An Italian court has upheld Amanda Knox’s conviction for slandering her former boss, Patrick Lumumba, nearly two decades after she was wrongly accused of murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher.
The Supreme Court in Rome found Knox guilty of wrongly accusing Lumumba of Kercher’s murder in 2007 and decided to uphold the verdict on appeal. Knox has maintained that she was coerced by Italian police into accusing Lumumba and has repeatedly denied any involvement in Kercher’s murder.
Lumumba was “very satisfied” with the verdict, saying that Knox did wrong and the sentence must accompany her for the rest of her life. Knox’s lawyer, Luca Lupària Donati, expressed disappointment, saying that the decision was “totally unjust” and “unexpected.”
Knox has said that she was interrogated illegally and was coerced into accusing Lumumba, who was later cleared of any involvement in Kercher’s murder. The real killer, Rudy Guede, was convicted of Kercher’s rape and murder and was released from prison in 2020 after serving 13 years of a 30-year sentence.
Knox’s conviction comes after she was acquitted of murder in 2015 and has spent years fighting to clear her name. She will not have to return to prison due to her time already served when she was wrongly accused of Kercher’s murder.