Amanda Knox, the American college student who spent nearly four years in an Italian jail for murder, only to have her conviction overturned, is read to tell her story. And be paid handsomely for it. The international drama that unfolded on TV and in newspapers is now about to be told from the inside, in a subjective and profitable account, by Amanda Knox herself. Knox, who was freed last fall after her conviction in the murder of Meredith Kercher was thrown out, has sold her book to HarperCollins for what is said to be $4 million. “It is a story everyone else seems to have told except for the person at the center of it all,” Jonathan Burnham, the publisher of HarperCollins, told The N.Y. Times . “There has been plenty of rumor and conjecture about her, the role she played in events, and speculation about what happened. This book will tell the full story from her point of view for the very first time, and it will be told in her own words.” Amanda Knox, 24, kept prison diaries, the newspaper reports. In addition, her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito , who was also cleared in the killing of Meredith Kercher, is said to be preparing to sell his own memoir. Are you interested to hear what Knox’s book has to say? [Photo: Fame/Flynet]
The Amanda Knox story is coming to bookshelves near you. According to reports, she’s signed with a powerful literary agent in D.C., Robert Barnett, who has brokered book deals for some of the biggest names imaginable. Think Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. Barnett taking her on means there’s likely plenty of interest . Amanda’s Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito , who was also convicted and then exonerated in the murder of Meredith Kercher, has signed with his own agent. Sharlene Martin, famous for brokering deals for several New York Times bestsellers, will head the efforts to find a deal for Raffaele, who broke up with Knox recently. Knox has kept a relatively low profile since being freed from an Italian jail, though she did step out as a cat burglar for Halloween, which drew some harsh criticism. Kercher was murdered by a home invader after all. Not tactful, A.
Despite having their murder convictions overturned and their freedom restored, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito say their relationship can never be repaired. “It’s all over between us,” an emotional Sollecito said during an interview, according to the Daily Mail . “I still have a great affection towards her but nothing else.” According to Raffaele Sollecito , their romance in Perugia, Italy, abruptly ended when they were convicted of murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in 2007. That will typically do it. The pair subsequently spent four years in prison before the guilty verdicts were overturned last month. Don’t hold your breath for a reconciliation, though. “Our love was like a seed that was not allowed to grow because it was brutally stamped on,” Sollecito said. “We were both victims of a cruel injustice.” “Our relationship was overcome by this tragedy.” Amid reports that Knox, 24, has a new boyfriend, Sollecito also said he has thus far declined an offer from Knox’s family to stay with them in Seattle. “I just want to build up my life as it was before and it will have to be piece by piece,” he said. “She has suffered like me and now I just want her to be happiest woman in the world. Our lives are linked by circumstances but are very different.”
Nancy Grace is great at blowing smoke about Amanda Knox or Casey Anthony. She could not catch fire on Dancing With the Stars Monday night, however. Despite wearing a red wig, red eyelashes and a flirty, fringed dress … her jive just didn’t ignite very well at all. “This wasn’t a good dance for you,” judge Len Goodman said, not mincing words as always. “It was a disappointment for me.” She earned 21 points for it, giving her 44 out of 60 for the evening. That has her in last place. Think she’ll be going home tonight? Watch her possibly final routine below: Nancy Grace on Dancing With the Stars (Week 7)
The Casey Anthony and Amanda Knox have obvious parallels. Both are attractive white women accused of murder and acquitted after spending years behind bars – in Knox’s case, she was actually convicted first – and who have become national stories (and eviscerated by Nancy Grace ) for better or worse. One area where they differ – to Casey’s detriment, according to her lawyer Jose Baez – is in the parenting department. Amanda alone has that going for her. Baez says he was happy when the Amanda Knox verdict was overturned and she was freed. Having gone through it with Anthony, it brought back memories. “It was a surreal moment … I remembered being in that situation – a young woman’s life hung in the balance, and in a split second, her life was given back to her.” Baez says he felt Amanda’s family played a key role and they should “be applauded” for sticking with their 24-year-old daughter through the entire process. Contrarily, Casey’s parents George and Cindy Anthony did not support her and “hurt her case.” That was even before their shameless Dr. Phil interview , too. In the end, Baez says they’re just a pair of “all-American girls.” A lot of people would likely choose different words, but we suppose that’s true, if only literally. You tell us, readers: Casey Anthony … Then tell us: Amanda Knox …
Amanda Knox was cleared of murder charges in Italy on Monday after jurors threw out a 2009 conviction that sent the American student to prison for a quarter-century. Almost immediately following her exoneration in the slaying of Meredith Kercher, media watchers began pondering when/if a book deal for Knox is on the way. She certainly has a compelling story to tell … but would you buy it? This summer, another young woman who attracted massive media attention was found innocent of murder, and quickly drew offers exceeding $750,000 for such a book. Casey Anthony has not written a book or even given an interview, of course. Due to widespread public hatred of her, one wonders if there will ever be a market. Knox, however, seems to enjoy much wider public support. It helps that a review of DNA evidence and long appellate proceedings resulted in her winning her freedom. Meredith Kercher’s throat was slashed in 2007, officials believed, after a sadistic sex game between the victim, Knox, and her boyfriend gone horribly, fatally wrong. Knox always maintained her innocence, although what happened to Kercher still remains a mystery. Would you be interested in hearing her side of the story? Tell us: Amanda Knox :
Amanda Knox’s father says she’s traumatized following her release from an Italian jail, and he’s suing to have Lifetime’s film – Amanda Knox: Trial in Italy – yanked off the air. Lifetime originally aired the movie, starring Hayden Panettiere as Amanda, in February. Knox and her family sued the network shortly thereafter, claiming the movie exploited her ordeal and contained several “implausible” scenes. Here’s a low-quality recording of the Amanda Knox movie trailer: Amanda Knox Lifetime Movie Trailer Curt Knox believes the Lifetime movie that depicts his daughter as a violent murderer is complete bull$h!t and, given this week’s events, possibly libelous. Lifetime has yet to pull the film, but has recently edited the end of the movie to reference Monday’s vindicating Amanda Knox verdict , just before the credits. The movie concludes with an acknowledgment that Knox was freed due to overwhelming doubts about the legitimacy of DNA evidence used to convict her.
