2: hilltop backdrop, and the city was known for its youthful energy,
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Speaker 2: and thousands of foreign students would flock there each year,
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Speaker 2: and in September of two thousand and seven, Amanda would
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Speaker 2: become one of them, and almost immediately she was completely
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Speaker 2: enchanted by the atmosphere in this city, because Perusia had
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Speaker 2: century old architecture and lively cafe culture, and Amanda pulled
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Speaker 2: her luggage over the stone streets and it just felt
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Speaker 2: like stepping into a dream. And she would even write
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Speaker 2: her family about her excitement, saying the endless steps and
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Speaker 2: street twined like a maid's and she just had this
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Speaker 2: feeling that adventure was just around every corner there. So
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Speaker 2: Amanda's arrival in Perusia just marked a new chapter in
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Speaker 2: her life. So she would enroll in a university for foreigners,
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Speaker 2: and then she would set about finding work and housing,
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Speaker 2: and she ended up moving into a large pailstone cottage
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Speaker 2: at Via della Pergola, sharing the ground floor flat with
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Speaker 2: other students and her roommates would be three other women.
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Speaker 2: Two were Italian trainee lawyers in their late twenties, and
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Speaker 2: then there was Meredith Kercher So Meredith and Susannah Kara. Kircher,
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Speaker 2: effectually known as Mez to all of her friends, was
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Speaker 2: born on December twenty eighth, nineteen eighty five in Southwark,
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Speaker 2: South London and raised in Colston, and she attended the
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Speaker 2: Old Palace School in Croydon, where her interest in the
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Speaker 2: Italian language and culture first took root, and after participating
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Speaker 2: in a school exchange program, she returned to Italy at
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Speaker 2: fifteen to spend a summer with a host family in
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Speaker 2: the town of Sessa Arutka. So she went to Italy
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Speaker 2: just like a Manda did when she was fifteen. Also,
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Speaker 2: apologies if I'm saying stuff wrong. I'm looking up the pronunciations,
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Speaker 2: but there's a good chance I'm butchering this, so I
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Speaker 2: apologize to the Italians out there. And Meredith would later
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Speaker 2: enroll in the University of Leeds, studying European politics and
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Speaker 2: Italian and she would work various jobs to support herself,
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Speaker 2: including a barmaid, a tour guide and promotional work, and
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Speaker 2: she even briefly appeared in a two thousand and four
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Speaker 2: music video for Christian Leontio's song Some Say So. Ambitious
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Speaker 2: and driven, Meredith just hoped that one day she could
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Speaker 2: work for the European Union or pursue a career in journalism.
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Speaker 2: And in October of two thousand and seven, Meredith would
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Speaker 2: move to Italy and attend the University of Perusia, taking
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Speaker 2: courses in modern history, political theory, and cinema history. And
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Speaker 2: those who knew her described her as bright, compassionate, funny,
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Speaker 2: and very well liked among her peers. So Meredith, Amanda,
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Speaker 2: and the two other girls would be flatmates in Perusia.
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Speaker 2: And it was at this point that Amanda was trying
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Speaker 2: to find a job, and she actually would find a job,
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Speaker 2: and she would be hired as a bartender, and it
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Speaker 2: would be at a local bar called Leshik, and it
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Speaker 2: would be owned by Dia Patrick Lamumba. So juggling classes
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Speaker 2: an Italian and shifts at the bar and the thrill
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Speaker 2: of a newfound freedom, Amanda settled into her life in
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Speaker 2: Perusia with enthusiasm. But little did she know that these
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Speaker 2: mundane details would soon become central in a tragedy that
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Speaker 2: grabbed global headlines. So in Perusia, Amanda eagerly embraced a
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Speaker 2: social life that was full of new friendships as it
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Speaker 2: was a new experience, and one of the first bonds
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Speaker 2: that Amanda formed was with her roommate Meredith Kircher, so
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Speaker 2: thrown together by circumstance, the two women would actually get
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Speaker 2: along really well because Meredith was warm, witty and very studious,
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Speaker 2: and she already had a very tight knit group of
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Speaker 2: British friends in Perusia, but they wouldn't see Amanda much
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Speaker 2: because Amanda was more interested in mingling with the local Italians.
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Speaker 2: But still the roommates made an effort to spend some
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Speaker 2: time together, so they would cook dinners in their shared kitchen,
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Speaker 2: and they even indulged their sweet tooth in Perusia's euro
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Speaker 2: Chocolate Festival, wandering the stalls of the city's very famous
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Speaker 2: chocolate fair as autumn set in. And later on, after
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Speaker 2: all the stuff that happened, Amanda's mom would say that
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Speaker 2: there was never any bad blood between the girls that
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Speaker 2: she knew of, saying that they got along great and
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Speaker 2: beyond her friendly relationship with Meredith, Amanda built some social
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Speaker 2: circles in Perusia because she was a type to strike
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Speaker 2: up a conversation with anyone, and she found herself hanging
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Speaker 2: out with a mix of people because, as we know,
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Speaker 2: Amanda preferred the company of Italians oversticking.
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Speaker 1: With English speaking people.
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Speaker 2: She really really wanted to immerse herself and learn Italian
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Speaker 2: and her free spirited nature made her make friends really easily,
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Speaker 2: and one acquaintance was Rudy Guade, a young man originally
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Speaker 2: from the Ivory Coast who had been informally adopted in
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Speaker 2: Perusha's scene, and Amanda and Meredith would meet Rudy only
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Speaker 2: a couple of times to the guys who lived in
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Speaker 2: the apartment below theirs, and in one casual gathering in
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Speaker 2: May October, Amanda and Meredith went downstairs to their neighbors
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Speaker 2: and wound up in a late night hanging sash with Rudy,
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Speaker 2: but Meredith would eventually leave for bed around four thirty
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Speaker 2: a m with Amanda following behind her, and Rudy would.
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Speaker 1: Crash on the couch that night.
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Speaker 2: And these encounters were ordinary in student life in Perusia,
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Speaker 2: and nothing about Rudy particularly stood out at the time,
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Speaker 2: other than he seemed undisciplined, preferring to spend all of
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Speaker 2: his time just playing video games, and he was even
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Speaker 2: discovered by police in an abandoned house with a knife.
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Speaker 1: At one point.
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Speaker 2: But a far more significant person in Amanda's life was
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Speaker 2: Rafael Solesito. So on October twenty fifth, two thousand and seven,
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Speaker 2: Amanda and Meredith went to a classical music concert at
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Speaker 2: Perugia's University and there, amidst the crowd, Amanda would strike
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Speaker 2: up a conversation with someone, and that someone was Rafael,
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Speaker 2: and he was a shy twenty three year old Italian
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Speaker 2: who was studying computer science, and sparks began to fly immediately,
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Speaker 2: and that very night their connection would turn intimate, and
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Speaker 2: soon Amanda and Rafael would be inseparable, spending almost all
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Speaker 2: of their free time together, and she began staying over
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Speaker 2: at Rafael's apartment nearly every night after they met, and
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Speaker 2: Rafael had a small flat that was about a five
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Speaker 2: minute walk away from Via della Pergola, which is where
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Speaker 2: Amanda stayed with her roommates, and the relationship was just
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Speaker 2: a whirldwin with intensity typical in young love, and later
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Speaker 2: on Rafael would admit that Aanda was actually only his
11:01
Speaker 2: second girlfriend ever and that he was somewhat inexperienced with
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Speaker 2: love at this point, but he fell quickly for her,
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Speaker 2: and Meredith, her roommate, had actually started dating an Italian
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Speaker 2: young man who lived downstairs, Giacomo Celenzi, and Amanda's lifestyle
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Speaker 2: in Italy was that of any college student abroad, equal
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Speaker 2: parts responsibility and fine. So by day she went to class,
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Speaker 2: studied Italian grammar, and earned pocket money serving drinks at Lashic,
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Speaker 2: and by night she socialized with a diverse set of
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Speaker 2: friends and obviously her boyfriend. And she was known to
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Speaker 2: be very open with her sexuality and engaged in some
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Speaker 2: casuals as well, and there was some drinking in cannabis
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Speaker 2: use as well, and Amanda would even later note that
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Speaker 2: in her house pott was just as common as pasta.
