{"id":2053,"date":"2017-09-19T19:29:25","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T23:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/?p=2053"},"modified":"2017-11-16T13:55:45","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T18:55:45","slug":"what-not-to-do-when-your-roommate-is-murdered-in-italy-amanda-knox-her-strange-behavior-and-the-italian-legal-system-by-martha-grace-duncan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/2017\/09\/what-not-to-do-when-your-roommate-is-murdered-in-italy-amanda-knox-her-strange-behavior-and-the-italian-legal-system-by-martha-grace-duncan\/","title":{"rendered":"What Not To Do When Your Roommate Is Murdered In Italy: Amanda Knox, Her \u201cStrange\u201d Behavior,\u00a0and the Italian Legal System"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Martha Grace Duncan*<\/a>
\nClick here for a PDF of the entire article<\/a><\/p>\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the most widely publicized cases of our time is that of Amanda Knox, the college student from West Seattle who was convicted of murdering her British roommate in Italy and served four years in prison before being acquitted and released.\u00a0 Retried in absentia, she was convicted again, only to be exonerated by the Italiaan Supreme Court, which handed down its final opinion in September, 2015.\u00a0 Throughout its eight-year duration, the case garnered worldwide attention, in part because of the pretty, photogenic defendant and the drug-fueled sex game that the prosecutor adduced as the motive for the crime.\u00a0 Interest in the case spiked again with the release of a Netflix original documentary, <\/em>Amanda Knox, in the fall of 2016. <\/em><\/p>\n

While the Amanda Knox case has been remarkable for its ability to fascinate an international audience, it is not altogether unique.\u00a0 Rather, it is emblematic of broader themes and a broader problem\u2212that of human beings\u2019 prejudice against \u201cstrangeness\u201d and our desperation for a hasty assessment of guilt or innocence\u2012qualities that can bleed into a legal system to the detriment of the quest for truth.<\/em><\/p>\n

In this Article, I explore the Amanda Knox case in the context of our defective ability to judge.\u00a0 In Part One, I use the conceit of a \u201cWhat Not To Do\u201d list to highlight the role played by Amanda\u2019s \u201cstrangeness\u201d in bringing about her arrest and two convictions.\u00a0 In Part Two, I re-examine the usual rationale for Amanda\u2019s behavior and suggest that a better explanation lies in her age and developmental stage.\u00a0 In Part Three, I shift from the interpreted<\/u> to the interpreters<\/u>, arguing that the latter were powerfully affected by the Madonna\/whore complex.\u00a0 In Part Four, I analyze the impact of cultural differences and the Italian legal system, with its deep roots in the inquisitorial paradigm and its limited adversarial reforms.<\/em><\/p>\n

This Article is based not only on scholarly research but also on my four sojourns in Italy, where I retraced Amanda\u2019s footsteps and discussed the case with numerous legal experts.\u00a0 I had the opportunity to interview Amanda herself after she was free in Seattle. <\/em><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Youth is the season of credulity.<\/p>\n

Sir William Pitt<\/em>[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

When I was twenty years old, during a brief sojourn in a poor, deathly hot Venezuelan border town called San Antonio del T\u00e1chira, I accepted a free ride from a stranger and nearly got myself raped.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Why, the reader may wonder, did I take such a chance?\u00a0 The answer is simple:\u00a0 to save money.\u00a0 I was a student, living in Colombia on a college fellowship, and the desire to conserve my dwindling funds outranked, in my mind, the need to protect myself from any risk I might run by getting into a stranger\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

This was hardly the only foolish and hazardous mistake in judgment that I made in my youth, or even later in life, but it is<\/em> the one that springs to my mind when contemplating Amanda Knox.\u00a0 For Amanda, too, was twenty years old and living in a foreign country when she made a series of impulsive choices that would stain her reputation, deprive her of freedom, and\u2014after two years in preventive detention\u2014catapult her from murder victim\u2019s roommate to convicted murderer.<\/p>\n

To be sure, some of Amanda\u2019s hapless decisions were quite different from my own; for instance, performing a gymnastic stunt in the Perugia questura <\/em>(police station),[3]<\/a> wearing a sleep T-shirt reading \u201cAll You Need Is Love\u201d to her trial,[4]<\/a> and singing out \u201cTa-dah!\u201d while thrusting out her arms in front of police officers at the crime scene.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 However, we both unwittingly put ourselves in dangerous territory: \u00a0<\/em>I by getting into a stranger\u2019s car, and Amanda by showing up, uninvited, at the questura<\/em>, begging to be allowed to wait inside while her boyfriend, Raffaele,\u00a0 was interrogated.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

Later she would explain that, believing there was a murderer on the loose, she was afraid to stay alone in Raffaele\u2019s apartment, or outside in his car, by herself in the dark.[7]<\/a>\u00a0 Moreover, she was still under the sway of a powerful illusion, namely, that the police viewed her as a helpful witness,[8]<\/a> not as the prime murder suspect.\u00a0 Because of this illusion, she failed to foresee that just by walking into the police station, she would put herself in peril.\u00a0 Young and female, without a family member or even a lawyer, she made herself extremely vulnerable\u2014as vulnerable as that most helpless of literary characters, Thomas Hardy\u2019s Tess, in Tess of the d\u2019Urbervilles<\/em>.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

Near the beginning of that classic novel, Tess Durbeyfield, who has little experience of life or men, enters a fruit garden with Alec d\u2019Urberville.\u00a0 When the wily Alec attempts to insert a strawberry into Tess\u2019s mouth with his fingers, she initially bars the intrusion, saying: \u201cNo, no! . . . I would rather take it in my own hand.\u201d[10]<\/a>\u00a0 But Alec insists, and she reluctantly complies.\u00a0 At the end of this encounter, Hardy writes the words that, foreshadowing Tess\u2019s doom, could apply equally well to Amanda when she walked, oh so innocently, into the questura<\/em>: \u201cThus the thing began.\u201d[11]<\/a><\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

Since no project comes to a writer out of a clear blue sky, I owe the reader an account of the origins of this one.\u00a0 More than a decade ago, I began to notice the abundant references to remorse or, more exactly, lack<\/em> of remorse in news stories and legal opinions about accused murderers.\u00a0 Often it was unclear why the accused persons had been judged remorseless, but in many instances the indicator was simply an impassive face, a failure to cry, laughter, or one seemingly callous remark observed in the moments immediately following the crime.<\/p>\n

I reacted skeptically to these interpretations, which attributed unequivocal meaning to equivocal behavior and often involved judgments made hastily, when the accused may have been in shock or denial.\u00a0 Because of my personal history as someone who, at age twenty-two, had been unable to feel sadness or grief following my father\u2019s suicide, I had good reason to know that it could take years to respond to a horrible event\u2014not on account of callousness or depravity, but because the feelings were simply too awful to be borne.[12]<\/a>\u00a0 Thus, I doubted the interpretations of remorselessness and, naturally, also doubted the law\u2019s use<\/em> of these interpretations to decide a person\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n

My concerns gave rise to years of research.\u00a0 With the help of my student assistants, I amassed cases of individuals who had been charged with murder or attempted murder and then exhibited supposed indifference to their crimes.\u00a0 Both to render the project manageable and to make the strongest possible argument, I focused on children and adolescents, choosing seven cases for in-depth exploration.\u00a0 Among the seven were a nine-year-old boy who shot a girl and\u00a0 then remarked, \u201cIf you don\u2019t think about it, you won\u2019t be sad\u201d as he walked by her moribund body on his way to play Nintendo;[13]<\/a> a fourteen-year-old girl who beat her mother to death with a candlestick holder and then joked to a policewoman that she didn\u2019t have body parts in her pocket;[14]<\/a> and a fifteen-year-old boy who participated in a fatal assault on a Ph.D. student and\u00a0 then giggled through the night, making up rap songs and saying that his cellmate\u2019s nickname was \u201cHomicide.\u201d[15]<\/a><\/p>\n

In all these examples, the law interpreted the defendants\u2019 \u201clack of remorse\u201d as a sign of vileness and treated them more severely because of it.\u00a0 Most severe of all was the penalty imposed on Chris Thomas, a seventeen-year-old boy who was found asleep on the sofa a few hours after killing his girlfriend\u2019s parents.[16]<\/a>\u00a0 This ability to fall asleep so soon after committing a heinous deed was construed as a sign of remorselessness, which, in turn, enabled the court to find vileness, an aggravating factor required by law to sentence him to death.[17]<\/a><\/p>\n

Based on this research, I published a law review article, \u201cSo Young and So Untender\u201d:<\/em>\u00a0 Remorseless Children and the Expectations of the Law<\/em>,[18]<\/a> which drew on developmental psychology, sociology, and literature to re-interpret the \u201ccallous\u201d acts.\u00a0 Emphasizing that the root of remorse<\/em> is remordere<\/em>, \u201cto bite again,\u201d[19]<\/a> a meaning that Nathaniel Hawthorne picks up in his phrase, \u201ca gnawing of the inmost heart,\u201d[20]<\/a> I described remorse<\/em> as acute agony over past wrongdoing\u2014an emotional state that some people might well seek to avoid.\u00a0 Thus, I argued that we should anticipate resistance to remorse, especially in juveniles, who are less likely to show or even feel this deeply painful, complex emotion.<\/p>\n

