Amanda Knox (2016) Movie Script
1
[radio chimes]
[officer speaking Italian]
Perugia Police Department.
The address is 7 Via della Pergola.
[dispatcher] Marco, listen.
Do you understand
there's a dead girl here?
[officer] The request is from Amanda.
Amanda Knox.
[man] Bra.
They covered her.
Shit.
Shit.
[Amanda Knox in English]
There are those who believe in my innocence.
And there are those
who believe in my guilt.
There's no in between.
And if I'm guilty...
it means that I am
the ultimate figure to fear.
Because I'm not the obvious one.
But on the other hand,
if I'm innocent,
it means that everyone's vulnerable.
And that's everyone's nightmare.
Either I'm a psychopath
in sheep's clothing,
or I am you.
You can see that this
does not look like grief,
does not read as grief.
I think everyone's reaction
to something horrible is different.
Your roommates, your boyfriend, the cops,
they all say the same thing.
They thought you were responding weird.
Odd. Strange.
What makes you strange?
[woman] If you google the name
"Amanda Knox," you get 7.1 million hits.
You all know better than anybody
that hundreds of thousands
of those are not kind.
[interviewer]
"She-devil with an angel face.
Heartless manipulator.
Concertante of sex."
[interviewer] Were you into deviant sex?
Insensitive question, but, hey,
we gotta get to what it is.
This fuels the doubt.
Did you have any type
of experimental activities there
you're embarrassed to talk about?
[interviewer]
Did you kill Meredith Kercher?
No.
- Were you there that night?
- No.
Do you know anything
you have not told police?
- Do you know anything?
- No.
[car alarm beeps]
[Amanda] Before Italy, I had a happy life.
[Amanda's sister] All right, Amanda.
Are you excited to see David?
David? David?
[Amanda's sister]
David, the statue of David.
Oh. [chuckles]
- God damn.
- Good one. [chuckles]
[Amanda] I was quirky
and I was okay with that.
And I was ridiculous
and I was okay with that.
I thought of myself as, like,
a warrior princess.
I'm like Xena! [laughs]
I remember thinking,
"Okay, I'm different.
I'm my own person,
but I'm gonna find my place."
- [meowing]
- [Amanda] Yeah, I know, I know.
I know.
Going into college,
I felt a little behind.
[woman] One shot. One shot, Amanda.
[man] Don't you dare.
- It was one and a half, okay?
- [woman] It was one shot.
One and a half.
[Amanda] I didn't depend on myself much.
And I felt like it was very important
for me to get out of my comfort zone
and see if that made me
turn into an adult.
Italy has so much history.
Ruins, art, vineyards.
And I thought,
"I will find myself in this new place."
[Amanda's sister] So are you excited
to go live in Italy?
Fuckin' yeah, bitch.
Those first weeks,
I was discovering what the city was.
I was living with these Italian women
and a British girl my age,
who was super sophisticated.
And we had this beautiful house
that overlooked this valley, like,
I was owning it. [chuckles]
I was expecting that I was going to be
part of this scholarly program.
And it was zero work.
And so I thought,
"Okay, I might as well get a job."
Patrick Lumumba was
trying to get his bar off the ground.
And he hired me hoping
it would bring in customers.
I swear to God,
I don't know what it is about people
who think that guys
are not attractive physically, but...
[whistles]
[Amanda] In Seattle, I was cute.
In Italy, I was the beautiful,
blonde American girl.
That, I had never been before.
[orchestra playing]
[Raffaele Sollecito]
I went to a classical music concert
and there was this girl alone.
She was very, very pretty.
[stutters] When I looked at her,
she looked at me back.
I was so shy
that even if she looked at me,
she smiled at me,
I was turning back and said,
"Is she looking at somebody in my back?"
[chuckles]
It was not. It was me.
So after I realized it, I said,
"Why not talking?"
He immediately recognized from my accent
that I was American or spoke English
and so he started speaking
to me in English, because he can.
Um, or at least, kinda.
[Raffaele] I showed her a beautiful
panorama of Perugia,
which, for me, was very romantic, and...
I had my heart beating so fast, like...
You know, like,
"Oh, there's the romance now." [chuckles]
And... I kissed her.
[laughing]
Compared to so many other guys
who were just automatically, like,
"Hey, baby."
Like, he was super nice
and I was completely charmed.
And... yeah.
Well, we went to home.
I started to smoke,
to try to prepare a joint
or something like that,
but then we thought about
something different.
And the night closed with a happy ending.
[bell tolling]
[Amanda] I had never been in love before.
From there on out,
like as soon as I got out of class,
we were going on walks together,
and getting pizza,
and going to the outdoor market.
And he wanted to get me a perfume,
because all Italian ladies have perfumes.
It was just a week,
but we spent every single day
with each other taking pictures...
smoking pot...
and making love.
[news anchor in Italian]
Good evening from the Umbria TV news,
which opens with sad news.
Meredith Kercher, an English 22-year-old,
was found dead in her house
on Via della Pergola.
Everything discovered so far
suggests she's been murdered.
[indistinct chatter]
[Giuliano Mignini] The crime scene.
It's a memory that will always be with me.
There was blood everywhere.
The girl's naked body had been covered.
There were signs that she'd been
violently held down.
Mostly on her arms.
Her throat had an extremely deep wound.
It struck me because of how deep it was.
I asked,
"Is a monster responsible for this?"
Outside, I saw two young people.
They were comforting each other
with an affection
inappropriate for the moment.
[camera shutter clicking rapidly]
[man] Make sure to
shoot the body bag if it comes out.
[officer] Enough, please stop it.
As a courtesy, please stop!
Have some dignity.
[camera shutters clicking rapidly]
[Nick Pisa in English]
A murder always gets people going.
Bit of intrigue.
Bit of mystery.
A whodunit.
And we have here this beautiful,
picturesque hilltop town
in the middle of Italy.
It was a particularly gruesome murder.
Throat slit, semi-naked, blood everywhere.
I mean... [chuckles]
what more do you want in a story?
I mean, all you're missing is maybe,
I don't know,
the Royal Family and the Pope
or something like that as well.
This was the first time
I'd ever covered a case in Perugia.
So obviously the first thing you need
to do is get to the main players.
'Cause obviously to get the facts,
you've gotta be on the scene, really.
You've gotta be Johnny-on-the-spot.
The authorities in Perugia were under
an intense amount of pressure.
As we say in Italy, there's this phrase,
"bella figura," a beautiful figure,
a beautiful impression.
Keeping up appearances.
They found themselves
on the international media map
and they just wanted to show
that they were capable of dealing with
something of this... of this scale.
[Stephanie Kercher]
Nothing can prepare you for the news
we received on Friday evening.
Words can't even describe
how we feel right now
other than utterly devastated
at the tragic loss of our daughter
and sister Meredith.
We feel it's no exaggeration to say
that Meredith touched the lives
of everyone she met
with her infectious, upbeat personality,
smile, and sense of humor.
We loved Meredith then.
We love her still.
And she's still very much
a part of our family forever.
[Giuliano in Italian]
Meredith's mother came.
And she asked to see her daughter.
And I remember
she was absorbed in silence.
And then she made a gesture.
She asked if she could give her a kiss.
I have a family,
I'm the father of four girls.
Therefore, I understood her immense pain.
I am Catholic.
So I believe in two things
that are hard to reconcile.
That God runs the world.
But also that man has free will...
and must be held responsible
for their actions.
[indistinct chatter]
[journalist] Investigators are working
around the clock
to figure out the motive,
people she knew,
and possible romantic relationships.
Investigators are not ruling out
any motive.
Tomorrow, they'll do the autopsy.
[Nick in English] The whole place
was just awash with journalists.
So any nugget, any scrap, anything new,
you were just trying to get it out
ahead of your competitor.
We were all camped outside the mortuary
waiting for the pathologist to come out.
I spoke good Italian
and I think also they liked the fact that,
"Wow, I've got
a British journalist talking to me.
[stuttering] I'm now a big star as well."
And I was allowed
to come report the facts.
The post-mortem concluded
that there had been
some sort of sexual interference
with Meredith's body.
Traces of male DNA in her body.
And I remember him telling me that
there were also little nicks in her chin,
as if someone had been taunting her,
sort of torturing her.
That's when the police and the prosecution
started saying that it was a group crime.
A sex game gone wrong.
And we managed to get it out
to the British press before anyone else.
And that was the scoop that we had,
and it made headlines all over the world.
To see your name on the front page
with a great story
that everyone's talking about...
it's just a fantastic buzz.
I mean, I'd like to say it's like
having sex or something like that.
[chuckles] You know?
[bell tolling]
[Amanda] Meredith was my friend
of a few weeks.
We weren't lifetime best friends.
But I was so shocked
by what happened to her.
It made no sense.
It was brutal.
And it could've happened to me.
But I was at Raffaele's apartment
the night of the murder.
We watched Amlie,
and in the middle of watching Amlie,
I got a text message from Patrick saying
that I didn't have to come into work,
and I was like, "Yes!"
We finished watching the movie.
We made dinner.
And I read to him
from a German Harry Potter book.
And after that we just hung out
on his bed and talked
and made goofy faces at each other.
And eventually that turned into kissing
which turned into the making love
and then passing out.
The next morning, I wake up,
I told him that I was gonna
go back to my place.
So I went there. [sighs]
Um, I just walked down.
And the first thing that I saw was
that my front door was already open.
The common area was normal.
My room was normal,
normal messy, but normal.
And I got undressed
and I walked into the bathroom.
And I noticed that there was
some drops of blood in the sink.
But... I mean, there were just
a few drops of blood.
Whatever. Um...
I brushed my teeth.
And then I took a shower.
When I stepped out of the shower
onto the bath mat,
that's when I noticed the larger
splotch of blood on the bath mat.
But there's only some spots of blood
and then that,
so maybe someone cut themselves,
something like that.
It was right after I was done
blow-drying my hair
that I just happened
to look over into the toilet
and saw that feces had been left there.
That gave me the creeps.
Like, all of a sudden
I got this creepy feeling
like someone was in the house with me.
And I was just like, "Oh, shit."
So, I went to Raffaele
and I talked to him about it.
[Raffaele] I went back there.
I saw all this mess.
It was very weird.
And I was a little bit surprised
that she took a shower inside her house
without having the anxiety of it.
We tried Meredith's room
and the door was locked,
which was very strange.
And so I knocked gently
and called for Meredith.
And then I knocked louder
and I called for Meredith.
And finally I was like,
"Raffaele, can you please, like,
try to break open this door?
I don't know if Meredith's
in there or not."
And he tried kicking it down twice,
but it didn't work.
[phone chimes]
[Raffaele in Italian]
Hello, good morning, listen...
someone made a mess
and there is a door closed.
And there are also blood marks
in the bathroom.
[dispatcher] Which door is closed?
[Raffaele] One of the roommates.
We don't know where she is.
[dispatcher] I am sending a police car
so that we can inspect the situation.
[Amanda in English] The police, like,
kicked us all out of the house.
Kicked down Meredith's door.
And they were saying that her...
Like, there was blood everywhere
and that her throat had been slit and...
And so that's how I was told
that Meredith was dead.
[Giuliano in Italian] I have always had
a great passion for investigating.
I like detective movies a lot.
Sherlock Holmes, for example.
He was able to get clues
from seemingly insignificant events.
Why was the girl covered with the blanket?
A woman who has killed
tends to cover the body of female victims.
