Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Amanda Knox's Oddly Cool Sit-Down with Diane Sawyer

Diane Sawyer sat down for a long-awaited face-to-face interview with convicted killer Amanda Knox last night. This interview came after Knox served nearly four years in an Italian prison for killing Meredith Kercher, her late roommate, while the two were studying abroad in Perugia, Italy. Sawyer asked Knox a range of questions, broaching her feelings towards Meredith’s family, her odd cartwheel-kissing-seemingly-jovial reaction after Kercher’s death and, of course, remorse. Knox maintained a pretty consistent emotional range throughout the 60-minute interview, only veering slightly course at times, from sadness to anger.

Knox told Sawyer that even after living through years of hell in prison and Italian courts, she maintains “only fond memories” of Meredith and would “like to visit her grave some day.”  Hmmm.  Kercher’s family has yet to respond to a request of the sort.
Knox recounted the incident that took place nearly six years ago as if she were an innocent bystander, a victim herself. ”I was stunned by her death, completely bowled over because it was unfair. She was my friend, and I lost a friend.” The fact is — yes, Kercher was indeed lost to the world. The question that still remains of course, though, is that of responsibility.
Sawyer delved into the details of the day of the murder, flat-out asking Knox if she killed Kercher.  A definitive “no” resounded. Knox detailed the same inconsistent recount of her whereabouts that night that she has already: She and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were at his apartment for the night. That is what she had claimed in the initial days after the crime took place (and told Sawyer last night), but just days later, changed her tune. She conceded at that point that she had indeed been in the apartment in the kitchen, “covering her ears as Knox screamed.” Knox claimed her boss, bar-owner Patrick Lumumba, had killed Kercher and later told her not to come into work.
Amanda Knox, the aptly nicknamed “she-devil with an angel face,” told Sawyer her personality has changed since the trial began six years ago. She is “more guarded and less outgoing” than she was pre-Kercher-scandal. I would imagine so.  A small price to pay, wouldn’t you say?
Although Knox’s words throughout the interview felt moderately sad and at times remorseful, another feeling more heavily prevailed throughout: stoicism.
At one point, when remembering her mother’s and sister’s tears in reaction to the indictment, her voice did audibly crack, betraying a slight sliver of seemingly real emotion. ”For all intents and purposes, I was a murderer, whether I was or not. And I had to live with the idea that would be my life. I would be one of those people who suffered an incredible, mind-boggling injustice,” she stated. Other than this, however, her demeanor remained almost uncomfortably cool and collected.
In Knox’s newly released book, Waiting to be Heard, she talks about her contemplation of suicide, living in a prison cell with only a tiny window to the outside world, and what would become of her young adult life once/if she exited. ”I had to grow up in prison for something I did not do,” she asserts in writing. Her family got her through the nearly 1,400 nights in prison, without whom, she says, she would not have made it.
Amanda Knox knows there are plenty of people, namely the Kerchers, to whom she will remain a murderess-she-devil. All that she hopes for now, perhaps unrealistically, is belief in her innocence from as many people possible. We will see about that, Amanda.

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