Amanda Knox’s 2009 murder conviction was overturned in 2011.
FLORENCE and LONDON — An Italian court on Wednesday re-convicted Amanda Knox of slander, upholding the only remaining conviction in connection with the brutal 2007 murder of her roommate.
The Florence court sentenced Knox to three years in prison for defaming Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba in a written statement following the murder of Meredith Kercher. Knox is not expected to serve time, since she served about four years before her murder conviction was overturned.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2019 that Italian law enforcement violated Knox’s rights during his interrogation, leading Italy to reject his defamation conviction. The country’s Supreme Court then asked the Florence court to open a new trial to determine whether the note contained slander.
Knox arrived at Florence court on Wednesday morning, with her hearing scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. local time. She was accompanied by her husband, Christopher Robinson, with whom she shares two children.
Knox gave a roughly 10-minute statement in court. Speaking in Italian, with a sometimes trembling voice, she explained why she had written the note naming Lumumba.
She said she did not intend to hurt Lumumba, who was “not only her employer” but also a friend who consoled her after the death of her roommate. She named him while exhausted and confused during a lengthy police interrogation, she said.
The hearing was scheduled in “the same courtroom where I was reconvicted for a crime I did not commit,” Knox said Monday. This time, she would be there to “defend me once again,” she added.
“I hope to clear my name once and for all of the false accusations made against me,” Knox said on social media. “Wish me good luck.”
Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were initially convicted of murder in 2009, a judgment that was overturned in 2011. She was convicted of murder again in 2014. The highest court in the The country finally acquitted her and Sollecito of murder in 2015.
Rudy Hermann Guede was convicted and served 13 years in prison for the murder. He was released in 2021.
On Monday, on social media, Knox added a short postscript to his statement saying: “Crepi il lupo! The Italian phrase roughly translates to “Let the wolf die”, a common way of saying “Good luck”.