A man would never think to do this.
The thing that struck me the most
was the break-in.
Nothing had been stolen.
And there was no evidence
that someone had climbed the wall.
Immediately, I could tell
it was a staged break-in.
It could have no other function than this,
throw off suspicion from someone
who has a connection to the house.
[Amanda in English] The next day,
they brought me back to my place.
It was the first time
I was back in my apartment
after it had been closed off
as a crime scene.
And they were having me
go through the knife drawer
to see if any of the knives were missing.
So basically they were asking me to see
if there was the murder weapon
missing from this drawer.
And it just all hit me all at once,
and I became hysterical.
[in Italian] She started hitting
the palms of her hands on her ears.
As if there was the memory
of a noise, a sound, a scream.
Meredith's scream.
Undoubtedly, I started
to suspect Amanda.
[Amanda] Pronto.
[Brett in English] Amanda, it's Brett.
What are you doing?
[Amanda] I'm just about to head home
from one of Raffaele's friend's places.
[Brett] So, is Raffaele, like,
your, like, boyfriend?
[Amanda] Yeah.
[Brett] He's super hot?
[Amanda] I'll send you a picture.
[Brett] Do it now. Do it now.
Amanda, I miss you so much.
[Amanda] Yeah, I know...
I had a really bad day today.
Fuck, man.
Like, being in the police station,
I'm incredibly nervous,
and I always feel like
I'm about to burst into crying,
'cause I'm just, like, so upset,
but, um...
Like, I feel good now talking to you.
[Brett] Oh, honey...
Don't worry about it.
Remember, when that happens, go, "Wait.
I'm in Italy and I'm with Raffaele.
And I'm 20, and I'm gonna
look back on this year as, like,
the best year of my life."
[Giuliano in Italian]
The night of the 5th,
we had a breakthrough
in the investigation.
Sollecito is called
into the police station.
Amanda was not called in,
but she follows him anyway.
She was waiting
in the corridor of the police station,
and they were starting to be
very rude to me
and asking me questions about, um...
"What happened that night?"
That night,
I know that I was in my apartment.
I know that I spent the night with Amanda.
I know she slept with me.
But they were not satisfied.
And they were pushing, and aggressive,
and they became the worst of the worst.
This policeman told me
that Amanda lied all the time,
she was a stupid slut, a cow,
that didn't care about me.
"Your situation is very, very bad."
After a long time...
the reality around you
turns to twist and don't be so clear.
[Giuliano in Italian] Then Sollecito
changes his version of the events.
He turned his back on Amanda.
He says,
"So far I've told a bunch of lies,
because she told me to say them.
The truth is I was home that night.
Amanda wasn't with me
and didn't come back until 1:00 a.m."
Let's put ourselves in Amanda's shoes.
You go to the police station
with your boyfriend.
You are in a different room
and don't know what he's saying.
Then at a certain point
they come to tell you,
"Your boyfriend... he's turned on you."
[chiming]
[Amanda in English] They wanted to prove
that I had left.
And they wanted my cell phone.
And I was like,
"Yes, just look at my cell phone.
Like, I did not leave.
I didn't have to work that night.
I was supposed to work,
but I didn't go to work.
I didn't leave."
They fiddled through it
and pulled up this text message
that I had sent to Patrick, which said...
[speaking Italian]
Which, literally, word-for-word is,
"We will see each other later.
Have a good night."
I told them, like,
he sent me this text message saying,
"Don't come in to work."
And so I said, "Okay, see you later then.
Have a good night."
And they said,
"No, what this literally means
is you are going to see someone.
You made an appointment with someone,
and you don't remember.
Clearly, your mind is fucked.
And you're going to be either on our side,
or you're gonna be on the murderer's side.
And what side are you on?"
I got so frazzled by it, I said,
"I don't know what the fuck is going on."
And another of the guys was like,
"'Fuck!' I understand 'fuck.' Fuck you!"
And he thought that I was yelling
"Fuck you" at him.
And I was crying,
and, um, at a certain point,
a police officer slapped me
behind the head,
and was like, "Remember!"
And then he slapped me again
and said, "Remember,"
like, "Get your brain straight."
And I broke.
What started popping in my mind
was the street
in front of Raffaele's apartment...
my front door being open...
Patrick in his brown leather jacket...
and Meredith screaming.
And I thought that meant
that I was remembering
that he had killed her.
[siren blaring]
[Giuliano in Italian] I was shocked.
Because what she said made her
at least an accomplice to the murder.
And Sollecito, why did he lie?
And so I decided to have
all three of them arrested.
[camera shutters clicking rapidly]
[indistinct chatter]
[man in Italian] We feel very sad
for the girl that died,
yet there is also great satisfaction
for the Perugian police
for having found the answers
in such a short time.
The press put pressure on us,
and as a result we felt the responsibility
for a city that wanted
a definitive answer right away.
I can't thank everybody enough
in this entire investigation
for their professionalism
as well as their moral commitment.
[overlapping chatter]
[Nick in English] "Caso chiuso."
Case closed.
You'd have thought they'd busted
some sort of mafioso godfather,
the way they were reacting.
[sirens blaring]
The lawyers are the key ones.
I would get alongside one of the lawyers.
He would hand me over the statements.
I think the photocopying places in Perugia
must have made a fortune those days.
We had these details coming out.
The friends of Meredith were telling us
how Amanda had been behaving
in the waiting room.
One of the friends said to Amanda,
"Well, I hope
Meredith didn't suffer badly."
Amanda said,
"Of course she fucking suffered,
she had her throat fucking cut."
This police officer,
in this disclosure, said,
"Amanda and Raffaele
were kissing each other.
She was performing cartwheels
and doing stretching exercises."
"'Course she did it. She's mad.
She's a complete and utter loon.
I mean, who behaves like that?"
[Edda Mellas] No comment, please.
Are you still convinced
about Amanda's innocence?
No comment.
[Amanda] The guards came to my door
and said, "You have visitors."
They put me in this special little office.
And there was my mom.
And she was crying.
And she reached out for me and...
[Amanda] Mom!
[Amanda] It's okay.
[Edda] I know, it's scary. Are you okay?
[Amanda] Yeah, I'm okay.
[Edda] Okay.
[Amanda sobbing]
[Edda] Amanda, sit down.
Bring a chair over here.
[Amanda sighs] I knew that I had fucked up,
and I felt like I had fucked up,
and that I didn't know what to do.
I felt like a child again.
And I knew... I was a kid.
What was I pretending?
I needed my mom.
And...
[sighing heavily]
[Edda] You know,
the lawyers were saying...
no matter what,
if you had gone in and done the deed,
they just needed to know, for sure,
the truth.
- So that they could--
- [Amanda] Yeah, and I'm telling you--
[Edda] So you have no idea who murdered--
[Amanda] I have no clue. No clue.
Because I was with Raffaele
at his house.
The one thing that's really bugging me
is why Raffaele lied.
[Edda] Well, hopefully,
he's in the same position you are,
that he was being stressed.
[Amanda] Yeah, I feel like
they were smacking him around
or something like that.
[Edda] The lawyers said
something interesting.
They said, "Amanda's been caught up
in something that's way bigger than her."
Because this has turned into
this huge international bullshit story.
[Amanda] Are you serious?
[Edda] Oh, yeah.
Everybody in the family has been
assaulted by the media.
It's gone crazy.
[Nick] We already had good pictures
of Meredith.
She was a terribly attractive woman.
And now we've got
Amanda Knox involved as well.
Pretty blonde girl, 20-something.
It had that sexual intrigue.
[chuckles] Girl-on-girl crime,
if you like.
The pack were in their hotel room,
and everyone was going, "Amanda Knox,"
tap, tap, tap, into their computer.
This picture pops up on MySpace
of Amanda Knox with a machine gun,
laughing hysterically
as she was firing it.
We were thinking, "Wow, great.
She's a complete and utter nutjob."
We had Raffaele Sollecito,
tapped him in,
and there he was, dressed as a mummy,
with a meat cleaver.
I mean, you just couldn't ask
for any better material
to illustrate a story with.
[news anchor] Raffaele collects knives.
He drives a nice car.
He was majoring in engineering.
This guy wasn't very sexually experienced.
She might've been only the second person
that he'd ever had sex with.
And she'd sort of...
got her hooks into him.
[news anchor] She'd been seen nuzzling
with a boyfriend at a local shop
as they bought underwear for her.
The store owner said he heard them
laughing about having hot sex that night,
just a day after her roommate
had been found murdered.
[Nick] "La Femme Fatale,"
"La Dominatrice,"
"Amanda Mangiatrice Di Uomini,"
Amanda the man-eater.
Finally, you have her own name
for herself, "Foxy Knoxy."
It was a perfect headline, really,
the perfect name.
I mean, it was a feeding frenzy
for everyone, basically.
I mean, you were getting front pages.
I don't think I've ever had
so many front pages.
[chuckles]
Front page after front page,
page lead in the paper after page lead.
Just story after story.
[reporter in Italian]
Patrick! How are you, Patrick?
[Patrick in Italian] I'm good.
Thank God I get to go home.
[reporter 2 in Italian] Patrick!
Why did Amanda accuse you?
[reporter 3 in Italian]
What do you think of Amanda?
[reporter 4 in Italian] Why did Amanda
say those things?
[Giuliano in Italian]
Why did she falsely accuse him?
Can you give me an answer?
I think it's a little bit hard, huh?
The only reason would be
to divert the investigation away from her.
[Amanda in English]
And so in comes Giuliano Mignini.
I just remember that he was a big man,
very solemn.
[in Italian] I asked her,
"Why did you accuse Patrick?"
[Amanda in English] Why? I was stressed.
I was scared.
It was after long hours.
It was in the middle of the night.
I was innocent, and they were telling me
that I was guilty.
[Giuliano in Italian]
For the record, she's crying.
[in English] I told him it was because
they had said that I had met him.
They had shown me his text message
and said that I had met him,
and that I must have not remembered it
because it was so traumatizing.
[in Italian]
She kept insisting and insisting,
"They told me to say Lumumba's name.
They told me to. They told me to."
I didn't understand this.
Earlier she said
that it could have been true.
[Amanda in English] In that moment,
I thought it could have been true.
[in Italian] Usually a person says,
"That's true" or "That's not true."
But Amanda had a very unusual
way of reasoning.
She kept going between dream and reality.
He just kept asking the question again.
Again and again and again.
"No, why did you...
Why did you say, 'Patrick Lumumba'?"
You made me believe I met Patrick Lumumba.
Therefore, I said Patrick Lumumba.
It wasn't the answer that he wanted,
and I realized that, and I...
was devastated.
Like, when that happened,
I realized that they weren't
ever going to listen to me again.
[in Italian] This is Amanda's weakness.
She can't stand being questioned.
And she also has an attitude...
hostility and rebellion toward authority.
It's a little bit anarchist.
[stutters]
I don't know if there is
such an attitude in Seattle.
This I don't know.
It's possible to speculate of course,
but instead I choose to stick
to the facts.
[Nick] I've always wanted to be
a journalist ever since I was a kid.
I mean, everyone knows
Woodward and Bernstein.
I mean, I wouldn't dream of putting
myself in their shoes or anything,
but I'm naturally nosy as well,
which is always a good talent to have,
if you like,
if you can call it a talent,
to be a journalist.
Amanda was in a cell at Capanne jail
with two other inmates.
