53 Facts About Amanda Knox

Amanda Marie Knox was born on July 9,1987 and is an American author, activist, and journalist.

Amanda Knox spent almost four years in an Italian prison following her wrongful conviction for the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a fellow exchange student with whom she shared an apartment in Perugia.

In 2015, Knox was definitively acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation.

Amanda Knox was later found guilty of murder in a fast-track trial and was sentenced to a 30-year prison sentence, later reduced to 16 years.

On January 14,2016, Amanda Knox was acquitted of defamation for saying she had been struck by policewomen during the interrogation.

Amanda Knox subsequently became an author, an activist, and a journalist.

Amanda Knox's memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, became a best seller.

Amanda Knox was born July 9,1987, in Seattle, Washington, the eldest of three daughters born to Edda Mellas, a mathematics teacher originally from Germany, and Curt Knox, a vice president of finance for Macy's.

Amanda Knox's parents divorced when she was 10 years old, after which her mother remarried to Chris Mellas, an information technology consultant.

Amanda Knox first travelled to Italy on a family holiday at the age of 15.

Amanda Knox graduated from the Seattle Preparatory School in 2005 and then studied linguistics at the University of Washington.

Amanda Knox worked at part-time jobs to fund an academic year in Italy.

Amanda Knox's stepfather had strong reservations about her going to Italy that year, as he felt she was still too naive.

Amanda Knox had come to Perugia for its universities and because it had fewer tourists than Florence, a more popular destination for foreign students.

In Perugia, Amanda Knox lived in a four-bedroom, ground-floor apartment at Via della Pergola 7 with three other women.

Amanda Knox's flatmates were Kercher and two Italian trainee lawyers in their late twenties.

Kercher and Amanda Knox moved in on September 10 and 20,2007, respectively, meeting each other for the first time.

Amanda Knox was employed part-time at a bar, Le Chic, which was owned by a Congolese man, Diya Patrick Lumumba.

Amanda Knox told flatmates that she was going to quit because he was not paying her; Lumumba denied this.

Kercher's English female friends saw relatively little of Amanda Knox, who preferred to socialize with Italians.

Amanda Knox was invited into the basement by the Italians; Knox and then Kercher came down to join them.

Amanda Knox recalled a second night out with Kercher and Silenzi in which Guede joined them and was allowed into the basement.

Amanda Knox began spending her time at his flat, a five-minute walk from Via della Pergola 7.

Amanda Knox then called Filomena Romanelli, one of the two Italian trainee lawyers she and Kercher shared the apartment with, and in a mixture of Italian and English said she was worried something had happened to Kercher, as on going to Via della Pergola 7 apartment earlier that morning Amanda Knox had noticed an open front door, bloodstains in the bathroom, and Kercher's bedroom door locked.

At 12:47 pm, Amanda Knox called her mother and was told to contact the police as an emergency.

Amanda Knox was recorded telling them there had been a break-in with nothing taken, and the emergency was that Kercher's door was locked, she was not answering calls to her phone, and there were bloodstains.

Amanda Knox had been stabbed and died of blood loss from neck wounds.

Amanda Knox was not provided with legal counsel, as Italian law only mandates the appointment of a lawyer for someone suspected of a crime.

At her trial, Amanda Knox testified that she had spent hours maintaining her original story, that she had been with Sollecito at his flat all night and had no knowledge of the murder, but a group of police would not believe her.

Amanda Knox said she had requested a lawyer but was told it would make things worse for her, and that she would go to jail for thirty years; she said she was not allowed access to food, water, or the bathroom.

Ficarra and policewoman Lorena Zugarini testified that during the interview Amanda Knox was given access to food, water, hot drinks, and the lavatory.

Under pressure, Amanda Knox falsely stated that she had been home when Kercher was killed, and that she thought the murderer was Lumumba.

Amanda Knox became the subject of unprecedented pre-trial media coverage drawing on unattributed leaks from the prosecution, including a best-selling Italian book whose author imagined or invented incidents that were purported to have occurred in Amanda Knox's private life.

Amanda Knox was not charged with having had a knife.

Amanda Knox did not testify and was not questioned about his statements, which had altered from his original version.

Amanda Knox was dissatisfied with his early release and spoke publicly against it.

Amanda Knox's call to her mother in Seattle, a quarter of an hour before the discovery of the body, was said by prosecutors to show Amanda Knox was acting as if something serious might have happened before the point in time when an innocent person would have such concern.

Amanda Knox had cut Kercher with a knife before inflicting the fatal stab wound; then faked a burglary.

Amanda Knox's lawyers pointed out that no shoe prints, clothing fibers, hairs, fingerprints, skin cells, or DNA of Amanda Knox's were found on Kercher's body, clothes, handbag, or anywhere else in Kercher's bedroom.

The prosecution alleged that all forensic traces in the room that would have incriminated Amanda Knox had been wiped away by her and Sollecito.

Amanda Knox's lawyers said it would have been impossible to selectively remove her traces, and emphasized that Guede's shoe prints, fingerprints, and DNA were found in Kercher's bedroom.

Amanda Knox's lawyer pointed to text messages between Amanda Knox and Kercher as showing that they had been friends.

Amanda Knox was indicted in 2010 on charges of defamation against the police for saying she had been struck across her head during the interview in which she incriminated herself.

The false accusation conviction in relation to her employer was upheld, and Judge Hellman imposed a three-year sentence although this was nominal, being less than Amanda Knox had already served.

Amanda Knox was immediately released, and returned to her Seattle home.

On January 24,2019, the European Court of Human Rights ordered Italy to pay compensation to Amanda Knox for violating her rights in the hours after her arrest in Perugia.

Amanda Knox's family incurred large debts from the years of supporting her in Italy and were left insolvent, the proceeds from Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir having gone to pay legal fees to her Italian lawyers.

Amanda Knox has been a reviewer and journalist for the then West Seattle Herald, later subsumed into Westside Seattle, and attended events of the Innocence Project and related organizations.

Amanda Knox hosted The Scarlet Letter Reports on Facebook Watch, a series which examined the "gendered nature of public shaming".

Amanda Knox has been a featured speaker at fundraising events for non-profits, including the Innocence Project.

In June 2019, Amanda Knox returned to Italy as a keynote speaker at a conference on criminal justice, where she was part of a panel titled "Trial by Media".

Amanda Knox is married to author Christopher Robinson, who is connected to the Robinson Newspapers.

In October 2021, Amanda Knox announced the birth of their daughter in an interview with The New York Times.