Nearly six years after an Italian court convicted Amanda Knox of killing her roommate Meredith Kercher during a study abroad program in 2007, Knox has finally opened up in her first interview. In 2011, her conviction was overturned. In March of this year, however, the Italian Supreme Court reversed her acquittal. Tuesday night, Knox and her parents sat down with Diane Sawyer for an one-hour ABC special to discuss everything that has happened over the past six years.
Knox’s emotions poured out on the screen as she told Sawyer that she has nightmares about spending four years in an Italian prison. But she also hopes to one day visit her late roommate’s grave to pay her respects to the Kercher family.
10 Memorable Quotes from Knox’s first interview:
1. Prior to starting her study abroad program in Italy, Knox’s sister made a video of Knox exploring Italy. Knox wishes she could go back and give some advice to herself prior to all of the horrific events. “I want to tell her not to be afraid of what’s going to happen because what happened to me hit me like a train,” Knox said. “And there was nothing I could do to stop it.”
2. Knox talked about the night of Kercher’s murder and spending the evening with her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. “November 1, we stayed in,” she said. “And we had dinner. We watched a movie. We smoked. We had sex. We were together. We just hung out together.”
3. Knox was the first person to discover Kercher’s body the next morning, but only after she got home and showered. People criticized her for not noticing that something was wrong until after she finished her shower, as the door was open when she got home, and blood on the bathroom sink. “Well I had never before experienced anything in my life that was drastic,” she said. “I didn’t think, ‘Oh my God, someone’s been in here and murdered someone.'”
4. Knox acted strangely in the following weeks of the murder, leading people to assume that she was guilty. She now says that it was just how she reacted to the situation because she was terrified and angry. “I think everyone’s reaction to something horrible is different,” she said. “I felt very lost, very alone, and very vulnerable. My friend had been murdered and it could have just as easily been me. Somehow, she died in the house that we had been living, and it could have been me.”
5. Knox has empathy for Kercher’s family. “I want them to know their grief has my every respect, has the respect of my family, and we just don’t want to… we don’t want to invade their life and their grief,” she said. “And I really want them to understand that my need for justice for myself is not in contradiction with theirs.”
6. Knox wants to visit Kercher’s grave. “She talked about how she wanted to be a journalist, like her dad. And she talked about her sister. And if that’s all I can give them is this memory that I have of her to add to… all of theirs that they can carry with them when she’s gone,” she said. “[I hope] that eventually I can have their permission to pay respects at her grave.”
7. Knox wants to totally clear her name. “I want the truth to come out,” she said. “I want misunderstandings to be looked at. I would like to be reconsidered as a person.”
8. And Knox wrote her book, Waiting to Be Heard, to explain how the past six years has changed her. “I have been in an experience where I thought everything that I had hoped for in my life was taken away from me, and I had to redefine what mattered,” she said. “And when I think about the purpose of what I wrote, I think about what I would tell my little sisters about how to live no matter what’s stopping you.”
9. Knox is still sad over her friend’s death. “I was stunned by her death, completely bowled over because it was unfair,” she said. “She was my friend, and I lost a friend.”
10. Sadly, the past six years have dramatically altered Knox. “My family was expecting the old Amanda who was — she makes goofy faces — which was the old Amanda back,” she said. “And I’m not quite as chirpy anymore.”
Follow Lindsey on Twitter @LDiMat.
More:
Amanda Knox’s Case Ordered to Retrial
Diane Sawyer Scores Amanda Knox’s First Post-Trial Interview
Hayden Panettiere Feels ‘A Connection’ to Amanda Knox
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