She obviously underwent
a medical examination.
She had a blood test,
and they then told her
that she was HIV-positive
and that she was going to develop AIDS.
I remember she was writing in her diary
that she was terrified.
She was saying that she wanted
to have a family,
and that idea was now scuppered.
And then she was, sort of,
listing all her lovers and saying
oh, she remembered using protection
with that one,
and not with that one.
And this was all in her diary,
which, again, was leaked.
I mean, I managed
to get ahold of it as well.
I was probably one of the first people
who managed to get ahold of it.
[interviewer] How did that diary even
get to the press?
[chuckles]
Well, we never...
we never reveal our sources.
That's the key thing.
'Cause you do that,
and then you're just betraying all
your journalistic principles, aren't you?
And then it turned out
that she didn't have HIV,
and it was just mind games
being played on her
by the police and the prosecution.
At the time, people were saying,
"Oh, how could you do that?
How could you cover such a story?
And how could you be involved?"
And yet at the same time,
these are the same people who are...
logging onto the Internet
first thing in the morning,
trying to find out the latest details,
you know?
[thunder rumbling]
[car door closes]
[in Italian] Enough.
You've already filmed enough.
[shutters clicking]
[indistinct chatter]
[phone ringing]
[man] Hello? Come over here.
We are at Sollecito's.
[Giuliano] The knife that was used
in the murder still hadn't been found.
They did a search at Sollecito's house.
They went into the kitchen
and found a number of knives.
And they found one that matched
the characteristics of the murder.
It is a kitchen knife found
in Sollecito's house,
which he shared with Amanda Knox.
The knife.
The knife is a fundamental element.
Amanda's DNA was found on the handle.
Meredith's DNA was found
on the tip of the blade.
The knife was found
after a search ordered by me.
[Amanda in English]
The knife, I could not explain.
There was no reason for my DNA
to have been on a handle,
and Meredith's DNA
to have been on the blade.
It was impossible.
[man in Italian] It's soaked in blood.
Therefore, she had it on her
when she was killed.
[woman] This has been ripped.
[man] The part with the clasp is missing.
[man 2] Here it is.
[Giuliano] After some time,
we found that Meredith's bra clasp
contained traces of Sollecito's DNA.
This is a very significant fact.
I remember my colleagues
complimenting me and saying,
"At this point,
there's no hope for the two of them."
[Raffaele] I grew up in the southern part
of Italy, close to the sea.
I was very shy.
And I didn't date girls.
Who cares when you can have
the new Sega Mega Drive or PlayStation?
So, when I was with Amanda,
I was so happy to enjoy life
and to enjoy my new relationship.
Why should I go and murder a girl?
This, for me, is craziness.
Now, I'm taking part of this nightmare,
on this tragedy,
and my life is going to be destroyed...
forever by all this...
if nothing changes.
[Giuliano in Italian] I remember
that we were nearby Sollecito's house.
Lumumba was no longer a suspect.
But the police told me
they had found proof
Meredith had definitely been killed
by three people.
[news anchor 1 in English]
For a bizarre case
with so many twists and turns,
let's start with the latest one.
[news anchor 2]
Police have been unable to identify
a number of fingerprints
where Meredith died.
[news reporter 3] And they say
they also found feces in the bathroom.
[Giuliano in Italian] They found traces
in Meredith's vagina...
and then there were the prints.
They were sure that the man
who had left the traces...
was Rudy Herman Guede.
[Nick in English] Rudy Guede had a bit
of form for breaking and entering.
Locals, as well, had told us
that he was a slippery character.
Fly-by-night guy.
But by this time,
he'd already fled the country.
And police were able to track down
one of his best friends
to have a Skype conversation with him.
[Rudy Guede in Italian] You there?
[Rudy] Can you hear me?
[informant] Yes.
[Rudy] The girl who's been killed...
I met her the previous evening.
The next day, I went to her house,
but we didn't do anything
because neither of us had a condom.
And so I went to the bathroom.
After that, I heard screaming
and I quickly came out of the bathroom.
I saw this guy.
I didn't see his face because it was dark.
Then he ran out the front door.
I saw Meredith, who was bleeding.
She had a cut on her throat.
She was clinging on me strongly.
I got scared.
I was completely covered with blood.
Fuck, I'm scared.
I'll kill myself.
[shutters clicking rapidly]
[Giuliano] An international
arrest warrant was issued.
And he was arrested.
[indistinct chatter]
[Amanda in English] Oh, my God!
Just the idea of knowing
who could have done it.
Like, I know him, kind of.
I've seen him before with the neighbors.
Like, we ran into him
and we were talking to him or whatever.
And then, I think I saw him
play basketball with them once.
And then, I think once
I saw him at my work.
But, like, I don't even know his name.
[Valter in Italian] Rudy has always
maintained that he didn't kill anyone.
But any good lawyer
must be aware of the fact
that a judge may not believe your client.
Rudy's presence in the house
is undisputed.
If we'd had a trial
with the other two defendants,
Rudy would run the risk
of being blamed for everything,
and Rudy might be
the only one convicted.
So I decided we'd go
for a fast-track trial
to separate the two trials.
[shutters clicking rapidly]
[Nick in English]
Once Rudy's trial begins,
there is this interesting revelation.
So, in those initial Skype conversations,
Rudy is telling his friend that Amanda
is nowhere near the crime scene.
He's saying that they had
nothing to do with it.
But then...
He then changes his story.
[in Italian] Through the window,
I saw the silhouette
of Amanda Knox leaving the house.
[Nick in English] No one was really
that bothered about Rudy.
I mean, obviously we gave it
the cursory coverage.
We had covered his trial,
covered his sentence.
But at the end of the day,
there was no interest in him.
[interviewer] Who was more interesting?
Amanda.
[news anchor 1] The cult of the girl
known as "Foxy Knoxy"
is why Italians are calling this
the trial of the decade.
[news anchor 2] You're talking about it,
everyone is talking about it.
[overlapping voices] Sex.
A drug-fueled sex game.
Drug-fueled sex game.
[news anchor 3]
A drug-fueled sex game gone wrong.
[in Italian] Calm down, calm down!
There is room enough for everybody!
You have to go back to your place.
[indistinct chatter]
[woman] Go away, please!
[man] Madame,
you can't push like that.
I didn't do anything to you.
[Giuliano] When the trial started,
I thought that everything would be easy.
There was direct evidence,
like the DNA proof,
but there is not only the DNA.
Amanda was a girl that was
very uninhibited.
She would bring boys home.
Hearing Meredith's friends...
If you could imagine a girl different
from Amanda in every imaginable way,
it would have been Meredith.
That night,
let's imagine what Meredith finds.
She sees suddenly in her house Amanda,
which is okay.
But Sollecito and Rudy.
And she's like, "What?"
Meredith couldn't take it anymore.
She must have scolded Amanda
for her lack of morals.
[reporter] How did it go today?
[Giuliano] Amanda must have felt
humiliated, irritated.
"So, you want to judge
my morals so harshly?
Now I'm going to show you
what will happen..."
She is a very proud girl.
Here's a first clash.
And then there's a crescendo of attacks.
I am convinced that Sollecito and Rudy
were trying to indulge Amanda
in every possible way that night.
Pleasure at any cost.
This is at the heart of most crimes.
[news anchor 1 in English]
After nearly a year of testimony,
Italy's so-called trial of the century
has come to a close.
[news anchor 2] Amanda Knox may
know her fate as early as tomorrow.
There may be a verdict.
[bell tolling]
[man] Amanda! Amanda!
[shutters clicking rapidly]
[Giuliano in Italian] The moment before
the court reads the verdict
is one of the most tense moments
one can experience in life,
especially for the defendant
because it is about their destiny.
Asking for the conviction,
such a severe penalty of two young people
on a human level, costs a lot.
I look at myself in the mirror
and I'm lucky not to be ashamed of myself,
there is no doubt
about the guilt of the pair.
[judge] Please,
there are too many cameras.
Please, please.
One cannot get in.
[reporters clamoring]
[judge] Given Articles 533 and 535
of the Penal Proceedings Code...
we declare Knox, Amanda Marie,
and Sollecito, Raffaele
guilty of the crimes charged.
They are convicted to a sentence
of 26 years in prison for Knox
and a sentence of 25 years
for Sollecito.
[reporters clamoring]
[indistinct chatter]
[news anchor in English]
With the white-hot glare
of reporters and cameras
Amanda was led away in a black van,
just moments after the verdict was read.
[in Italian] She's a murderer.
She's a liar.
[news anchor 2 in English] The verdict
floored an unsuspecting Knox family.
So convinced were they
of their daughter's innocence,
they'd brought her younger sisters
along to court.
[in English] Move.
[reporter] When do you hope
to lodge an appeal, sir?
The second we can.
[indistinct chatter]
Everyone in the room here obviously
associates Meredith with a tragic event,
but we would prefer
not to remember her in that way.
[Stephanie] It does bring just that
little bit of justice for us, for her.
[Lyle Kercher] Ultimately, you know,
we are pleased with the decision,
but it's not a time for celebration
at the end of the day.
[indistinct chatter]
[Giuliano in Italian]
Normally, people say that
"Nobody is a prophet in his own country,"
but that's not what I experienced.
Complete strangers would come up to me
and ask to shake my hand.
They would congratulate me.
It gives me satisfaction.
Because Perugia is my little homeland.
[keys jingling]
[Amanda in English] Suddenly, I found
myself tossed into this dark place.
[Amanda inhales and gulps]
I was so scared.
Like, who do you turn to?
What do you do?
I thought about suicide.
I thought about all the ways
that I could do it.
Me not coming home again
until I'm in my 50s...
until members of my family have died.
I was poisoned.
[sighs]
I don't know what else to say.
[inaudible]
[Raffaele] I spent almost six months
in solitary confinement.
I was...
I was getting to depression.
Who can help me?
Who can take me off from this?
I was thinking about Amanda.
And I wanted to send her flowers
for her birthday.
To say, "I'm here. I'm by your side.
I still have feelings for you."
But she clearly told me that her feelings
were completely changed.
This moment was kind of bitter...
even though I've known her
only for five days.
That five days were everything.
[camera shutter clicking rapidly]
[indistinct chatter]
[news anchor 1] The convicted killer,
Amanda Knox, was back in court today.
They called her "Foxy Knoxy."
Looked a little more pale today,
skinnier than had been in the past.
Maybe could use hair and makeup,
but I guess you don't get that in jail.
[news anchor 2] In an unexpected plea
to the court,
Knox delivered
a tear-filled declaration of innocence.
[Amanda in Italian] I never expected
to find myself here,
convicted of a crime I didn't commit.
To Meredith's family,
I'm very sorry
that Meredith isn't here anymore.
I can't possibly know how you feel,
but I too have little sisters.
The idea of their suffering...
[Amanda cries and voice breaks]
and never seeing them again terrifies me.
[news anchor 2] A legal victory
for American Amanda Knox,
who is appealing her murder conviction
in Italy.
The appeals court gave the go-ahead
for an independent review
of crucial DNA evidence.
Among the pieces of evidence that
an outside expert will now re-examine,
a knife and a bra clasp, both considered
crucial to Knox's conviction.
[Dr. Stefano Conti in Italian]
Let it be clear
how easy it is to leave traces of DNA.
You move your hand on your arm,
that small amount of fine dust,
those are all DNA traces which we spread
within the area where we are
in that particular moment.
