Freedom At Last for Amanda Knox - Podcast by Macayla Cline

On November 1st, 2007, Meredith Kircher was brutally murdered in Perugia, Italy. Her roommate, Amanda Knox, was wrongfully convicted of the crime. The Italian police mishandled the investigation and pressured Amanda to confess. She was accused of being involved in a macabre sex game. DNA evidence seemed to implicate her, but later it was discovered that another man, Rudy Gooday, had committed the murder. Amanda spent four years in prison before being acquitted, and she now lives a happy life in the United States. On November 1st, 2007, Meredith Kircher, a young student, was studying abroad as part of her university program in Perugia, Italy. Meredith was in her young 20s and was from a town in London called Colston. Just one day after Halloween, tragedy struck when Meredith was brutally murdered in a shared home, stabbed 47 times, and sexually assaulted. If this didn't already sound horrifying, there are so many layers to this story, including the wrongful conviction of her then-roommate, Amanda Knox. Amanda was a 20-year-old girl from Seattle, Washington, also studying abroad as part of her university program. Amanda and Meredith seemingly had a good friendship before her murder. Same thing goes for the other two study abroad students that was living with them at the same time. So why would Amanda Knox be convicted of Meredith Kircher's murder? Today we're going to dive into all of those details, we're going to dive into where Amanda Knox is now, and the brutality of the Italian police when investigating this case. November 1st was a night like any other night. All three roommates were not planning to come home, and Amanda Knox was hanging out with her then-boyfriend, Raffaele, with no plans to return home for the evening. The next morning, Amanda was the first roommate to return to the home. The first suspicious thing that she noticed was that the front door was left wide open. She knew that there was a chance that the door had flung open due to wind, given that the door handle was not super secure. She then got ready to take a shower and noticed there was little drops of blood on the rug beneath the toilet. She once again didn't suspect anything, given it was Halloween just the day before and she figured it was part of a costume. But then she started to get an eerie feeling and wanted to make sure that her roommates were home or that they were safe. She contacted her other two roommates, both of which got back to her, but they couldn't get a hold of Meredith. She grew eerie and decided to leave the home without checking rooms and go back to her boyfriend Raffaele's home. They decided to go together to the house after getting in contact with the other two roommates, noticing that there was suspicious activity at the house and that Meredith was still not answering her phone. A roommate, Philomena, and Amanda returned to the home to investigate. They noticed that Meredith's door was locked, and in an effort to break it open, Raffaele tried to kick the door down. When it was unsuccessful, they called the Italian law enforcement to come and help them. What they didn't know is the law enforcement was already on the way to their home, as Amanda's phone was suspiciously found in the backyard of a random home. When the police arrived to the home, Amanda let them know that they had been trying to get in contact with Meredith. The police began to investigate the home, and in an effort to find if Meredith was in her room, the police broke down Meredith's door to find Meredith in her room, lifeless in the bed. This is when chaos broke out. Roommate Philomena began to cry and scream hysterically. The police kicked everybody out as this was now an active crime scene. Unsure of what was discovered or what was happening, Amanda was told she needed to wait outside. She didn't understand the Italian language fully, as well as she didn't see the crime scene herself. Her reaction was very different than the roommate's, and she was not given clear direction on what exactly was happening. While Amanda was confused about what was going on, what she didn't realize is that eyes were turning to her. People were taking notice very quickly to the difference in her reaction compared to the roommate, Philomena. She was taken into questioning, asked several times about what the events were the night before. She had let them know that she was hanging out with her boyfriend, Raffaele, that they were watching a movie and hanging out at his apartment. Seemingly, this was the truth, but things got really complicated when the Italian police didn't believe her. It started to gain media attention when people started to take notice that these were four study abroad girls living in this home, a London student who was murdered, and an American student who was her roommate who looked oddly suspicious with a calm demeanor that left people eerie. Perhaps that was just her personality or a coincidence, but people took notice in the way that she carried herself and her lifestyle. And as people started to unpack more and more about this young girl who was trying