Amanda Knox: I'm Redeveloping My Relationship With Freedom

The 29-year-old became an international figure when she was charged with the murder of her roommate in Italy and exonerated of the charges years later

By Samantha Schnurr Sep 29, 2016 1:50 PMTags
Amanda Knox, Good Morning AmericaABC News/Good Morning America

After years of Italian lawyers and the media telling her story, it's Amanda Knox's turn. 

At 29 years old, the Seattle native has already spent what seems like a lifetime in the headlines as the American college student swept up in the 2007 murder case of her British study abroad roommate, Meredith Kercher.

Initially charged with the crime and sentenced to 26 years in prison, an Italian appellate court later found Knox and her then-beau Raffaele Sollectio not guilty. In 2013, Italy's highest court sent the case for retrial and found the pair guilty again a year later. On final appeal, the two were ultimately exonerated of the charges in 2015. 

A year of freedom later, Knox's twisted tale is the subject of a brand new documentary, Amanda Knox, produced on Netflix. While many question her willing participation in the project, according to Amanda, her story could have been anyone's story. 

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"I think im trying to explain what it feels like to be wrongfully convicted—to either be this terrible monster to be just a regular person who is vulnerable," she told Good Morning America's Robin Roberts. "What I'm trying to convey is that a regular person like me, just a kid who was studying abroad who loved languages, could be caught up in this nightmare where they're portrayed as something that they're not."

For other exonerees like her, Knox wants to protect their stories as much as she wants to protect her own. "Now my attention is turning towards the next person," she explained. "My name's cleared. I'm fine. I'm moving on with my life. I'm going back to graduate school. I'm redeveloping my relationships. I'm redeveloping my relationship with freedom."

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All the Things You Forgot About the Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox

Despite being able to pick up life back in America, it's certainly not where it left off. "I can't go back to the life I had before and neither can the exonerees that are out there and a lot of times their stories go overlooked and I think that it's our moral duty to examine the cases of a wrongfully convicted person from the perspective of their humanity...to really demand that we have objective looks at their cases and the facts of their case as well as them as people as opposed to demonizing them the way that I was."

While Knox's reputation remains divided in the public court of opinion, Kercher's memory has also been overshadowed by the tumultuous case. 

"That's the really sad part about this tragedy is that as soon as the prosecutor made it about, 'It has to be Amanda, it has to be Amanda,' they took away the fact that this case is about her and what the truth was about what happened to her," Knox concluded.

"She's been lost in all of that, but that doesn't change the fact that we have also an obligation to everyone that could potentially be innocent to find out the truth for the sake of the victim."

Amanda Knox debuts on Netflix Friday.