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On the heels of the family of convicted killer Amanda Knox objecting to Lifetime’s upcoming telefilm about her controversial trial, lawyers for the infamous U.S. student and her ex-boyfriend who were found guilty of killing Knox’s roommate in Italy, have asked the cable channel to pull the movie. According to news reports, attorneys Carlo Dalla Vedova and Luca Maori have sent a formal letter to Lifetime demanding that the movie is quashed and its trailer removed from the network’s website as the case is going through an appeal. They are threatening legal action if the network doesn’t do so by Feb. 10.
Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy, which stars Heroes alumna Hayden Panettiere as Knox, is scheduled to premiere on Feb. 21. Knox became an instant international celebrity (nicknamed Foxy Knoxy) when she was arrested in 2007 for the gruesome murder of her British roommate inside the duo’s cottage in the medieval Italian town of Perugia after what prosecutors said was a violent night fueled by sex and drugs. After an 11-month trial, Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison; her boyfriend received 25 years, with the case now going through an appeal process. Knox has always professed her innocence and has a bevy of supporters, especially in the U.S., with many questioning the fairness of the investigation and trial. U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell from Knox’s home state of Washington previously assailed the guilty verdict, claiming it raised “serious questions about the Italian justice system and whether anti-Americanism tainted this trial”.
A spokesman for Lifetime’s parent company, A&E Television Networks, said that as of Saturday afternoon, the company had not received the letter and had no comment. This is the second controversy involving upcoming longform project at a A&E TV Networks channel. Last month, A&E’s History pulled the eight-part miniseries The Kennedys shortly before its scheduled premiere. Here is the trailer for Amanda Knox as featured on the network’s website:
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It’s great to see Hayden Panettiere, doing tv movies. It’s good to watch Lifetime on MUTE. ______________________________________ < Just imagine Hayden on you're tv, just looking good! No words, no problems! Hayden has a history on Lifetime. She'll do well! I never knew tha A&E, owned Lifetime! But I thought Hayden should do stuff on Discovery about "How I saved the Dolphins". Or Celebrity Bigfoot Stories on A&E. – WC
Everybody have fun tonight
Everybody have fun tonight
Everybody Wang Chung tonight
Everybody have fun tonight
Everybody Wang Chung tonight
Everybody have fun
This case continues to baffle me. You have a prosecutor who, three days after the arrest, went to the judge AND the press with this theory that it was some kind of elaborate Satanic ritual and really laid out all these crazy details that had zero connection to reality – and the press and a good number of the Italian people swallowed it, hook, line and sinker even knowing that said prosecutor was being investigated for endless corruption charges and had been actively seeking a cause celebre to put himself back on the map.
Oh, and he’d used that whole “It was an elaborate Satanic ritual!!”-accusation only a few years before in another case.
I have no connection to the Knox case, I feel bad for the family who lost their daughter to murder and I feel bad for those who I can’t imagine aren’t wrongfully accused, but this whole thing reads like a farce where a prosecutor simply won’t allow himself to admit to being wrong after they caught the actual killer.
It’s the ‘Meredith Kercher’ case not the ‘Amanda Knox’ case. Does institutional xenophobia extend to ALL of American speech, written word and behaviour!!!???
Amanda Knox is the one on trial, hence “Amanda Knox Case.” Just like when OJ was on trial, it was the “OJ Simpson Trial,” not the “Nicole Brown Simpson case.” Does Anti-American hatred dominate every aspect of your life, or just the portion of it you spend on the internet?
Moron.
Americans are not interested in Meredith cause she’s british. They’re interested in Amanda cause she’s american.
@bounder,
You really need to get your facts straight. The prosecutor has never claimed that that Meredith was killed as a part of a satanic ritual. You won’t be able to find a single verbatim quote from Mignini claiming this because there isn’t one. It’s also not true that he was being investigated for endless corruption charges. You haven’t provided any proof to support your wild-eyed claims.
Actually, he’s got his facts quite straight. Your post seems to be an example of those who will vigorously defend the powerful and corrupt. I’m also puzzled by the practice, though it’s all too rampant.
Knox happens to be innocent of murder she was railroaded in an unfair trial with prejudicial news reports. There is evidence she’s innocent but she won’t ever get a fair trial. Unfortunately she’s a public figure and Lifetime can air the movie without any worry. Sadly the movie makes it look like she’s guilty and that’s their best legal option, assuming she’s somehow freed on appeal they could then sue for defamation and get a hundred million dollars.
The evidence against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito is overwhelming. They gave completely different accounts of where they were, who they were with and what they were doing on the night of the murder. Neither Knox nor Sollecito have credible alibis despite three attempts each. All the other people who were questioned had one credible alibi that could be verified. Innocent people don’t give multiple conflicting alibis and lie repeatedly to the police.
The DNA didn’t miraculously deposit itself in the most incriminating of places.
An abundant amount of Raffaele Sollecito’s DNA was found on Meredith’s bra clasp. His DNA was identified by two separate DNA tests. Of the 17 loci tested in the sample, Sollecito’s profile matched 17 out of 17.
According to Sollecito’s forensic expert, Professor Vinci, Knox’s DNA was on Meredith’s bra.