Therefore, a crime scene
must be kept completely sterile.
That's not what happened in this case.
In the video taken by the forensic police,
there was a lot of chaos.
You can see clearly a coming and going
of people without protective suits.
Booties were not changed.
And they rarely change their gloves.
In other words, total chaos.
[glass shattering]
Chaos.
That, the forensic police
expressed themselves.
[officer 1] This is absurd. Really absurd.
[officer 2] I criticized it harshly.
[officer 1] There's unbelievable
disorganization in every respect.
[Dr. Vecchiotti] Contamination was
one of the issues raised by the court.
Could there be a contamination?
The bra clasp was found under a small rug
46 days after the murder.
[Dr. Conti] After 46 days,
it's possible that other people
could have brought DNA traces
from the hallway, the bathroom,
kitchen or other rooms,
into Meredith's room.
[Dr. Vecchiotti] In fact, on the clasp,
there's Sollecito's DNA profile,
but there were at least two others.
But the police never noted them
as evidence.
DNA must be objective.
You can't interpret it
for what you want it to be.
And I must say that...
there were also problems
with contamination in the laboratory.
The forensics police
definitively identified Amanda's profile.
You could see it very well.
It was a good profile.
But with regards to Meredith's DNA found,
it was such a small amount, so scarce.
When you have such scarce DNA,
the likelihood of contamination
is very high.
So we asked the forensic police,
"When analyzing the knife,
did you analyze it alone,
without any other evidence?"
And she replied, "No, we examined
50 of Kercher's samples at the same time.
The laboratory couldn't just shut down
because Kercher had died."
When she reported these things,
I was sure the results
were because of contamination.
- [indistinct chatter]
- [camera shutters clicking]
[Nick in English] When it came out,
I mean, it was just... crazy.
The botched investigation
and the bungled forensic work.
I remember audible gasps from the press
and from everyone in the court.
We're all looking, as journalists,
for that great angle or that great line.
And when you see something like that,
you just think,
"Brilliant.
It's manna from heaven, it really is."
Amanda Knox's hand was said
to have been on that knife.
It was said to have
murdered the victim in this case.
No DNA.
What?
This is Italy, Shepard, it's a crazy...
It's a little different
than we're used to.
Bunga bunga.
- [laughing]
- One of... The one guy who...
The thing I can't wrap
my mind around, though,
is if the DNA evidence isn't credible,
how did things get to this point?
You really believe
that Americans should intervene
at the top levels of our government?
I think the president should get involved.
I think people should boycott Italy.
They shouldn't go to Italy.
[in Italian] It bothered me that the
American media lectured us about the law.
This courthouse, in 1308,
housed the first faculty of law in Europe.
In America, in 1308,
they were drawing buffalos in caves.
[Giuliano] I was irritated
by all this avalanche of attacks,
especially against me and the police.
The American media was focusing
only on the DNA.
Every piece of proof has aspects...
of uncertainty.
That's why evidence needs to be
evaluated in its entirety.
I hear talk...
"For me, Amanda is guilty
because she said too many lies."
I have to remind you that her behavior
was completely inexplicable.
Totally irrational.
There's no doubt of this.
[Amanda in Knox] There is no trace of me
in the room where Meredith was murdered,
and there's no reliable trace of Raffaele
in the room where Meredith was murdered.
But you're trying to find the answer
in my eyes,
when the answer's right over there.
You're looking at me.
Why?
These are my eyes.
They're not objective evidence.
What's more likely?
That I...
get together this boyfriend that I've had
and this guy,
who I don't even know his name,
tell them to rape my roommate
and then let me stab her to death?
Or...
that a guy,
who regularly committed burglaries,
broke into my home...
found Meredith...
took advantage of her...
killed her...
and ran off?
A burglary gone wrong.
[Giuliano in Italian] It has been said to
me it could have been no one but Rudy.
It's him, and only him.
Well, I don't think that's very fair.
[Dr. Conti] We absolutely cannot speak
about the figure of Rudy Guede.
What happened inside that room
between Guede and poor Meredith
wasn't part of the job assigned to me
by the Court of Appeals of Perugia.
I do feel compelled
to say something Cicero once said...
"Any man is liable to make mistakes...
but only the fool
perseveres in error."
[interviewer] Do you think you did
a good job defending Rudy?
Ask the others.
[interviewer] I don't understand.
Ask the others who had a better defense
if Rudy's defense was a good defense.
Rudy will be getting out shortly.
The others still have to face a trial.
[Giuliano] The decision is yours,
to try to bring justice
and defend the honor of this country,
which is a sovereign state.
[news anchor 1 in English]
Four years after the brutal murder
of British roommate Meredith Kercher,
it's all come down to this.
[news anchor 2] Outside the courthouse,
the world awaits.
Frenzied journalists from around the globe
all counting down the moments
until Amanda Knox's fate is revealed.
[news anchor 3]
Amanda is at the courthouse,
and will be brought into
the courtroom shortly,
where she will hear the verdict read.
[camera shutters clicking rapidly]
[in Italian]
In the name of the Italian people,
in review of the first trial verdict,
this Court of Appeals
absolves the two defendants
because they did not commit the crime,
and orders the immediate release
of Knox, Amanda and Sollecito, Raffaele.
[scattered cheering]
[reporters clamoring]
[crying]
[news anchor]
The 24-year-old Seattle native
collapsed in the arms of her lawyers
as her family,
all gathered in the courtroom,
swept each other up in their arms.
Outside the courthouse,
however, a different reaction.
Great disappointment among people out here
that Amanda Knox has been found not guilty
in the murder of Meredith Kercher.
[in Italian] It's a shame! Shut up!
[man] The court has said
that they are acquitted,
but there will be the Supreme Court!
Let's not give up! This is a shame!
[crowd chanting] Shame!
[news anchor] And breaking news tonight,
Amanda Knox finally home.
That was the plane
carrying her and her family.
This is actually a live picture now.
A crush of media and well-wishers
are waiting for her
at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport.
[reporter 1] There she is, there she is,
there she is, there she is, there she is.
[reporter 2] She's there.
[reporter 1] She's there.
[reporter 2] She's there.
[reporter 1] She's there.
[reporter 3] She is coming
down the stairs.
[reporter 1] She's coming down the stairs.
[reporter 3] She's coming down the stairs.
[reporter 1] Coming down the stairs.
What's important for me to say
is just thank you to everyone
who's believed in me...
[gasping] who has defended me,
who has supported my family.
[voice breaking] I just want...
My family's the most important thing
to me right now,
and I just wanna go and be with them.
So, thank you for being there for me.
[crowd cheering]
[Raffaele] When I went back home,
the first thing that I did
was stare in the fridge.
And I was looking at it
like something incredibly new,
like I was a primitive, uh, man.
I was free. I was joyful.
But all of a sudden,
I was, um, dramatically depressed again,
'cause I didn't know how to start again.
Everything was new.
I spent four years in prison,
six months in solitary.
How can I get used to this life
that I didn't want?
I was a simple computer guy.
Now everybody knows me.
They look at me on the street,
they ask me questions.
Uh, they treat me like a movie star,
when I'm not.
And I'm inside a tragedy still.
[reporter] Congratulations.
Congratulations, Amanda.
- Please leave me alone, please.
- [reporter chuckles] Welcome home.
Welcome home, Amanda.
Does it feel good to be home?
What did you miss most about Seattle?
[news anchor] It's really a matter of
what does she do with this newfound fame?
Does she write the book
and move on with her life?
Does she then try to go on
Dancing with the Stars?
That's where we're gonna really see
what her motivations are.
[reporter 1] What movie offers
have you received?
That's not our focus
at this point in time.
Our focus is her, uh, well-being.
[reporter 2] Are you aware that,
I suppose,
the longer you leave it, in a sense,
the less, you know, the less money
you're going to get ultimately?
What you mean is?
[reporter 2] Well, you're not such...
She's not such a hot property
on an interview term if you wait a month.
Um...
I'm not looking at her
as a hot property.
[Amanda] I really thought
that I was going to be okay.
But I wasn't the same person
to come back to Seattle.
The whole world knew
who I had ever had sex with.
Seven men.
And yet, I was some heinous whore.
Bestial and sex-obsessed and unnatural.
I'd get into a line at the grocery store
and the person behind me is like,
"Whoa!
It's you!
I know you!"
And I really wanna turn to them and say,
"Who the fuck are you?
And you don't know me."
You have to wonder what is it
that everyone really cares about?
But how entertaining.
[indistinct chatter]
[reporters clamoring]
[news anchor 1] Italy's top appeals court
is to rule today
on whether to uphold the conviction
of American Amanda Knox
and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito
for the murder
of British student Meredith Kercher.
[news anchor 2] Amanda Knox's
Italian attorney this morning says,
"Amanda is worried
and has had a sleepless night.
Meredith Kercher's family
has made its wishes clear.
They are convinced of Amanda's guilt
and would like to see her imprisoned
back where this all began, in Italy."
[reporter in Italian] It's a countdown
to when the verdict should be read.
Phones had to be turned off
inside the courtroom.
They'll be turned on as soon
as the judge finishes reading,
and then we'll learn the sentence.
[man] Attention!
The news is that Raffaele Sollecito
and Amanda Knox have been exonerated.
- [woman gasps] Oh, my God! What?
- [man] Holy shit!
[all exclaiming and cheering]
[exclaims]
I know! This is crazy!
[laughing]
Raffaele?
[in Italian] We're free!
How are you?
I'm so happy for you.
I'm so happy for us.
[all shouting]
[cheering]
Much love and we'll talk soon.
Bye.
- [woman 1 in English] Oh, my God.
- [woman 2] Oh, my God!
[Arlene Kercher] The first reaction
was one of surprise. Uh...
They've had two convictions...
um...
and they've had two acquittals now.
It seems an awful long time
to get such a strange verdict.
Um, eight years.
So it's sort of bringing
everything into disrepute.
[Nick] I think at the end of the day,
you have to point the finger
at the police, really,
and the prosecution.
They made some really heinous errors
and they got fixated on some wild theories
that they were absolutely obsessed with.
I know people keep saying
"Trial by media, trial by media," but...
I don't buy that.
Maybe 'cause I'm a journalist so
I don't go for that, but... [chuckles]
I think now, looking back,
some of the information that came out
was just crazy, really,
and just completely made up.
But, hey, what are we supposed to do,
you know?
We are journalists and we are reporting
what we are being told.
It's not as if I can say,
"Right, hold on a minute.
I just wanna double check that myself
in some other way."
I mean, goodness knows how.
And then I let my rival get in there
first before me,
and then, hey, I've lost a scoop.
It doesn't work like that.
Not in the news game.
[Giuliano in Italian] During the trial
there was a woman who...
She said I was the devil.
[in English] "You are evil."
[in Italian] I can say
that I've made mistakes,
even things that I have had to confess,
but we are all between good and evil.
It's in our human nature.
Amanda and Sollecito,
if they are innocent,
I hope they're able to forget
the suffering that they've endured.
If they're guilty,
if earthly justice didn't get to them,
I hope they own their guilt,
because I know that life ends
with a final trial.
A trial with no appeals,
no second chances, and no revisions.
[boat engine humming]
[Amanda] I think people love monsters.
And so when they get the chance,
they want to see them.
It's people projecting their fears.
They want the reassurance that...
they know who the bad people are,
and it's not them.
So maybe that's what it is.
We're all afraid.
