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Did Amanda Knox Do It? by Judy Bachrach

She was "Luciferina with an angel's face

Our writer, well-versed in ways Italian, deconstructs the case of an innocenct abroad.
By Judy Bachrach


© Getty Images


Editor’s Note: Judy Bachrach writes for Vanity Fair, and is the creator of thecheckoutline.org, an online advice column for friends and relatives of the terminally ill.

Friday night at midnight Italian time, a jury of six civilians and two judges in the town of Perugia convicted an American girl of the murder of her roommate – based on virtually no evidence that would stand up in an American court. That girl is Amanda Knox. She is 22. She was once – two long years ago – a carefree Seattle, WA, college student, blonde, pretty, careless and often thoughtless, who had gone to Italy to study.

Two years ago, after spending the night with her Italian boyfriend, Amanda dropped by her own apartment and found the place covered in blood. The night before she’d smoked too much dope with that boyfriend, and her memory was, to say the least, hazy — a disastrous scenario. As it turned out, the blood all around her belonged to Meredith Kercher, a British student she had known for only two weeks. The butchered corpse was in the next room.    She was "Luciferina with an angel's face." She was a mantide – a praying mantis.   


Knox is now sentenced to 26 years in prison for a crime she almost certainly did not commit. There is no indication of violence in her background; there was no obvious motive. The blade of the knife the prosecutor claimed she used for the crime doesn’t match the wounds of the poor victim. Her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for a crime he also almost certainly did not commit.

On the other hand, a drifter from the Cote D’Ivoire is stewing in jail for 30 years for that same murder: His fingerprints and DNA were all over the crime scene. At the start that drifter claimed he didn’t know Amanda or her boyfriend. But he did admit to engaging in sexual acts with the British roommate the night she died.

How did this happen? And more important, why did it happen?

As is, I’m afraid, usual practice in Italy (a country where I spent more than four years), the Knox case was tried first and at length in the press, which roundly condemned her a full year before the trial ever took place. She was "Luciferina with an angel’s face." She was a mantide – a praying mantis. The police recorded her conversations, translated these into Italian (often incorrectly) – and swiftly sent the transcripts on to members of the media. I know. I speak Italian and I read them. One of the things Amanda told her mother early on might be of special interest to Americans: She said she was slapped around in prison in order to elicit a confession. She was told, on inquiring, that she didn’t need an attorney: It would only complicate matters. There was no translator during these supposedly confessional moments, and at the time the college girl spoke little Italian.

What else went wrong? Well, the Italian lawyer for the murdered girl’s family informed me with great pride that the prosecutor had actually embraced him in full view of everyone on the street the day word came down from a judicial panel that Amanda Knox would not be permitted house arrest, but was to remain in prison before trial. (She was too much of a flight risk, said the judges. And besides, they added, a calculating and manipulative girl like her that might "influence" witnesses – a not-so-subtle suggestion that Amanda was a world-class, top-level seductress intent on bending the entire Italian judicial system to suit her needs).

And then there was Amanda herself: a girl who thought it a good idea to walk into court wearing a tee shirt emblazoned with LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED. Who, days after the murder, was captured kissing and hugging her boyfriend by a closed circuit camera of a lingerie shop. Not her own best friend, was she? But not a murderer either. However, try telling that to the jurors, who were regaled by the prosecution with tales of Amanda’s vibrator.    She was "Luciferina with an angel's face." She was a mantide – a praying mantis.   


Italy is a country I love. But this is a cautionary tale. If you’re accused in Italy of anything at all, the presumption is simple and to the point: You’re guilty. If you’re an outsider without much clout or influential Italian friends – Amanda’s situation, as it happens – you’re sunk. And if you’re thinking of sending your college or high school kid there anytime soon, think again.