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Speaker 2: But it was all within the realm of what one
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Speaker 2: might expect in a college age youth. Flat Amanda was
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Speaker 2: by no means a very heavy drug user or wildly promiscuous,
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Speaker 2: as later portrayed. She was just a free spirited twenty
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Speaker 2: year old exploring her freedom, and none of it really
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Speaker 2: seemed ominous or out of the ordinary first study abroad
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Speaker 2: student into them. So in those early autumn weeks, Amanda
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Speaker 2: was by all appearances, just simply living the dream, studying
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Speaker 2: in a beautiful Italian town, falling in love and forging
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Speaker 2: new friendships. But her ordinary rhythms of student life were
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Speaker 2: about to collide with an unimaginable horror. On the night
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Speaker 2: after Halloween, November one, two thousand and seven, was All
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Speaker 2: Saints Day, which was a public holiday in Italy, and
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Speaker 2: many of Perugia's students, including Amanda's Italian roommates and the
12:26
Speaker 2: young men that lived downstairs, had left town for the
12:28
Speaker 2: long weekend, and the Via della Pergola house was quieter
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Speaker 2: than usual, occupied that evening only by Meredith and briefly Amanda.
12:35
Speaker 2: So during that daytime, Amanda and Meredith just went about
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Speaker 2: their regular routines to allegedly, at four pm, Meredith cross
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Speaker 2: paths with Amanda and Raphie l in the kitchen of
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Speaker 2: the cottage before heading out, and that evening Emeredith would
12:47
Speaker 2: actually join her friends for pizza and ice cream, but
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Speaker 2: she would leave the gathering at about nine pm, yawning
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Speaker 2: and saying that she was exhausted and heading home to
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Speaker 2: get some sleep. And Amanda, meanwhile, had originally planned to
12:58
Speaker 2: work a shift at Leschik that night, but early that evening,
13:01
Speaker 2: her boss, Patrick Lamumba sent her a text message saying
13:04
Speaker 2: just not to come in. So, with an unexpected free night,
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Speaker 2: Amanda opted to spend the night with Rafael, her boyfriend,
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Speaker 2: at his apartment, and according to what both she and
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Speaker 2: Rafael later told the police, they just spent a lazy
13:15
Speaker 2: night together in they smoked a bit of marijuana, watched
13:17
Speaker 2: a French film called Emali and slept together. And this
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Speaker 2: is the alibi Amanda Knox would stand by that she
13:23
Speaker 2: was at her boyfriend's flat all night long, though it
13:26
Speaker 2: would be fiercely disputed by prosecutors later on. So what
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Speaker 2: transpired back at the cottage on Via Della Pergola seven
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Speaker 2: during the late hours of November first remains a matter
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Speaker 2: of conjecture and controversy, But what is tragically certain is
13:41
Speaker 2: that Meredith Kircher never made it out of her bedroom alive,
13:45
Speaker 2: so sometime after nine pm that Meredith would make it
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Speaker 2: back to her house, and the house at this point
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Speaker 2: should have been empty because Amanda was at Raphael's and
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Speaker 2: her other roommates were out of town for the weekend.
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Speaker 2: So at some point Meredith would come home and an
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Speaker 2: assailant or assailants would attack Meredith, and in the darkness
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Speaker 2: of Meredith's room, a violent struggle would take place, and
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Speaker 2: the rest of the world, including Amanda Knox, allegedly, would
14:08
Speaker 2: not learn of Meredith's fate until the following day. And
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Speaker 2: this was a day that would reveal a very, very
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Speaker 2: grisly scene and it would turn Amanda's life completely upside down.
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Speaker 2: So for Amanda Knox, November two, two thousand and seven
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Speaker 2: would begin like any other lazy morning. Amanda and Raphael
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Speaker 2: would wake up and they would make their way back
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Speaker 2: to Amanda's apartment around noon, and upon her arrival, she
14:29
Speaker 2: would find a very concerning situation. She would find that
14:32
Speaker 2: the door was open, and when she walked into the
14:35
Speaker 2: bathroom that she shared with Meredith, Amanda would be startled
14:38
Speaker 2: to see drops of blood in the sink and on
14:41
Speaker 2: the faucet, and there was also a suspicious smudge of
14:44
Speaker 2: blood on the bath match shaped somewhat like a foot,
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Speaker 2: so Amanda would later describe it being puzzled, but not
14:50
Speaker 2: immediately panicked at this point because the blood spots were
14:53
Speaker 2: small enough that she wondered if perhaps someone had accidentally
14:56
Speaker 2: cut themselves or maybe that it might have even been
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Speaker 2: munstrual blood, but a window and one of the other
15:00
Speaker 2: roommate's rooms was unbroken with glass on the floor, and
15:03
Speaker 2: then she would notice that someone had also left feces
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Speaker 2: in the toilet, but still Amanda did not yet imagine
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Speaker 2: that anything truly dire had happened. So obviously they would
15:11
Speaker 2: be looking for Meredith at this point because she's supposed
15:14
Speaker 2: to be in the apartment, so they would go to
15:16
Speaker 2: her door, but it was locked, so they would repeatedly
15:18
Speaker 2: knock on the door, but no one would answer, and
15:21
Speaker 2: they heard no sound coming from inside. So Amanda would
15:24
Speaker 2: try calling both of Meredith's phone shortly after noon, but
15:27
Speaker 2: she did not answer, which was highly unusual for Meredith,
15:30
Speaker 2: and that's what she would call one of her other roommates, Philamina,
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Speaker 2: explaining the situation and expressing her worry for Meredith, and
15:36
Speaker 2: Filamina said she would return to the apartment immediately, and
15:39
Speaker 2: then it was at twelve forty seven that Amanda would
15:41
Speaker 2: call her mother, who urged her to contact the police,
15:44
Speaker 2: and at twelve fifty one, Raphael contacted the police, and
15:47
Speaker 2: it was around that exact time that two telecommunications investigators
15:51
Speaker 2: had arrived but it wasn't in response to Amanda's call,
15:54
Speaker 2: but it was because a neighbor had reported finding Meredith's
15:56
Speaker 2: phone tossed into the yard the neighbor's yard, that is,
16:00
Speaker 2: by seeming coincidence, the authorities were actually at the house
16:02
Speaker 2: now trying to return the lost phone, completely unaware that
16:05
Speaker 2: they were just about to stumble on a horrific crime scene.