By now the reader will have noticed several similarities between the cases of \u201cremorseless\u201d juveniles and that of Amanda Knox.\u00a0 For instance, all but one of those cases, like Amanda\u2019s, involved a homicide.\u00a0 In addition, the accused were all very young.\u00a0 While Amanda was not a minor, she was still\u2014throughout her first trial and imprisonment\u2014in her early twenties, and this is a period that some psychologists recognize as a developmental stage between adolescence and mature adulthood.[21]<\/a>\u00a0 Furthermore, all of these defendants were judged to be evil, depraved, or dangerous based on acts that were irrelevant or only tangentially related to the homicide, and most of the acts\u2014from the young girl\u2019s joke about body parts to Amanda\u2019s notorious cartwheel\u2014occurred very soon after the crime.<\/p>\n

Along with similarities, there are also significant differences between Amanda\u2019s case and the cases of the remorseless children.\u00a0 Amanda was not tried under American law, with its sacrosanct presumption of innocence, but rather under Italian law, which makes it easier for defendants to be convicted but also easier to obtain a reversal on appeal.[22]<\/a>\u00a0 In another contrast, Amanda\u2019s strange detachment worked primarily to target her as the main suspect and provoke her arrest, whereas in the remorseless children cases, the \u201ccallous\u201d behavior influenced the decisions at waiver and sentencing\u2014later stages of the process.<\/p>\n

Finally, unlike the defendants in \u201cSo Young and So Untender,\u201d Amanda has been cleared of any involvement in the homicide.\u00a0 The DNA at the crime scene matched that of another suspect, who was eventually convicted of Meredith\u2019s murder.[23]<\/a>\u00a0 Amanda\u2019s DNA was nowhere present,[24]<\/a> and she has now been fully exonerated by Italy\u2019s highest court.[25]<\/a><\/p>\n

These similarities and differences afford us a chance to reassess the seven American cases in the light of a case tried in a continental European country, where both the law and the culture pose a dramatic contrast to the United States.\u00a0 By exploring how Amanda\u2019s quirky behavior led to her murder convictions in a legal system that is still largely inquisitorial and a culture that highly values appropriate dress and behavior, we can learn more about the ways that legal systems, expecting proper tears rather than playful antics, may make flawed decisions and arrive at unjust results.<\/p>\n

The benefits of comparison run in the other direction as well. \u00a0Until now, most writers drawn to Amanda\u2019s case have examined it in isolation.[26]<\/a>\u00a0 Viewed this way, it has been tempting to see her story as bizarre and sui generis,<\/em> something that could only happen in Italy and for which Italian law was to blame.[27]<\/a> \u00a0But, as a broadly comparative approach reveals, the kinds of mistakes made in Amanda\u2019s case are not limited to Italy\u2019s legal system, to inquisitorial systems generally, or to cultures that value propriety and decorum over \u201cbeing oneself.\u201d[28]<\/a>\u00a0 This Article will shed light on the reasons that a criminal justice system would prosecute a young person not just once, but off and on for nearly eight years, despite what the Italian Supreme Court would describe in its final opinion as \u201cinvestigative amnesia\u201d and \u201cculpable investigative omissions\u201d as well as an \u201ctotal absence of biological traces\u201d belonging to Amanda or Raffaele at the crime scene.[29]<\/a><\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

This Article unfolds in three parts.\u00a0 In Part One, \u201cWhat Not to Do When Your Roommate Is Murdered in Italy,\u201d I lay the foundation by telling the story of Amanda\u2019s odyssey through the byzantine Italian legal system.\u00a0 To highlight the choices that caused Amanda to be fingered as the prime suspect and twice convicted of murder, I employ the conceit of a \u201cWhat Not To Do\u201d list,[30]<\/a> identifying the cultural taboos and social conventions that Amanda violated, to her great regret.<\/p>\n

In Part Two, \u201cBehind the Cartwheel,\u201d I turn from the story to the underlying causes of what some have called Amanda\u2019s \u201cbizarrely inappropriate\u201d behavior.\u00a0 One of the most oft-cited reasons is na\u00efvet\u00e9; indeed, Amanda herself has adduced this concept, saying that, vis-\u00e0-vis the Italian police, she was \u201ca mouse in a cat\u2019s game.\u201d \u00a0However, I will endeavor to show that na\u00efvet\u00e9, being vague, moralistic, and culturally relative, is a weak explanation at best.<\/p>\n

In place of na\u00efvet\u00e9, I will propose that we focus on Amanda\u2019s developmental phase, in particular, \u201cemerging adulthood,\u201d the part of the human life cycle extending from eighteen to twenty-five years of age and even beyond.\u00a0 Two features of this phase\u2014\u201cintense identity exploration\u201d and \u201ca focus on self\u201d\u2014seem particularly applicable to the twenty-year-old Amanda.\u00a0 I will delineate these features and correlate them with her inappropriate actions, thereby demonstrating that the concept of emerging adulthood offers an alternative, benign way to account for her \u201cbizarre\u201d behavior between the fall of 2007 and her first conviction in the early winter of 2009.<\/p>\n

In Part Three, \u201cInterpreting the Interpreters,\u201d I shift the focus from Amanda\u2019s improvident choices to society\u2019s response.\u00a0 Specifically, I ask why many observers\u2014in Italy, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere\u2014were so incapable of empathy for Amanda, so quick to place her beyond the pale, and why the Italian police and judiciary were so ready to believe her guilty of murder based on her failure to mourn in the expected manner.\u00a0 In my quest for answers, I will explore the Madonna\/whore binary, the cultural differences between the United States and Italy, and the Italian criminal justice system, with its inquisitorial roots and its partial shift to the adversarial model in 1989.<\/p>\n

In researching and writing this Article, I have not relied solely on written sources but have also traveled several times to Italy, experiencing firsthand the mysterious ambience of Perugia, the medieval walled city where the murder occurred. \u00a0In addition, I witnessed part of Amanda\u2019s appellate trial in a postmodern courthouse in Florence, the Palazzo di Giustizia. \u00a0\u00a0During these expeditions, I interviewed Italian criminal lawyers, law professors, journalists, and interpreters.\u00a0 They afforded me perspectives on Italian law and culture that would have been impossible to gain on my own.\u00a0 In search of a deeper, more intuitive understanding of the case, I traveled to Amanda\u2019s hometown of Seattle, where I spoke at length with Amanda\u2019s best friend, Madison Paxton, and\u2014over brunch on a drizzly, gray Sunday\u2014with Amanda herself.<\/p>\n

I. What Not to Do When Your Roommate is Murdered in Italy: Advice for Amanda, with the Benefit of Hindsight<\/strong><\/p>\n

[T]he impression of reality . . . is a delicate, fragile thing that can be shattered by very minor mishaps.<\/p>\n

Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life<\/em>[31]<\/a><\/p>\n

Momma says presentation is everything.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Lauck, Blackbird <\/em>[32]<\/a><\/p>\n

Before Departing for Italy<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Do not carry a vibrator, pink and bunny-shaped, inside a see-through toiletry bag to Italy.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Though an innocent parting gift from a friend, intended as a joke, the pink vibrator will bring you more trouble than you can possibly imagine at the moment you toss it heedlessly into your clear plastic bag before rushing to the airport.[33]<\/a>\u00a0 Later, after you leave it out in a shared bathroom, still in the transparent case, the vibrator will make your British roommate uncomfortable, although you do not know this at the time.\u00a0 In fact, you learn of Meredith\u2019s discomfort only at trial, after she is dead, when a friend of hers, testifying that Meredith was bothered by your overt sexuality, cites the pink vibrator in its see-through beauty bag.[34]<\/a>\u00a0 This testimony will enable the prosecution to say there was antipathy between you and the victim, thus providing a motive for the crime.[35]<\/a><\/p>\n

    In addition, your vibrator will contribute to the reputation you will acquire as a sex-obsessed woman.[36]<\/a>\u00a0 In the coming criminal trial, your reputation will matter; those who sit in judgment upon you (a panel of professional and lay judges) will not be sequestered and thus will be exposed to the sensationalized media accounts of your character.[37]<\/a><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Do not adopt \u201cFoxy Knoxy\u201d as your profile name on MySpace.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Like the pink vibrator, this nickname too has an innocent origin: when you were thirteen, <\/strong>your soccer teammates called you \u201cfoxy\u201d because of the way you deftly maneuvered the ball down the field.[38]<\/a>\u00a0 You put this moniker on MySpace, thinking it safer than your real name,[39]<\/a> but when MySpace falls into desuetude and your nickname languishes, forgotten, Italian reporters will uncover it.\u00a0 They will now refer to you as Volpe Cattiva<\/em>, \u201cWicked Fox.\u201d[40]<\/a>\u00a0 You will realize later, while in prison, that when people think of you as a wild animal, they find it easier to hate you.[41]<\/a><\/p>\n

      In Italy, before the Murder<\/strong><\/p>\n

      First Chronological Interlude<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

      September 2, 2007:\u00a0 Twenty-year-old Amanda Knox arrives in Perugia seeking a place to live during her junior year abroad.\u00a0 Purely by chance, she meets a young Italian woman, Laura Mezzetti, who has rooms to rent in a picturesque villa, No. 7 via della Pergola. \u00a0Laura and her best friend, Filomena Romanelli, are already occupying two rooms on the upper level, while four Italian male students reside on the lower level.\u00a0 Upon inspecting the villa, Amanda, enchanted, signs the lease and then departs on a trip to Germany.<\/em>[42]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

      September 20, 2007:\u00a0 Amanda returns to Perugia, moves into the villa, and meets Meredith Kercher, a British student who has taken a lease in the interim and now occupies the room next to Amanda\u2019s<\/em>.[43]<\/a><\/p>\n

