Amanda Knox’s Slander Case in in the Hands of an Italian Court: Here’s What to Know

Amanda Knox is close to finding out whether her name will be cleared once and for all.

On Thursday, Jan. 23, Italy’s highest court will decide on her appeal of her slander conviction after she falsely accused a Congolese bar owner of murdering her British roommate in Italy in 2007 during an aggressive police interrogation, the Associated Press reports.

During a two-hour hearing, Knox, 37, and Patrick Lumumba, the man she accused of murdering Meredith Kercher, 21, presented their cases before Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation in Rome, where appeals are heard, Reuters reports.

The outcome will finally end the ordeal for Knox that began when Kercher was found murdered in their flat in Perugia on Nov. 1, 2007.

The court began deliberations on Thursday. 

Here’s what to know:

Knox Says She’s Being Punished for ‘Crime I Did Not Commit’

In 2024, Knox was sentenced to three years in prison for wrongly accusing Lumumba of the murder, which she claims she did while under duress during lengthy police questioning.

If the court upholds the slander conviction, Knox will not be sent to prison because of time she has already served behind bars, which amounted to four years, which she served during the investigation, her initial murder trial and her first appeal, the AP reports. 

Knox has said she simply wants to clear her name.

“I hate the fact that I have to live with consequences for a crime I did not commit,” she said recently on her Labyrinths podcast, the AP reports.

In a lengthy Instagram post in October 2023, Knox, 37, wrote about how she looking forward to potentially being completely exonerated.

Lumbumba vehemently disagrees, telling reporters outside the Cassation Court that he hopes the conviction stands and “stays with her for the rest of her life,” according to the AP.

Knox’s Rocky Legal Road

Knox was a 20-year-old exchange student in November 2007 when Kercher was found dead in her bedroom with more than 40 stab wounds and a deep gash in her throat. She had also been sexually assaulted.

Knox and her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, were arrested five days later for her murder. After a sensational, 11-month trial, Knox and Sollecito were convicted of murdering Kercher.

Knox spent four years in prison, heading to court again and again to clear her name. 

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In 2011, the two won an appeal and were freed and cleared of most charges.

But in a second appeals trial in 2014, Knox was once again found guilty of murdering Kercher, and sentenced to 28 1/2 years in prison. Sollecito was also found guilty and was sentenced to 25 years.

Finally in 2015, the pair were officially exonerated by the Cassation Court, Italy’s highest court, PEOPLE previously reported.

But her legal troubles weren’t quite over.

The Slander Conviction

After Kercher’s murder, Knox was questioned for 53 hours by Italian police, despite not being fluent in Italian. During the interrogation, she accused Lumumba, her boss at the time, of murdering her roommate, signing statements typed up by police, the AP reported.

She recanted the accusation in a four-page handwritten note the next day, the AP reported.

Still, police took Lumumba into custody for questioning, holding him for nearly two weeks.

He was released after someone came forward with an alibi for him, according to The Guardian.

At the time, Knox’s lawyers argued that she pointed the finger at Lumumba because she was under duress and didn’t have an interpreter or legal assistance at the time, The Guardian reported.

In 2016, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that her rights had been violated during her interrogation, the AP reports.

Knox appealed the slander conviction and the Court of Cassation annulled it, CBS News reports.

In 2024, the Court of Cassation ordered a retrial, during which she was found guilty. She appealed the conviction and her three-year sentence, and will learn the disposition of her appeal today.