16:08
Speaker 2: So Amanda and Raphael would greet the police and talk
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Speaker 2: to them about the very worrying situation, and they, along
16:13
Speaker 2: with Filamina, requested that the police break down mare of
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Speaker 2: the store, so they would do so, and what they
16:18
Speaker 2: saw elicited screams and utter chaos because Meredith's lifeless body
16:23
Speaker 2: was on the floor, covered by a blanket soaked in blood.
16:26
Speaker 2: A lake of blood is how one investigator would describe
16:29
Speaker 2: the scene, because she had been stabbed multiple times and
16:32
Speaker 2: a bloody necklace of shallow knife wounds encircled her neck
16:36
Speaker 2: cuts that seemed to suggest the attacker tried to force
16:39
Speaker 2: her into compliance, and finally, her throat was slashed so
16:43
Speaker 2: deep that a major artery was severed, and the corner
16:46
Speaker 2: determined that Meredith died from catastrophic blood loss and exphyxiation,
16:50
Speaker 2: and that her death was not instantaneous, and that she
16:53
Speaker 2: was probably laying bleeding out for several minutes before she
16:57
Speaker 2: passed away, and evidence indicated signs of SA and or
17:00
Speaker 2: at least simple activity before her death. It was just
17:03
Speaker 2: a horrifyingly cruel end for a young woman who just
17:06
Speaker 2: a few hours earlier had been hanging out and laughing
17:09
Speaker 2: with friends while eating pizza and ice cream. So in
17:11
Speaker 2: the aftermath of finding out Meredith had passed away, Amanda's
17:15
Speaker 2: behavior did not fit the mold of a distraught, hysterical roommate,
17:19
Speaker 2: at least not in the eyes of the Italian police
17:22
Speaker 2: or the public. So in the police station a short
17:24
Speaker 2: time after, as officers began taking statements from witnesses, Amanda's
17:27
Speaker 2: demeanor continued to raise eyebrows, and Chief Inspector Monica Napoleone,
17:33
Speaker 2: head of Perusia's murder squad, later testify that Amanda and
17:36
Speaker 2: Raphael quote appeared completely indifferent to everything while waiting at
17:41
Speaker 2: the station, and they would be seen sat cuddling, whispering
17:44
Speaker 2: to each other, even making faces and writing notes to
17:47
Speaker 2: each other, and even at one point a detective glanced
17:50
Speaker 2: over only to see Amanda casually perform a cartwheel and
17:53
Speaker 2: the splits right there in the hall tone deaf to
17:57
Speaker 2: say the least, and Napoleoni would say, quote unquote, it
18:01
Speaker 2: was strange to everybody, just describing this whole situation in
18:05
Speaker 2: complete disbelief, and the couple's conduct was so notably out
18:09
Speaker 2: of place that it immediately planted seeds of suspicion in
18:12
Speaker 2: the authority's minds. And as the day went on, Amanda's
18:15
Speaker 2: responses kind of oscillated, and she would break down at
18:19
Speaker 2: one point, because she would collapse to the floor when
18:21
Speaker 2: police brought her back to the cottage that evening. But
18:24
Speaker 2: by then the damage was already done in terms of perception,
18:27
Speaker 2: and the Italian media had already caught wind of the
18:30
Speaker 2: kissing couple at the crime scene, and the rumor of
18:32
Speaker 2: Amanda's odd behavior spread like wildfire. So within hours of
18:36
Speaker 2: Meredith's body being discovered, a narrative was already forming, and
18:40
Speaker 2: that narrative was that Amanda Knox was behaving in the
18:42
Speaker 2: way that was not normal for an innocent girl, and
18:47
Speaker 2: this narrative would soon explode into a full blown character
18:51
Speaker 2: assassination in the press. But in the meantime, November second
18:54
Speaker 2: and third, Amanda was still technically just a witness, and
18:57
Speaker 2: she would spend the nights at Raphael's flat, now also
19:00
Speaker 2: as a potential suspects home, and in a decision that
19:02
Speaker 2: would later haunt her, the very next day, Amanda and
19:06
Speaker 2: Rafael would go to a fancy clothing store and purchase legerie,
19:10
Speaker 2: and she alleged that this purchase was because all of
19:13
Speaker 2: her items were locked in the house as the investigation
19:16
Speaker 2: was taking place, so she needed new underwear, and a
19:18
Speaker 2: CCTV camera would catch the couple in the store, where
19:21
Speaker 2: they would tenderly embrace, and Rafael would joke, we can
19:25
Speaker 2: have wax tonight. It's just all so bad.
19:28
Speaker 1: It all looks so.
19:29
Speaker 2: Bad, and the shop owner was just stunned to see
19:32
Speaker 2: Amanda's face on the news, later saying how could these
19:36
Speaker 2: two be buying thongs and laughing just a day after
19:39
Speaker 2: Meridith's murder, and he would mention the incident to the police,
19:42
Speaker 2: who obtained the security tape and they would give it
19:44
Speaker 2: to Juliano Mignini, who was the prosecutor, and before long
19:48
Speaker 2: that footage of Amanda and Rafael kissing and giggling over
19:51
Speaker 2: panties made its way to every TV screen in Italy,
19:56
Speaker 2: and the public's reaction was swift and merciless. So Amanda
20:00
Speaker 2: Knox was already guilty in the court of public opinion,
20:03
Speaker 2: guilty not necessarily of actual murder, but just a shocking
20:07
Speaker 2: lack of morals and just you know, common sense and empathy.
20:11
Speaker 2: So these early perceptions, fair or not, just kind of
20:14
Speaker 2: set the stage for what was to come next, because
20:17
Speaker 2: the police had an absolutely brutal murder on their hands
20:20
Speaker 2: and now two young people who in their eyes were
20:23
Speaker 2: acting very very strangely given the circumstances. So in the
20:27
Speaker 2: days immediately following Meredith Kirtcher's murder, Italian authorities undertook a
20:31
Speaker 2: sprawling investigation and they would quickly hone in on Amanda
20:35
Speaker 2: and Rafael as prime suspects without any evidence at this
20:39
Speaker 2: point at all, just purely based on how they were
20:42
Speaker 2: acting at this point. But to the Perusia police, several
20:44
Speaker 2: things didn't add up at this point because there was
20:47
Speaker 2: the break in, and the authorities at this point were
20:49
Speaker 2: saying it was probably staged because the broken window appeared
20:53
Speaker 2: suspiciously fake in their eyes, and the inconsistencies they perceived
20:57
Speaker 2: in Amanda and Rafael's accounts on that morning, and most
21:00
Speaker 2: of all the couple's bizarre calmness and scrutiny, which I mean,
21:05
Speaker 2: we're talking all circumstantial at this point, and everybody, everyone
21:10
Speaker 2: reacts differently to when people die, and sometimes it's very
21:14
Speaker 2: off putting, and sometimes that can mean that they're guilty,
21:17
Speaker 2: but sometimes it just means they're tone deaf and stupid
21:21
Speaker 2: and a bit just dumb and just not thinking clearly
21:25
Speaker 2: or just lack empathy completely. But at this point everyone
21:30
Speaker 2: was like, these people absolutely did it, and it was
21:34
Speaker 2: very difficult to see otherwise, even though they don't have
21:38
Speaker 2: a lot to go off of at this point. So
21:39
Speaker 2: from November second onward, Amanda was kept under close watch
21:43
Speaker 2: and she was asked to come to the police station
21:45
Speaker 2: repeatedly to gave it witness statements. And as these sessions
21:48
Speaker 2: went on, their tone grew sharper because investigators were openly
21:53
Speaker 2: skeptical of the alibi Amanda and Rafael had provided, and
21:56
Speaker 2: Rafael at one point even wavered in his testimoni, telling
22:00
Speaker 2: police that he wasn't sure if Amanda had actually been
22:03
Speaker 2: with him the whole time, which is so suprecious and
22:06
Speaker 2: such hints of doubt only intensified the pressure on Amanda.