      Early October, 2007:\u00a0 At the Universit\u00e0 per Stranieri, Amanda begins classes in Italian language and culture. \u00a0Feeling that she has too much time on her hands, she takes a part-time job at Le Chic, a bar owned by Patrick Lumumba.<\/em>[44]<\/a> \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Do not embark on a \u201ccampaign to have casual sex\u201d[45]<\/a> when you arrive in Italy, notwithstanding your friends\u2019 pressure to do so.[46]<\/a><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Not only will you contract oral herpes from your first essay into meaningless intimacy,[47]<\/a> but also you will enable the prosecutor to portray you as a femme fatale<\/em>, even at times a \u201cwhore,\u201d[48]<\/a> whose wantonness stands in ironic contrast to your Madonna-like beauty.[49]<\/a><\/p>\n

        Your experimentation with casual sex will come to light after a prison doctor announces that you have tested positive for HIV.[50]<\/a>\u00a0 Shocked and frantic with fear, you will soothe yourself, as is your custom, by writing.\u00a0 You will make a list of your former lovers and the kind of protection used with each one, and this list will become public when the police search your cell, confiscate your writings, and share your sexual history with the press.[51]<\/a>\u00a0 By mistake, newspapers will report that you have slept with seven men in Perugia in six weeks, instead of seven in the United States and Italy over a period of years.\u00a0 Two months after the initial diagnosis, you will learn that it was an error; you are not HIV-positive after all.[52]<\/a><\/p>\n

          \n
        1. When texting your boss, Patrick, on the evening of the murder, do not write: \u201cCi vediamo pi\u00f9 tardi,\u201d the literal translation of \u201cSee you later,\u201d if what you mean is \u201cGoodbye.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          The literal translation will hurt you badly, for although the Italian words allow for the meaning you intended\u2014a casual signing off, rather than an appointment[53]<\/a>\u2014the police will not acknowledge the ambiguity. \u00a0Rather, they will interpret the text as clear evidence that, shortly before the crime, you made a commitment to go out and see Patrick.[54]<\/a> \u00a0Since you claimed that you stayed in all evening with your new boyfriend, Raffaele, the message seems to catch you in a deception and undercuts your alibi for the time of the murder.\u00a0 During the long hours of interrogation on November 5 and 6, 2009, the police will wave your cell phone in your face, repeating your words, \u201cCi vediamo pi\u00f9 tardi<\/em>,\u201d and calling you a liar.\u00a0 When you are no longer able to withstand the pressure, you will sign a statement in Italian, adopting the detectives\u2019 understanding of those fateful words: \u201cSee you later.\u201d[55]<\/a><\/p>\n

          The Day after the Murder<\/strong><\/p>\n

          Second Chronological Interlude<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

          November 2, 2007: \u00a0Amanda awakens in the apartment of her boyfriend, Raffaele, where she has been spending the night ever since they met at a concert eight days earlier.
          \nWhen she returns to the villa to shower and change, she notices things that seem odd:\u00a0 the front door standing open, blood drops in the sink and on the bathroom rug, and feces left in the toilet<\/em>.          [56]<\/a><\/p>\n

          Worried, Amanda calls her mother and her housemates but is unable to reach Meredith.\u00a0 After eating breakfast at Raffaele\u2019s, she takes him back to the villa, where they discover a broken window and other signs of a break-in.\u00a0 At the suggestion of his sister, a police officer in Rome, Raffaele calls the <\/em>Carabinieri,<\/em> the paramilitary unit in charge of violent crimes<\/em>.[57]<\/a><\/p>\n

          In the meantime, members of a wealthy Perugian family find two mysterious cell phones in their garden; the phones will later prove to be Meredith\u2019s.\u00a0 The family contacts the Polizia Postale, the police that investigate Internet crimes.\u00a0 It is they who reach the villa first and find Raffaele and Amanda waiting outside<\/em>.[58]<\/a>\u00a0 Housemates and friends converge at the villa, but no one has heard from Meredith, and the door to her room is locked. \u00a0When one of the young men kicks it open, Amanda, who is too far from the doorway to see inside, hears voices shouting the Italian words for \u201cfoot\u201d and \u201cblood.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Then the police order everyone out.<\/em>[59]<\/a><\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Do not kiss your boyfriend right outside the villa where Meredith\u2019s dead body lies or sit on your boyfriend\u2019s lap in the police station, cuddling and making funny faces.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Like Meursault, the protagonist of The Stranger<\/em>, who smoked a cigarette at his mother\u2019s wake, and who swam, made love to his girlfriend, and watched a movie\u2014a comedy no less\u2014the day after his mother\u2019s funeral,[60]<\/a> you too will be reviled and condemned for your inappropriate behavior following on the heels of Meredith\u2019s murder.[61]<\/a><\/p>\n

            When you kiss your boyfriend not far from the scene of the grisly crime, your kiss will be filmed and played on television in a nonstop loop to display your indifference to your roommate\u2019s death.[62]<\/a>\u00a0 When you sit on Raffaele\u2019s lap, making faces in the police station, your behavior will be remembered and recounted at trial as evidence of your failure to mourn.[63]<\/a>\u00a0 Testifying before a packed courtroom, Meredith\u2019s British friend Robyn will describe how you stuck out your tongue at Raffaele and \u201cshowed no emotion,\u201d while everyone else was distraught.[64]<\/a><\/p>\n

            An observation of the brilliant ethnographer Erving Goffman is relevant to your predicament here: \u201cA demand regarding engrossment,\u201d he writes, \u201cis a demand on the inner spirit,\u201d and, as such, is a requirement that some individuals cannot meet.[65]<\/a>\u00a0 In that case, Goffman advises, they should either feign engrossment or stay away from the place where people will notice their distraction.[66]<\/a><\/p>\n

              \n
            1. When Meredith\u2019s friend Sophie, seeking consolation, gives you a hug in the police station, do not turn away without reciprocating.[67]<\/a> \u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              Too exhausted to even make the effort of hugging her back, you will try to make amends later the same evening, with comforting words\u2014but to no avail.[68]<\/a> \u00a0In court, Sophie will testify about the initial rebuff, describing you as \u201ccold.\u201d[69]<\/a><\/p>\n

                \n
              1. When Meredith\u2019s friend Natalie expresses the hope that Meredith had not suffered, do not respond, \u201cHow could she not have suffered?\u00a0 She got her fucking throat slit.\u201d[70]<\/a><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                You will say this because, being in a state of \u201crighteous fury\u201d at Meredith\u2019s killer, you cannot understand the relative self-control of Meredith\u2019s British friends.[71]<\/a>\u00a0 But your words will come across as crude and unempathic when Natalie repeats them during the trial.[72]<\/a> \u00a0In relation to the Italian standard of la bella figura<\/em>, you will fall far short, actually presenting yourself as its \u201cevil twin,\u201d la<\/em> brutta figura<\/em> (\u201cugly face\u201d).<\/em>[73]<\/a><\/p>\n

                  \n
                1. Do not stay in Perugia after the crime, though it may seem like the independent and admirable thing to do. <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  Most of Meredith\u2019s British friends, aided by the British Consulate, will leave Perugia within a few days of the murder,[74]<\/a> and you, too, have the option of leaving, for you could go home to Seattle, or to stay with \u201cAunt Dolly,\u201d your mother\u2019s cousin in Germany and your contact person in the event of an emergency.[75]<\/a>\u00a0 Like the British students, you are worried about your safety,[76]<\/a> but your reasons to stay will prove more powerful than your fears.\u00a0 Not only do you aspire to help the police find Meredith\u2019s killer,[77]<\/a> you are also determined to salvage your hard-won year abroad\u2014a year you earned by working odd jobs in Seattle, saving money, and persuading your parents to let you go\u2014all so that you might have a culturally enriching experience.[78]<\/a>\u00a0 These reasons are noble, but in the end they will not be justified, for by staying in Perugia, you will be forced to undergo the trauma of a murder conviction and incarceration.<\/p>\n

                  During the Investigation<\/strong><\/p>\n

                    \n
                  1. Do not ignore Aunt Dolly\u2019s first phone call, in which she suggests that perhaps you should get a lawyer or seek assistance from the American Embassy in Rome.[79]<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                    Knowing yourself to be innocent, you will be unable to imagine why you would need legal counsel.\u00a0 You have yet to learn that mere innocence will not protect you.\u00a0 You will likely be suffering from what is called the \u201cillusion of transparency\u201d: \u00a0the belief that others can see through to your nonculpable self.[80]<\/a>\u00a0 Or perhaps you will be relying too heavily on the presumption of innocence familiar to you from the American legal system. \u00a0It may behoove you to model your actions after those of your Italian housemates, Laura and Filomena, both interns at Perugian law firms, who seek legal counsel after Meredith\u2019s body is found.[81]<\/a> \u00a0As the saying goes, \u201cWhen in Rome . . . .\u201d[82]<\/a><\/p>\n

                      \n
                    1. Do not ignore Aunt Dolly\u2019s second phone call, in which she no longer suggests but tells you to call the American Embassy.<\/em>[83]<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                      It would be good to have the facts \u201con the record,\u201d Aunt Dolly says, \u201cjust in case.\u201d[84]<\/a>\u00a0 At the time, you will ask yourself: \u201cJust in case what?\u201d, but later you will wonder whether things would have turned out differently had you taken her advice.[85]<\/a>\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

                        \n
                      1. When the police take you back to the villa and provide you with protective gloves and booties, do not\u2014when you finish dressing\u2014sing out \u201cTa-dah\u201d and turn your arms out, like a star in a Broadway musical.<\/em>[86]<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                        You will do this to make up for a faux pas<\/em> that you committed a few minutes earlier, on the ride to the villa in the police car.\u00a0 You complained of being tired, and your complaint irritated one of the officers, who replied, \u201cDo you just not care that someone murdered your friend?\u201d[87]<\/a>\u00a0 So now, always fighting the last battle, you try to seem friendly and cooperative, but the police will only look scornfully at your antics.[88]<\/a>\u00a0 One of those present, a specialized detective brought in from Rome to help with the investigation, will later tell reporters that you suggestively swiveled your hips as you put on the booties.\u00a0 This seductive movement, known in Italy as la mossa <\/em>(\u201cthe move\u201d), was one of the first things that aroused his suspicion of your involvement in the murder.[89]<\/a><\/p>\n