And fear makes people crazy.
[radio chimes]
[officer speaking Italian]
Perugia Police Department.
The address is 7 Via della Pergola.
[dispatcher] Marco, listen.
Do you understand
there's a dead girl here?
[officer] The request is from Amanda.
Amanda Knox.
[man] Bra.
They covered her.
Shit.
Shit.
[Amanda Knox in English]
There are those who believe in my innocence.
And there are those
who believe in my guilt.
There's no in between.
And if I'm guilty...
it means that I am
the ultimate figure to fear.
Because I'm not the obvious one.
But on the other hand,
if I'm innocent,
it means that everyone's vulnerable.
And that's everyone's nightmare.
Either I'm a psychopath
in sheep's clothing,
or I am you.
You can see that this
does not look like grief,
does not read as grief.
I think everyone's reaction
to something horrible is different.
Your roommates, your boyfriend, the cops,
they all say the same thing.
They thought you were responding weird.
Odd. Strange.
What makes you strange?
[woman] If you google the name
"Amanda Knox," you get 7.1 million hits.
You all know better than anybody
that hundreds of thousands
of those are not kind.
[interviewer]
"She-devil with an angel face.
Heartless manipulator.
Concertante of sex."
[interviewer] Were you into deviant sex?
Insensitive question, but, hey,
we gotta get to what it is.
This fuels the doubt.
Did you have any type
of experimental activities there
you're embarrassed to talk about?
[interviewer]
Did you kill Meredith Kercher?
No.
- Were you there that night?
- No.
Do you know anything
you have not told police?
- Do you know anything?
- No.
[car alarm beeps]
[Amanda] Before Italy, I had a happy life.
[Amanda's sister] All right, Amanda.
Are you excited to see David?
David? David?
[Amanda's sister]
David, the statue of David.
Oh. [chuckles]
- God damn.
- Good one. [chuckles]
[Amanda] I was quirky
and I was okay with that.
And I was ridiculous
and I was okay with that.
I thought of myself as, like,
a warrior princess.
I'm like Xena! [laughs]
I remember thinking,
"Okay, I'm different.
I'm my own person,
but I'm gonna find my place."
- [meowing]
- [Amanda] Yeah, I know, I know.
I know.
Going into college,
I felt a little behind.
[woman] One shot. One shot, Amanda.
[man] Don't you dare.
- It was one and a half, okay?
- [woman] It was one shot.
One and a half.
[Amanda] I didn't depend on myself much.
And I felt like it was very important
for me to get out of my comfort zone
and see if that made me
turn into an adult.
Italy has so much history.
Ruins, art, vineyards.
And I thought,
"I will find myself in this new place."
[Amanda's sister] So are you excited
to go live in Italy?
Fuckin' yeah, bitch.
Those first weeks,
I was discovering what the city was.
I was living with these Italian women
and a British girl my age,
who was super sophisticated.
And we had this beautiful house
that overlooked this valley, like,
I was owning it. [chuckles]
I was expecting that I was going to be
part of this scholarly program.
And it was zero work.
And so I thought,
"Okay, I might as well get a job."
Patrick Lumumba was
trying to get his bar off the ground.
And he hired me hoping
it would bring in customers.
I swear to God,
I don't know what it is about people
who think that guys
are not attractive physically, but...
[whistles]
[Amanda] In Seattle, I was cute.
In Italy, I was the beautiful,
blonde American girl.
That, I had never been before.
[orchestra playing]
[Raffaele Sollecito]
I went to a classical music concert
and there was this girl alone.
She was very, very pretty.
[stutters] When I looked at her,
she looked at me back.
I was so shy
that even if she looked at me,
she smiled at me,
I was turning back and said,
"Is she looking at somebody in my back?"
[chuckles]
It was not. It was me.
So after I realized it, I said,
"Why not talking?"
He immediately recognized from my accent
that I was American or spoke English
and so he started speaking
to me in English, because he can.
Um, or at least, kinda.
[Raffaele] I showed her a beautiful
panorama of Perugia,
which, for me, was very romantic, and...
I had my heart beating so fast, like...
You know, like,
"Oh, there's the romance now." [chuckles]
And... I kissed her.
[laughing]
Compared to so many other guys
who were just automatically, like,
"Hey, baby."
Like, he was super nice
and I was completely charmed.
And... yeah.
Well, we went to home.
I started to smoke,
to try to prepare a joint
or something like that,
but then we thought about
something different.
And the night closed with a happy ending.
[bell tolling]
[Amanda] I had never been in love before.
From there on out,
like as soon as I got out of class,
we were going on walks together,
and getting pizza,
and going to the outdoor market.
And he wanted to get me a perfume,
because all Italian ladies have perfumes.
It was just a week,
but we spent every single day
with each other taking pictures...
smoking pot...
and making love.
[news anchor in Italian]
Good evening from the Umbria TV news,
which opens with sad news.
Meredith Kercher, an English 22-year-old,
was found dead in her house
on Via della Pergola.
Everything discovered so far
suggests she's been murdered.
[indistinct chatter]
[Giuliano Mignini] The crime scene.
It's a memory that will always be with me.
There was blood everywhere.
The girl's naked body had been covered.
There were signs that she'd been
violently held down.
Mostly on her arms.
Her throat had an extremely deep wound.
It struck me because of how deep it was.
I asked,
"Is a monster responsible for this?"
Outside, I saw two young people.
They were comforting each other
with an affection
inappropriate for the moment.
[camera shutter clicking rapidly]
[man] Make sure to
shoot the body bag if it comes out.
[officer] Enough, please stop it.
As a courtesy, please stop!
Have some dignity.
[camera shutters clicking rapidly]
[Nick Pisa in English]
A murder always gets people going.
Bit of intrigue.
Bit of mystery.
A whodunit.
And we have here this beautiful,
picturesque hilltop town
in the middle of Italy.
It was a particularly gruesome murder.
Throat slit, semi-naked, blood everywhere.
I mean... [chuckles]
what more do you want in a story?
I mean, all you're missing is maybe,
I don't know,
the Royal Family and the Pope
or something like that as well.
This was the first time
I'd ever covered a case in Perugia.
So obviously the first thing you need
to do is get to the main players.
'Cause obviously to get the facts,
you've gotta be on the scene, really.
You've gotta be Johnny-on-the-spot.
The authorities in Perugia were under
an intense amount of pressure.
As we say in Italy, there's this phrase,
"bella figura," a beautiful figure,
a beautiful impression.
Keeping up appearances.
They found themselves
on the international media map
and they just wanted to show
that they were capable of dealing with
something of this... of this scale.
[Stephanie Kercher]
Nothing can prepare you for the news
we received on Friday evening.
Words can't even describe
how we feel right now
other than utterly devastated
at the tragic loss of our daughter
and sister Meredith.
We feel it's no exaggeration to say
that Meredith touched the lives
of everyone she met
with her infectious, upbeat personality,
smile, and sense of humor.
We loved Meredith then.
We love her still.
And she's still very much
a part of our family forever.
[Giuliano in Italian]
Meredith's mother came.
And she asked to see her daughter.
And I remember
she was absorbed in silence.
And then she made a gesture.
She asked if she could give her a kiss.
I have a family,
I'm the father of four girls.
Therefore, I understood her immense pain.
I am Catholic.
So I believe in two things
that are hard to reconcile.
That God runs the world.
But also that man has free will...
and must be held responsible
for their actions.
[indistinct chatter]
[journalist] Investigators are working
around the clock
to figure out the motive,
people she knew,
and possible romantic relationships.
Investigators are not ruling out
any motive.
Tomorrow, they'll do the autopsy.
[Nick in English] The whole place
was just awash with journalists.
So any nugget, any scrap, anything new,
you were just trying to get it out
ahead of your competitor.
We were all camped outside the mortuary
waiting for the pathologist to come out.
I spoke good Italian
and I think also they liked the fact that,
"Wow, I've got
a British journalist talking to me.
[stuttering] I'm now a big star as well."
And I was allowed
to come report the facts.
The post-mortem concluded
that there had been
some sort of sexual interference
with Meredith's body.
Traces of male DNA in her body.
And I remember him telling me that
there were also little nicks in her chin,
as if someone had been taunting her,
sort of torturing her.
That's when the police and the prosecution
started saying that it was a group crime.
A sex game gone wrong.
And we managed to get it out
to the British press before anyone else.
And that was the scoop that we had,
and it made headlines all over the world.
To see your name on the front page
with a great story
that everyone's talking about...
it's just a fantastic buzz.
I mean, I'd like to say it's like
having sex or something like that.
[chuckles] You know?
[bell tolling]
[Amanda] Meredith was my friend
of a few weeks.
We weren't lifetime best friends.
But I was so shocked
by what happened to her.
It made no sense.
It was brutal.
And it could've happened to me.
But I was at Raffaele's apartment
the night of the murder.
We watched Amlie,
and in the middle of watching Amlie,
I got a text message from Patrick saying
that I didn't have to come into work,
and I was like, "Yes!"
We finished watching the movie.
We made dinner.
And I read to him
from a German Harry Potter book.
And after that we just hung out
on his bed and talked
and made goofy faces at each other.
And eventually that turned into kissing
which turned into the making love
and then passing out.
The next morning, I wake up,
I told him that I was gonna
go back to my place.
So I went there. [sighs]
Um, I just walked down.
And the first thing that I saw was
that my front door was already open.
The common area was normal.
My room was normal,
normal messy, but normal.
And I got undressed
and I walked into the bathroom.
And I noticed that there was
some drops of blood in the sink.
But... I mean, there were just
a few drops of blood.
Whatever. Um...
I brushed my teeth.
And then I took a shower.
When I stepped out of the shower
onto the bath mat,
that's when I noticed the larger
splotch of blood on the bath mat.
But there's only some spots of blood
and then that,
so maybe someone cut themselves,
something like that.
It was right after I was done
blow-drying my hair
that I just happened
to look over into the toilet
and saw that feces had been left there.
That gave me the creeps.
Like, all of a sudden
I got this creepy feeling
like someone was in the house with me.
And I was just like, "Oh, shit."
So, I went to Raffaele
and I talked to him about it.
[Raffaele] I went back there.
I saw all this mess.
It was very weird.
And I was a little bit surprised
that she took a shower inside her house
without having the anxiety of it.
We tried Meredith's room
and the door was locked,
which was very strange.
And so I knocked gently
and called for Meredith.
And then I knocked louder
and I called for Meredith.
And finally I was like,
"Raffaele, can you please, like,
try to break open this door?
I don't know if Meredith's
in there or not."
And he tried kicking it down twice,
but it didn't work.
[phone chimes]
[Raffaele in Italian]
Hello, good morning, listen...
someone made a mess
and there is a door closed.
And there are also blood marks
in the bathroom.
[dispatcher] Which door is closed?
[Raffaele] One of the roommates.
We don't know where she is.
[dispatcher] I am sending a police car
so that we can inspect the situation.
[Amanda in English] The police, like,
kicked us all out of the house.
Kicked down Meredith's door.
And they were saying that her...
Like, there was blood everywhere
and that her throat had been slit and...
And so that's how I was told
that Meredith was dead.
[Giuliano in Italian] I have always had
a great passion for investigating.
I like detective movies a lot.
Sherlock Holmes, for example.
He was able to get clues
from seemingly insignificant events.
Why was the girl covered with the blanket?
A woman who has killed
tends to cover the body of female victims.
