Amanda Knox Befriended the Italian Prosecutor Who Peddled Wild Conspiracies About Her

Anyone who has ever met Amanda Knox comes away from the experience thinking that she is charming, a bit quirky, intelligent, and completely innocent. In June 2009, Knox's mother Edda Mellas told Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian that her daughter was "compulsively honest," almost to a fault.

This conversation occurred nearly two years after Knox was arrested and charged with the murder of Meredith Kercher.

Knox was taken into custody five days after Kercher's death. Italian police interrogated the frightened 20-year-old for 53 hours over the course of five days, reported The Guardian. In Italy, prosecutors are involved in this step of the criminal justice system, but they ask questions from a neutral place. If the suspect is charged, their methods change.

In a shocking turn of events, Knox eventually befriended her prosecutor, though he was peddling conspiracy theories during the trial. Here's why.

During Knox's grueling interrogation process, which was in Italian, she falsely implicated herself, her then-boyfriend, and the 20-year-old's boss in the murder of Meredith Kercher.

Though she quickly withdrew her statement, it was enough information for the prosecutor to build a fantastical case against her.

While Giuliano Mignini was busy concocting unfounded theories about Knox, he was facing charges of planting bugging devices in the cars of journalists in reference to the Monsters of Florence case. Because Kercher was killed the day after Halloween, Mignini posited that it was some sort of sexual or sacrificial ritual that was postponed a day because Knox and Kercher's roommates had a dinner planned, per the New York Post.

Although he later recanted, this idea was already out in the world.

In his closing argument, Mignini said that Knox slit Kercher's throat because she was driven by competitiveness and an unfulfilled desire to engage in some sort of sex games. He accused her of using feminine wiles to trap two obsessed men, one of whom was her boyfriend.

The other was the actual killer, Rudy Guede. Mignini laid out a fantasy in which Knox insulted Kercher, accusing her of being a saint who was going to turn bad. There was no evidence supporting these wild conspiracy theories.

Years after Knox was exonerated, she slowly began a friendly relationship with Mignini. Her family thought she was befriending the man who abused her because she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Like any exoneree, Knox was hoping for some kind of apology or an admission from Mignini that he had wronged her.

The two people formerly on opposite sides of an Italian courtroom began writing to each other. The 74-year-old Mignini and the exonerated mother of two had a lot in common, such as their love of The Lord of the Rings. Knox has asked Mignini if he believes she's innocent, but he's never given her a direct answer. The closest he comes to that is admitting that maybe some mistakes were made.

Back in 2022, Knox saw Mignini in person for the first time since the trial. She walked away from that experience feeling empowered because, as much as Knox wanted absolution from Mignini, it was clear he wanted to be absolved more.

"The one time in my life where I felt unstoppable," said Knox, "was when I realized that it wasn’t about what I was going to get from him, it was about what I was going to give him."