22:09
Speaker 2: But a critical turning point would come on the night
22:11
Speaker 2: of November fifth, two thousand and seven, when police would
22:14
Speaker 2: call in Amanda and Refael for another round of questioning,
22:17
Speaker 2: but this time it was at police headquarters, and this
22:20
Speaker 2: time was far more aggressive. So over the course of
22:24
Speaker 2: the night and into the early morning of November six,
22:26
Speaker 2: Amanda was subjected to interrogation that lasted several hours and
22:30
Speaker 2: mostly in Italian, and without a lawyer present. So just
22:37
Speaker 2: completely whatever you think, whatever you're thinking of Amanda right
22:40
Speaker 2: now or Refael. Not fair, not okay, no matter who
22:45
Speaker 2: this is. And she would actually request a lawyer during
22:47
Speaker 2: this interrogation, but they said it would make things a
22:50
Speaker 2: lot worse, so threatening the witness not good either. But
22:55
Speaker 2: what exactly transpired in the interrogation room is a matter
22:58
Speaker 2: of dispute to this day, and Amanda, who at this
23:00
Speaker 2: point was a twenty year old foreigner far from home,
23:03
Speaker 2: later claimed that the police used classic heavy handed tactics,
23:07
Speaker 2: which included isolating her, shouting rapid fire questions in a
23:11
Speaker 2: different language sometimes even and even slapped her on the
23:15
Speaker 2: back of the head when she didn't produce the answers
23:17
Speaker 2: that they wanted, which again, no matter what you think
23:20
Speaker 2: of anybody right now, that is bad practice, pet very
23:24
Speaker 2: bad practice if true, that is because we don't know
23:27
Speaker 2: for sure. But Chief Inspector Napoleone would vehemently deny any
23:32
Speaker 2: physical fault that took place during these investigations and just
23:35
Speaker 2: said she was treated very well, absolutely no violence. But
23:40
Speaker 2: by Amanda's account, she was exhausted, confused, and very very
23:44
Speaker 2: scared and she felt berated, threatened, lied to, and slapped
23:48
Speaker 2: until reality itself felt blurred. But what's certain is that
23:52
Speaker 2: in the early morning hours of November six, Amanda buckled
23:56
Speaker 2: under the pressure and gave a wildly damning statement to
24:00
Speaker 2: the police, and in what she described later as induced coersion,
24:04
Speaker 2: Amanda would tell the interrogators this story. She would say
24:07
Speaker 2: that she was in the cottage when Meredith was killed,
24:10
Speaker 2: and specifically she incriminated her own boss, Patrick Lamumba, claiming
24:15
Speaker 2: that Patrick was with Meredith in Meredith's bedroom that night,
24:18
Speaker 2: and Amanda said she herself covered her ears to drown
24:23
Speaker 2: out the screams as Patrick attacked Meredith, and this statement
24:27
Speaker 2: effectively placed Amanda at the crime scene as a witness
24:31
Speaker 2: and as an accomplice and was as close to a
24:33
Speaker 2: confession as the police had been seeking. So in these statements,
24:37
Speaker 2: Amanda had implicated Patrick, Lamba and herself by proximity, although
24:41
Speaker 2: notably she repeatedly claimed her innocence in the whole situation.
24:45
Speaker 2: So now we're in really mucky, muddy in waters. So
24:49
Speaker 2: still the implication was clear, because now she was a
24:52
Speaker 2: self professed eyewitness to the murder.
24:56
Speaker 1: Not good, But Amanda.
24:58
Speaker 2: Would later recant this tale, oh, almost immediately, explaining that
25:02
Speaker 2: it had been completely coerced. But by then the damage
25:05
Speaker 2: was already done. So on November six, two thousand and seven,
25:08
Speaker 2: based on Amanda's confession and the investigation hunches that were developed,
25:12
Speaker 2: the police moved swiftly to make arrests. So in the
25:16
Speaker 2: early morning, Amanda, Knox, Raphael and Patrick were all arrested
25:20
Speaker 2: and taken into custody, and the authorities announced to the
25:22
Speaker 2: media almost immediately that the case was now virtually solved.
25:26
Speaker 2: And in the initial theory, the motive was some kind
25:29
Speaker 2: of sexual violence, and police would tell reporters that they
25:32
Speaker 2: believed Meredith was murdered because she refused to participate in
25:36
Speaker 2: violence ssual activity orchestrated by Amanda, Rafael and Patrick, and
25:42
Speaker 2: they would point to Amanda's breakdown and confession as evidence,
25:46
Speaker 2: and the tabloid press in Italy and Britain immediately ran
25:50
Speaker 2: with this narrative, just painting this trio as a sordid
25:54
Speaker 2: schame cult gone wrong, when at this point they really
25:57
Speaker 2: actually didn't know any of that. It was just kind
25:59
Speaker 2: of a made up thing, and Amanda Knox's mugshot was
26:02
Speaker 2: just splashed on papers alongside shocking headlines. So overnight she
26:06
Speaker 2: became an infamous barbaric ringleader of a horrific crime. It
26:11
Speaker 2: was just a very sensational story, something that media would
26:15
Speaker 2: just eat the cop because it was an American fem
26:18
Speaker 2: fetal and her Italian lover and this African bar owner
26:21
Speaker 2: committing this sacrificial murder, and it would just.
26:25
Speaker 1: Spread like wildfire.
26:26
Speaker 2: However, the case police thought that they had would soon
26:29
Speaker 2: begin to unravel because, for one, Patrick Lamumba had an
26:34
Speaker 2: ironclad alibi because on the night of November first, he
26:38
Speaker 2: was working at his bar, Leskh, which was full of
26:42
Speaker 2: customers and several witnesses that saw him there all night.
26:46
Speaker 2: And within two weeks it was very clear that Patrick
26:49
Speaker 2: could not have been at the murder scene and he
26:51
Speaker 2: would vehemently deny any sort of involvement, and Ma Mamba
26:55
Speaker 2: was fully exonerated and released. When police confirmed this alibi
26:58
Speaker 2: and found zero I wrote evidence placing him at the
27:01
Speaker 2: crime scene, and Amanda's accusation of this innocent man, whether
27:05
Speaker 2: a panicked false memory or a deliberate lie, now formed
27:10
Speaker 2: the basis for a separate charge against her, which was
27:13
Speaker 2: criminal slander, just digging that hole, digging that hole for
27:17
Speaker 2: herself right now. But more importantly, the collapse of the
27:20
Speaker 2: case against La Momba cast a really dark cloud over
27:23
Speaker 2: the police investigation in a hole because if Amanda's confession
27:26
Speaker 2: had pointed to the wrong man, how reliable were any
27:30
Speaker 2: of her statements and under what circumstances had they been obtained?