Nancy Grace doesn’t hold back. The news pundit and Dancing With the Stars competitor was not among the many people lauding the Amanda Knox verdict yesterday. Grace’s thoughts on Knox’s conviction (in the 2007 slaying of Meredith Kercher) being overturned? “I think that it was a miscarriage of justice,” she said. Nancy Grace does not hold back when it comes to her favorite cash cows . “I only hope Ms. Knox makes something of her life because she’s certainly been given a second chance. Very few people are given the chance she has been given.” Knox, a University of Washington student who had been studying in Perugia, Italy, faced a sentence of 26 years in prison after being convicted of murder in 2009. Yesterday, an appeals court overturned the 24-year-old’s conviction. Grace did not directly link the Amanda Knox trial to that of another infamous case in which a young woman, Casey Anthony, was controversially cleared of murder. She didn’t have to. Grace famously said “the devil is dancing tonight” upon the release of Anthony, who she ripped frequently and derisively referred to as “Tot Mom.” Amanda Knox Verdict There are some parallels between the women, but unlike the Casey Anthony case, wasn’t Knox cleared, at least in part, because of an independent review of DNA evidence? Which made the case against her less incriminating? What do you think? Is Nancy on point? Off base? Running her yap for ratings? Should she just stick to Dancing With the Stars nipple slips and call it a day? You tell us: Amanda Knox is …
Amanda Knox learned her fate at last as the verdict in her high-profile appeal of a murder conviction was read aloud in an Italian courtroom this evening. It was overturned. The jury found her not guilty of murder, but guilty of defamation. She was ordered to be set free immediately after her acquittal. Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, also cleared today, were sentenced to 25 and 26 years in prison following their 2009 convictions. The 24-year-old student tearfully denied brutally killing roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, 2007, pleading for freedom earlier Monday. “I am not what they say I am. I did not kill. I did not rape. I did not steal,” Amanda Knox said this morning, her voice trembling with emotion. It was the most important speech of her life. It showed, and it worked. “People always ask me, ‘who is Amanda Knox?’ I am the same person that I was four years ago, exactly the same person,” she continued. “The only thing that now separates me from four years ago is my suffering.” Knox and her family, present in Perugia, Italy, for the verdict, have always claimed that Amanda’s imprisonment was a monumental judicial mistake. Prosecutors, in turn, have depicted Knox as a manipulative liar, and were seeking to increase her sentence to life in prison. Instead, she’s free. The jury was made up of the presiding judge, a side judge and six jurors, five of them women, and had several options regarding deliberations. They could acquit both defendants and set them free, which they did. They also could have upheld the conviction, but changed the sentence. Amanda Knox Verdict Over the course of the trial, the defendants’ appeal had significantly improved, mainly because a court-ordered independent review cast serious doubts over the main DNA evidence linking the two to the crime. Prosecutors maintain that Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of a kitchen knife thought to have killed Kercher, whose DNA was on the blade. They also said Sollecito’s DNA was on the clasp of Kercher’s bra as part of a mix of evidence that included the murder victim’s genetic profile. But the independent review – ordered at the request of the defense, which had always disputed those findings – reached a different conclusion. The two experts found that police conducting the investigation had made glaring errors in evidence-collecting and that below-standard testing and possible contamination raised doubts over the attribution of DNA traces. In the end, a jury agreed. Unlike the Casey Anthony case, however, it appears that, at least to a degree, evidence helped clear Knox rather than simply being absent to the degree that she couldn’t be convicted. What do you think? Was justice served? Amanda Knox :
Amanda Knox, a University of Washington student studying in Italy, was portrayed in the European press as an amoral, pot-smoking party girl – an “angel-faced killer,” in one headline – and was sentenced to 26 years in prison. More than two years after Amanda Knox was convicted in the brutal murder of her roommate in Italy, a judge appears likely to free the American woman because of problems with the DNA evidence. An independent report by forensic experts has questioned the validity of tests o
