Disney’s plans to dramatize the case of a woman wrongly convicted of fatally stabbing a 21-year-old exchange student have been criticized for being “insensitive.”
A lawyer representing the family of Meredith Kercher, the British woman who was tragically murdered in Perugia 17 years ago, is just one of the people criticizing the premise of the eight-part series centered on Amanda Knox.
Knox was jailed in 2007 and convicted of fatally stabbing Kercher, although she was later finally acquitted of the murder in 2015 for lack of evidence, after having served four years of her sentence.
Kercher was on an exchange from the University of Leeds and shared an apartment in Perugia, Italy, in 2007 with Knox, where the stabbing was initially said to have taken place.
Now, an eight-part series is being made for Hulu, a subscription streaming service owned by Disney, chronicling Knox’s path to freedom.
Meredith Kercher, from Coulsdon, was murdered just three months after moving to Italy to undertake a study abroad program at the prestigious university of Perugia (pictured: in an undated photograph published in November 2007).
Knox and Sollecito, photographed in Italy shortly after the case made headlines in 2007, had been dating shortly before Meredith’s death.
Knox was photographed leaving with prison police after a court hearing in Perugia on September 16, 2008.
Filming began last week in Orvieto and will continue from Tuesday until the end of the week in Perugia, even using the apartment on Via della Pergola, where Kercher was murdered, as a chosen location.
The Kercher family’s lawyer, Francesco Maresca, said: “We have already talked too much about this case and at a certain point we have to close the chapter.”
Speaking to The Times, he added: ‘However, Knox does not want to close the chapter.
‘This continued agitation is a demonstration of lack of sensitivity. He makes money, he gets visibility on television after many years… It seems that Knox doesn’t want people to forget this story and does everything he can to keep it alive.’
A statement from Meredith Kercher’s sister, Stephanie, said “she will always 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, both of whom 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 the Ivory Coast, after his DNA was found on her body.
He was sentenced to 16 years before being released in 2021, as he only needed to serve 13 years for good behavior.
However, Knox’s 2011 defamation conviction in relation to Patrick Lumumba, whom he accused of killing Kercher, would hang over his head for many years.
Knox apologized in court in June this year and said she wrongly accused him after being subjected to intense police pressure for hours, adding that she had been “scared, misled and abused”.
She said: “I am very sorry that I was not strong enough to resist the pressure of the police.”
But the two judges and six jurors found her guilty of defamation.
He had previously told the judge: ‘I never meant to defame Patrick; he was my friend.’
Lumumba’s lawyers said the bar owner’s reputation was affected regardless of whether she knew who the killer was.
Knox initially accused Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba (pictured outside the courthouse in Perugia, central Italy, Tuesday, September 16, 2008) of killing Kercher.
“When Amanda accused Patrick, he became known everywhere as the monster of Perugia,” Lumumba’s lawyer, Carlo Pacelli, told reporters, stating that the conviction should be upheld. Lumumba was not in court.
Knox is now 37 years old and has two children. He dedicates his time to 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.
It was reported that Knox had been paid $3.8 million (£2.9 million) for her book deal.
She is now a mother of two young 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, known for her romance with then-US President Bill Clinton, a story that Disney also decided to turn into television. drama.
Knox is also executive producer of the new drama. She is played by Grace Van Patten.
Series bosses say it 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 disapproving references to talks Knox gave to American universities in 2018 for which she was reportedly paid £7,500 each.
Speaking to The Times, he even went so far as to say that the fact that his conviction for libel was confirmed cast doubt on his complete innocence.
“Knox’s silence at this time would have been most appropriate,” he concluded.