to enjoy a semester in Italy, they began stripping her of her innocence and putting shame onto her for things that you can't possibly imagine. Amanda was taken into questioning to give an innocent statement about what she had done the evening before as well as what she had seen when she returned home. She was later questioned a second time when people were beginning to grow suspicious of her demeanor. Unfortunately, many of these answers didn't line up with what was said previously. The Italian law enforcement began pouring gas on the fire, putting pressure on Amanda to answer these questions once again and get them right. Things started to get really fuzzy when she had been sleep-deprived, didn't understand the Italian language fully, and was being pressured, scrutinized, and harassed by the law enforcement. The questioning entailed asking her if she potentially couldn't remember the murder due to shock. And after a while, Amanda cracked at the seams and agreed to sign a paper that ultimately was a paper confessing to her potential involvement in the murder. On the other hand, her boyfriend, Raffaele, was being placed in questioning as well, asked many of the same questions, and their stories weren't consistent with one another. This is when Italian law enforcement decided to arrest both Raffaele and Amanda for the murder of Meredith without any concrete evidence. When the media gathered that they had been arrested for the murder, a frenzy began, and everybody around the world had their eyes on this case. Horrifying accusations and stereotypes began to swirl in the media, and ultimately, Amanda was sexualized in the involvement of this murder. Now I want to start jumping into some of the evidence that was presented to kind of get us to these points, and one of the more important points is that, as we knew, Meredith was sexually assaulted, but there was a lot of violent sexual involvement seemingly on the case. And so there was something about Amanda that the media decided, and based on no concrete evidence, definitely on stereotyping this poor girl, but she was sexualized, and many people started to suspect that she was involved in a macabre sex game that was happening. And the concrete evidence that was given that really leaned into this was they found a knife at Raffaele's home when investigating that had the DNA evidence of both Meredith and Amanda on the knife. Specifically, Meredith's DNA was found on the knife, and Amanda's DNA was found on the handle. The Italian government did not hesitate to take this to the public, but what set this over even further was the next piece of evidence, which was Raffaele's DNA being found on Meredith Kircher's bra strap, the bra in which she was wearing when she was murdered. After investigating DNA further, a little bit down the line, they were able to trace some significant DNA to that of Rudy Gooday, who is an individual who had no affiliation with both Amanda or Meredith prior to the murder. They found traces of his blood, as well as specimens, and his shoe size matched that of footprints that were left behind. This would seem to be evidence enough of this individual being involved in the murder of Meredith, but no. What later transpired in the courtroom is that there was a macabre sexual game that was occurring between Rudy, Amanda, Meredith, and boyfriend Raffaele. This is when the horrifying nickname came to light, Foxy Noxy. Two years later, Amanda and Raffaele were convicted to 25 years in Italian prison for Meredith's murder. Rudy Gooday was also convicted, but they were convicted separately. What's interesting is at this point, everybody believes that they are put away, and many people are not sure whether Amanda and Raffaele had involvement in her murder. It was seemingly certain that Rudy Gooday had involvement in the murder, but many experts say that there was so little amount of DNA to work with of Meredith on the knife that it's really hard to say that it was hers at all. Additionally, there was evidence that the knife was too big and didn't match the injuries on Meredith. I'd also like to point out one more time that both Meredith and Amanda had no affiliation with Rudy Gooday, but what they did find that really sunk this all in deep for them was that Rudy and Raffaele had known each other through a mutual connection prior. At this point, this was just seemingly a gigantic mess. Amanda ended up spending four years in the Italian prison, and then four years later, she was acquitted with her former boyfriend. In 2014, they were convicted again, this time to 28 years in prison, but one year later, they are acquitted indefinitely. It's interesting because she ended up becoming completely fluent in Italian prison, not knowing Italian was one of the reasons that she ended up in this position and being confused and not having the same type of reaction and getting all of this attention drawn onto her in the first place. At this point in time, Amanda and Raffaele are free, and Amanda is back in the United States, happily married and with a family, while Rudy Gooday is in prison for the rest of his life. Now, based on evidence that