27:34
Speaker 2: Now people were asking questions, and for Amanda, the aftermath
27:37
Speaker 2: of the interrogation was devastating because she found herself in
27:40
Speaker 2: a holding cell, realizing that she had implicated herself in
27:43
Speaker 2: a murder. She insisted she didn't commit and even after
27:46
Speaker 2: retracting her confession, it was too late and the authorities
27:50
Speaker 2: would keep pressing forward because they did believe that Amanda
27:53
Speaker 2: had told the truth during that interrogation, and now they
27:56
Speaker 2: would just kind of construct their own theory around it,
27:59
Speaker 2: and they would just kind of like shift to La
28:00
Speaker 2: Mamba out of that theory now that it was proven
28:03
Speaker 2: that he was not there. So soon a fourth suspect
28:06
Speaker 2: would emerge from forensic evidence. Yet we haven't even gotten evidence,
28:09
Speaker 2: like actual evidence yet, just a really weird confession, and
28:13
Speaker 2: the evidence would bring forth twenty year old Rudy, the
28:16
Speaker 2: guy that was acquaintances with Amanda and Meredith, whose bloody
28:20
Speaker 2: fingerprints and DNA were identified on Meredith's belongings. So on
28:24
Speaker 2: November twentieth, two thousand and seven, Rudy would be arrested
28:27
Speaker 2: in Germany where he had fled, and he was extradited
28:31
Speaker 2: to Italy. And with Rudy in the picture, now prosecutors
28:34
Speaker 2: altered the narrative, which was that now they contended that Amanda,
28:38
Speaker 2: Raphael and Rudy together had acculted Meredith in a drug
28:42
Speaker 2: fueled escalation of some situal game. And it was an
28:46
Speaker 2: extreme theory, but lead prosecutor Giuliano would believe it, and
28:50
Speaker 2: he would even toy with the outlandish ideas of Satanic
28:54
Speaker 2: rituals and orgies a motive he invoked in past cases,
28:59
Speaker 2: just made up stuff that actually had nothing to do
29:02
Speaker 2: with the case even a little bit. And Juliana, the
29:05
Speaker 2: lead prosecutor, would see Amanda as a central figure, and
29:08
Speaker 2: that was that Amanda was the instigator who just hated
29:11
Speaker 2: her roommate and that led these men to attack her.
29:14
Speaker 2: And over the next year Amanda would sit in prison
29:17
Speaker 2: awaiting trial. And this is when serious questions about the
29:21
Speaker 2: entire investigation would begin to service, because it had become
29:24
Speaker 2: apparent at this point that Amanda's interrogation had not been
29:27
Speaker 2: recorded again bad practice, and no lawyer was present, bad practice.
29:33
Speaker 2: And she was a very scared foreign student who had
29:36
Speaker 2: been awake all night, just the perfect conditions for a
29:39
Speaker 2: false confession allegedly, and her claim of being slapped by police,
29:44
Speaker 2: whether true or not, underscored the coercive atmosphere. And one
29:48
Speaker 2: writer would note that quote Knox spent four years in
29:51
Speaker 2: prison largely for a failure to grieve in the way
29:55
Speaker 2: people expected, due to that core statement rather than any
29:59
Speaker 2: hard evidence. But in Italy, investigation just forged on, just
30:04
Speaker 2: absolutely convinced that Amanda and Raphael were guilty alongside Rudy,
30:09
Speaker 2: and the stage was just set for a very long
30:11
Speaker 2: and strenuous legal battle, one that would expose very deep
30:15
Speaker 2: flaws in the case against Amanda, but not before it
30:18
Speaker 2: nearly cost her decades of freedom. So as Amanda Knox's
30:21
Speaker 2: case proceeded to trial, it became increasingly clear that the
30:25
Speaker 2: prosecution's narrative was built on very shaky ground, because observers
30:29
Speaker 2: and eventually Italian judges identified numerous problems within the case,
30:33
Speaker 2: from forensic blunders to blatant character assassination of Amanda in
30:38
Speaker 2: the media and the courtroom. And then there was the
30:41
Speaker 2: forensic flaws, which was the physical evidence used to implicate
30:44
Speaker 2: Amanda and Rafael turned out to be alarmingly scant and
30:48
Speaker 2: deeply flawed because despite the crime scene being extraordinarily bloody,
30:53
Speaker 2: investigators failed to find any of Amanda's DNA in Meredith's bedroom,
30:58
Speaker 2: where we know the murder happened. And this something that
31:00
Speaker 2: the twenty fifteen Supreme Court of Castation ruling would underscore,
31:05
Speaker 2: saying that there was quote complete lack of biological traces
31:09
Speaker 2: connecting knocks to the crime. Instead, the DNA evidence pointed
31:12
Speaker 2: directly and overwhelmingly toward Rudy because his DNA was found
31:18
Speaker 2: on an inside Meredith's body and in multiple bloodstains inside
31:23
Speaker 2: of the room. So how then do you tie Amanda
31:26
Speaker 2: to the murder? And that was the big question. But
31:28
Speaker 2: the prosecution would hang its hat on two key pieces
31:31
Speaker 2: of forensic evidence, and that was a kitchen knife and
31:34
Speaker 2: a broad clasp, because the knife retrieved from Raphael's kitchen
31:39
Speaker 2: was claimed to be the murder weapon because on its blade,
31:43
Speaker 2: forensic analysis to doctor Patrizia Stefanoni reported finding a minute
31:48
Speaker 2: trace of DNA that appeared to match Meredith's and on
31:52
Speaker 2: its handle DNA matching Amanda Knox. And this sounded damning
31:58
Speaker 2: until it was screwized in detail because in twenty eleven,
32:02
Speaker 2: independent experts from Rome's Sapienza University re examined the knife
32:07
Speaker 2: evidence and demolished its credibility because they found that traces
32:11
Speaker 2: of Meredith's DNA on the blade was so low in
32:15
Speaker 2: quantity that it was impossible to obtain a reliable profile
32:19
Speaker 2: at all. In fact, it was likely contamination, which wasn't
32:22
Speaker 2: a clear signal at all, And they claimed that Stefanoni
32:25
Speaker 2: had not followed standard international DNA protocols and actually made
32:29
Speaker 2: errors in analysis and did not properly back up the
32:33
Speaker 2: evidence that she ended up giving in the courtroom, and
32:35
Speaker 2: even the timing of it was very very suspect because
32:38
Speaker 2: police claimed this large kitchen knife produced the wounds on Meredith,
32:42
Speaker 2: but later analysis showed that the knife's dimensions didn't match
32:45
Speaker 2: some of the biggest injuries at all. And the second
32:48
Speaker 2: piece was the bra clasp, and this was a metal
32:51
Speaker 2: hook from the back of Meredith's bra that had been
32:53
Speaker 2: cut off during the attack, and it was collected from
32:56
Speaker 2: the crime scene forty six days after the murder, having
32:59
Speaker 2: been over looked initially and left on the floor at
33:01
Speaker 2: the time. But when finally tested, the clasps showed a
33:04
Speaker 2: mixture of DNA, including a profile attributed to Rafael, and
33:08
Speaker 2: prosecutors would argue that Rafael was in Merinis room and
33:11
Speaker 2: participated in this assault. But here too, independent experts uncovered
33:16
