Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy
Encyclopedia
Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy (also known as The Amanda Knox Story) is a 2011 American true crime
television film. It stars Hayden Panettiere
as Amanda Knox
, Paolo Romio as Raffaele Sollecito, Djibril Kébé as Rudy Guede and Amanda Fernando Stevens as Meredith Kercher, and first aired on the Lifetime network on February 21, 2011.
Set between 2007 and 2009, Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy is based on the murder of Meredith Kercher
in Perugia
, Italy, and the subsequent trials of the suspects, Guede, Knox and Sollecito. It was written by Wendy Battles, who has worked on scripts for the American television series CSI: NY
and Law & Order
, and filmed in Rome
, after officials refused to grant the production team permission to shoot in Perugia. The film contains a re-enactment of the murder.
After its first broadcast, the film was followed by a one-hour documentary, Beyond the Headlines: Amanda Knox, which examines the Italian judicial system and includes interviews with the parents and friends of Knox, investigators, prosecutors and legal scholars.
, Italy, in September 2007, as a foreign exchange student attending language classes at the University for Foreigners.
Knox shares an upstairs flat in a cottage with Kercher, a British student, and two Italian women, Filomena and Laura. In October, Knox meets Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian student of computer engineering, at a classical music concert, and she begins to stay at his house each night.
On November 1, Kercher dies in her bedroom from stab wounds. Searching for evidence in the days following the murder, police questions both Knox and Sollecito about recent events. Knox admits that she and Sollecito have "smoked weed
" on the night of November 1, and states that they had gone to his house, watched a film on his computer, and gone to bed. Meanwhile, the chief prosecutor of Perugia, Giuliano Mignini
, discusses the case with the coroner
and forensic investigators from Rome. The coroner makes mention of multiple bruises on Kercher's body, stating that she had probably fought back in the struggle, and the prosecutor inquires whether more than one person could have been involved in the fatal attack.
In an interrogation at the police station, an officer informs Sollecito about telephone records indicating that he has called the emergency number after, and not before, the Polizia Postale had arrived at the cottage. A policeman warns Sollecito that his rich, influential family would not be able to protect him. Sollecito asserts that Knox had told him to make certain claims, that she had not really been with him at the time of the murder, and that he had not "thought about the contradictions" in his alibi
.
Police subsequently approach Knox, who has been performing cartwheels
while waiting alone in the hall, and ask her to explain a text message that has been found on her cell phone. The officers claim that Knox had left the message for her employer, pub owner Patrick Lumumba, on the night of the murder to tell him she would meet him later. Knox replies that, in English, the words amounted more to "I'll see you around" than "meet me later". Surrounding her, the police order Knox to tell them about meeting Lumumba that night, or suffer the consequences. Several hours later, Knox states that she had met Lumumba in a local square, that they had gone to the cottage with Kercher, and that Lumumba had entered Kercher's room before her death.
Knox, Sollecito and Lumumba are arrested. Under police interrogation, his face swollen with bruises, Lumumba insists that he has hardly known Kercher and that he has never visited the cottage. Some days later, he is released when a university professor reveals that he had been with him at the pub Le Chic, and could not have been at the cottage at the time of the murder. The parents of Knox travel to Italy to help their daughter, and hire lawyers for her defense in court.
The forensics team finds a bloody fingerprint in the murder room that does not match the prints of either Knox or Sollecito. The resulting manhunt leads to the arrest of Rudy Guede, originally from the Ivory Coast
, whom Knox and Kercher have met weeks earlier when he was playing the guitar in the downstairs flat at the cottage with the Italian men who lived there. Guede later goes to trial and is found guilty of murder and sexual assault. Knox and Sollecito are indicted in the same court judgment.
