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Synopsis

Amanda Knox is an American who was tried and convicted for the murder of Meredith Kercher, her roommate in Italy. Two years after the first trial, Knox was acquitted and set free.

Early Life

Amanda Knox was born on July 9, 1987, in Seattle, Washington, to Edda Mellas, a math teacher, and Curt Knox, a vice president of finance at Macy's. Knox has two younger sisters, Deanna and Ashley Knox. Knox's parents divorced when she was a toddler.
Growing up in a middle class neighborhood, Amanda Knox played soccer, and her athletic skill earned her the nickname 'Foxy Knoxy,' according to her parents. It was a nickname that would come back to haunt Knox years later.
In 2005, Amanda Knox graduated from Seattle Preparatory High School. She entered the University of Washington that fall, planning to pursue a degree in linguistics.

College

By all appearances, Amanda Knox was an ordinary college student. She threw loud parties, was named to the Dean's List, and worked several jobs to pay her tuition. Friends recall her as a kind, gentle individual.

To further pursue her linguistics degree, 20-year-old Knox left Washington and headed for Perugia, Italy, where she planned to spend a year at the University for Foreigners.
In Perugia Knox roomed with Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old student from London. Kercher was also studying linguistics abroad for a year.

Soon after she arrived in Perugia, Knox and Kercher attended a classical music concert. There, Knox met a 23-year-old Italian computer engineering student named Raffaele Sollecito. Knox and Sollecito began dating soon afterwards.

Murder of Meredith Kercher

On November 1, 2007, Amanda Knox was supposed to work at a pub called Le Chic, where she had a part-time job. Her boss, Patrick Lumbumba, sent her a text message saying she wasn't needed, so instead she went to Sollecito's apartment for the night.
Knox and Sollecito returned to her apartment the next day around noon. She found the front door open, windows broken, and blood in the bathroom. Knox called Kercher's phone, but there was no answer. She then called their third roommate. Finally, Knox called her mother in Seattle, who told her to call the police.
Soon two officers appeared on the scene. They were postal police officers, used to investigating postal crimes, not murder investigations. They entered the apartment to investigate, and kicked down the door to Kercher's bedroom. Inside they found Kercher's body on the floor, covered in a duvet soaked in blood.
Amanda Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito were taken to the police station, and for five days, they were interrogated. Later, Knox would say that no interpreter was present. Though her mother urged her to flee the country, Knox chose to stay in Perugia, wanting to meet Meredith Kercher's family. Knox later said she was bullied and beaten while in police custody.
Finally, Sollecito admitted that Knox could have left his apartment at night while he was sleeping. When detectives presented this to Knox as an accusation, she broke down.
Knox signed a confession saying that she had returned to her apartment on the night of November 1, and had been standing in the next room while Lumumba stabbed Kercher to death.
On November 6, the police announced that the killers had been found. They arrested Knox and Sollecito. Lumumba had an alibi—he was seen bartending at Le Chic the night of the murder.
Two weeks later,
a forensics lab reported the results of its examination of DNA evidence taken from the crime scene. The evidence didn't point to Knox or Sollecito—it pointed to someone else. That person was Rudy Guede, a friend of the Italian men who lived in the apartment below Knox and Kerchner's apartment.
Guede had been accused of several burglaries, but didn't have any convictions on his record. He was immediately arrested in Germany, and admitted to being at the murder scene, but said he didn't kill Kercher. He also said that Knox and Sollecito were not involved.

Conviction

Rudy Guede opted for a fast-track trial. In October 2008, he was found guilty of the murder and sexual assault of Meredith Kercher, and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Knox and Sollecito chose to have a full trial, and were tried together. The Perugian prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, painted a picture of Knox that shaped how the public saw her. He described a sex-crazed marijuana smoker, who had dragged her boyfriend into a game of rough sex that ended in Kercher's murder—even calling Knox a "she-devil." On December 29, 2009, Knox was sentenced to 26 years in jail, and Sollecito to 25 years.
Knox's family and many supporters, mostly American, protested the sentencing. With a beautiful young woman at its center, the case became an international sensation. Supporters criticized the Italian legal system, which they said had major flaws, and claimed Knox was discriminated against because she was American, and because she was an attractive young woman.

Acquittal

In April 2010, Knox and Sollecito's lawyers filed appeals, contesting the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses. The appeal process began in December 2010. This time, forensic experts said DNA used in the first trial was unreliable. In June, the defense called a witness who testified that in prison, Guede had said Knox and Sollecito were not involved in the murder.
Knox and Sollecito had support in their appeal from the Idaho Innocence project, a legal organization that uses DNA testing to prove the innocence of wrongly convicted people.
On October 3, 2011, the murder convictions agains Knox and Sollecito were overturned. Knox's prior conviction for defaming Patrick Lumumba was upheld, and she was sentenced to a three-year term and fined. Upon the announcement of the verdict, reporters' cameras caught Knox breaking out into tears. Knox flew from Rome to London, and then home to Seattle.