Speaker 2: major issues because the DNA on it was mixed and
33:19
Speaker 2: very complex. Because given the long delay and very sloppy handling,
33:23
Speaker 2: the experts testified that the broad clasp was likely contaminated
33:26
Speaker 2: and could not be considered as reliable evidence. In fact,
33:30
Speaker 2: every single one of the prosecution's forensic claims fell under
33:34
Speaker 2: severe doubt. When examined more closely, and the independent review
33:38
Speaker 2: just destroyed Stefanoni's work, calling the knife and bra class
33:42
Speaker 2: PNA evidence just completely worthless in providing anything, and in
33:46
Speaker 2: the end, the crime scene itself never yielded any reliable footprints,
33:50
Speaker 2: fingerprints or DNA from Amanda or Rafael, whereas Rudy's presence
33:55
Speaker 2: was indisputable, and the Italian Supreme Court would later note
33:58
Speaker 2: how illogical it was to propose that Amanda and Rafael
34:02
Speaker 2: somehow selectively cleaned the crime scene of their own traces
34:05
Speaker 2: while leaving Rudi's everywhere, a scenario that the judges would
34:09
Speaker 2: call quote impossible. So, in short, the forensic case against
34:13
Speaker 2: Amanda Knox and Rafael was deeply and irreparably flawed. So,
34:17
Speaker 2: with hard evidence completely lacking, the prosecution and the media
34:22
Speaker 2: leaned heavily on attacking Amanda Knox's character because that's what
34:26
Speaker 2: they had, turning the trial at times into a spectacle
34:29
Speaker 2: of personal slurs and moral judgment. So from the outset,
34:33
Speaker 2: Amanda became a victim of sensationalist portrayal, and the tabloids
34:37
Speaker 2: would dub her Foxy Noxie, the childhood nickname that we
34:41
Speaker 2: were talking about before if you remember, and would just
34:43
Speaker 2: run with the tales of her alleged promiscuity, drug use,
34:47
Speaker 2: and occult practices. And the media seized on every salacious
34:51
Speaker 2: detail between a vibrator being found in her belongings to
34:56
Speaker 2: her every single gesture from kissing Rafael to her courtroom attire,
35:01
Speaker 2: and Italian prosecutors and lawyers actively fed on this narrative.
35:05
Speaker 2: And in the courtroom prosecutor Juliano described Amanda as a
35:09
Speaker 2: six and drug crazed instigator, and during one hearing, a
35:13
Speaker 2: lawyer for Patrick Lamumba, who Amanda had wrongly accused, launched
35:17
Speaker 2: into a scathing denunciation of Knox, calling her a diabolical, satanic, demonic,
35:24
Speaker 2: she devil in front of the jury. I mean, that's
35:28
Speaker 2: that's that's a bit rough. Again, I don't know anything,
35:31
Speaker 2: but they're really leading into it, needless to say. And
35:34
Speaker 2: these words were so extreme that they would make international headlines.
35:38
Speaker 2: It was a character assassination in the most literal sense,
35:41
Speaker 2: painting Amanda as a cartoonish villain, and in essence, much
35:44
Speaker 2: of the case against Amanda just became about Amanda, between
35:48
Speaker 2: her personality, her behavior, her perceived moral character, rather than
35:53
Speaker 2: actual concrete facts or any evidence at all, and the
35:56
Speaker 2: blurring of the lines between evidence and character was just
35:59
Speaker 2: wildly and Amanda's father, Kurt Knox called the media onslaught
36:03
Speaker 2: and the prosecuting tactics as quote character assassination, And the
36:08
Speaker 2: result was that by the time Amanda's trial started, she
36:11
Speaker 2: faced not only legal charges, but a public image so
36:14
Speaker 2: poisoned that many assumed her guilt before it even started,
36:18
Speaker 2: and just because of what they were told in the tabloids.
36:20
Speaker 2: So together, the faulty forensics and the character attacks nearly
36:24
Speaker 2: ensured a wrongful conviction, allegedly so the first trial was
36:28
Speaker 2: held in Perusia in two thousand and nine and ended
36:31
Speaker 2: in a resounding defeat for Amanda and her co defendant,
36:35
Speaker 2: Raphael So. After nearly a year of hearings, on December fifth,
36:38
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine, the jury found both of them
36:40
Speaker 2: guilty of Meredith Kirscher's murder, and in addition to the
36:44
Speaker 2: murder conviction, Amanda was also found guilty of slander for
36:47
Speaker 2: falsely implicating Patrick Lamumba, and the court sent its Amanda
36:51
Speaker 2: to twenty six years in prison and Raphael to twenty five.
36:55
Speaker 2: So in the verdict, the judges accepted the prosecution sensational
36:58
Speaker 2: theory that Amanda, Raphael and Rudy, who by then had
37:02
Speaker 2: been separately trialed because there was so much forensic evidence,
37:05
Speaker 2: had jointly alted Meredith in a drug fueled sexual assault
37:10
Speaker 2: that spiraled into murder, and the verdicts would just land
37:12
Speaker 2: like a thunderbolt amid a blaze of media coverage, and
37:16
Speaker 2: as a judge read the sentence, Amanda Knox broke down
37:19
Speaker 2: sobbing in the courtroom, and her family, having flown to
37:21
Speaker 2: Italy for the verdict, reacted with tears and just outrage
37:26
Speaker 2: because her family condemned the decision as a failure of
37:30
Speaker 2: Italian judicial system. And it's worth noting that Rudy, tried
37:33
Speaker 2: separately in a fast track procedure, had been convicted earlier
37:36
Speaker 2: and given a thirty year sentence later reduced on appeal
37:40
Speaker 2: to sixteen years for his role in the murder. But
37:42
Speaker 2: by the end of two thousand and nine, the official
37:44
Speaker 2: line in Italy was that all three assailants, Amanda, Rafael
37:48
Speaker 2: and Rudy were convicted and put behind bars and to perusia,
37:52
Speaker 2: and in much of the British press there was satisfaction
37:55
Speaker 2: that justice for Meredith had been achieved, yet doubts lingered
37:59
Speaker 2: internet because many in the American media and some Italian
38:03
Speaker 2: observers questioned the verdict, pointing to the lack of hard
38:07
Speaker 2: evidence and the apparent biases. Because Amanda Knox and Rafael
38:11
Speaker 2: steadfastly maintained their innocence and immediately appealed the conviction as
38:16
Speaker 2: is their right in the Italian system, and the next
38:18
Speaker 2: chapter would come in twenty eleven with the appeal trials,
38:21
Speaker 2: and in Italy, an appeal is not just a review,
38:24
Speaker 2: but it's essentially a second trial where new evidence can
38:28
Speaker 2: be introduced, and Amanda's appeal was heard in Perusia in
38:31
Speaker 2: a new trial, and throughout twenty eleven, Amanda's team methodically
38:35
Speaker 2: attacked the weaknesses in the case, and the Appealan court
38:38
Speaker 2: also allowed more discussion of how the initial investigation might
38:42
Speaker 2: have gone wrong because of the media pressure that swirled
38:44
Speaker 2: the case. And then finally, on October third, twenty and eleven,
38:49
Speaker 2: the appeal court delivered a stunning ruling. Amanda and Rafael's
38:53
Speaker 2: convictions of murder were overturned. I'm really overwhelmed right now.
