Amanda Knox

Amanda Marie Knox (born July 9, 1987) is an American woman who spent almost four years in an Italian prison following the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, one of the women who shared her apartment, before being definitively acquitted by the Supreme Court of Cassation. Knox, then a twenty years old student, had raised the alarm after returning from spending the night with her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. Following an interrogation, the conduct of which is a matter of dispute, Knox implicated herself and an employer. Knox and Sollecito were initially accused of murdering Kercher while acting with the employer, but he was released and substituted for Rudy Guede after Guede's bloodstained fingerprints were found on Kercher's possessions.

Pre-trial publicity in Italian media portrayed Knox in a negative light, leading to complaints that the prosecution was using character assassination tactics. A guilty verdict at Knox's initial trial and her 26-year sentence caused international controversy, as U.S. forensic experts thought evidence at the crime scene was incompatible with her involvement. A prolonged legal process, including a successful prosecution appeal against her acquittal at a second-level trial, continued after Knox was freed in 2011. On March 27, 2015, Italy's highest court—the Supreme Court of Cassation—definitively exonerated Knox and Sollecito. Knox's conviction for Calunnia against her employer was upheld by all courts. On January 14, 2016 Knox was acquitted of Calunnia for saying she had been struck by policewomen during the interrogation.

Murder of Meredith Kercher

Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher (28 December 1985 – 1 November 2007) was a British student on exchange from the University of Leeds who was murdered at the age of 21 in Perugia, Italy, on 1 November 2007. Kercher was found dead on the floor of her bedroom. By the time the bloodstained fingerprints at the scene were identified as belonging to Rudy Guede, police had charged American Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. The subsequent prosecutions of Knox and Sollecito received international publicity, with American forensic experts and jurists taking a critical view of the evidence supporting the initial guilty verdicts. Knox and Sollecito were released after almost four years following their acquittal at a second-level trial, and in 2015 they were exonerated by the Supreme Court of Italy. Guede was tried separately in a fast-track procedure and in October 2008 was found guilty of the sexual assault and murder of Kercher. He subsequently exhausted the appeals process and is currently serving a 16-year sentence.