                          \n
                        1. Do not stay away from the memorial service for Meredith or in other ways fail to mourn her death.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                          You will miss the service partly out of fear of attending alone and also out of concern that strangers will approach you with awkward questions.[90]<\/a>\u00a0 But your absence from the candlelight memorial on the public square as well as your \u201cstrange coldness\u201d[91]<\/a> and \u201codd detachment\u201d[92]<\/a> will have an impact that may hurt you.\u00a0 As Goffman says, \u201cThe impression of reality . . . is a delicate, fragile thing that can be shattered by very minor mishaps.\u201d[93]<\/a><\/p>\n

                            \n
                          1. Do not go with Raffaele to a store called Bubble[94]<\/a> and purchase bikini panties in red, adorned with a caricature of a cow.<\/em>[95]<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                            Barred from the villa, which is now a crime scene, and suffering through your period,[96]<\/a> you are compelled by necessity to buy new panties. \u00a0But try to avoid the color red and its associations with sin, as in the prophet Isaiah\u2019s words: \u201c[T]hough your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.\u201d[97]<\/a><\/p>\n

                            The scene of you and Raffaele buying underpants will be captured on Bubble\u2019s video camera and sold to the Italian media.\u00a0 Described by some reporters as \u201ca saucy G-string\u201d and by a lawyer during the trial as \u201csexy lingerie,\u201d the underpants will be featured in newspaper stories about your shopping excursion the day after Meredith\u2019s body was found.[98]<\/a>\u00a0 Those who sit on your case at trial\u2014a panel of two giudici togati <\/em>(professional judges) and six giudici popolari <\/em>(lay judges)[99]<\/a>\u2014will be at liberty to read these media accounts of your conduct.\u00a0 They may conclude that you are indifferent to the crime, preoccupied with your alluring underpants instead of your roommate\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n

                              \n
                            1. Do not close your ears to the warning implicit in Aunt Dolly\u2019s third phone call, when she asks whether you have called the American Embassy.[100]<\/a><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                              You will tell her that you have not had time, although, in fact, you have not even considered calling the Embassy.[101]<\/a> Intent on proving your independence, you are trying to give her and your other callers the impression that you have things under control.\u00a0 But later, you will reflect that Aunt Dolly\u2019s warning had presented you with your \u201clast chance to alter the course of coming events.\u201d[102]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                \n
                              1. Do not perform a gymnastic stunt in the police station, despite an officer\u2019s inquiry about what you can do.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                While you are waiting for Raffaele in a chair near the elevator, a police officer will sit down beside you. \u00a0\u201cAs long as you\u2019re here,\u201d he will say, \u201cdo you mind if I ask you some questions?\u201d[103]<\/a>\u00a0 During the ensuing talk, your back begins to ache, so you will stand up and stretch, touching your toes, and raising your arms over your head.\u00a0 \u201cYou seem really flexible,\u201d the police officer will observe,\u00a0 \u201cWhat else can you do?\u201d[104]<\/a> \u00a0In reply, you will perform a stunt\u2014 an act that most accounts describe as a cartwheel,[105]<\/a> but that you say was \u201ca split.\u201d[106]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                Whether a cartwheel or the splits, it will turn out badly.\u00a0 According to your version, at the moment when you are on the floor, your legs splayed in a perfect split, the elevator doors will open in front of you to reveal Police Officer Rita Ficarra, the chief interrogator on your case.\u00a0 She will ask, \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d in a voice that strikes you as \u201cfull of contempt.\u201d[107]<\/a>\u00a0 In court, she will testify about her astonishment at seeing you showing off your gymnastic ability, saying that it \u201chonestly seemed out of place.\u201d[108]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                  \n
                                1. Do not submit voluntarily to an interrogation because of your trust in the police and your belief that, being innocent, you have nothing to fear.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                  You will think that the police are merely seeking your help, even when they keep asking the same questions over and over. \u00a0You will assume that you are all on the same side even while the police yell at you relentlessly: \u201cWho did you meet up with?\u00a0 Who are you protecting?\u00a0 . . . \u00a0Who\u2019s this person?\u00a0 Who\u2019s Patrick?\u201d[109]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                  Too late, you will realize that the police consider you a suspect, not a witness,[110]<\/a> and\u2014 what is even more frightening\u2014they have done so from the start.<\/p>\n

                                    \n
                                  1. When a policewoman pokes her head in the door and announces, with a hint of glee, that Raffaele has destroyed your alibi, [111]<\/a> do not give up hope in your boyfriend\u2019s essential goodness and loyalty or allow his betrayal to shake your belief in your own memory.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                    At the time you will feel deserted.\u00a0 You will think, \u201cNow it [is] just me against the police, my word against theirs.\u00a0 I [have] nothing left.\u201d[112]<\/a>\u00a0 And it is true that Raffaele did betray you during the harsh interrogation on November 5 and 6, signing a document saying that you had gone out for several hours on the night of the murder.[113]<\/a>\u00a0 But eventually you will learn that he, too, recanted his statement in the clear light of day.\u00a0 From then on, you will find that he is steadfast.\u00a0 His family will pressure him relentlessly, asking why he \u201ccouldn\u2019t say [he] was asleep on the night of the murder and had no idea what Amanda got up to.\u201d[114]<\/a>\u00a0 But he will refuse to abandon you or to compromise with the truth.[115]<\/a> \u00a0He will send you a bouquet of roses on your first birthday in prison,[116]<\/a> and his other gifts and letters will help you endure the years of confinement.[117]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                      \n
                                    1. Do not make a false \u201cconfession\u201d in which you accuse an innocent man of murder and place yourself at the scene.[118]<\/a><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                      In the wee hours of the morning of November 6, succumbing at last to the interrogators\u2019 pressure, you will sign a statement placing yourself at the crime scene and implicating your boss, Patrick Lumumba, in the murder of Meredith.[119]<\/a>\u00a0 While you never admit to any actual participation in the assault or murder, this statement, being a radical departure from your original story, will make you look like a liar.\u00a0 In addition, your accusation of Patrick, a man who can easily prove his innocence, will come across as the desperate ploy of a guilty person.<\/p>\n

                                      Why will you do it?\u00a0 Exhaustion, fear, isolation, and youth\u2014all may have played a part. \u00a0\u00a0By the time you sign the incriminating statement, you will have been interrogated repeatedly over a five-day period.[120]<\/a>\u00a0 On the final night, in a small crowded room, you will be questioned for four hours straight while deprived of food and water.\u00a0 During this interrogation, several police officers will threaten you, charge you with lying, plead with you to remember, and slap you on the head.[121]<\/a>\u00a0 As you will later write in your memoir, \u201cI would have believed, and said, anything to end the torment I was in.\u201d[122]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                        \n
                                      1. Do not try to undo the false \u201cconfession\u201d by voluntarily writing an amended version of the same story.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                        From the age of seven, whenever you got in trouble with your mother, you would take out your Lion King notebook and compose an explanation and apology.[123]<\/a> \u00a0You could count on your mother to respond with hugs and reassuring words.[124]<\/a> \u00a0So, in the Perugia police station, when you start to suspect that you have not actually remembered the crime scene but only imagined it, you believe that you can make things right with words you scribble on a page.\u00a0 You thrust the page into a policewoman\u2019s hand, confident that you have cleared everything up.[125]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                        But what worked with your mother, your original authority figure, will only make things worse with the authorities you now face.\u00a0 For it will turn out that your initial \u201cconfession,\u201d having been made without a lawyer present, will be inadmissible in the criminal trial,[126]<\/a> whereas the statement you write to repair the damage\u2014in which you repeat your \u201cvision\u201d of the murder but with the strong suggestion that it was only a dream\u2014will be treated as voluntary and admissible.[127]<\/a> \u00a0Thus, ironically, your self-incriminating words will be used against you because of your very attempt to mitigate their impact.\u00a0 Your noble desire to be helpful and honest with the police and prosecutor will be the very thing that, for many, establishes your guilt.<\/p>\n

                                        Third Chronological Interlude<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

                                        November 6, 2007:\u00a0 Amanda and Raffaele are arrested and incarcerated, along with Amanda\u2019s boss, Patrick Lumumba.<\/em>[128]<\/a> \u00a0Patrick, who has a solid alibi, will be released two weeks later.<\/em>[129]<\/a> \u00a0However, Amanda\u2019s false accusation has lasting repercussions.\u00a0 In particular, Amanda will be charged with defamation of character.\u00a0 The civil trial will proceed simultaneously with her criminal trial\u2014in the same courthouse, in front of the same jurors\u2014resulting in the admission of evidence into the criminal trial that would not otherwise have been allowed<\/em>.[130]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                        November 15, 2007:\u00a0 Police declare the murder weapon to be a kitchen knife selected at random from a drawer in Raffaele\u2019s kitchen.\u00a0 They state that Amanda\u2019s DNA is on the handle and Meredith\u2019s on the blade.<\/em>[131]<\/a>\u00a0 However, forensic experts object that the DNA on the blade is a \u201clow copy number,\u201d too small to be admitted in a British or American court.<\/em>[132]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                        November 20, 2007:\u00a0 Rudy Guede, a casual acquaintance of both Amanda and Meredith, who played basketball with their male housemates, is arrested and charged with Meredith\u2019s murder.<\/em>[133]<\/a> \u00a0Rudy\u2019s handprint, set in Meredith\u2019s blood, has been found on the pillowcase under her body, and his bloody shoeprints have been picked up in the hall and bedroom of the villa.\u00a0 His DNA has been discovered inside Meredith\u2019s vagina, on the cuff of her sweatshirt, and on her bra strap<\/em>.[134]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                        December 18, 2007:\u00a0 The police return to the Villa and retrieve a clasp from Meredith\u2019s bra, which had been left on the bedroom floor for forty-six days.\u00a0 After testing, the police announce that the clasp contains traces of Raffaele\u2019s DNA.<\/em>[135]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                        Between the Arrest and the Trial<\/strong><\/p>\n