38:56
Speaker 2: So after four years in prison, a Manda was declared
39:00
Speaker 2: not guilty of the murder of Meredith Kircher due to
39:03
Speaker 2: the lack of evidence, and she would be immediately released
39:06
Speaker 2: from custody. So Amanda would be quickly ushered out, and
39:09
Speaker 2: within a day she was on a plane back home
39:11
Speaker 2: to Seattle, and in a tearful statement in the Seattle
39:14
Speaker 2: airport and dazed, Amanda thanked those who believed in her
39:17
Speaker 2: and supported her family, saying she was overwhelmed. My family
39:21
Speaker 2: is the most important thing to me right now. Reminded
39:27
Speaker 2: me to speak in English because I'm having problems with that.
39:33
Speaker 2: I'm really overwhelmed right now.
39:35
Speaker 3: I was looking down from the airplane and it seemed
39:39
Speaker 3: like everything wasn't real.
39:40
Speaker 2: And for Amanda's family and supporters, it was a moment
39:43
Speaker 2: of great joy, just the end of a nightmare. However,
39:46
Speaker 2: the appeal at court did uphold one aspect, and that
39:49
Speaker 2: was that the slander conviction of accusing Patrick Lamumba would
39:53
Speaker 2: remain in place and they would give a three year sentence,
39:55
Speaker 2: but Amanda had already served four by then, so she
39:58
Speaker 2: was done but still by in late twenty eleven, Amanda,
40:01
Speaker 2: Knox and Rafael were effectively free and exonerated in the
40:05
Speaker 2: eyes of the court. Yet the saga was not over because,
40:08
Speaker 2: in an unexpected twist that many outside Italy found hard
40:13
Speaker 2: to comprehend, the case went to the Italian Supreme Court
40:17
Speaker 2: and came back again. So in March of twenty thirteen,
40:20
Speaker 2: Italy's highest court reviewed the prosecution's appeal of the acquittal, and,
40:24
Speaker 2: stunning Amanda and her supporters, the Court of Castation overturned
40:29
Speaker 2: the twenty eleven acquittal and ordered a new appellate trial.
40:33
Speaker 2: And this meant that Amanda, currently safe in the US,
40:36
Speaker 2: and Rafael, who was still in Italy, were once again
40:40
Speaker 2: defendants facing murder charges, and the retrial would take place
40:43
Speaker 2: in Florence in twenty thirteen to twenty fourteen, and Amanda,
40:46
Speaker 2: knowing that the US would likely not extradite her if
40:49
Speaker 2: she was reconvicted, chose to not return to Italy for
40:52
Speaker 2: the proceedings and she would remain in Seattle, effectively being
40:56
Speaker 2: tried in absent and Rafael, however, would appear in court
40:59
Speaker 2: which would have been I imagined very agonizing without Amanda by
41:03
Speaker 2: his side. And in January of twenty fourteen, the Florence
41:06
Speaker 2: Court would deliver its decision and they would actually reinstate
41:10
Speaker 2: the guilty verdicts. Reconvicting Amanda and Raphael of Meredith's murder
41:16
Speaker 2: just was insane, insane roller coaster, and in the next
41:20
Speaker 2: iteration they even increased Amanda's sentence to twenty eight and
41:23
Speaker 2: a half years, factoring in the slander charge, while Rafael's
41:27
Speaker 2: was confirmed around twenty five years, and the Florence judges
41:30
Speaker 2: just essentially doubled down on the original theory, apparently unmoved
41:34
Speaker 2: by the doubts that were raised earlier. It was as
41:36
Speaker 2: if this seesaw of Italian justice had swung back hard,
41:39
Speaker 2: and Amanda, receiving this news from across the ocean, said
41:42
Speaker 2: she was frightened and saddened, but quote will never go
41:46
Speaker 2: willingly back to Italy to serve such a sentence, and Rafael,
41:49
Speaker 2: who had surrendered his passport, faced the real prospect of
41:53
Speaker 2: prison again, but they would once again appeal, and then finally,
41:56
Speaker 2: in March of twenty fifteen, the case would reach its
41:59
Speaker 2: death conclusion, and the Italian Supreme Court took up Amanda
42:03
Speaker 2: and Rafael's final appeal of the Florence conviction, and on
42:06
Speaker 2: March twenty seventh, twenty fifteen, in a highly anticipated ruling,
42:11
Speaker 2: the Supreme Court annulled the convictions once and for all,
42:14
Speaker 2: definitively acquitting Amanda Knox and Rafael of the murder.
42:18
Speaker 1: And this was the legal.
42:19
Speaker 2: End of it. Under the Italian law, a Supreme Court
42:22
Speaker 2: acquittal is final and cannot be retried. And Amanda, who
42:25
Speaker 2: was twenty seven by then, was full of joy, and
42:28
Speaker 2: she would say that I'm grateful to have my life back.
42:31
Speaker 2: Chapter seven and a half years, two convictions, two acquittals,
42:34
Speaker 2: and one retrial, Amanda Knox was finally irrevocably free and
42:38
Speaker 2: the Supreme Court's full reasoning was released a few months later,
42:41
Speaker 2: and it amounted to a very harsh rebuke of the
42:44
Speaker 2: prosecution's case, and the High Court cited quote stunning flaws
42:48
Speaker 2: that had led to wrongful accusations, and the justices noted
42:52
Speaker 2: that quote lack of any biological trace of Amanda or
42:56
Speaker 2: Rafael at the crime scene and criticized lower courts for
42:59
Speaker 2: buying into a quote theory of complicity without evidence, suggesting
43:03
Speaker 2: motives like Amanda's supposed resentment of Meredith that were never proven,
43:08
Speaker 2: and they flatly rejected the idea entirely that the scene
43:11
Speaker 2: had been selectively clean of Amanda Knox's traces as illogical
43:16
Speaker 2: and literally impossible, and the Supreme Court acknowledged that media
43:19
Speaker 2: sensationalism and pressure had led to a quote frantic search
43:24
Speaker 2: for one or more guilty parties to consign to international
43:27
Speaker 2: public opinion, which was a situation that certainly did no
43:31
Speaker 2: favors for a fair investigation. And in the end, the
43:33
Speaker 2: Court concluded that, aside from Rudy, whose guilt was unquestioned,
43:37
Speaker 2: there was no reliable evidence that Amanda or Raphael had
43:41
Speaker 2: participated in the crime at all. And the only crime
43:43
Speaker 2: that Amanda remained convicted of was the slander of Patrick Lamamba,
43:47
Speaker 2: but she had already served four years of time in
43:49
Speaker 2: an Italian prison, so the final exoneration was just a
43:51
Speaker 2: moment of immense relief and validation of Amanda and her family.
