NEWS5 Times Amanda Knox Spilled How She Really Feels About Her Wrongful Conviction
Dec. 26 2021, Published 8:00 a.m. ET
Amanda Knox is widely known for being falsely convicted of the murder of Meredith Kercher.
When she was only 20-years-old, the Seattle native was studying abroad in Perugia, Italy where she lived with Kercher, but in November 2007, she came home from her then-boyfriend Rafaele Sollecito's house to a gruesome scene that would change her life forever.
Her roommate was found dead in her bedroom after being stabbed over 40 times.
Knox — along with Sollecito — was charged with murder and put on trial after her DNA was reportedly found on various items in the house (findings that have since been debunked as a result of contamination on the poorly-handled crime scene).
Dubbed as "Foxy-Knoxy" — Knox was bashed by the media and assumed to be a "diabolic, sex-obsessed she-devil," per Mirror as she was blamed for one of the most highly publicized murder cases in the world.
In 2009, she was sentenced to 26 years in prison, along with Sollecito, who received 25 years. After serving four years in prison, the conviction was later overturned and the pair were both freed in 2013 before being officially exonerated in 2015.
Since her return to normal life, Knox has become an advocate for others who have been wrongfully convicted and often speaks out about the ways her experience changed her life forever.
Scroll through the slides below to read about five times where Amanda Knox spilled how she really feels about her wrongful conviction:
"I Never Remotely Considered Taking A Plea Deal Because I Didn't F***ng Do It."
The now 34-year-old recently appeared on an episode of Alex Cooper's "Call Her Daddy" podcast, where she revealed that she never even considered taking a plea deal when on trial for Kercher's murder.
"I never remotely considered taking a plea deal because I didn't f***ng do it," she told Cooper in the November episode.
In talking about the possibility of changing her name —which is known worldwide — Knox stated, "There's nothing wrong with me."
"The world has sort of acted like there was something wrong with me, something wrong with my sexuality above all. And that is, that's not my problem." She added: "I'm pushing back and I'm trying to say 'No It's not my fault, there's nothing wrong with me.'"
"I Thought About Suicide. I Thought About All The Ways That I Could Do It."
In the bombshell Netflix documentary, Amanda Knox, the exoneree appeared in tearful interviews to give her first-hand account of her story, where she revealed that she considered taking her own life during her time in prison.
"I thought about suicide," she says in the groundbreaking film. "I thought about all the ways that I could do it."
While in prison before her conviction was overturned, Knox thought at the time that she would be imprisoned for most of her life. She explained that she often thought about, "Not coming home again until I'm in my fifties, until members of my family have died."
"I was poisoned," she said through tears, adding, "I don't know what else to say."
"Others Continue To Profit Off My Name, Face & Story Without My Consent"
Over the summer, Knox took matters into her own hands in attempt to stop others from telling her story — a story she has been trying to voice for years.
In July, she took to Twitter to slam Stillwater, starring Matt Damon, which reportedly is based off of parts of Knox's life.
"Does my face belong to me? My face? My face? What about my life? My story? Why does my name refer to events I had no hand in? I return to these questions because others continue to profit off my name, face, & story without my consent," Knox began in her tweet. "Most recently, the film #STILLWATER."
She revealed that she read an interview with the film's director Tom McCarthy, who told Vanity Fair that the movie is "loosely based," or "directly inspired by" the "Amanda Knox saga."
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"What does that refer to?" she said of the phrase the "Amanda Knox saga." "Does it refer to anything I did? No. It refers to the events that resulted from the murder of Meredith Kercher by a burglar named Rudy Guede."
Guede, 34, is now the sole person convicted of killing Kercher. He was recently granted early release from prison in November after serving 13 years for the heinous crime.
In her tweet, Knox continued to explain that the phrase "Amanda Knox saga," refers to "the shoddy police work, prosecutorial tunnel vision, and refusal to admit their mistakes that led the Italian authorities to wrongfully convict me, twice," and that everyone else involved "had more influence over events than I did."
She added: "The erroneous focus on me by the authorities led to an erroneous focus on me by the press, which shaped how I was viewed. In prison, I had no control over my public image, no voice in my story."
"This focus on me led many to complain that Meredith had been forgotten. But of course, who did they blame for that? Not the Italian authorities. Not the press. Me!" Knox wrote, adding that both Kercher and Guede's names are often left out of headlines.
"It matters what you call a thing," Knox said, referring to the affair former President Bill Clinton reportedly had with Monica Lewinsky as an example. "Calling that event the 'Lewinsky Scandal' fails to acknowledge the vast power differential, & I’m glad that more people are now referring to it as 'the Clinton Affair' which names it after the person with the most agency in that series of events."
The memoir author wrote that she would love for Kercher's case to become known as "The murder of Meredith Kercher by Rudy Guede" because it would "place me as the peripheral figure I should have been, the innocent roommate." Although, she claimed to be aware that her "wrongful conviction, and subsequent trials, became the story that people obsessed over" and that it will continue to be referred to as the "Amanda Knox saga."
"And if you must refer to the 'Amanda Knox saga,' maybe don’t call it, as the @nytimes [New York Times] did in calling it the 'the sordid Amanda Knox saga.' Sordid: morally vile. Not a great adjective to have placed next to your name," she wrote. "Repeat something often enough, and people believe it."
Knox also noted that Stillwater is not the only project "to rip off my story without my consent at the expense of my reputation," but that if filmmakers want to "'leave the Amanda Knox case behind, and fictionalize everything around it," that they shouldn't be using her name to promote it.
“It Wasn’t Just My Freedom That Had Been Stolen From Me; Motherhood Had Been Stolen From Me.”
In a newly released essay titled "Sentenced to Infertility," Knox wrote about the unique effect that lengthy prison sentences have on women.
“My first infertility crisis occurred when I was sentenced to 26 years in prison for a murder I didn’t commit,” she explained in the essay. “I had been on trial for two years before that verdict was handed down, and until then, I’d naively assumed that the truth couldn’t help but win out, that this was all a misunderstanding.”
For her entire life before her conviction, “having children wasn’t even a question,” she wrote. “Now I was facing the prospect of being released back into free society at age 46.”
“It wasn’t just my freedom that had been stolen from me; motherhood had been stolen from me,” Knox recalled thinking while behind bars. “A 20-year sentence for a woman isn’t just time —it’s a life that could be, a child waiting for the chance to be born,” she concluded.
Knox is now a mother to newborn baby girl Eureka Muse Knox-Robinson — who she shares with husband Christpher Robinson.
The pair — who wed in 2020 — welcomed their new daughter in October after previously suffering from a devestating miscarriage.
"It Definitely Has Made Me The Person I Am Today."
At the beginning of the year, Knox and her hubby appeared on The Tamron Hall Show where she reflected on the past events of her life.
After Hall asked whether or not Knox would choose to go back in time, she responded: "I would say, no, I mean obviously I wouldn't want to relive through the worst experience of my life again."
However, she did note that the experience of her life has "made me the person I am today," despite its traumatic effects. "I definitely feel that I greatly benefited from having my eyes opened to a whole world of experience that I didn't have access to before."
She went on to explain that she came from "a very safe background," where she never thought about the justice system. "So for me, to have lived alongside people who were guilty and not guilty, to have seen how unjust the criminal justice system can be, has really impacted me and has impacted my life going forward," Knox added.
Since her release, the mother-of-one continues to use her voice and her own experience to help advocate for others who have been wrongfully convicted.