Knox and Sollecito are tried jointly in 2009 on the charges of murder, sexual assault, staging a crime scene, and transporting a lethal knife. Luminol
tests in the cottage hallway have revealed small footprints, which were too small for the men to have made, but approximated the size of Knox's feet. DNA experts testify that Knox's blood has been found on a bathroom tap, mixed with Kercher's. In Sollecito's apartment, police have found a large kitchen knife, with Knox's DNA on the handle and four cells of Kercher's on the blade. A defense expert testifies that 10 cells would be required for the purpose of evidence, since four DNA cells indicated "contamination" rather than evidence that the knife had been used as a murder weapon. The prosecution insists that Knox had argued with Kercher and stabbed her, as presented in an hypothetical flashback
set in Kercher's room.
The chief forensics investigator testifies that Sollecito's DNA has been found on a metal clasp severed from the back strap of Kercher's bra (presented as being cut off with a knife in the flashback). Sollecito's attorney asks when the bra clasp has been discovered. The investigator replies that it has been photographed on the first day after the murder, but has only been collected 47 days later, during which time it has been moved from its original position and has been passed between the various members of the forensics team. Although the attorney claims that this small amount of DNA is possibly the result of contamination, the investigator replies that, with the exception of the clasp, only a cigarette butt in the kitchen held Sollecito's DNA, stating, "DNA does not fly around".
Eventually, in December 2009, the jury delivers a verdict of guilty: Knox is sentenced to 26 years in prison, Sollecito to 25 years. Knox's father reassures his daughter that he and her mother would appeal the verdict in a new trial
. The film closes with a caption stating that the parents of the real-life Knox have both been charged with criminal slander for claiming that police had abused their daughter, and that they face three years' imprisonment if found guilty.
Actresses Lindsay Lohan
, Megan Fox
, Emily Blunt
and Kristen Stewart
all wanted the part of Knox prior to the casting of Panettiere.
, the production of the film would always have been complicated since the case itself contained much doubt and many inconsistencies. Nick Squires of The Daily Telegraph wrote that the film did "a credible job of navigating a complex case without coming down one way or the other on whether Knox and ... Sollecito ... are innocent or guilty."
listed 15 points in the film when scenes or lines are fabricated.
The film indicates that police had found Kercher's DNA on the tip of the blade of a knife. Kercher's DNA was found on the dull side of the blade. In the film, the prosecutor accuses Knox and Sollecito of returning to the murder scene hours later and cutting Kercher's bra from her body and moving the body to stage the crime scene. Neither at the trial nor in the investigation was anything found to indicate that Kercher's body had been moved or that the bra clasp had been removed hours after she died. The film presents the victim as being stabbed horizontally across the throat. Autopsy
reports describe the wounds as stabs to the side or back of the neck, with smaller punctures to the front.
To prove the prosecutor's argument that the crime scene was staged, the film indicates that there was broken glass on top of clothes in crime scene photographs. No such photographs exist. In the film, a shop owner contacts the police immediately to tell them that Knox bought some cleaning supplies from him on the morning of the murder. When the witness was originally questioned by police, he did not mention that Knox was in the store and the other worker at the shop testified that Knox was not present at that time. Furthermore, the shop owner did not contact the prosecutor until he was encouraged to do so by reporters months after the murder.
True crime
True crime is a non-fiction literary and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people.The crimes most commonly include murder, but true crime works have also touched on other legal cases. Depending on the writer, true crime can adhere strictly to...
television film. It stars Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Leslie Panettiere is an American actress and singer, best known as cheerleader Claire Bennet on the NBC television series Heroes. She began her acting career by playing Sarah Roberts on One Life to Live , and Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light , before starring at age 10 as Sheryl Yoast in...
as Amanda Knox
Amanda Knox
Amanda Marie Knox is an American woman who was accused of the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Umbria, Italy. She served 4 years of a 26-year sentence before the murder conviction was overturned on October 3, 2011. Raffaele Sollecito, Knox's boyfriend at the time of the murder, was also...
, Paolo Romio as Raffaele Sollecito, Djibril Kébé as Rudy Guede and Amanda Fernando Stevens as Meredith Kercher, and first aired on the Lifetime network on February 21, 2011.
