Disney’s plans to dramatize the case of a woman wrongfully convicted of fatally stabbing a 21-year-old exchange student have been dismissed for their “lack of sensitivity.”
A lawyer representing the family of Meredith Kercher, the Brit who was tragically murdered in Perugia seventeen years ago, is just one of the people to speak out about the premise of the eight-part series around Amanda Knox.
Knox was imprisoned in 2007. She was found guilty of fatally stabbing Kercher, but was subsequently finally acquitted of the murder in 2015 due to lack of evidence – having already served four years of her sentence.
Kercher was on exchange from the University of Leeds and shared an apartment in Perugia, Italy, with Knox in 2007, where the stabbing was initially alleged to have taken place.
Now an eight-part series is being made for Hulu, a Disney subscription streaming service, that chronicles Knox’s path to freedom.
Meredith Kercher, from Coulsdon, was murdered just three months after moving to Italy for a study abroad program at the prestigious University of Perugia (photo: in an undated photo released in November 2007)
Knox and Sollecito, pictured in Italy shortly after the case made headlines in 2007, had only been dating for a short time before Meredith’s death
Knox imagined himself leaving with the penitentiary police after a court hearing in Perugia on September 16, 2008
Filming started last week in Orvieto and will continue from Tuesday until the end of the week in Perugia, even using the Via della Pergola apartment where Kercher was murdered as the preferred location.
The Kercher family’s lawyer, Francesco Maresca, said: “We have already talked too much about this case and at some point you have to close the chapter.”
Speaking to The Times, she added: “Knox, however, does not want to close the chapter.
‘This constant stirring is a demonstration of a lack of sensitivity. She makes money, becomes visible on television after many years… It seems like Knox doesn’t want people to forget this story and is doing everything he can to keep it alive.’
A statement from Meredith Kercher’s sister, Stephanie, said: “She will forever have a lasting legacy of friendship and kindness that no amount of media can change” and spoke of “an indescribable void.”
Meredith’s parents Arline (center) and John (right) Kercher – who both died in 2020 – and her sister Stephanie (left) at a press conference in Perugia in November 2007
Meredith Kercher (pictured) was tragically murdered in 2007
Kercher’s real killer was eventually identified as Rudy Guede, from Ivory Coast, after his DNA was found on her body.
He was sentenced to 16 years before being released in 2021, as he only had to serve 13 years due to good behavior.
However, Knox’s 2011 defamation conviction regarding Patrick Lumumba, whom she accused of killing Kercher, would hang over her head for many years to come.
Knox apologized to the court in June this year, saying she had wrongly accused him after hours of intense police pressure. She added that she was “scared, cheated and abused.”
She said: ‘I am very sorry that I was not strong enough to withstand the pressure from the police’
But the two judges and six jurors found her guilty of defamation.
She had previously told the judge: ‘I never wanted to defame Patrick; he was my friend.’
Lumumba’s lawyers said the cafe owner’s reputation suffered regardless of whether she knew who the killer was.
Knox initially accused Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba (photo outside the Perugia court, central Italy, Tuesday, September 16, 2008) of Kercher’s murder.
“When Patrick was accused by Amanda, he became known everywhere as the Monster of Perugia,” Lumumba’s lawyer Carlo Pacelli told reporters, saying the conviction should be upheld. Lumumba was not in court.
Knox is now 37 and has two children. She spends her time advocating for criminal justice reform and campaigning against wrongful convictions.
A 2011 film for American television, the 2013 memoir Waiting to be Heard, and a 2016 Netflix documentary are just some of the ways she has already told her story.
Knox reportedly received $3.8 million (£2.9 million) for her book deal.
She is now a mother of two small children and has a podcast with her husband while campaigning against wrongful convictions
The new series, titled Amanda: A Coming of Age Horror Story, is co-produced by Monica Lewinsky, who became known for her affair with then US President Bill Clinton – a story that Disney also decided to turn into a television series. drama.
Knox is also executive producer of the new drama. She is played by Grace Van Patten.
Show bosses say the series tells the “true story of how Amanda Knox was wrongly convicted of the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher and her 16-year odyssey to free herself.”
Lawyer Maresca has made disparaging references to interviews Knox held at US universities in 2018, for which she was reportedly paid seven and a half thousand pounds per interview.
Speaking to The Times, he went so far as to say that the fact that her defamatory conviction was upheld cast doubt on her complete innocence.
“Knox’s silence at this time would have been most appropriate,” he concluded.