                                          \n
                                        1. Do not keep a diary in prison.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                          To be sure, many who follow your case will understand why you are tempted to record your prison sojourn.\u00a0 We will sympathize when we read on the first page of your diary that you are writing this \u201cto remember . . . because not that many people will ever have this experience.\u201d[136]<\/a>\u00a0 To some readers, including me, your diary will be the most poignant and moving artifact of your case.\u00a0 Its form, even more than its content, will seem touchingly resolute, with its cover page neatly laid out:\u00a0 first, the title, \u201cMY PRISON DIARY,\u201d printed in shaky block letters, and, further down the page, with asterisks flanking it, the dutiful translation into the language you are hoping to master: \u201c*Il mio diaro del<\/em> prigione<\/em>.*\u201d[137]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                          The diary comes across as very young.\u00a0 In fact, journalist Nina Burleigh describes your script as \u201cchildishly rounded,\u201d[138]<\/a> while author Candace Dempsey writes that the big block letters on the cover page reflect the \u201cgrandiosity of youth.\u201d[139]<\/a> \u00a0In me, it evokes memories of my own childhood diaries:\u00a0 an azure one with stars and a moon and a brass lock on its leather cover, and a red one in which I wrote \u201creviews\u201d of all the books I read in eleventh grade.\u00a0 On the front cover of the red one, I printed the words, \u201cMY FRIENDS IN THE WORLD OF BOOK LAND,\u201d a title so earnest and clich\u00e9d that I cringe now to think of it.\u00a0 Yet it is the very earnestness of your cover page that moves me.<\/p>\n

                                          On November 29, 2007, your cell will be ransacked by the police and your diary confiscated.\u00a0 The police will leak your private musings to reporters, who will publish excerpts in their newspapers.[140]<\/a>\u00a0 In some of these excerpts you marvel at the prosecutor\u2019s theories, presenting them as preposterous.\u00a0 But unfortunately, tone does not translate well from one culture or language to another; thus, the media will ignore your sarcasm, framing your reflections as serious when you intended them to be absurd.[141]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                          Fourth Chronological Interlude<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

                                          October 28, 2008: \u00a0After a \u201cfast-track\u201d trial, Rudy Guede is convicted of murder in Meredith\u2019s death and sentenced to thirty years in prison.\u00a0 On appeal, his sentence is reduced to sixteen years.<\/em>[142]<\/a>\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

                                          January 16, 2009: The trial of Amanda and Raffaele begins in Perugia<\/em>.<\/em>[143]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                          During the Trial<\/strong><\/p>\n

                                            \n
                                          1. On Valentine\u2019s Day, do not go to court wearing a sleep T-shirt with pink letters six inches tall reading: \u201cAll You Need Is Love.\u201d[144]<\/a><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                            It may seem unlikely that something as \u201cfrivolous\u201d as clothing would have an impact on your case, but remember that when Joan of Arc was tried for heresy in Rouen, five of the charges against her concerned her \u201cinappropriate\u201d way of dressing, such as her donning of garments made of luxurious fabrics like \u201cgold and silk . . . trimmed with fur.\u201d[145]<\/a> \u00a0And while it will not lead to your being burned at the stake, you too will pay a price for your decision to wear the oversized T-shirt to court.<\/p>\n

                                            Why will you do it?\u00a0 Perhaps the T-shirt\u2014a gift from your stepmother, Cassandra,[146]<\/a> that is adorned with lyrics from your beloved Beatles\u2014functions as a soothing \u201ctransitional object\u201d in this frightening place.[147]<\/a>\u00a0 Or perhaps it is simply what you say in your memoir: that by dressing in your \u201cusual jeans and a T-shirt,\u201d you hope to enable the jury to see the real you.[148]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                            But rather than making you seem normal and innocent, your flamboyant T-shirt will be interpreted as \u201cobnoxious,\u201d a sign of your \u201cattention-grabbing narcissism\u201d and of your disrespect for the Italian judicial system.\u00a0 In the British press, the T-shirt will even be read as a sign of your \u201cpsychopathic\u201d personality.[149]<\/a>\u00a0 Your choice of attire on that one day will be, as you later reflect, \u201cwhat did the most damage in those early weeks.\u201d[150]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                              \n
                                            1. Do not wait until the last week of your trial to start wearing conservative clothes to court.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                              Even after suffering through the Valentine\u2019s Day debacle, you will not appreciate how much your fashion choices differ from Italian expectations.\u00a0 Thus, in the autumn of 2009, once the weather turns chilly, you will go to court every day wearing the same red hoodie.[151]<\/a>\u00a0 When you finally abandon the hoodie in favor of a more professional look, the Times of London<\/em> will consider the change newsworthy enough to run an article with the headline, \u201cAmanda Knox\u2019s switch to a more sober style of dress may have come too late.\u201d[152]<\/a>\u00a0 While acknowledging that your new clothing (white slacks and a lime-green blazer) is an improvement because it is more in keeping with the serious charges against you, the Times of London <\/em>article will also quote an American journalist who says that you should have dressed that way from the start.[153]<\/a>\u00a0 In a similar vein, Nina Burleigh will conclude that your belated adoption of formal clothing, while a \u201cnice gesture to la bella figura<\/em>,\u201d was \u201cnot enough, and everyone knew it.\u201d[154]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                              Fifth Chronological Interlude<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

                                              December 4, 2009:\u00a0 Amanda and Raffaele are convicted of murder.<\/em>[155]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                                \n
                                              1. When you are convicted of murder and sentenced to twenty-six years in an Italian prison, do not despair.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                                Upon hearing the verdict, you will slump against your lawyer\u2019s chest, while your mother and sister\u2014their voices the only ones you can distinguish in the tumult\u2014sob behind you.\u00a0 Because your legs are too weak to support your body, the guards will lift you under the arms to remove you from the courtroom.\u00a0 They will deposit you in a chair to wait for the prison van, and you will moan: \u201cNo, no, no,\u201d while Raffaele and the guards try in vain to comfort you.[156]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                                Sixth Chronological Interlude<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

                                                October 3, 2011:\u00a0 After independent experts release a report highly critical of the police\u2019s handling of forensic evidence, the appellate court acquits both Amanda and Raffaele<\/em>.[157]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                                When the acquittal is announced, Amanda cries convulsively, her tears subsiding only after guards escort her to the basement of the courthouse.\u00a0 There, she will tenderly squeeze Raffaele\u2019s hand before being whisked away in a car to Rome and then on by plane to the United States.[158]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

                                                Five and a half months after her release, Raffaele visits her in Seattle, where her mother and stepfather host an elaborate party to celebrate her freedom, with an all-American cheesecake in honor of Raffaele\u2019s twenty-eighth birthday.<\/em>[159]<\/a>\u00a0 During the few moments when they are able to speak privately, Amanda tells Raffaele that she wants only good things for him, that she is pleased he came.\u00a0 And although their love affair has long since ended, Amanda and Raffaele give each other an embrace of rare warmth when they say goodbye.<\/em>[160]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                                March 26, 2013:\u00a0 The Court of Cassation, Italy\u2019s highest criminal court, overturns the acquittal of Amanda and Raffaele and orders a new appeal<\/em>.[161]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                                January 30, 2014:\u00a0 The new appeal ends with the court reinstating the murder convictions of both Amanda and Raffaele.\u00a0 The court increases Amanda\u2019s sentence to twenty-eight and a half years, while leaving Raffaele\u2019s sentence of twenty-five years unchanged.<\/em>[162]<\/a>\u00a0 In a written statement, Amanda says that the verdict has \u201cfrightened and saddened\u201d her.\u00a0 She adds:\u00a0 \u201cMy family and I have suffered greatly from this wrongful persecution. . . . Most troubling is that it was entirely preventable.\u201d \u00a0Amanda and Raffaele\u2019s lawyers announce that\u00a0 they will appeal the conviction<\/em>.[163]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                                March 29, 2015:\u00a0 The Supreme Court of Cassation overturns the murder convictions of Amanda and Raffaele and drops all charges against them.[164]<\/a>\u00a0 Tearfully, Amanda expresses her gratitude for \u201chaving her life back<\/em>.\u201d[165]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                                September 7, 2015: \u00a0The Court hands down its formal explanation, citing \u201cstunning flaws\u201d in the investigation.\u00a0 In particular, the Court stresses the \u201cabsolute lack of biological traces\u201d of Amanda or Raffaele at the crime scene.\u00a0 It also criticizes the prosecutor and lower-court judges for failing to establish any plausible motive for Amanda to commit the crime.<\/em>[166]<\/a><\/p>\n

                                                Continue to Part Two: Explaining Amanda\u2019s \u201cStrange\u201d Behavior<\/a><\/p>\n

