User:LedRush/Amanda Knox

Some Resources for the creation of the article:

Biographical info: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1945430,00.html

Info on the Amanda Knox movie: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7065FC20110107

General background of events and media attention: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28057560/ns/dateline_nbc-crime_reports/

Earlier, seriously flawed, article (but has some useful links) http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amanda_Knox&oldid=367002952#cite_note-2

Complete story: DNA Evidence 

Trial
On 1 November 2007, Meredith Kercher was murdered in the apartment she shared with Knox. On 6 November 2007, Knox was arrested by the Italian police and, along with Sollecito, charged with the murder of Kercher. During the subsequent four year trial and appeal process she was held under cautionary detention (carcerazione preventiva) at the Capanne prison in Perugia. In 2009, Knox and Sollecito were convicted of sexual assault, murder and simulating a burglary under the first grade (primo grado) of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure. However, according to Italian law, she was not considered guilty until convicted in the second grade (secondo grado). During this appeal, which concluded on 3 October 2011, the original conviction was not upheld and she was released.

Life in prison
Knox spent almost four years in jail while she waited for her first trial and appealed the initial verdict. During this time Knox has stated that she was sexually harassed and intimidated by prison officials. Soon after arriving in prison, Knox was mistakenly informed that she was HIV positive by prison officials. They coerced her into creating a list of her former lovers, then leaked the list to the media. Knox said that a high ranking prison administrator would take her to his office alone at night and make inappropriate statements to her which left her feeling terrified. Furthermore, prison guards forced her to have unwanted sexual conversations. ABC News reported that one male guard entered Knox's cell alone and made sexual remarks to her.

While Knox was in prison, she became friends with a local lawmaker named Rocco Girlanda. He later published a book about his conversations with Knox while she was in prison. Knox also befriended the members of a local Italian band which played at the prison three times while she was an inmate. She wrote a screenplay for one of their videos.

Life after imprisonment
ANSA's news alert announcing Knox's conviction being overturned was made using the character size and style reserved for the most important events. According to Italy's national TV broadcaster, this last happened when Pope Benedict XIV was elected in 2005.

According to Corrado Maria Daclon, secretary general of the Italy-USA Foundation, which managed Knox's departure from the penitentiary to the airport, when Knox returned to her former prison after her appeal, "[a]ll the prisoners, 500 or 600 of them, started to greet Amanda from the windows, like soccer stardom." She then said goodbye to her cellmate, other prisoners, and some of the guards. The next day she flew home to Seattle. Upon her arrival, Knox gave a brief press conference in which she thanked those who supported her and her family.

articles

 * could be evidence of racism if positions switched http://www.thenation.com/blog/166902/tyler-clementi-and-dharun-ravi-we-will-never-know
 * Ellis: verdict vaguely racist http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/dharun-ravi-guilty-tyler-_n_1354717.html
 * rally for Ravi- prosecutor not asking for full sentence http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57434365-504083/rutgers-spycam-trial-dharun-ravi-supporters-hold-protest-rally/
 * Forbes calls Clementi's comments racist http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/08/15/the-post-mortem-privacy-invasion-of-tyler-clementi/