Tragic Meredith Kercher Murder Saga Takes a Fresh Twist as Amanda 'Foxy' Knox Weeps as Slander Conviction Is Upheld By Italy's Highest Court
Amanda Knox said she found her slander conviction being upheld a 'disappointing' ruling.
Jan. 24 2025, Published 8:00 p.m. ET
Amanda Knox wept in court as her slander conviction against her former boss was upheld by Italy's highest court, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Knox, 37, was found guilty of slander after she allegedly accused then-boss Patrick Lumumba of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher in 2007.
The 37-year-old – who spent four years incarcerated for Kercher's murder before being acquitted in 2011 – appealed the slander conviction but lost her battle to have it overturned on Thursday, January 23.
Knox was imprisoned for four years for the 2007 murder of roommate Meredith Kercher but was acquitted and released in 2015.
Knox did not attend the hearing in-person and instead shared a video after learning she lost her appeal and would have a criminal record in Italy for life.
In her video, Know said the ruling was "disappointing" that she will have a "criminal record forever for something I didn't do."
She also took to X to post about the conviction being upheld, writing: "It's a surreal day. I've just been found guilty yet again of a crime I didn't commit. And I was just awarded the Innocence Network Impact Award, 'created to honor an exonerated person who raises awareness of wrongful convictions, policy issues, or assists others post-release.'"
Knox wept as she found out she lost her appeal to overturn her slander conviction.
Her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito – who was also convicted then acquitted and exonerated of Kercher's murder – also spoke out against the ruling, claiming it was the way for the court to seek "revenge" over the American journalist's murder conviction being overturned.
Sollecito said: "It could be a comedy show or something. Everything was made up... I don't understand this conviction. I think it's more political than anything else."
Knox's ex-boyfriend further noted he "does not trust the Italian judicial system" and hasn't over the course of the 18-year murder case saga.
Knox said once again she's been guilty of a crime she didn't commit.
Last year, a Florence appeals court hit Knox with a three-year sentence for slander against Lumumba, a Congolese bar owner.
Since Knox was released from the Italian prison in 2011, she has tirelessly worked to clear her name.
In a series of follow-up posts following her slander conviction, Knox wrote on X: "I've been on trial half my life. Yesterday, my 18-year legal drama finally came to an end when the Court of Cassation, Italy's highest court, definitively convicted me of criminal slander.
"Many people are familiar with my wrongful conviction for Meredith Kercher’s murder, but this lesser charge, arising from statements I signed during my interrogation, is the one that has continued to haunt me.
"Everything that subsequently went wrong in the investigation and prosecution—the tunnel vision, junk science, biased witnesses—flowed from that lie."
The slander change resulted from statements Knox signed during a 53-hour interrogation.
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She said the interrogation by Italian police "remains the most terrifying experience of my life – more terrifying than that first crushing guilty verdict and 26-year sentence; more terrifying than prison itself."
Knox recalled being "questioned for more than 53 hours over a five-day period in a language I was only just learning to speak," and despite providing an alibi that she stayed with Sollecito the night of Kercher's murder, she claimed "no matter how many times I said that, the police refused to believe me. I was berated, threatened, lied to, and slapped, and eventually my sanity broke."
She added: "I began to believe the lies the police were telling me, and I agreed to sign statements placing myself and another innocent man in the house when the crime had occurred. I recanted only a few hours later, but it didn’t matter.
"I was coerced into signing the statements and then charged with criminal slander for doing so. This conviction branded me a malicious liar, and cast suspicion over me even after I was acquitted of murder and freed from prison."