                                                Notes<\/em><\/p>\n

                                                *<\/a> Ph.D., Columbia University; J.D., Yale University; Professor of Law, Emory University.\u00a0 An early version of this Article received the Judith Siegel Pearson Award for Nonfiction in 2014.\u00a0 I am grateful to the judges.\u00a0 Previous versions of this Article were presented at the Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Torino; the European University Institute, Fiesole, Italy; the Emory Law Faculty, the Emory Psychoanalytic Studies Program, and the Emory Workshop on Geographies of Violence.\u00a0 My thanks go to the participants.\u00a0 My thanks also go to Robert Ahdieh, Giulia Alagna, Cathy Allan, Flavia Brizio-Skov, Michele Caianiello, Elisabetta Grande, Joe Mackall, Stefano Maffei, Alice Margaria, Claudia Marzella, Gaetano Marzella, Colleen Murphy, David Partlett, Lucia Re, Bob Root, Elena Urso, and Liza Vertinsky.\u00a0 Deep appreciation goes to my research assistants: Stefania Alessi, Mary Brady, Andrew Bushek, Peter Critikos, Sarah Kelsey, Tess Liegois, Zishuang Liu, Mike McClain, Jon Morris, Kaylie Niemasik, Sarah Pittman, Faraz Qaisrani, Deborah Salvato, Shannon Shontz-Phillips, Anthony Tamburro, and Michelle Tanen.<\/p>\n

                                                [1]<\/a> William Henry Davenport Adams, English Party Leaders and English Parties 218 (1878) (quoting Sir William Pitt\u2019s speech to the House of Commons, Jan. 14, 1766).<\/p>\n

                                                [2]<\/a> For an account of this attempted rape, see Martha Grace Duncan, Beauty in the Dark of<\/em> Night:\u00a0 The Pleasures of Form in Criminal Law<\/em>, 59 Emory L. J. 1203, 1224\u201225 (2010).<\/p>\n

                                                [3]<\/a> See, e.g<\/em>., Candace Dempsey, Murder in Italy 284 (2010); Barbie Latza Nadeau, Angel Face:\u00a0 Sex, Murder, and the Inside Story of Amanda Knox 65 (2010); Raffaele Sollecito, Honor Bound:\u00a0 My Journey to Hell and Back With Amanda Knox 54\u221255 (2012).<\/p>\n

                                                [4]<\/a> See <\/em>Nina Burleigh, The Fatal Gift of Beauty:\u00a0 The Trials of Amanda Knox 256 (2011); Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 126.<\/p>\n

                                                [5]<\/a> See <\/em>Amanda Knox, Waiting to be Heard: A Memoir 91 (2013).<\/p>\n

                                                [6]<\/a> Id<\/em>. at 107\u221208.<\/p>\n

                                                [7]<\/a> Id<\/em>. at 107.<\/p>\n

                                                [8]<\/a> Id<\/em>. at 108.<\/p>\n

                                                [9]<\/a> Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D\u2019Urbervilles passim <\/em>(Scott Elledge ed., W.W. Norton & Co. 2d ed. 1979) (1892).<\/p>\n

                                                [10]<\/a> Id<\/em>. at 34.<\/p>\n

                                                [11]<\/a> Id<\/em>. at 35.<\/p>\n

                                                [12]<\/a> See<\/em> Martha Grace Duncan, \u201cSo Young and So Untender\u201d:\u00a0 Remorseless Children and the<\/em> Expectations of the Law<\/em>, 102 Colum. L. Rev. 1469, 1470 (2002).<\/p>\n

                                                [13]<\/a> Commonwealth v. Kocher, 602 A.2d 1308, 1312, 1317 (Pa. 1992).<\/p>\n

                                                [14]<\/a> See<\/em> Duncan, supra<\/em> note 12, at 1480\u221285.<\/p>\n

                                                [15]<\/a> See <\/em>Commonwealth v. Archer, 722 A.2d 203, 207 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1998); id. <\/em>at 1502\u221207.<\/p>\n

                                                [16]<\/a> Thomas v. Commonwealth, 419 S.E.2d 606, 619 (Va. 1992); see <\/em>Duncan, supra <\/em>note 12, at 1486\u201387.<\/p>\n

                                                [17]<\/a> Id.<\/em> at 619 (citing Bunch v. Commonwealth, 304 S.E.2d 271, 282 (Va. 1983); Duncan, supra <\/em>note 12, at 1486\u221287.<\/p>\n

                                                [18]<\/a> Duncan, supra <\/em>note 12.<\/p>\n

                                                [19]<\/a> Webster\u2019s New International Dictionary of the English Language 2108 (2d ed. 1947) [hereinafter Webster\u2019s New International Dictionary].<\/p>\n

                                                [20]<\/a> Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter 182 (Sculley Bradley et al. eds., W.W. Norton & Co. 2d ed. 1978) (1850).<\/p>\n

                                                [21]<\/a>See, e.g.<\/em>, Emerging Adults in America passim <\/em>(Jeffrey Jensen Arnett & Jennifer Lynn Tanner eds., 2006) (including chapters on emerging adulthood by different authors); Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Emerging Adulthood: A Theory of Development from the Late Teens through the Twenties<\/em>, 55 Am. Psychologist 469, passim <\/em>(2000).<\/p>\n

                                                [22]<\/a> See<\/em> James Q. Whitman, Presumption of Innocence and Presumption of Mercy<\/em>, 94 Tex. L. Rev. 933, 933\u201234, 988\u201289 (2016) (contrasting the criminal justice systems of the United States and continental Europe, with special emphasis on the Italian system).<\/p>\n

                                                [23]<\/a> Rachel Donadio, American Testifies in her Murder Trial in Italy<\/em>, N.Y. Times (June 12, 2009), http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/06\/13\/world\/Europe\/13italy.html<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/B3HY-MWGS]; see also<\/em> Ian Fisher, German Police Arrest Third Suspect in Perugia Murder Case, <\/em>N.Y. Times (Nov. 21, 2007), http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/11\/21\/world\/europe\/21italy.html<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/Y9V6-7J3P].<\/p>\n

                                                [24]<\/a> See Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Amanda Knox Acquitted Because of \u2018Stunning Flaws\u2019 in Investigation<\/em>, Guardian, Sept. 7, 2015, https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lus-news\/2015\/sep\/07\/amanda-knox-acquitted-because-of-stunning-flaws-in-investigation<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/A2Q9-ED3D].<\/p>\n

                                                [25]<\/a> See <\/em>Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Meredith Kercher Murder: Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito Acquitted<\/em>, Guardian, Mar. 27, 2015, https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2015\/mar\/27\/meredith-kercher-amanda-knox-and-raffaele-sollecito-acquitted<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/55NL-S9FQ].<\/p>\n

                                                [26]<\/a> Many books have been written about the Amanda Knox case; however, most of these accounts were published several years before the case ended in 2015. See, e.g.<\/em>, Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4 (published in 2011); Dempsey, supra<\/em> note 3 (published in 2010); John Follain, A Death in Italy (2011); Gary C. King, The Murder of Meredith Kercher (2010); Nadeau, supra<\/em> note 3 (published in 2010); Mark C. Waterbury, The Monster of Perugia: The Framing of Amanda Knox (2011). In addition to the works just listed, some books treat Amanda\u2019s case in a comparative context.\u00a0 See <\/em>David C. Anderson & Nigel P. Scott, Three False Convictions, Many Lessons (2016) (examining empathy in three cases, including Amanda\u2019s); Ellen Nerenberg, Murder Made in Italy:\u00a0 Homicide, Media, and Contemporary Italian Culture (2012) (including an Epilogue on Amanda\u2019s case); Stevie Simkin, Cultural Constructions of the Femme Fatale<\/em>: From Pandora\u2019s Box to Amanda Knox (2014).<\/p>\n

                                                [27]<\/a> See<\/em> Olga Khazan, Amanda Knox and Italy\u2019s \u2018Carnivalesque\u2019 Justice System<\/em>, Atlantic, Jan. 30, 2014, https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/international\/archive\/2014\/01\/amanda-knox-and-italys-carnivalesque-justice-system\/283487<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/FY3Z-D6T4] (\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t have happened in the U.S., legal scholars write, because Italy doesn\u2019t forbid double jeopardy.\u201d); See also infra <\/em>text accompanying notes 327\u221243.<\/p>\n

                                                [28]<\/a> See infra<\/em> Part IV (comparing the Amanda Knox case with cases in Australia and the United States).<\/p>\n

                                                [29]<\/a> Cass. sez. quinto, 24 settembre 2015, n. 32598, Foro. it. V 2015, 4, 25,42 (It.), translated in<\/em> Supreme Court Motivation Report<\/em>, Injustice Anywhere 45 (Sept. 7, 2015), http:\/\/www.amandaknoxcase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2015\/09\/Marasca-Bruno-Motivations-Report.pdf<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/4NP5-676J]. See also<\/em> Elisabetta Povoledo, Italy\u2019s Highest Court Explains Decision to Clear Amanda Knox<\/em>, N.Y. Times, Sept. 7, 2015, https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/09\/08\/world\/europe\/italys-highest-court-explains-decision-to-clear-amanda-knox.html?_r=0<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/A99Y-LZ3L].<\/p>\n

                                                [30]<\/a> For a discussion of the infinite forms, including lists, that writers can employ to shape creative nonfiction, see Brenda Miller & Suzanne Paola, Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction 74\u201289 149\u2012(2005). See also <\/em>Carolyn Forch\u00e9 & Philip Gerard, Introduction <\/em>to Creative Nonfiction: An Adventure in Lyric, Fact, and Story,<\/em> Writing Creative Nonfiction: Instruction and Insights from Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs 1, (2001) (describing creative nonfiction as \u201cfactual prose that is also literary<\/em>\u2014infused with the stylistic devices, tropes, and rhetorical flourishes of . . . fiction\u201d).<\/p>\n

