LIFE: Knox'd Out

SARONNO, Italy - I don’t know about you, but I’ve been Amanda Knox’d up to my eyeballs. I watched her appeal to the Italian court last week and frankly it was nice to see that she finally took her situation seriously. In my opinion the four years she spent in Capanne women’s prison in the green hills of Umbria will probably end up doing her more good than harm, and I’m not talking about the million dollar book deal she’s got either. There’s nothing like a slice of real life to make you appreciate what you have and who you are.

Amanda Knox

I can’t help but compare Amanda Knox to some of the  students I had when I taught a writing course at a  private university here in Italy. For the most part the American and Canadian students were away from home for the first time, ready to party, to let loose, and show the Italians how much they could drink, how much they could smoke and just how cool they were. 

One of the biggest complaints the Anglo-Saxon’s had was that the Italians took three hours to get dressed and then when they were finally out at a club they would only have one drink.  They were no fun, they never got drunk and danced on the tables or threw up all over themselves. In fact they were downright boring.

Meredith Kercher

But the Americans knew how to party, and they liked to party hearty, so hearty that the university came close to shutting the entire exchange program down one year after they were required to pay out a large chunk of money to local taxi owners to clean up their taxi’s after the Anglo party goers had thrown up in them.

So starting with Amanda’s behavior after she was arrested, that irresponsible, self-centered attitude is what I saw in her, and frankly I still see. She’s just a little smarter now.  Being locked up for four years will do that to you. Life in any prison cannot be easy, and most certainly Amanda went through a difficult period of adjustment. But the way she is being canonized on American TV, you’d think she had been swept up off the street and dropped into a hole in a prison in the middle of a jungle. 

Capanne Prison, Umbria, Italy

Compared to other countries, Italian prisons are quite civilized. When Amanda was first convicted she shared a cell with three other women, a Kosovan, a Chinese and a Roma (gypsy). Toward the end of her sentence she was sharing the space with two Italian women and a Bolivian. In each cell there are cooking facilities, a shower area and a TV. During the day the doors of the cells are open and the inmates are free to walk around and visit with other inmates. 

During her time in prison Amanda continued her language studies with her professors at the University of Washington.  She also spent time reading, watching television, exercising in the prison yard and listening to music.  She had a small part in a film that was shot in the prison and apparently took up singing and gave little concerts for the other inmates. I don’t know what prisons are like in the United States, but somehow I think they are a little more restrictive.

With more visiting privileges than any of the other inmates, she saw her parents often and not from behind a plastic shield. Visits were held in a private room where they could sit and talk, and hug.  

Now she’s claiming she was sexually harassed by a prison official. How come she never mentioned this before? It seems very odd. It’s not as if she could not have been transferred to another facility.

Patrick Lumumba

Did she get away with murder? Only she knows the answer to that. Personally I don’t feel sorry for her. When Amanda was arrested, she tried to push the blame for Meredith Kercher’s  murder on Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba. Why? 

It is difficult enough for Africans to make a living in Italy, but after being accused of assault and murder during a drug-fueled sexual encounter, it must be just about impossible for him now. My sympathies lie with Mr. Lumumba and his wife and children. I doubt that he has a million dollar book deal in the works. And the fact that Amanda has been found guilty of slander doesn’t change the fact that his business and his life are ruined.

 Rudy Guede

And I feel sorry for Meredith Kercher’s family. They lost their daughter. They sent her to Italy to study and she ended up dead. There’s no do over. 

It may very well be that the other person arrested for the murder, Rudy Guede, is guilty, after all his DNA was found at the scene, but it's hard to tell. There is very little information about him. All we know is that he is from the Ivory Coast, he’s a small time drug dealer and he is in Italy illegally, but that's nothing new. A lot of people are in Italy illegally these days. His trial seemed to be an open and shut case, but what was his motive? 

I wish I could say I was the only one who feels this way, but in talking to the Italians I know in Saronno they seem to think that there is a lot more to this story than what has come out so far. On a national basis, Il Secolo, one of Italy’s leading newspapers asked more than 2,500 people if they agreed with the decision of the judges in Perugia and 68% of them said they did not.