A man would never think to do this.
The thing that struck me the most
was the break-in.
Nothing had been stolen.
And there was no evidence
that someone had climbed the wall.
Immediately, I could tell
it was a staged break-in.
It could have no other function than this,
throw off suspicion from someone
who has a connection to the house.
[Amanda in English] The next day,
they brought me back to my place.
It was the first time
I was back in my apartment
after it had been closed off
as a crime scene.
And they were having me
go through the knife drawer
to see if any of the knives were missing.
So basically they were asking me to see
if there was the murder weapon
missing from this drawer.
And it just all hit me all at once,
and I became hysterical.
[in Italian] She started hitting
the palms of her hands on her ears.
As if there was the memory
of a noise, a sound, a scream.
Meredith's scream.
Undoubtedly, I started
to suspect Amanda.
[Amanda] Pronto.
[Brett in English] Amanda, it's Brett.
What are you doing?
[Amanda] I'm just about to head home
from one of Raffaele's friend's places.
[Brett] So, is Raffaele, like,
your, like, boyfriend?
[Amanda] Yeah.
[Brett] He's super hot?
[Amanda] I'll send you a picture.
[Brett] Do it now. Do it now.
Amanda, I miss you so much.
[Amanda] Yeah, I know...
I had a really bad day today.
Fuck, man.
Like, being in the police station,
I'm incredibly nervous,
and I always feel like
I'm about to burst into crying,
'cause I'm just, like, so upset,
but, um...
Like, I feel good now talking to you.
[Brett] Oh, honey...
Don't worry about it.
Remember, when that happens, go, "Wait.
I'm in Italy and I'm with Raffaele.
And I'm 20, and I'm gonna
look back on this year as, like,
the best year of my life."
[Giuliano in Italian]
The night of the 5th,
we had a breakthrough
in the investigation.
Sollecito is called
into the police station.
Amanda was not called in,
but she follows him anyway.
She was waiting
in the corridor of the police station,
and they were starting to be
very rude to me
and asking me questions about, um...
"What happened that night?"
That night,
I know that I was in my apartment.
I know that I spent the night with Amanda.
I know she slept with me.
But they were not satisfied.
And they were pushing, and aggressive,
and they became the worst of the worst.
This policeman told me
that Amanda lied all the time,
she was a stupid slut, a cow,
that didn't care about me.
"Your situation is very, very bad."
After a long time...
the reality around you
turns to twist and don't be so clear.
[Giuliano in Italian] Then Sollecito
changes his version of the events.
He turned his back on Amanda.
He says,
"So far I've told a bunch of lies,
because she told me to say them.
The truth is I was home that night.
Amanda wasn't with me
and didn't come back until 1:00 a.m."
Let's put ourselves in Amanda's shoes.
You go to the police station
with your boyfriend.
You are in a different room
and don't know what he's saying.
Then at a certain point
they come to tell you,
"Your boyfriend... he's turned on you."
[chiming]
[Amanda in English] They wanted to prove
that I had left.
And they wanted my cell phone.
And I was like,
"Yes, just look at my cell phone.
Like, I did not leave.
I didn't have to work that night.
I was supposed to work,
but I didn't go to work.
I didn't leave."
They fiddled through it
and pulled up this text message
that I had sent to Patrick, which said...
[speaking Italian]
Which, literally, word-for-word is,
"We will see each other later.
Have a good night."
I told them, like,
he sent me this text message saying,
"Don't come in to work."
And so I said, "Okay, see you later then.
Have a good night."
And they said,
"No, what this literally means
is you are going to see someone.
You made an appointment with someone,
and you don't remember.
Clearly, your mind is fucked.
And you're going to be either on our side,
or you're gonna be on the murderer's side.
And what side are you on?"
I got so frazzled by it, I said,
"I don't know what the fuck is going on."
And another of the guys was like,
"'Fuck!' I understand 'fuck.' Fuck you!"
And he thought that I was yelling
"Fuck you" at him.
And I was crying,
and, um, at a certain point,
a police officer slapped me
behind the head,
and was like, "Remember!"
And then he slapped me again
and said, "Remember,"
like, "Get your brain straight."
And I broke.
What started popping in my mind
was the street
in front of Raffaele's apartment...
my front door being open...
Patrick in his brown leather jacket...
and Meredith screaming.
And I thought that meant
that I was remembering
that he had killed her.
[siren blaring]
[Giuliano in Italian] I was shocked.
Because what she said made her
at least an accomplice to the murder.
And Sollecito, why did he lie?
And so I decided to have
all three of them arrested.
[camera shutters clicking rapidly]
[indistinct chatter]
[man in Italian] We feel very sad
for the girl that died,
yet there is also great satisfaction
for the Perugian police
for having found the answers
in such a short time.
The press put pressure on us,
and as a result we felt the responsibility
for a city that wanted
a definitive answer right away.
I can't thank everybody enough
in this entire investigation
for their professionalism
as well as their moral commitment.
[overlapping chatter]
[Nick in English] "Caso chiuso."
Case closed.
You'd have thought they'd busted
some sort of mafioso godfather,
the way they were reacting.
[sirens blaring]
The lawyers are the key ones.
I would get alongside one of the lawyers.
He would hand me over the statements.
I think the photocopying places in Perugia
must have made a fortune those days.
We had these details coming out.
The friends of Meredith were telling us
how Amanda had been behaving
in the waiting room.
One of the friends said to Amanda,
"Well, I hope
Meredith didn't suffer badly."
Amanda said,
"Of course she fucking suffered,
she had her throat fucking cut."
This police officer,
in this disclosure, said,
"Amanda and Raffaele
were kissing each other.
She was performing cartwheels
and doing stretching exercises."
"'Course she did it. She's mad.
She's a complete and utter loon.
I mean, who behaves like that?"
[Edda Mellas] No comment, please.
Are you still convinced
about Amanda's innocence?
No comment.
[Amanda] The guards came to my door
and said, "You have visitors."
They put me in this special little office.
And there was my mom.
And she was crying.
And she reached out for me and...
[Amanda] Mom!
[Amanda] It's okay.
[Edda] I know, it's scary. Are you okay?
[Amanda] Yeah, I'm okay.
[Edda] Okay.
[Amanda sobbing]
[Edda] Amanda, sit down.
Bring a chair over here.
[Amanda sighs] I knew that I had fucked up,
and I felt like I had fucked up,
and that I didn't know what to do.
I felt like a child again.
And I knew... I was a kid.
What was I pretending?
I needed my mom.
And...
[sighing heavily]
[Edda] You know,
the lawyers were saying...
no matter what,
if you had gone in and done the deed,
they just needed to know, for sure,
the truth.
- So that they could--
- [Amanda] Yeah, and I'm telling you--
[Edda] So you have no idea who murdered--
[Amanda] I have no clue. No clue.
Because I was with Raffaele
at his house.
The one thing that's really bugging me
is why Raffaele lied.
[Edda] Well, hopefully,
he's in the same position you are,
that he was being stressed.
[Amanda] Yeah, I feel like
they were smacking him around
or something like that.
[Edda] The lawyers said
something interesting.
They said, "Amanda's been caught up
in something that's way bigger than her."
Because this has turned into
this huge international bullshit story.
[Amanda] Are you serious?
[Edda] Oh, yeah.
Everybody in the family has been
assaulted by the media.
It's gone crazy.
[Nick] We already had good pictures
of Meredith.
She was a terribly attractive woman.
And now we've got
Amanda Knox involved as well.
Pretty blonde girl, 20-something.
It had that sexual intrigue.
[chuckles] Girl-on-girl crime,
if you like.
The pack were in their hotel room,
and everyone was going, "Amanda Knox,"
tap, tap, tap, into their computer.
This picture pops up on MySpace
of Amanda Knox with a machine gun,
laughing hysterically
as she was firing it.
We were thinking, "Wow, great.
She's a complete and utter nutjob."
We had Raffaele Sollecito,
tapped him in,
and there he was, dressed as a mummy,
with a meat cleaver.
I mean, you just couldn't ask
for any better material
to illustrate a story with.
[news anchor] Raffaele collects knives.
He drives a nice car.
He was majoring in engineering.
This guy wasn't very sexually experienced.
She might've been only the second person
that he'd ever had sex with.
And she'd sort of...
got her hooks into him.
[news anchor] She'd been seen nuzzling
with a boyfriend at a local shop
as they bought underwear for her.
The store owner said he heard them
laughing about having hot sex that night,
just a day after her roommate
had been found murdered.
[Nick] "La Femme Fatale,"
"La Dominatrice,"
"Amanda Mangiatrice Di Uomini,"
Amanda the man-eater.
Finally, you have her own name
for herself, "Foxy Knoxy."
It was a perfect headline, really,
the perfect name.
I mean, it was a feeding frenzy
for everyone, basically.
I mean, you were getting front pages.
I don't think I've ever had
so many front pages.
[chuckles]
Front page after front page,
page lead in the paper after page lead.
Just story after story.
[reporter in Italian]
Patrick! How are you, Patrick?
[Patrick in Italian] I'm good.
Thank God I get to go home.
[reporter 2 in Italian] Patrick!
Why did Amanda accuse you?
[reporter 3 in Italian]
What do you think of Amanda?
[reporter 4 in Italian] Why did Amanda
say those things?
[Giuliano in Italian]
Why did she falsely accuse him?
Can you give me an answer?
I think it's a little bit hard, huh?
The only reason would be
to divert the investigation away from her.
[Amanda in English]
And so in comes Giuliano Mignini.
I just remember that he was a big man,
very solemn.
[in Italian] I asked her,
"Why did you accuse Patrick?"
[Amanda in English] Why? I was stressed.
I was scared.
It was after long hours.
It was in the middle of the night.
I was innocent, and they were telling me
that I was guilty.
[Giuliano in Italian]
For the record, she's crying.
[in English] I told him it was because
they had said that I had met him.
They had shown me his text message
and said that I had met him,
and that I must have not remembered it
because it was so traumatizing.
[in Italian]
She kept insisting and insisting,
"They told me to say Lumumba's name.
They told me to. They told me to."
I didn't understand this.
Earlier she said
that it could have been true.
[Amanda in English] In that moment,
I thought it could have been true.
[in Italian] Usually a person says,
"That's true" or "That's not true."
But Amanda had a very unusual
way of reasoning.
She kept going between dream and reality.
He just kept asking the question again.
Again and again and again.
"No, why did you...
Why did you say, 'Patrick Lumumba'?"
You made me believe I met Patrick Lumumba.
Therefore, I said Patrick Lumumba.
It wasn't the answer that he wanted,
and I realized that, and I...
was devastated.
Like, when that happened,
I realized that they weren't
ever going to listen to me again.
[in Italian] This is Amanda's weakness.
She can't stand being questioned.
And she also has an attitude...
hostility and rebellion toward authority.
It's a little bit anarchist.
[stutters]
I don't know if there is
such an attitude in Seattle.
This I don't know.
It's possible to speculate of course,
but instead I choose to stick
to the facts.
[Nick] I've always wanted to be
a journalist ever since I was a kid.
I mean, everyone knows
Woodward and Bernstein.
I mean, I wouldn't dream of putting
myself in their shoes or anything,
but I'm naturally nosy as well,
which is always a good talent to have,
if you like,
if you can call it a talent,
to be a journalist.
Amanda was in a cell at Capanne jail
with two other inmates.
She obviously underwent
a medical examination.
