Amanda Knox Is Back in an Italian Court Where She Is Once Again Trying to Clear Her Name

Since her exoneration in March 2015, Amanda Knox has done incredible work in the world of criminal justice reform. Some people still might think of her as the Italian exchange student who was wrongly accused of murdering her roommate while studying abroad, but Knox has done her best to ensure others don't meet a similar fate. Through her writings, advocacy work, and podcast, Knox is chipping away at the problems with our criminal justice system.

Righting the wrongs includes fully clearing her own name as well. In April 2024 Knox was back in an Italian court — in absentia — in order to have a slander conviction overturned. Here are the latest updates.

It's probably safe to assume that most people would want to completely forget any time spent in prison. And while the desire may be there, the body and mind rarely if ever put things away. Something like that carves a place in your psyche that is difficult to manage. Knox took what was undoubtedly a traumatic event and vowed to keep fighting even though the temptation to just put it all behind one's self has to be great.

In 2007, while being interrogated by Italian police for 53 hours after her arrest, Knox accused her then-boss of being involved with the murder of Meredith Kercher. It was an act of desperation rather than maliciousness; she had been trapped there for over two days with little understanding of the Italian language, and no interpreter in sight. Confused by what had happened and by what was being asked of her, Knox signed a statement typed up by police that said Patrick Lumumba killed Kercher.

The next day she hand-wrote a four page letter recanting the accusation, but it was too late; the damage was done. According to CBS News, Knox attributed the false allegation to her exhaustion and confusion during questioning by police. She said she'd been threatened with 30 years of prison time and had been "hit in the head" by authorities when she didn't recall a fact correctly. "It was under this pressure and after many hours of confusion that my mind came up with these answers," explained Knox in the letter.

Lubumba was arrested anyway and spent two weeks in prison. He was finally let out when a friend came forward and offered an alibi. Unfortunately he would later lose his business and be forced to move out of Italy. His lawyer, Carlo Pacelli, told The Guardian that Knox was ordered to pay him compensation for what he lost but he "never received a cent," nor was he informed of the retrial.

The slander retrial will not lead to any prison time for Knox. In October 2023, she explained in an Instagram post that this particular trial is actually good for her. While most people are aware of her exoneration, very little know about the 2019 ruling from the European Court of Human Rights, which said her "rights to a lawyer and interpreter were violated during my interrogation." This meant that the statement she signed accusing Lubumba was clearly done under duress.

The Court of Cassation finally agreed with the 2019 ruling which paved a way for the retrial. "It has given me the opportunity to seek my full acquittal from this wrongful accusation of slander," wrote Knox. She added that Lubumba was her friend and ended up being a victim of these violations as well.