Set between 2007 and 2009, Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy is based on the murder of Meredith Kercher
Murder of Meredith Kercher
The murder of Meredith Kercher occurred in Perugia, Italy, on 1 November 2007. Kercher, aged 21 at the time of her death, was a British university exchange student from Coulsdon, south London. She was found dead on the floor of her bedroom with stab wounds to the throat...
in Perugia
Perugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....
, Italy, and the subsequent trials of the suspects, Guede, Knox and Sollecito. It was written by Wendy Battles, who has worked on scripts for the American television series CSI: NY
CSI: NY
CSI: NY is an American police procedural television series that premiered on September 22, 2004, on CBS. The show follows the investigations of a team of NYPD forensic scientists and police officers as they unveil the circumstances behind mysterious and unusual deaths as well as other crimes...
and Law & Order
Law & Order (franchise)
The Law & Order franchise is a number of related American television series created by Dick Wolf and originally broadcast on NBC, all of which deal with some aspect of the criminal justice system...
, and filmed in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, after officials refused to grant the production team permission to shoot in Perugia. The film contains a re-enactment of the murder.
After its first broadcast, the film was followed by a one-hour documentary, Beyond the Headlines: Amanda Knox, which examines the Italian judicial system and includes interviews with the parents and friends of Knox, investigators, prosecutors and legal scholars.
Plot
The film depicts events that occurred after Knox moved to PerugiaPerugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....
, Italy, in September 2007, as a foreign exchange student attending language classes at the University for Foreigners.
Knox shares an upstairs flat in a cottage with Kercher, a British student, and two Italian women, Filomena and Laura. In October, Knox meets Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian student of computer engineering, at a classical music concert, and she begins to stay at his house each night.
On November 1, Kercher dies in her bedroom from stab wounds. Searching for evidence in the days following the murder, police questions both Knox and Sollecito about recent events. Knox admits that she and Sollecito have "smoked weed
Cannabis consumption
Among the variety of ways cannabis is consumed, most are some form of smoking or oral consumption.-Smoking:Cannabis can be vaporized or smoked with implements such as bongs and pipes. Many people can create a makeshift bong or pipe out of an apple or soda can...
" on the night of November 1, and states that they had gone to his house, watched a film on his computer, and gone to bed. Meanwhile, the chief prosecutor of Perugia, Giuliano Mignini
Giuliano Mignini
Giuliano Mignini is a public prosecutor in Perugia, Italy, who came to widespread public attention for his role in investigating the murder of Meredith Kercher in November 2007, and for his subsequent prosecution for murder of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, whose convictions were overturned...
, discusses the case with the coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
and forensic investigators from Rome. The coroner makes mention of multiple bruises on Kercher's body, stating that she had probably fought back in the struggle, and the prosecutor inquires whether more than one person could have been involved in the fatal attack.
In an interrogation at the police station, an officer informs Sollecito about telephone records indicating that he has called the emergency number after, and not before, the Polizia Postale had arrived at the cottage. A policeman warns Sollecito that his rich, influential family would not be able to protect him. Sollecito asserts that Knox had told him to make certain claims, that she had not really been with him at the time of the murder, and that he had not "thought about the contradictions" in his alibi
Alibi
Alibi is a 1929 American crime film directed by Roland West. The screenplay was written by West and C. Gardner Sullivan, who adapted the 1927 Broadway stage play, Nightstick, written by Elaine Sterne Carrington, J.C...
.
Police subsequently approach Knox, who has been performing cartwheels
Cartwheel (gymnastics)
In gymnastics, a cartwheel is a sideways rotary movement performed by bringing the hands to the ground while the body inverts and the legs travel over the body, coming down to a standing position.-Terminology:...
while waiting alone in the hall, and ask her to explain a text message that has been found on her cell phone. The officers claim that Knox had left the message for her employer, pub owner Patrick Lumumba, on the night of the murder to tell him she would meet him later. Knox replies that, in English, the words amounted more to "I'll see you around" than "meet me later". Surrounding her, the police order Knox to tell them about meeting Lumumba that night, or suffer the consequences. Several hours later, Knox states that she had met Lumumba in a local square, that they had gone to the cottage with Kercher, and that Lumumba had entered Kercher's room before her death.
