In connection with the gruesome murder of her roommate in 2007, Amanda Knox was re-convicted of slander by an Italian court on Wednesday. This is the only conviction that remains upheld.
In a written statement following the murder of Meredith Kercher, Knox slandered Patrick Lumumba, a Congolese bar owner, which led to her being sentenced to three years by the Florence court. However, it is unlikely that she will serve the time as she had already served about four years before her murder conviction was overturned.
In 2019, the European Court of Human Rights declared that Knox’s rights were violated by Italian law enforcement during questioning, resulting in the dismissal of her slander conviction. As a result, Italy’s supreme court requested that the Florence court conduct a new trial to determine if there was any slander in the note.
Accompanied by her husband, Christopher Robinson, with whom she has two children, Knox made her way to the court in Florence on Wednesday morning. Her hearing was scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. local time.
In front of the court, Knox delivered a roughly 10-minute speech in Italian. Her voice trembled at times as she explained the reasoning behind why she wrote the note implicating Lumumba.
In her statement, she clarified that her intention was never to cause any harm to Lumumba. To her, he wasn’t just a mere employer, but also a close friend who provided comfort during a difficult time after the death of her roommate. She revealed that she mentioned his name while being subjected to a lengthy police interrogation, feeling overwhelmed and disoriented at the time.
On Monday, Knox shared that the hearing was set to take place in the exact same courtroom where she was wrongfully reconvicted of a crime. She expressed her intention to defend herself once again.
On social media, Knox expressed her desire to clear her name from the false accusations made against her. “I’m hoping to put an end to these allegations once and for all. Wish me luck,” she stated.
In 2009, Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, faced a murder conviction. However, the ruling was overturned in 2011. Unfortunately, Knox was convicted of murder once again in 2014. Nevertheless, justice finally prevailed when the country’s highest court definitively acquitted both Knox and Sollecito of the crime in 2015.
In 2021, Rudy Hermann Guede was released after serving a 13-year sentence for the murder.
In a recent social media post, Knox included a brief postscript to her statement, where she expressed her well wishes using an Italian idiom that roughly translates to “May the wolf die.” The phrase is commonly used as a way of conveying good luck.