She had a blood test,
and they then told her
that she was HIV-positive
and that she was going to develop AIDS.
I remember she was writing in her diary
that she was terrified.
She was saying that she wanted
to have a family,
and that idea was now scuppered.
And then she was, sort of,
listing all her lovers and saying
oh, she remembered using protection
with that one,
and not with that one.
And this was all in her diary,
which, again, was leaked.
I mean, I managed
to get ahold of it as well.
I was probably one of the first people
who managed to get ahold of it.
[interviewer] How did that diary even
get to the press?
[chuckles]
Well, we never...
we never reveal our sources.
That's the key thing.
'Cause you do that,
and then you're just betraying all
your journalistic principles, aren't you?
And then it turned out
that she didn't have HIV,
and it was just mind games
being played on her
by the police and the prosecution.
At the time, people were saying,
"Oh, how could you do that?
How could you cover such a story?
And how could you be involved?"
And yet at the same time,
these are the same people who are...
logging onto the Internet
first thing in the morning,
trying to find out the latest details,
you know?
[thunder rumbling]
[car door closes]
[in Italian] Enough.
You've already filmed enough.
[shutters clicking]
[indistinct chatter]
[phone ringing]
[man] Hello? Come over here.
We are at Sollecito's.
[Giuliano] The knife that was used
in the murder still hadn't been found.
They did a search at Sollecito's house.
They went into the kitchen
and found a number of knives.
And they found one that matched
the characteristics of the murder.
It is a kitchen knife found
in Sollecito's house,
which he shared with Amanda Knox.
The knife.
The knife is a fundamental element.
Amanda's DNA was found on the handle.
Meredith's DNA was found
on the tip of the blade.
The knife was found
after a search ordered by me.
[Amanda in English]
The knife, I could not explain.
There was no reason for my DNA
to have been on a handle,
and Meredith's DNA
to have been on the blade.
It was impossible.
[man in Italian] It's soaked in blood.
Therefore, she had it on her
when she was killed.
[woman] This has been ripped.
[man] The part with the clasp is missing.
[man 2] Here it is.
[Giuliano] After some time,
we found that Meredith's bra clasp
contained traces of Sollecito's DNA.
This is a very significant fact.
I remember my colleagues
complimenting me and saying,
"At this point,
there's no hope for the two of them."
[Raffaele] I grew up in the southern part
of Italy, close to the sea.
I was very shy.
And I didn't date girls.
Who cares when you can have
the new Sega Mega Drive or PlayStation?
So, when I was with Amanda,
I was so happy to enjoy life
and to enjoy my new relationship.
Why should I go and murder a girl?
This, for me, is craziness.
Now, I'm taking part of this nightmare,
on this tragedy,
and my life is going to be destroyed...
forever by all this...
if nothing changes.
[Giuliano in Italian] I remember
that we were nearby Sollecito's house.
Lumumba was no longer a suspect.
But the police told me
they had found proof
Meredith had definitely been killed
by three people.
[news anchor 1 in English]
For a bizarre case
with so many twists and turns,
let's start with the latest one.
[news anchor 2]
Police have been unable to identify
a number of fingerprints
where Meredith died.
[news reporter 3] And they say
they also found feces in the bathroom.
[Giuliano in Italian] They found traces
in Meredith's vagina...
and then there were the prints.
They were sure that the man
who had left the traces...
was Rudy Herman Guede.
[Nick in English] Rudy Guede had a bit
of form for breaking and entering.
Locals, as well, had told us
that he was a slippery character.
Fly-by-night guy.
But by this time,
he'd already fled the country.
And police were able to track down
one of his best friends
to have a Skype conversation with him.
[Rudy Guede in Italian] You there?
[Rudy] Can you hear me?
[informant] Yes.
[Rudy] The girl who's been killed...
I met her the previous evening.
The next day, I went to her house,
but we didn't do anything
because neither of us had a condom.
And so I went to the bathroom.
After that, I heard screaming
and I quickly came out of the bathroom.
I saw this guy.
I didn't see his face because it was dark.
Then he ran out the front door.
I saw Meredith, who was bleeding.
She had a cut on her throat.
She was clinging on me strongly.
I got scared.
I was completely covered with blood.
Fuck, I'm scared.
I'll kill myself.
[shutters clicking rapidly]
[Giuliano] An international
arrest warrant was issued.
And he was arrested.
[indistinct chatter]
[Amanda in English] Oh, my God!
Just the idea of knowing
who could have done it.
Like, I know him, kind of.
I've seen him before with the neighbors.
Like, we ran into him
and we were talking to him or whatever.
And then, I think I saw him
play basketball with them once.
And then, I think once
I saw him at my work.
But, like, I don't even know his name.
[Valter in Italian] Rudy has always
maintained that he didn't kill anyone.
But any good lawyer
must be aware of the fact
that a judge may not believe your client.
Rudy's presence in the house
is undisputed.
If we'd had a trial
with the other two defendants,
Rudy would run the risk
of being blamed for everything,
and Rudy might be
the only one convicted.
So I decided we'd go
for a fast-track trial
to separate the two trials.
[shutters clicking rapidly]
[Nick in English]
Once Rudy's trial begins,
there is this interesting revelation.
So, in those initial Skype conversations,
Rudy is telling his friend that Amanda
is nowhere near the crime scene.
He's saying that they had
nothing to do with it.
But then...
He then changes his story.
[in Italian] Through the window,
I saw the silhouette
of Amanda Knox leaving the house.
[Nick in English] No one was really
that bothered about Rudy.
I mean, obviously we gave it
the cursory coverage.
We had covered his trial,
covered his sentence.
But at the end of the day,
there was no interest in him.
[interviewer] Who was more interesting?
Amanda.
[news anchor 1] The cult of the girl
known as "Foxy Knoxy"
is why Italians are calling this
the trial of the decade.
[news anchor 2] You're talking about it,
everyone is talking about it.
[overlapping voices] Sex.
A drug-fueled sex game.
Drug-fueled sex game.
[news anchor 3]
A drug-fueled sex game gone wrong.
[in Italian] Calm down, calm down!
There is room enough for everybody!
You have to go back to your place.
[indistinct chatter]
[woman] Go away, please!
[man] Madame,
you can't push like that.
I didn't do anything to you.
[Giuliano] When the trial started,
I thought that everything would be easy.
There was direct evidence,
like the DNA proof,
but there is not only the DNA.
Amanda was a girl that was
very uninhibited.
She would bring boys home.
Hearing Meredith's friends...
If you could imagine a girl different
from Amanda in every imaginable way,
it would have been Meredith.
That night,
let's imagine what Meredith finds.
She sees suddenly in her house Amanda,
which is okay.
But Sollecito and Rudy.
And she's like, "What?"
Meredith couldn't take it anymore.
She must have scolded Amanda
for her lack of morals.
[reporter] How did it go today?
[Giuliano] Amanda must have felt
humiliated, irritated.
"So, you want to judge
my morals so harshly?
Now I'm going to show you
what will happen..."
She is a very proud girl.
Here's a first clash.
And then there's a crescendo of attacks.
I am convinced that Sollecito and Rudy
were trying to indulge Amanda
in every possible way that night.
Pleasure at any cost.
This is at the heart of most crimes.
[news anchor 1 in English]
After nearly a year of testimony,
Italy's so-called trial of the century
has come to a close.
[news anchor 2] Amanda Knox may
know her fate as early as tomorrow.
There may be a verdict.
[bell tolling]
[man] Amanda! Amanda!
[shutters clicking rapidly]
[Giuliano in Italian] The moment before
the court reads the verdict
is one of the most tense moments
one can experience in life,
especially for the defendant
because it is about their destiny.
Asking for the conviction,
such a severe penalty of two young people
on a human level, costs a lot.
I look at myself in the mirror
and I'm lucky not to be ashamed of myself,
there is no doubt
about the guilt of the pair.
[judge] Please,
there are too many cameras.
Please, please.
One cannot get in.
[reporters clamoring]
[judge] Given Articles 533 and 535
of the Penal Proceedings Code...
we declare Knox, Amanda Marie,
and Sollecito, Raffaele
guilty of the crimes charged.
They are convicted to a sentence
of 26 years in prison for Knox
and a sentence of 25 years
for Sollecito.
[reporters clamoring]
[indistinct chatter]
[news anchor in English]
With the white-hot glare
of reporters and cameras
Amanda was led away in a black van,
just moments after the verdict was read.
[in Italian] She's a murderer.
She's a liar.
[news anchor 2 in English] The verdict
floored an unsuspecting Knox family.
So convinced were they
of their daughter's innocence,
they'd brought her younger sisters
along to court.
[in English] Move.
[reporter] When do you hope
to lodge an appeal, sir?
The second we can.
[indistinct chatter]
Everyone in the room here obviously
associates Meredith with a tragic event,
but we would prefer
not to remember her in that way.
[Stephanie] It does bring just that
little bit of justice for us, for her.
[Lyle Kercher] Ultimately, you know,
we are pleased with the decision,
but it's not a time for celebration
at the end of the day.
[indistinct chatter]
[Giuliano in Italian]
Normally, people say that
"Nobody is a prophet in his own country,"
but that's not what I experienced.
Complete strangers would come up to me
and ask to shake my hand.
They would congratulate me.
It gives me satisfaction.
Because Perugia is my little homeland.
[keys jingling]
[Amanda in English] Suddenly, I found
myself tossed into this dark place.
[Amanda inhales and gulps]
I was so scared.
Like, who do you turn to?
What do you do?
I thought about suicide.
I thought about all the ways
that I could do it.
Me not coming home again
until I'm in my 50s...
until members of my family have died.
I was poisoned.
[sighs]
I don't know what else to say.
[inaudible]
[Raffaele] I spent almost six months
in solitary confinement.
I was...
I was getting to depression.
Who can help me?
Who can take me off from this?
I was thinking about Amanda.
And I wanted to send her flowers
for her birthday.
To say, "I'm here. I'm by your side.
I still have feelings for you."
But she clearly told me that her feelings
were completely changed.
This moment was kind of bitter...
even though I've known her
only for five days.
That five days were everything.
[camera shutter clicking rapidly]
[indistinct chatter]
[news anchor 1] The convicted killer,
Amanda Knox, was back in court today.
They called her "Foxy Knoxy."
Looked a little more pale today,
skinnier than had been in the past.
Maybe could use hair and makeup,
but I guess you don't get that in jail.
[news anchor 2] In an unexpected plea
to the court,
Knox delivered
a tear-filled declaration of innocence.
[Amanda in Italian] I never expected
to find myself here,
convicted of a crime I didn't commit.
To Meredith's family,
I'm very sorry
that Meredith isn't here anymore.
I can't possibly know how you feel,
but I too have little sisters.
The idea of their suffering...
[Amanda cries and voice breaks]
and never seeing them again terrifies me.
[news anchor 2] A legal victory
for American Amanda Knox,
who is appealing her murder conviction
in Italy.
The appeals court gave the go-ahead
for an independent review
of crucial DNA evidence.
Among the pieces of evidence that
an outside expert will now re-examine,
a knife and a bra clasp, both considered
crucial to Knox's conviction.
[Dr. Stefano Conti in Italian]
Let it be clear
how easy it is to leave traces of DNA.
You move your hand on your arm,
that small amount of fine dust,
those are all DNA traces which we spread
within the area where we are
in that particular moment.
Therefore, a crime scene
must be kept completely sterile.
