Amanda Knox Criticizes Early Jail Release Of Meredith Kercher's Killer: 'Shocked'
Dec. 7 2020, Published 5:00 p.m. ET
Following the news that Meredith Kercher’s killer, Rudy Guede, is being released early from prison, Amanda Knox — who was accused of killing her Italian roommate and spent four years behind bars — couldn’t help but criticize the decision.
“I do know that many, many people have suffered a great deal because of what he did and I continue to stay to be shocked that he is the forgotten killer,” the 33-year-old said during an interview with Good Morning America on Monday, December 7. “The one who was quietly tucked away, convicted of a lesser crime and does not have to live with the burden of being forever associated with Meredith’s death.”
“I am the one who has been condemned to live with his infamy,” she continued. “And while I can’t say that I wish him suffering or imprisonment, I do wish that he had been fully held accountable for what he did and that he acknowledged what he did, and I don’t know if that will ever happen.
“The only reason you know I exist is because of what he did, and that is a grave injustice,” she concluded.
SEE INTIMATE FAMILY PHOTOS OF CHRIS WATTS, SHANANN & HIS FAMILY BEFORE MURDERS
Guede, who was convicted for the crime in 2008, served 12 years of his 16-year sentence. However, the Italian court granted the 33-year-old permission to finish the rest of his sentence with community service.
Guede’s DNA was the only one found at the murder scene and is the only person convicted of her murder after Kercher’s body was found with multiple stab wounds in her home town of Perugia, Italy. Guede fled to Germany after Kercher’s body was discovered.
In 2017, Guede was given partial prison release in order to attend school in the library of criminology center in Viterbo. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the library has been closed indefinitely, so Guede has been volunteering for the Catholic charity, Caritas.
Guede — who has been working on completing a master’s degree in historical sciences at Roma Tre University — has since shown good behavior and remains “calm and socially well integrated,” his lawyer, Fabrizio Ballarini, said.
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“He will continue with his studies and will also carry on his work with Caritas,” Ballarini said. “He will live in an apartment in central Viterbo that has been made available for him.
“We are very satisfied with the decision which has come about because of my client’s desire and intelligence and who did not waste his time while in prison but put it to good use and studied hard,” he added.
Originally, Knox and her ex Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito — who lived in the same house as Kercher — were accused of killing Kercher. In 2011, the pair was acquitted, and three years later, they were convicted again by an appeals court in Florence, Italy.
SEE INTIMATE FAMILY PHOTOS OF CHRIS WATTS, SHANANN & HIS FAMILY BEFORE MURDERS
In 2015, the Supreme Court of Cassation overturned Knox and Sollecito's convictions, saying that there were "stunning flaws" in the original investigation.
Meanwhile, Knox cohosts a podcast and released her book, Waiting To Be Heard, in 2013.