Knox, ex-boyfriend face parallel trial by social media

MILAN — Italy’s highest court this week takes up the Amanda Knox case for the second time as a parallel trial-by-social media rages online, with partisans on both sides seeking to shape public opinion over a murder case that has polarized observers in three nations.

While the Internet advocacy and sparring over the Knox trial details — on blogs, forums and most vociferously on Twitter — have no bearing on the real court case, observers and participants say it does have a role in shaping public opinion, particularly in the United States, where the exchanges are most acerbic.

And public opinion could eventually have some bearing, if a confirmed guilty verdict requires Knox to serve a sentence and Italy seeks to extradite her.

“This has become their life, and both sides are desperate to win any way they can. Even if that is in the court of public opinion, they will take that win,” said Laurie Levenson, a law professor who directs the center for legal advocacy at Loyola Law School. ‘’Everyone has woken up and realized that the law is not etched in stone. It is in the eye of the beholder and they are trying to influence that.”

The Italian Court of Cassation on Wednesday is expected to rule on Knox’s and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito’s appeals to their guilty verdicts in British student Meredith Kercher’s 2007 killing, issued last year by a Florence appeals court that sentenced Knox to 28½ years and Sollecito to 25 years.

Both had been found guilty by a trial court in Perugia, then freed after a Perugia appellate court overturned the convictions, only to find themselves back in an appellate court after the high court vacated the acquittals in a harsh rebuke of the Perugia chief appellate judge’s reasoning.

Knox, who spent four years in jail during the investigation and after her lower court conviction, remains free in the United States. She has vowed never to return willingly to Italy. If her conviction is upheld now or in future decisions, any decision on her extradition will include a political component that could, in some part, be swayed by public opinion.

“She would need a groundswell of support to at least stave off the (U.S.) government from moving forward” on any extradition request from Italy, said Levenson.

Eugene McLaughlin, a professor of criminology at the City of University London who is studying the early days of British media coverage, calls the case one of the first examples of “trial by social media,” one that put the photogenic U.S. defendant at the center of attention, eclipsing the victim in most accounts.

“The case is almost beyond legal adjudication,” McLaughlin said. “No matter if Amanda Knox or Raffaele Sollecito are found guilty or not guilty, it has taken on an after-life of its own.”

The protracted online battle took root in the Paleolithic era of social media, when tabloids plumbed Knox’s MySpace page for early photos of a smiling and carefree student, wisps of hair blowing from beneath a rolled knit cap, picking up on the “Foxy Knoxy” moniker.

To the British tabloids, the University of Washington student was a she-wolf bent on seduction. The image they portrayed of a deceptively wholesome American roommate with a taste for adventure took hold in the public imagination after the young lovers were filmed embracing outside the crime scene and shopping for lingerie days after the murder.

McLaughlin said Knox was assumed guilty in the British press in the early days of coverage, an impression that solidified when Italian police leaked that she had confessed — a confession she later said was forced.

“Certainly in the British media, among key newspapers, she was guilty way before they got near any sort of court,” McLaughlin said.

In the United States, the story was different. Knox’s parents were frequent guests on U.S. TV networks and Knox’s image was closely managed by family spokesman David Marriott’s PR firm. The company set about disputing what it saw as misconceptions about Knox spawned in the British tabloids and the Italian media in the months after her arrest — a task that eventually landed Knox a reported $4 million book deal.

Sollecito, for his part, has responded to requests to speak with non-Italian traditional news outlets that he will grant interviews only in exchange for money.

It was in this PR breach the social media engagement ramped up, with blogs, discussion groups, wiki sites and Twitter exchanges on complex Italian court opinions and expert testimony on DNA evidence.

One of the latest hashtag battles is being waged by Knox supporters against Sollecito, seeking a boycott of donations to his legal defense fund until he clarifies whether his high court defense strategy amounts to a sellout of Knox. But over the months and years, the hashtag battles have also fought over minute details of the DNA evidence and tussled over highly technical forensic documents, which McLaughlin said can be open to multiple interpretations.

This trial-by-social media — conducted in English and unburdened by the weight of law — is being carried out by largely by trial watchers with no direct connection to either the victim or the defendants.

“It was like a big whodunit, and I like puzzles,” said Edward McCall, the online alias of the founder of the Murder of Meredith Kercher wiki, one of among a dozen mostly U.S.-based sites on both sides actively monitoring the case. McCall, who says the site is close to achieving its goal of posting translations of all court documents and transcripts, asked not to use his real name to protect himself and family members from harassment.

McCall said he was motivated by a desire to confront the pro-Knox PR he felt was prevalent in the U.S. discussion, and that he was now seeing language from his articles seeping into the discussion.

As well-meaning as the sites are, the Kercher family lawyer, Francesco Maresca, said translating complex court documents for an English-speaking audience had little value for readers who don’t know have the Italian law knowledge to interpret them properly.

“These trials are very difficult. It is not that everyone can play lawyer. If your knowledge is average, these are very technical questions,” Maresca said. “And after that, it slides into gossip.”

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.