                                                [31]<\/a> Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life 56 (1959).<\/p>\n

                                                [32]<\/a> Jennifer Lauck, Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found 5 (2000).<\/p>\n

                                                [33]<\/a> See<\/em> Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 13\u221214.<\/p>\n

                                                [34]<\/a> Id<\/em>. at 293\u221294.<\/p>\n

                                                [35]<\/a> See <\/em>Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 29.<\/p>\n

                                                [36]<\/a> Simkin, supra <\/em>note 26, at 168.<\/p>\n

                                                [37]<\/a> See Amanda Knox Case Puts Spotlight on Italy\u2019s Courts<\/em>, CBS News, Oct. 3, 2011, http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/amanda-knox-case-puts-spotlightspotliht-on-italys-courts\/ <\/a>[https:\/\/perma.cc\/8TUS-HFGZ] (quoting author Douglas Preston, as saying, \u201c[T]he failure of the Italians to sequester a jury was a key factor in Knox\u2019s conviction on murder charges\u201d).<\/p>\n

                                                [38]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 31.<\/p>\n

                                                [39]<\/a> See id<\/em>. at 206.<\/p>\n

                                                [40]<\/a> See id. <\/em>at 207.<\/p>\n

                                                [41]<\/a> See id. <\/em>at 207.<\/p>\n

                                                [42]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra<\/em> note 5, at 20\u201222.<\/p>\n

                                                [43]<\/a> See id<\/em>. at 25.<\/p>\n

                                                [44]<\/a> See id<\/em>. at 40\u201241.<\/p>\n

                                                [45]<\/a> Id<\/em>. at 102.<\/p>\n

                                                [46]<\/a> See id. <\/em>at 14.<\/p>\n

                                                [47]<\/a> See id<\/em>. at 23.<\/p>\n

                                                [48]<\/a> See, e.g.<\/em>, Sollecito, supra <\/em>note 3, at 63.<\/p>\n

                                                [49]<\/a> For a discussion of Amanda\u2019s resemblance to the Virgin Mary, see infra <\/em>text accompanying notes 275\u221276.<\/p>\n

                                                [50]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 213.<\/p>\n

                                                [51]<\/a> See id<\/em>. at 215\u201217.<\/p>\n

                                                [52]<\/a> See id<\/em>. at 213\u221217; See <\/em>Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 27, 84 (quoting Barbie Latza Nadeau, a journalist considered unsympathetic to Amanda, stating that \u201cthe police set a trap for Amanda by telling her she had tested positive for HIV\u201d).<\/p>\n

                                                [53]<\/a>\u00a0 See <\/em>Sollecito, supra <\/em>note 3, at 58 (noting that in Italian, as in English, these words can \u201csimply mean \u2018See you around\u2019\u201d).\u00a0 But see <\/em>Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at 194\u2212195 (explaining that \u2018See ya later\u2019 in American idiom doesn\u2019t translate literally into Italian\u201d); Nadeau supra <\/em>note 3, at 69 (saying that \u201cin Italian, the same phrase generally suggests a fixed appointment\u201d). For Amanda\u2019s explanation of the linguistic confusion as told to the author, see infra <\/em>text accompanying notes 233\u2212234.<\/p>\n

                                                [54]<\/a> Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 69. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

                                                [55]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 115\u201219.<\/p>\n

                                                [56]<\/a> See id. <\/em>at 65\u221267.<\/p>\n

                                                [57]<\/a> See id. <\/em>at 67\u221270.<\/p>\n

                                                [58]<\/a>See <\/em>Nadeau, supra<\/em> note 3, at 41\u221243.<\/p>\n

                                                [59]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 71\u201272.<\/p>\n

                                                [60]<\/a> See <\/em>Albert Camus, The Stranger 8, 20\u201221, 64 (Matthew Ward trans., Everyman\u2019s Library 1993) (1942).<\/p>\n

                                                [61]<\/a> See, e.g.<\/em>, Follain, supra <\/em>note 26, at 93.<\/p>\n

                                                [62]<\/a> See<\/em> Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 74, 206; Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 55.<\/p>\n

                                                [63]<\/a> See <\/em>Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at 175; Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 128.<\/p>\n

                                                [64]<\/a> Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 128.<\/p>\n

                                                [65]<\/a> Erving Goffman, Behavior in Public Places 38 (1963).<\/p>\n

                                                [66]<\/a> See id.<\/em><\/p>\n

                                                [67]<\/a> See<\/em> Dempsey, supra<\/em> note 3, at 81; Follain, supra <\/em>note 26, at 90\u201291.<\/p>\n

                                                [68]<\/a> See<\/em> Knox, supra<\/em> note 5, at 80 (explaining that she was \u201ctoo wrung out at that moment to reciprocate\u201d).<\/p>\n

                                                [69]<\/a> See<\/em> Sollecito, supra <\/em>note 3, at 173.<\/p>\n

                                                [70]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 82.<\/p>\n

                                                [71]<\/a> See <\/em>id. <\/em>at 80, 82.<\/p>\n

                                                [72]<\/a> See<\/em> Burleigh, supra<\/em> note 4, at 175.<\/p>\n

                                                [73]<\/a> See <\/em>Carol King, Bella Figura and Brutta Figura: Italy\u2019s Beauty and the Beast!<\/em> Italy Mag., Aug. 8, 2012, http:\/\/www.italymagazine.com\/featured-story\/bella-figura-and-brutta-figura-italys-beauty-and-beast<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/M3MA-V8TL].<\/p>\n

                                                [74]<\/a> See <\/em>Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at 103; Dempsey, supra <\/em>note 3, at 92; Sam Tanenhaus, Trial and Error: \u2018Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir,\u2019 by Amanda Knox, <\/em>N.Y. Times, May 24, 2013 http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/05\/26\/books\/review\/trial-and-error.html<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/53DL-RUKU].<\/p>\n

                                                [75]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 10, 85, 93, 102.<\/p>\n

                                                [76]<\/a> See<\/em> id.<\/em> at 86.<\/p>\n

                                                [77]<\/a> See id<\/em>. at 85.<\/p>\n

                                                [78]<\/a> See id<\/em>. at 5\u201310.<\/p>\n

                                                [79]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 89, 93\u221294.<\/p>\n

                                                [80]<\/a> See <\/em>Thomas Gilovich et al., The Illusion of Transparency: Biased Assessments of Others\u2019 Ability to Read One\u2019s Emotional States<\/em>, 75 J. Personality & Soc. Psych 332 (1998); Saul M. Kassin, On the Psychology of Confessions: Does Innocence Put Innocents at Risk?<\/em>, 60 Am. Psychologist 215, 218.<\/p>\n

                                                [81]<\/a> See <\/em>Tanenhaus, supra <\/em>note 74.<\/em><\/p>\n

                                                [82]<\/a> See <\/em>John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations 144 (1968) (quoting St. Ambrose\u2019s advice: \u201cWhen you are at Rome live in the Roman style; when you are elsewhere live as they live elsewhere.\u201d).<\/p>\n

                                                [83]<\/a> Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 102.<\/em><\/p>\n

                                                [84]<\/a> Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n

                                                [85]<\/a> Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n

                                                [86]<\/a> See id. <\/em>at 91.<\/p>\n

                                                [87]<\/a> Id. <\/em>at 90.<\/p>\n

                                                [88]<\/a> See id. <\/em>at 91 (explaining that \u201chaving just been reprimanded for complaining, I wanted to be friendly . . . [but] they looked at me with scorn\u201d).<\/p>\n

                                                [89]<\/a> See <\/em>Sollecito, supra <\/em>note 3, at 48; Ian Leslie, Amanda Knox: What\u2019s in a Face?<\/em>, Guardian (Oct. 7, 2011), https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2011\/oct\/08\/amanda-knox-facial-expressions <\/a>[https:\/\/perma.cc\/T49K-Q9U6].<\/p>\n

                                                [90]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 107.<\/p>\n

                                                [91]<\/a> See <\/em>Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at 195 (quoting Amanda\u2019s first interpreter as saying that she seemed \u201cstrangely cold\u201d).<\/p>\n

                                                [92]<\/a> See <\/em>Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 63.<\/p>\n

                                                [93]<\/a> Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, supra <\/em>note 31, at 56.<\/p>\n

                                                [94]<\/a> See<\/em> Knox, supra note 5, at 94.<\/p>\n

                                                [95]<\/a> See <\/em>Jon Swaine, Amanda Knox asks the Kerchers to take her to Meredith\u2019s grave<\/em>, Telegraph, (April 30, 2013), http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/europe\/italy\/10028484\/Amanda-Knox-asks-the-Kerchers-to-take-her-to-Merediths-grave.html<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/7RS5-6PLP].<\/p>\n

                                                [96]<\/a> See<\/em> Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 98.<\/p>\n

                                                [97]<\/a> Holy Bible: King James Version, Isaiah 1:18. See also <\/em>Jolande Jacobi, Symbols in an Individual <\/em>Analysis, Man and His Symbols 323, 350 (1964) (describing red as \u201cthe symbolic color of feeling and passion\u201d); Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 94 (saying it \u201cprobably would have been better if I\u2019d chosen a more sedate color than red\u201d).<\/p>\n

                                                [98]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox supra <\/em>note 5, at 94; Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at 5; Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 60\u221261.<\/p>\n

                                                [99]<\/a> See <\/em>Michael A. Livingston et al., The Italian Legal System: An Introduction 67 (2d ed. 2015).<\/p>\n

