menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

The Story of Amanda Knox

48 1
yesterday

Amanda Knox’s story is a universal one about how easy it is for a false narrative to take hold, and how that distorted narrative and moralizing mob mentality can build over time. There is an implicit danger of creating narratives based on thin or no objective information.

When in reality we do not fully know, most of us have experienced thinking we know and creating imagined narratives that we project onto others. This perverted sense of knowing, when we do not fully know, led to the Italian legal prosecuting attorney’s false narrative of Amanda. They created a twisted narrative of a “dirty ice queen” which led to Amanda being falsely convicted of murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher. But Amanda was convicted in absentia of a form of libel under Italian law for falsely accusing her boss, while she was under duress, for the murder of Meredith.

The murder of Meredith Kercher in 2007 led to the wrongful conviction of Amanda Knox, and Knox's Italian boyfriend. The actual perpetrator was Rudy Guede, who sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed Meredith. He left behind his DNA on Kercher's body and throughout the crime scene. Guede was found guilty of sexual assault and murder in October 2008. In 2015, the convictions of Knox and Sollecito were overturned by the Italian Supreme Court, which cited significant flaws in the initial investigation.

When I interviewed Amanda, she said, “I felt traumatized by my loss of agency over my personal narrative… and trapped in a life I did not want.” She also felt “ vilified by the Italian media and betrayed by the Italian judicial system.”........

© Psychology Today