43:55
Speaker 2: And Amanda would say, quote, Meredith was my friend. She
43:59
Speaker 2: deserved so much in this life, and in saying that,
44:02
Speaker 2: she was really trying to return focus to the victim
44:05
Speaker 2: of whose life was actually taken during this crime, because
44:08
Speaker 2: I also can't imagine how Meredith's family's feeling during all
44:10
Speaker 2: of this, Like everything's the attention is just on Amanda,
44:13
Speaker 2: and imagine they just want justice done, but also their
44:17
Speaker 2: daughter whose life was lost is now completely overshadowed by Amanda.
44:22
Speaker 2: But it's just a case in which sensationalism and the
44:26
Speaker 2: judicial system clashed and the victim was kind of overshadowed.
44:30
Speaker 1: So I just want to put.
44:31
Speaker 2: My heart out there to Meredith's family and know that
44:34
Speaker 2: she is the real victim in this case. But the
44:37
Speaker 2: long legal saga had concluded, but there were repercussions because
44:41
Speaker 2: when Amanda Knox stepped off the plane onto Seattle soil
44:44
Speaker 2: in October of twenty eleven, she was a twenty four
44:47
Speaker 2: year old who had spent the past four years behind
44:50
Speaker 2: bars in a foreign country and just thrust into a
44:53
Speaker 2: spotlight she never wanted, and her priority was just to
44:56
Speaker 2: simply reclaim a semblance of normal life. And once she
44:59
Speaker 2: kind of got used to being home again, she re
45:02
Speaker 2: enrolled in the University of Washington to finish her bachelor's degree.
45:06
Speaker 2: She also began to explore her voice through the writing
45:08
Speaker 2: process of everything that she had been through, and in
45:10
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen, she would even go on to publish a memoir,
45:13
Speaker 2: Waiting to be Heard, which became a New York bestseller.
45:16
Speaker 2: In the book for which She reportedly received four million
45:19
Speaker 2: dollar advance for detailed the version of events and the
45:22
Speaker 2: ordeal of prison, but much of the proceeds just went
45:25
Speaker 2: towards paying off the massive legal debts her family had
45:28
Speaker 2: accumulated over those years. So for the first time, Amanda
45:31
Speaker 2: was able to publicly tell her story in her own words,
45:34
Speaker 2: and the release was accompanied by a very high profile
45:36
Speaker 2: interview on ABC with Diane Sawyer, during which Amanda, composed
45:40
Speaker 2: yet emotional, reiterated her innocence and described how quote unquote
45:44
Speaker 2: surreal the whole saga had been.
45:46
Speaker 3: I was in the courtroom when they were calling me
45:49
Speaker 3: a devil. It's one thing to be called certain things
45:51
Speaker 3: in the media, and then it's another thing to be
45:53
Speaker 3: sitting in a courtroom fighting for your life while people
45:57
Speaker 3: are calling you a devil.
45:59
Speaker 2: And she would also be interviewed by Good Morning America.
46:02
Speaker 2: And as the years went on, Amanda carved out a
46:04
Speaker 2: new identity, transforming from a tabloid figure into an advocate
46:08
Speaker 2: and a writer, and she began to work as a
46:10
Speaker 2: freelance journalist, and she also became increasingly involved in the
46:13
Speaker 2: Innocence Project movement and other advocacy groups for wrongfully convicted people. Notably,
46:18
Speaker 2: in June of twenty nineteen, Amanda returned to Italy for
46:22
Speaker 2: the first time, and that was because she was invited
46:24
Speaker 2: to speak at the Criminal Justice Festival in Medeenna for
46:27
Speaker 2: Italy's Innocence Project. And in twenty sixteen that Netflix would
46:31
Speaker 2: release a well received documentary titled Amanda Knox, which featured
46:34
Speaker 2: candid interviews with Amanda, Raphael and other people from the case,
46:38
Speaker 2: and the film offered a more nuanced view of the
46:40
Speaker 2: case and examined how media narratives can diverge from reality,
46:44
Speaker 2: and the opening line of the documentary famously has Amanda
46:47
Speaker 2: looking into the camera and saying quote either I'm a
46:49
Speaker 2: psychopath in.
46:50
Speaker 1: Sheep's clothing or I am you.
46:53
Speaker 2: And it challenged viewers to question the caricature that had
46:57
Speaker 2: been built around her. And in twenty seventeen, she would
46:59
Speaker 2: take a a role in a TV series called The
47:01
Speaker 2: Scarlet Letter Reports, and eventually she would find love again
47:05
Speaker 2: and she would become engaged to her actual childhood friend,
47:08
Speaker 2: but the engagement would end amicably, and then a couple
47:10
Speaker 2: years later she would meet Christian Robinson, who was an author,
47:13
Speaker 2: and in twenty eighteen, Amanda and Chris would quietly Elope,
47:17
Speaker 2: and in recent years Amanda and Chris have welcomed two
47:20
Speaker 2: children into the world, with a daughter named Eureka born
47:23
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one and a son named Echo born
47:26
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three, and motherhood has apparently been a
47:29
Speaker 2: very joyful chapter for Amanda, and she often shares on
47:32
Speaker 2: social media glimpses of her family life. So she's built
47:35
Speaker 2: a career as a writer, podcaster and public speaker and
47:38
Speaker 2: has by and large succeeded in rebuilding herself beyond the
47:41
Speaker 2: talbloid's headlines. And while for some the name Amanda Knox
47:45
Speaker 2: will forever be tied to a notorious murder case, those
47:49
Speaker 2: who follow her work today see a person who has
47:51
Speaker 2: fought to reclaim her narrative and to help others in
47:54
Speaker 2: the process, and through it all she expresses her gratitude
47:57
Speaker 2: that she is alive and able to make a difference.
48:00
Speaker 2: And while Italy's justice system initially stubled in Amanda's case,
48:04
Speaker 2: it did not emerge unchanged, and the intense scrutiny spurred
48:07
Speaker 2: some reflections of reform within Italy. One concrete reform regarding
48:11
Speaker 2: police interrogations, partially in response to Amanda's case, Italian authorities
48:15
Speaker 2: introduce measures to record suspects interrogations on video. In fact,
48:19
Speaker 2: interrogations must be fully documented through audio and audio visual
48:23
Speaker 2: recording now, but the implementation of this requirement varies. Furthermore,
48:27
Speaker 2: the Knox ordeal prompted Italian police and prosecutors to reconsider
48:31
Speaker 2: media relations, and this case is also indirectly bolstered calls
48:35
Speaker 2: for international cooperation and standards in forensic science. It was
48:38
Speaker 2: basically just a giant wake up call for Italy. But
48:41
Speaker 2: there are some people that still believe she and Raphael
48:45
Speaker 2: are guilty even though they were acquitted. And that's not
48:48
Speaker 2: up for me to decide. You can decide whatever you want.
48:50
Speaker 2: I'm just giving you the facts of the case, all right.
48:52
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, Meredith lost her
48:55
Speaker 2: life and again my heart goes out to that family,
48:58
Speaker 2: and Amanda has made the most of her life after
49:00
Speaker 2: being acquitted. So I wish all the best. And that
49:03
Speaker 2: is the end of the video. If you want to
49:06
Speaker 2: give me other cases to deep dive.
49:08
Speaker 1: Let me know. Devilo.
49:09
Speaker 2: I always read your comments, and until next time, please
49:13
Speaker 2: be safe and I will see you beautiful face in
49:14
Speaker 2: the next video.
49:15
Speaker 3: All right.
49:16
Speaker 2: Bye.