Amanda Knox: Did she, or didn’t she?

Netflix

I haven’t written in a while. Maybe it’s because I’ve been busy, maybe it’s because I haven’t found anything I wanted to write about. But that quickly changed on Friday when Netflix launched its new documentary: Amanda Knox.

Before I watched the documentary, I knew a little about the death of Meredith Kercher, the arrests of Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito, Patrick Lumumba and Rudy Guede, the media attention, the two separate trials and the acquittal.

So based on that small amount of information, I assumed that Knox and Sollecito were innocent, Lumumba got caught up in something he had no knowledge of, and Guede was the person who took Meredith’s life.

After watching the documentary, I’m not so sure.

Look at her, how is she smiling in court?!

I’m not unsure of Amanda’s innocence because of her portrayal by Netflix. In fact, this was one of few documentaries I’ve seen that manages to remain slightly impartial about the case it covers.

I agreed with Netflix’s analysis and disregard of Knox’s apparent ‘strange’ behaviour following the death of her roommate, a girl she had met a month before. I think we can agree that making out with your boyfriend as your roommate lays dead in your home wasn’t the smartest timing in the world, but I’m not expecting the girl to have an emotional breakdown every time a camera is trained on her. Hell, some of the things Amanda did that the press labelled ‘inappropriate’ and ‘odd’ I could see myself doing under enough stress and scrutiny.

I loved the breakdown of the DNA, and the confirmation that possible contamination of the murder weapon and the crime scene had taken place. I definitely took a sharp breath in when we heard the Italian police discussing the disorganisation of the entire case.

Despite my opinions on him being quite strong, I’m not going to discuss Nick Pisa in relation to the media harassment that Knox experienced. Yes, Pisa had an orchestral role in the picture that was painted to the public via the news outlets, but I’m not sure we should label him a journalist when there are so many decent people trying to work to earn that title.

It’s definitely my opinion that the focus from the police on Knox would not have been as strong if it weren’t for the constant coverage in the media. Sensational headlines about sex games, personal diary entries and even HIV were all designed to grab the public’s attention while the media squeezed every drop of coverage they could out of the case.

No, the portrayal of Amanda and the information presented to me didn’t persuade me of Knox’s guilt. She did.

I can’t say that she killed Meredith. I have no proof that she knows anything about how Meredith died. But I keep getting a feeling when the camera is on Knox, when she’s talking to the camera, or even when she’s just staring into the lens. She’s lying.

But as she herself says when the documentary is coming to an end: “You’re trying to find the answer in my eyes when the answer is right over there. You’re looking at me. Why? These are my eyes – they’re not objective evidence.”

Let me know if you’ve seen the documentary, what you think about the case, and if ‘Foxy Knoxy’ really is a cold blooded killer.