Knox, Sollecito and Lumumba are arrested. Under police interrogation, his face swollen with bruises, Lumumba insists that he has hardly known Kercher and that he has never visited the cottage. Some days later, he is released when a university professor reveals that he had been with him at the pub Le Chic, and could not have been at the cottage at the time of the murder. The parents of Knox travel to Italy to help their daughter, and hire lawyers for her defense in court.
The forensics team finds a bloody fingerprint in the murder room that does not match the prints of either Knox or Sollecito. The resulting manhunt leads to the arrest of Rudy Guede, originally from the Ivory Coast
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
, whom Knox and Kercher have met weeks earlier when he was playing the guitar in the downstairs flat at the cottage with the Italian men who lived there. Guede later goes to trial and is found guilty of murder and sexual assault. Knox and Sollecito are indicted in the same court judgment.
Knox and Sollecito are tried jointly in 2009 on the charges of murder, sexual assault, staging a crime scene, and transporting a lethal knife. Luminol
Luminol
Luminol is a versatile chemical that exhibits chemiluminescence, with a striking blue glow, when mixed with an appropriate oxidizing agent...
tests in the cottage hallway have revealed small footprints, which were too small for the men to have made, but approximated the size of Knox's feet. DNA experts testify that Knox's blood has been found on a bathroom tap, mixed with Kercher's. In Sollecito's apartment, police have found a large kitchen knife, with Knox's DNA on the handle and four cells of Kercher's on the blade. A defense expert testifies that 10 cells would be required for the purpose of evidence, since four DNA cells indicated "contamination" rather than evidence that the knife had been used as a murder weapon. The prosecution insists that Knox had argued with Kercher and stabbed her, as presented in an hypothetical flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
set in Kercher's room.
The chief forensics investigator testifies that Sollecito's DNA has been found on a metal clasp severed from the back strap of Kercher's bra (presented as being cut off with a knife in the flashback). Sollecito's attorney asks when the bra clasp has been discovered. The investigator replies that it has been photographed on the first day after the murder, but has only been collected 47 days later, during which time it has been moved from its original position and has been passed between the various members of the forensics team. Although the attorney claims that this small amount of DNA is possibly the result of contamination, the investigator replies that, with the exception of the clasp, only a cigarette butt in the kitchen held Sollecito's DNA, stating, "DNA does not fly around".
Eventually, in December 2009, the jury delivers a verdict of guilty: Knox is sentenced to 26 years in prison, Sollecito to 25 years. Knox's father reassures his daughter that he and her mother would appeal the verdict in a new trial
Trial de novo
In law, the expression trial de novo means a "new trial" by a different tribunal...
. The film closes with a caption stating that the parents of the real-life Knox have both been charged with criminal slander for claiming that police had abused their daughter, and that they face three years' imprisonment if found guilty.
Cast
- Hayden PanettiereHayden PanettiereHayden Leslie Panettiere is an American actress and singer, best known as cheerleader Claire Bennet on the NBC television series Heroes. She began her acting career by playing Sarah Roberts on One Life to Live , and Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light , before starring at age 10 as Sheryl Yoast in...
– Amanda Knox - Marcia Gay HardenMarcia Gay HardenMarcia Gay Harden is an American film and theatre actress. Harden's breakthrough role was in Miller's Crossing and then The First Wives Club which was followed by several roles which gained her wider fame including the hit comedy Flubber and Meet Joe Black...
– Knox's mother - Vincent RiottaVincent RiottaVincent Riotta is an English-born stage and film actor of Italian descent. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He went on to perform in various stage plays, such as Shakespeare's Romeo, which was held at the Young Vic, Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, held at the Leicester...
– Giuliano Mignini - Amanda Fernando Stevens – Meredith Kercher
- Djibril Kébé – Rudy Guede
- Timothy Martin – Patrick Lumumba
- Paolo Romio – Raffaele Sollecito
Actresses Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11...
