milyon88 Amanda Knox Slander Conviction Is Upheld by Italy’s Highest Court

Italy’s highest court on Thursday upheld the slander conviction of Amanda Knoxmilyon88, an American who was first convicted and then acquitted of killing her housemate in 2007, for accusing an innocent man in the case.

The court ruling could put an end to a legal saga that has riveted followers in Europe and the United States. It has lasted more than 17 years and has gone through various Italian and European-level courts. The court upheld Ms. Knox’s 3-year prison sentence, but she will not have to serve any more time, as she already spent four years in prison, from 2007 to 2011.

Ms. Knox, now 37, who lives near Seattle, was not present at the hearing on Thursday. One of her lawyers, Carlo Dalla Vedova, spoke to her after the verdict and said she was “very, very disappointed.”

“She had been hoping to close this chapter,” he said.

Ms. Knox has been trying to remove the last legal stain from her name, 10 years after Italy’s highest court definitively acquitted her of killing Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British student.

In November, 2007, the Italian authorities arrested Ms. Knox, then 20,peso99 and her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, then 23, for the death of Ms. Kercher, who was found lying on her bed with her throat slashed; all three were studying in the picturesque central Italian city of Perugia. The involvement of privileged and attractive young people from multiple countries, and what prosecutors described as a sex game gone wrong, fueled intense international interest in the case.

Initially convicted in 2009 of the killing but acquitted on appeal, Ms Knox returned to the United States in 2011. Her case bounced between various courts until, in 2015, when Italy’s highest court threw out charges it said had been marred by flimsy evidence and a rush to judgment.

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Calls for school crackdowns have mounted with reports of cyberbullying among adolescents and studies indicating that smartphones, which offer round-the-clock distraction and social media access, have hindered academic instruction and the mental health of children.

Overall, violent crime fell 3 percent and property crime fell 2.6 percent in 2023, with burglaries down 7.6 percent and larceny down 4.4 percent. Car thefts, though, continue to be an exception, rising more than 12 percent from the year before.

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