That's not what happened in this case.
In the video taken by the forensic police,
there was a lot of chaos.
You can see clearly a coming and going
of people without protective suits.
Booties were not changed.
And they rarely change their gloves.
In other words, total chaos.
[glass shattering]
Chaos.
That, the forensic police
expressed themselves.
[officer 1] This is absurd. Really absurd.
[officer 2] I criticized it harshly.
[officer 1] There's unbelievable
disorganization in every respect.
[Dr. Vecchiotti] Contamination was
one of the issues raised by the court.
Could there be a contamination?
The bra clasp was found under a small rug
46 days after the murder.
[Dr. Conti] After 46 days,
it's possible that other people
could have brought DNA traces
from the hallway, the bathroom,
kitchen or other rooms,
into Meredith's room.
[Dr. Vecchiotti] In fact, on the clasp,
there's Sollecito's DNA profile,
but there were at least two others.
But the police never noted them
as evidence.
DNA must be objective.
You can't interpret it
for what you want it to be.
And I must say that...
there were also problems
with contamination in the laboratory.
The forensics police
definitively identified Amanda's profile.
You could see it very well.
It was a good profile.
But with regards to Meredith's DNA found,
it was such a small amount, so scarce.
When you have such scarce DNA,
the likelihood of contamination
is very high.
So we asked the forensic police,
"When analyzing the knife,
did you analyze it alone,
without any other evidence?"
And she replied, "No, we examined
50 of Kercher's samples at the same time.
The laboratory couldn't just shut down
because Kercher had died."
When she reported these things,
I was sure the results
were because of contamination.
- [indistinct chatter]
- [camera shutters clicking]
[Nick in English] When it came out,
I mean, it was just... crazy.
The botched investigation
and the bungled forensic work.
I remember audible gasps from the press
and from everyone in the court.
We're all looking, as journalists,
for that great angle or that great line.
And when you see something like that,
you just think,
"Brilliant.
It's manna from heaven, it really is."
Amanda Knox's hand was said
to have been on that knife.
It was said to have
murdered the victim in this case.
No DNA.
What?
This is Italy, Shepard, it's a crazy...
It's a little different
than we're used to.
Bunga bunga.
- [laughing]
- One of... The one guy who...
The thing I can't wrap
my mind around, though,
is if the DNA evidence isn't credible,
how did things get to this point?
You really believe
that Americans should intervene
at the top levels of our government?
I think the president should get involved.
I think people should boycott Italy.
They shouldn't go to Italy.
[in Italian] It bothered me that the
American media lectured us about the law.
This courthouse, in 1308,
housed the first faculty of law in Europe.
In America, in 1308,
they were drawing buffalos in caves.
[Giuliano] I was irritated
by all this avalanche of attacks,
especially against me and the police.
The American media was focusing
only on the DNA.
Every piece of proof has aspects...
of uncertainty.
That's why evidence needs to be
evaluated in its entirety.
I hear talk...
"For me, Amanda is guilty
because she said too many lies."
I have to remind you that her behavior
was completely inexplicable.
Totally irrational.
There's no doubt of this.
[Amanda in Knox] There is no trace of me
in the room where Meredith was murdered,
and there's no reliable trace of Raffaele
in the room where Meredith was murdered.
But you're trying to find the answer
in my eyes,
when the answer's right over there.
You're looking at me.
Why?
These are my eyes.
They're not objective evidence.
What's more likely?
That I...
get together this boyfriend that I've had
and this guy,
who I don't even know his name,
tell them to rape my roommate
and then let me stab her to death?
Or...
that a guy,
who regularly committed burglaries,
broke into my home...
found Meredith...
took advantage of her...
killed her...
and ran off?
A burglary gone wrong.
[Giuliano in Italian] It has been said to
me it could have been no one but Rudy.
It's him, and only him.
Well, I don't think that's very fair.
[Dr. Conti] We absolutely cannot speak
about the figure of Rudy Guede.
What happened inside that room
between Guede and poor Meredith
wasn't part of the job assigned to me
by the Court of Appeals of Perugia.
I do feel compelled
to say something Cicero once said...
"Any man is liable to make mistakes...
but only the fool
perseveres in error."
[interviewer] Do you think you did
a good job defending Rudy?
Ask the others.
[interviewer] I don't understand.
Ask the others who had a better defense
if Rudy's defense was a good defense.
Rudy will be getting out shortly.
The others still have to face a trial.
[Giuliano] The decision is yours,
to try to bring justice
and defend the honor of this country,
which is a sovereign state.
[news anchor 1 in English]
Four years after the brutal murder
of British roommate Meredith Kercher,
it's all come down to this.
[news anchor 2] Outside the courthouse,
the world awaits.
Frenzied journalists from around the globe
all counting down the moments
until Amanda Knox's fate is revealed.
[news anchor 3]
Amanda is at the courthouse,
and will be brought into
the courtroom shortly,
where she will hear the verdict read.
[camera shutters clicking rapidly]
[in Italian]
In the name of the Italian people,
in review of the first trial verdict,
this Court of Appeals
absolves the two defendants
because they did not commit the crime,
and orders the immediate release
of Knox, Amanda and Sollecito, Raffaele.
[scattered cheering]
[reporters clamoring]
[crying]
[news anchor]
The 24-year-old Seattle native
collapsed in the arms of her lawyers
as her family,
all gathered in the courtroom,
swept each other up in their arms.
Outside the courthouse,
however, a different reaction.
Great disappointment among people out here
that Amanda Knox has been found not guilty
in the murder of Meredith Kercher.
[in Italian] It's a shame! Shut up!
[man] The court has said
that they are acquitted,
but there will be the Supreme Court!
Let's not give up! This is a shame!
[crowd chanting] Shame!
[news anchor] And breaking news tonight,
Amanda Knox finally home.
That was the plane
carrying her and her family.
This is actually a live picture now.
A crush of media and well-wishers
are waiting for her
at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport.
[reporter 1] There she is, there she is,
there she is, there she is, there she is.
[reporter 2] She's there.
[reporter 1] She's there.
[reporter 2] She's there.
[reporter 1] She's there.
[reporter 3] She is coming
down the stairs.
[reporter 1] She's coming down the stairs.
[reporter 3] She's coming down the stairs.
[reporter 1] Coming down the stairs.
What's important for me to say
is just thank you to everyone
who's believed in me...
[gasping] who has defended me,
who has supported my family.
[voice breaking] I just want...
My family's the most important thing
to me right now,
and I just wanna go and be with them.
So, thank you for being there for me.
[crowd cheering]
[Raffaele] When I went back home,
the first thing that I did
was stare in the fridge.
And I was looking at it
like something incredibly new,
like I was a primitive, uh, man.
I was free. I was joyful.
But all of a sudden,
I was, um, dramatically depressed again,
'cause I didn't know how to start again.
Everything was new.
I spent four years in prison,
six months in solitary.
How can I get used to this life
that I didn't want?
I was a simple computer guy.
Now everybody knows me.
They look at me on the street,
they ask me questions.
Uh, they treat me like a movie star,
when I'm not.
And I'm inside a tragedy still.
[reporter] Congratulations.
Congratulations, Amanda.
- Please leave me alone, please.
- [reporter chuckles] Welcome home.
Welcome home, Amanda.
Does it feel good to be home?
What did you miss most about Seattle?
[news anchor] It's really a matter of
what does she do with this newfound fame?
Does she write the book
and move on with her life?
Does she then try to go on
Dancing with the Stars?
That's where we're gonna really see
what her motivations are.
[reporter 1] What movie offers
have you received?
That's not our focus
at this point in time.
Our focus is her, uh, well-being.
[reporter 2] Are you aware that,
I suppose,
the longer you leave it, in a sense,
the less, you know, the less money
you're going to get ultimately?
What you mean is?
[reporter 2] Well, you're not such...
She's not such a hot property
on an interview term if you wait a month.
Um...
I'm not looking at her
as a hot property.
[Amanda] I really thought
that I was going to be okay.
But I wasn't the same person
to come back to Seattle.
The whole world knew
who I had ever had sex with.
Seven men.
And yet, I was some heinous whore.
Bestial and sex-obsessed and unnatural.
I'd get into a line at the grocery store
and the person behind me is like,
"Whoa!
It's you!
I know you!"
And I really wanna turn to them and say,
"Who the fuck are you?
And you don't know me."
You have to wonder what is it
that everyone really cares about?
But how entertaining.
[indistinct chatter]
[reporters clamoring]
[news anchor 1] Italy's top appeals court
is to rule today
on whether to uphold the conviction
of American Amanda Knox
and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito
for the murder
of British student Meredith Kercher.
[news anchor 2] Amanda Knox's
Italian attorney this morning says,
"Amanda is worried
and has had a sleepless night.
Meredith Kercher's family
has made its wishes clear.
They are convinced of Amanda's guilt
and would like to see her imprisoned
back where this all began, in Italy."
[reporter in Italian] It's a countdown
to when the verdict should be read.
Phones had to be turned off
inside the courtroom.
They'll be turned on as soon
as the judge finishes reading,
and then we'll learn the sentence.
[man] Attention!
The news is that Raffaele Sollecito
and Amanda Knox have been exonerated.
- [woman gasps] Oh, my God! What?
- [man] Holy shit!
[all exclaiming and cheering]
[exclaims]
I know! This is crazy!
[laughing]
Raffaele?
[in Italian] We're free!
How are you?
I'm so happy for you.
I'm so happy for us.
[all shouting]
[cheering]
Much love and we'll talk soon.
Bye.
- [woman 1 in English] Oh, my God.
- [woman 2] Oh, my God!
[Arlene Kercher] The first reaction
was one of surprise. Uh...
They've had two convictions...
um...
and they've had two acquittals now.
It seems an awful long time
to get such a strange verdict.
Um, eight years.
So it's sort of bringing
everything into disrepute.
[Nick] I think at the end of the day,
you have to point the finger
at the police, really,
and the prosecution.
They made some really heinous errors
and they got fixated on some wild theories
that they were absolutely obsessed with.
I know people keep saying
"Trial by media, trial by media," but...
I don't buy that.
Maybe 'cause I'm a journalist so
I don't go for that, but... [chuckles]
I think now, looking back,
some of the information that came out
was just crazy, really,
and just completely made up.
But, hey, what are we supposed to do,
you know?
We are journalists and we are reporting
what we are being told.
It's not as if I can say,
"Right, hold on a minute.
I just wanna double check that myself
in some other way."
I mean, goodness knows how.
And then I let my rival get in there
first before me,
and then, hey, I've lost a scoop.
It doesn't work like that.
Not in the news game.
[Giuliano in Italian] During the trial
there was a woman who...
She said I was the devil.
[in English] "You are evil."
[in Italian] I can say
that I've made mistakes,
even things that I have had to confess,
but we are all between good and evil.
It's in our human nature.
Amanda and Sollecito,
if they are innocent,
I hope they're able to forget
the suffering that they've endured.
If they're guilty,
if earthly justice didn't get to them,
I hope they own their guilt,
because I know that life ends
with a final trial.
A trial with no appeals,
no second chances, and no revisions.
[boat engine humming]
[Amanda] I think people love monsters.
And so when they get the chance,
they want to see them.
It's people projecting their fears.
They want the reassurance that...
they know who the bad people are,
and it's not them.
So maybe that's what it is.
We're all afraid.
And fear makes people crazy.