is concrete, we know that Rudy Gooday was involved in the murder of Meredith Kircher, but what makes people still think that Amanda Knox and Raffaele had involvement? Well, to be honest with you, when it comes to the media, there might have even came a point when law enforcement knew that they had severely messed up, but it was too far gone and too late at that point to change the strong narrative that existed against Amanda Knox. It also became so prevalent that the attention was on Amanda Knox that people started to not even focus on concrete evidence that there was a murderer that they had found in question, in jail, or giving justice to Meredith and honoring her. Imagine being that young in Italy, just getting ready to go for an extravagant weekend with your brand new Italian boyfriend, and then you end up coming home to the murder of your roommate and then everything that preceded at that point. Spending four years in Italian prison, I'm sorry, make that five, for the additional year that was spent. At the end of the day, there being no concrete evidence to prove that you had any involvement in this murder, but what people still like to get at is the suspicious behavior aspect of it that really made people believe that she was involved and still to this day make people think that she was involved in some way. For example, when she ended up getting home, the door was wide open and blood was on the rug in the bathroom while she started to shower, but those two things alone didn't make her super suspicious that there was anything wrong. What led her to realize that something was wrong and feel eerie was that feces was left in the toilet unflushed, and she knew that neither of her roommates, none of them would have done that. So I guess most people would see a door wide open and that alone would be eerie. Maybe they wouldn't take a shower right away or even if they had seen blood at that point, she probably could have then noticed that Meredith's door was locked and then became even further suspicious. It's understandable to have a language barrier and for there to be lots and lots of pressure from the Italian government and at that young age to be scared, but if you know your alibi and you know that you are home with your boyfriend the night before at his home, then why go to the lengths of signing any document, regardless of your confusion, that claims in any capacity that you do have involvement in the murder? I don't necessarily think that this is enough to sexualize or convict a 20-year-old girl of being involved in a murder, but I do see the way in which the media would have taken a lot of those different elements and created a narrative, created a story, which is completely unjust, but developing a narrative just based on those inconsistencies that ultimately could have just been based on a girl who was 20 years old, naive to this type of situation as we all would be. Another important aspect to this accusation I forgot to mention is that in the beginning portions of the interrogation, Knox initially accused an innocent man named Patrick LaBamba of the murder during police interrogation. She later retracted this statement. She ended up just saying that she was dressed by the police and that this raised questions about her credibility and the circumstances around her initial confession. That was another portion of this, but still, I'd like to get back to the point, though, where we are, where we essentially note that Knox and her supporters have denied her involvement in Kircher's murder, citing flaws in the investigation, judicial errors, and media bias. At the end of the day, there was no concrete evidence that tied Amanda Knox to this case or her boyfriend in any capacity. Time spent in the Italian jail, the media scrutiny, all of it was unjust. Knox was ultimately acquitted by Italy's highest court in 2015 with Rafael due to the insufficient evidence. This case remains highly controversial with differing opinions about Knox's guilt or innocence. People looking back at the behavior and the statements, but Amanda Knox to this day has provided several statements and is very open about her time going through trial, her time in the Italian prison, and becoming just a real advocate for those who have been falsely accused of crimes that they didn't commit. She recounts the days that she had a friendship with Meredith Kircher before she had passed on and is a big supporter in Meredith having justice and people remembering her far more than they remember Amanda Knox. That's all we're going to talk about today with this case, but I encourage you to take a little bit of a deeper look into this case and just the biggest takeaway from all of this is really trust yourself, trust your gut, if you know that you are not involved in something that people are saying you're involved in, stay true to who you are and don't succumb to the biases and stereotypes that people throw at you and ultimately be very aware of your surroundings and if something seems like it's wrong, just understand that it most likely is something to look into. My name is Mikayla Cline and thank you for listening.