, Megan Fox
Megan Fox
Megan Denise Fox is an American actress and model. She began her acting career in 2001 with several minor television and film roles, and played a regular role on Hope & Faith. In 2004, she launched her film career with a role in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen...
, Emily Blunt
Emily Blunt
Emily Olivia Leah Blunt is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada , The Young Victoria , and The Adjustment Bureau . She has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award...
and Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart
Kristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress. She is best known for playing Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga. She has also starred in films including Panic Room , Zathura , In the Land of Women , The Messengers , Adventureland and The Runaways .- Early life :Stewart was born and raised in Los...
all wanted the part of Knox prior to the casting of Panettiere.
Before broadcast
On February 3, 2011, Kercher's parents, John and Arline Kercher, described certain scenes in the film as "very distressing". John stated "They are absolutely horrific and I have asked and would hope the pictures are withdrawn" in reference to the scenes in which Kercher is attacked and murdered by her friends. Arline said, "It's awful what these film people have done. Your imagination runs riot as it is about what happened, but to actually see it like this is very different and very distressing. I'm surprised they have gone so far. I was told the original brief and synopsis of the film was to take it up to the point of the killing but not actually show the killing itself. It's obvious from these pictures they are showing the killing. So not only have they upset me and my family but they are also now in extreme danger of being sued by the convicted people's lawyers. In Italy you are regarded as still not being completely convicted until you have had two appeals. If these people win their appeals – which I hope they won't – then they could sue the filmmakers." Kercher's lawyer, Francesco Maresca, expressed his displeasure at the making of the film: "It is inopportune as the trial is still ongoing with two further appeals." Lawyers for Knox and Sollecito formally demanded that Lifetime abandon the production. Panettiere stated, "I hope, I don't think the family will be upset about the way it was put together."After broadcast
On its first airing, the film achieved decent ratings of approximately 2.8 million viewers in the United States. According to The Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, the production of the film would always have been complicated since the case itself contained much doubt and many inconsistencies. Nick Squires of The Daily Telegraph wrote that the film did "a credible job of navigating a complex case without coming down one way or the other on whether Knox and ... Sollecito ... are innocent or guilty."
Differences from reported events
Kercher's family and lawyers, Knox and her family, and Sollecito and his lawyers have all been vocal opponents of the film. Nikki Battiste of ABC NewsABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
listed 15 points in the film when scenes or lines are fabricated.
Knox's relationships
The film portrays Knox and Sollecito having a picnic in an attempt to establish a relationship. There is no evidence that such a picnic took place, and the weather typical for Italy for the month of October makes the event improbable. The film also shows Knox, Kercher and Guede in attendance at a party featuring drug use. However, both Knox and Guede have stated they were not friends, and the Italian police have stated that there was no communication between them. In addition, the film depicts Kercher confronting Knox about not doing her fair share of house cleaning. In reality, Kercher's friends testified that she was too reserved to confront Knox about this issue.Knox's statements
In the film, Knox informs her mother that she has been questioned for 13 hours. Knox had been interrogated for almost 50 hours in the days prior to her arrest. The film depicts Knox, through the account of a roommate, telling the roommate that Kercher had suffered because her "throat was slit". This leads the prosecution to suspect Knox. Knox did not mention Kercher's throat being cut: in response to a question concerning whether Kercher had suffered, Knox stated, according to the witness, "Of course she suffered. She fucking bled to death."Trial evidence
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
reports describe the wounds as stabs to the side or back of the neck, with smaller punctures to the front.
To prove the prosecutor's argument that the crime scene was staged, the film indicates that there was broken glass on top of clothes in crime scene photographs. No such photographs exist. In the film, a shop owner contacts the police immediately to tell them that Knox bought some cleaning supplies from him on the morning of the murder. When the witness was originally questioned by police, he did not mention that Knox was in the store and the other worker at the shop testified that Knox was not present at that time. Furthermore, the shop owner did not contact the prosecutor until he was encouraged to do so by reporters months after the murder.