                                                [100]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 105\u201206.<\/p>\n

                                                [101]<\/a> See id<\/em>. at 105.<\/p>\n

                                                [102]<\/a> Id.<\/em> at 106.<\/p>\n

                                                [103]<\/a> Id.<\/em> at 108.<\/p>\n

                                                [104]<\/a> Id.<\/em> at 109.<\/p>\n

                                                [105]<\/a> See, e.g.<\/em>, Burleigh, supra<\/em> note 4, at 193 (describing Amanda doing a cartwheel to oblige a police \u00a0a cartwheel to oblige a police LE]TO CHEofficer); Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 65 (describing Amanda doing a cartwheel and splits).<\/p>\n

                                                [106]<\/a> Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 109.<\/p>\n

                                                [107]<\/a> Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n

                                                [108]<\/a> Id. <\/em>at 309.<\/p>\n

                                                [109]<\/a> Id<\/em>. at 116.<\/p>\n

                                                [110]<\/a> See <\/em>Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at 236.<\/p>\n

                                                [111]<\/a> Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 113\u221214; Nadeau, supra<\/em> note 3, at 66\u201267; Sollecito, supra <\/em>note 3, at 57\u221258.<\/p>\n

                                                [112]<\/a> Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 114.<\/p>\n

                                                [113]<\/a> See <\/em>Sollecito, supra<\/em> note 3, at 57\u201258.<\/p>\n

                                                [114]<\/a> Id<\/em>. at 222.<\/p>\n

                                                [115]<\/a> See id. <\/em>at 219\u221224 (describing how Raffaele staunchly resisted the urgings of his family to destroy Amanda\u2019s alibi and distance himself from her to improve his chances of gaining freedom).<\/p>\n

                                                [116]<\/a> See<\/em> id.<\/em> at 149\u201250; cf<\/em>. Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 268 (recalling Raffaele\u2019s gift of flowers but remembering them as \u201ca huge bouquet of white lilies.\u201d).<\/p>\n

                                                [117]<\/a> See<\/em> Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 266 (describing her correspondence with Raffaele as \u201csoothing\u201d); see also <\/em>Sollecito, supra <\/em>note 3, at 189 (describing their \u201cblossoming correspondence,\u201d and gifts exchanged while in prison).<\/p>\n

                                                [118]<\/a> See <\/em>Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 72\u201273; For an analysis of Amanda\u2019s false confession, see Part II of the Article, infra <\/em>text accompanying notes 228\u221252.<\/p>\n

                                                [119]<\/a> See <\/em>Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 72\u201273.<\/p>\n

                                                [120]<\/a> See <\/em>Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at xxiv.<\/p>\n

                                                [121]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 103, 116\u201217.<\/p>\n

                                                [122]<\/a> Id<\/em>. at 104.<\/p>\n

                                                [123]<\/a> See id<\/em>. at 159.<\/p>\n

                                                [124]<\/a> See id. <\/em>at 60.<\/p>\n

                                                [125]<\/a> See id<\/em>.<\/p>\n

                                                [126]<\/a> See <\/em>Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 72\u201273.<\/p>\n

                                                [127]<\/a> See id. <\/em>at 74\u201275 (stating that the spontaneous statement would \u201cseal her fate\u201d).<\/p>\n

                                                [128]<\/a> Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at xxiv\u2212xxv.<\/p>\n

                                                [129]<\/a> Id<\/em>. at xxv.<\/p>\n

                                                [130]<\/a> Dempsey, supra <\/em>note 3, at 308.<\/p>\n

                                                [131]<\/a> Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at xxv; Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 197.<\/p>\n

                                                [132]<\/a> Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at 263\u221264.<\/p>\n

                                                [133]<\/a> Id.,<\/em> at xxv, 98; see also <\/em>Rachel Donadio, Man Guilty of Killing of Briton in Italy<\/em>, N.Y. Times (Oct. 29, 2008), http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/10\/29\/world\/europe\/29italy.html<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/SQ66-BKP6].<\/p>\n

                                                [134]<\/a> Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at 14; Dempsey, supra <\/em>note 3, at 219.<\/p>\n

                                                [135]<\/a> Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at xxv.<\/p>\n

                                                [136]<\/a> For a digital copy of Amanda\u2019s diary, see www.injusticeinperugia.org\/diary.html<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/HCP2-L4QP].<\/p>\n

                                                [137]<\/a> Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n

                                                [138]<\/a> Burleigh, supra<\/em> note 4, at 284.<\/p>\n

                                                [139]<\/a> Dempsey, supra <\/em>note 3, at 180.<\/p>\n

                                                [140]<\/a> See, e.g., <\/em>Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at 283; Dempsey, supra <\/em>note 3, at 337; Simkin, supra <\/em>note 26, at 172\u201273.<\/p>\n

                                                [141]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox supra<\/em> note 5, at 234.<\/p>\n

                                                [142]<\/a> Id<\/em>. at 281\u201282; see also <\/em>Gary C. King, The Murder of Meredith Kercher 185 (2010).<\/p>\n

                                                [143]<\/a> Dempsey supra<\/em> note 3, at 268.<\/p>\n

                                                [144]<\/a> See, e.g.<\/em>, Nadeau, supra <\/em>note 3, at 126; Sollecito, supra <\/em>note 3, at 174.<\/p>\n

                                                [145]<\/a> See <\/em>Marina Warner, Joan of Arc 143, 161 (1981).<\/p>\n

                                                [146]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 298.<\/p>\n

                                                [147]<\/a> Cf. <\/em>D.W. Winnicott, Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena\u2014A Study of the First Not-Me Possession<\/em>, 34 Int\u2019l J. Psychoanalysis 90 (1953) (defining \u201ctransitional objects\u201d and explaining their role as a defense against anxiety, particularly depressive anxiety. Note that the article deals primarily with the psychology of infants).<\/p>\n

                                                [148]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5,<\/em> at 299.<\/p>\n

                                                [149]<\/a> See id<\/em>.<\/p>\n

                                                [150]<\/a> See id<\/em>. at 298.<\/p>\n

                                                [151]<\/a> Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at 3.<\/p>\n

                                                [152]<\/a> Richard Owen, Amanda Knox\u2019s<\/em> Switch to a More Sober Style of Stress May Have Come Too Late<\/em>, Times of London \u00a0(Dec. 4, 2009), https:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/article\/amanda-knoxs-switch-to-more-sober-style-of-dress-may-have-come-too-late-kz7vb6lp0cp<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/GGH5-FU3C].<\/p>\n

                                                [153]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n

                                                [154]<\/a> Burleigh, supra <\/em>note 4, at 3.<\/p>\n

                                                [155]<\/a> Id.<\/em> at xxvii.<\/p>\n

                                                [156]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 360\u221270.<\/p>\n

                                                [157]<\/a> See <\/em>Elisabetta Povoledo, Amanda Knox Freed After Appeal in Italian Court<\/em>, N.Y. Times (Oct. 3, 2011), www.nytimes.com\/2011\/10\/04\/world\/europe\/amanda-knox-defends-herself-in-italian-court.html<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/KJJ8-2HM3].<\/p>\n

                                                [158]<\/a> See <\/em>Knox, supra <\/em>note 5, at 444\u221247, 52.<\/p>\n

                                                [159]<\/a> Sollecito, supra <\/em>note 3, at 253, 259.<\/p>\n

                                                [160]<\/a> See id<\/em>. at 260.<\/p>\n

                                                [161]<\/a> Elisabetta Povoledo, Italy\u2019s Highest Court Overturns Acquittal of Amanda Knox<\/em>, N.Y. Times (Mar. 26, 2013), http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/\/03\/27\/world\/europe\/amanda-knox-retrial-ruling.html<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/TVE5-V474].<\/p>\n

                                                [162]<\/a> Elisabetta Povoledo, Amanda Knox is Re-Convicted of Murder in Italy<\/em>, N.Y. Times (Jan. 30, 2014), https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/01\/31\/world\/europe\/amanda-knox-trial-in-italy.html<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/3J3J-5EJS].<\/p>\n

                                                [163]<\/a> Kevin Rawlinson & Mark Smith, Meredith Kurcher Murder: Knox and Sollecito Lose Appeal\u2014As it Happened<\/em>, Guardian (Jan. 30, 2014), https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2014\/jan\/30\/meredith-kercher-murder-knox-and-sollecito-appeal-verdicts-due-live<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/4EU2-MSV6].<\/p>\n

                                                [164]<\/a> Elisabetta Povoledo, Amanda Knox Acquitted of 2007 Murder by Italy\u2019s Highest Court<\/em>, N.Y. Times (Mar. 27, 2015), https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/03\/28\/world\/europe\/amanda-knox-trial.html?_r=0<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/V6DW-29DD].<\/p>\n

                                                [165]<\/a> Yamiche Alcindor, Kercher Family Shocked After Knox is Cleared in Murder<\/em>, USA Today (Mar. 28, 2015), https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/world\/2015\/03\/28\/kercher-family-shocked-as-knox-is-cleared-of-conviction\/70592860\/<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/RC5X-9KJ8].<\/p>\n

                                                [166]<\/a> Greg Toppo, Italy\u2019s Top Court: Amanda Knox Conviction Based on Poor Case<\/em>, USA Today (Sept. 7, 2015), https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/world\/2015\/09\/07\/italy-top-court-amanda-knox-conviction-based-poor-case\/71844786\/<\/a> [https:\/\/perma.cc\/MUU6-5BGN].<\/p>\n

                                                 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                                                By: Martha Grace Duncan* Click here for a PDF of the entire article Abstract One of the most widely publicized cases of our time is that of Amanda Knox, the college student from West Seattle who was convicted of murdering her British roommate in Italy and served four years in prison before being acquitted and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative-content","category-online-exclusive-articles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQij-x7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}