An Italian jury found Amanda Knox guilty of murder and sentenced her to 28 and a half years in Italian prison for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher. This was Knox’s second trial, the first being overturned by an appeal after Knox served four years in prison for the crime after already spending a year in prison before she was first convicted by the Italian legal system, which does not guarantee basic rights of double jeopardy, a speedy trial, or criminal charges before being jailed.
Moreover, Knox, now residing in Seattle, faces the possibility of being extradited to serve her sentence in Italy. The question now for U.S. officials is whether to hand her over at Italy’s request. The United States depends on its treaty with Italy, but faced with the eccentricities of the Italian justice system and no tangible proof of Knox’s guilt, denying Knox’s extradition to Italy is the only action the United States can justifiably take.
The American and Italian justice systems are incompatible—the United States protects against double jeopardy, whereas Italy has poor police practices, allows crime scenes to be trampled, builds cases only on conjecture, mandates prosecutors to be the lead detectives in cases, and demonizes foreigners. Little DNA evidence ties Knox to the crime, whereas Rudy Guede, the man already serving time for the murder, left his DNA all over the crime scene. In fact, the only evidence they had to convict Knox was the strangled confession she made after being detained and harassed, a source of evidence that would be inadmissible in the United States due to the illegal investigative procedures. The only thing Knox is guilty of is being incredibly naïve.
Giuliano Mignini, the prosecutor and the lead detective in the case, claims to sense Satan’s whereabouts in most of his cases and fantasized the story of a Satanic ritual orgy in which Knox and Sollecito must have murdered Kercher. Her trials proceeded with an inordinate number of delays in courtrooms where lawyers, judges, and the press spoke over each other and out of turn, and the jury members blatantly tapped away on their phones. Knox was even harassed by interrogators accusing her of being a “stupid liar” when she answered questions and villainized by the Italian press with headlines such as “ORGY OF DEATH; AMANDA WAS A DRUGGED-UP TART.”
With its strong international presence and large study abroad program, the case of Amanda Knox—herself a study abroad student at the time—relates to Georgetown. Whether considering the lack of evidence, ridiculous investigative and trial procedures, or the Italian system’s clash with basic U.S. judicial ideology, Knox’s guilt is hardly beyond reasonable doubt. Protecting Knox would reflect support of both America’s values. The United States must stand up to this injustice rather than give into it.