Amanda Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of the double DNA knife and a number of independent forensic experts – Dr. Patrizia Stefanoni, Dr. Renato Biondo and Professor Francesca Torricelli – categorically stated that Meredith’s DNA was on the blade. Sollecito knew that Meredith’s DNA was on the blade which is why he twice lied about accidentally pricking her hand whilst cooking.
There were five instances of Knox’s DNA mixed with Meredith’s blood in three different locations in the cottage.
Knox tracked Meredith’s blood into the bathroom, the hallway, her room and Filomena’s room, where the break-in was staged. Knox’s DNA and Meredith’s blood was found mixed together in Filomena’s room, in a bare bloody footprint in the hallway and in three places in the bathroom.
Rudy Guede’s bloody footprints led straight out of Meredith’s room and out of the house. This means that he didn’t stage the break-in in Filomena’s room or go into the blood-spattered bathroom after Meredith had been stabbed.
The bloody footprint on the blue bathmat in the bathroom matched the precise characteristics of Sollecito’s foot, but couldn’t possibly belong to Guede. Knox’s and Sollecito’s bare bloody footprints were revealed by luminol in the hallway.
It’s not a coincidence that the three people – Knox, Sollecito and Guede – who kept telling the police a pack of lies are all implicated by the DNA and forensic evidence.
Amanda Knox voluntarily admitted that she was involved in Meredith’s murder in her handwritten note to the police on 6 November 2007. After she was informed that Sollecito was no longer providing her with an alibi, she stated on at least four separate occasions that she was at the cottage when Meredith was killed. At the trial, Sollecito refused to corroborate Knox’s alibi that she was at his apartment.
Knox accused an innocent man, Diya Lumumba, of murdering Meredith despite the fact she knew he was completely innocent. She didn’t recant her false and malicious allegation against Lumumba the whole time he was in prison. She admitted that it was her fault that Lumumba was in prison in an intercepted conversation with her mother on 10 November 2007.
Kudos to you, Harry Rag.
Harry Rag…. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!! What you wrote about the Amanda Knox case is all anyone has to know to conclude that this sniveling, rat-faced lying girl is plying her wholesome image and all-American ‘good looks’ to game the Italian court system as well as the court of public opinion back home. I’ve said it before & I will say it again…. If Amanda Knox looked like the main actress from the movie ‘Precious’ do you really think she’d be getting such unrelenting hype and support? Do you really think U.S. Senators and major media outlets would be devoting more time to her story than, as they currently are, on ‘the boots’ risking their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan to wage a war most Americans have pushed to the back of their minds? Do you really think ‘Lifetime’ would even give one damn?
We all, sadly, know the answer.
Thanks again for your awesome and succinctly powerful post, Harry Rag.
You nailed it.
Nice reporting, Deadline. Amanda Knox is a “convicted killer” and the “infamous U.S. student.” Did anyone bother to mention that her arrest, trial, and conviction are a complete joke? Amanda Knox is rotting in prison in Italy, and Lifetime is making a profit off her misery.
And to add insult to injury they cast Hayden Panetierre as Amanda, rather than use an actress.
She *was* convicted. And if she didn’t want a TV movie made about her, then she shouldn’t have gone around killing people, that trampy psycho murderess.
Good point!
Just for a bit of balance the parents of the victim are deeply unhappy about this movie. They oddly don’t find their daughter’s murder very entertaining. Its obvious this has been made so rapidly to get screened before the appeal verdict comes in and everyone loses interest.
Amanda Knox — GUILTY AS SIN. And it’s funny to see all of these ‘blonde-girl apologists’, including the New York Times and tea-party-go-USA-types try to rationalize that their fair-haired gal; from the University of Washington in Seattle is a cold-blooded killer.
All you have to know about Amanda Knox and her disreputable character is this: when push came to shove she blamed it on a black guy. Go figure. That black guy was later absolved of the crime. She is a wily, sniveling “rhymes with witch!” And that’s being nice and sunnily magnanimous.
Gargle, Repeat, Rinse and Repeat again: AMANDA KNOX … GUILTY !!!
Um, beg to disagree with the baffling Knox defenders, but she is guitly as sin. The only reason people have trouble believing she did it is because of her looks.
I think the only reason people have trouble believing it is because the trial made absolutely no sense….if you look at the “evidence” you’ll realize that there is no real evidence. She has been made an example of, and Lifetime should hold off until after the appeal so that they don’t add fuel to this ridiculous fire Italy has lit.
we wouldn’t want to ruin her bad reputation.
I might want to watch this movie but not if Hayden Paniterre (sp – ug who cares) is in it.
If you think Amanda Knox is guilty you’re an idiot who knows nothing about the case. The prosecutor developed his theory about the murder by consulting his fucking psychic, no joke!
There is a guy in jail already for the murder, who’s DNA was found at the crime scene, who’s prints were found in blood! He and he alone killed that poor girl.
As far as her accusing someone else, she was questioned for 2 days straight, you try being in a room for 2 days straight and see what you have to say. This case never would have gone to trial in the US because there’s no evidence against her. Anyone writing anything negative about her here either hasn’t educated themselves about this case, or they’re just a dick.
Well of course she is innocent. All the movie heroes are innocent. Didn’t you know? And all the Americans and Europeans who get caught with drugs in the airports of Thailand and other countries are innocent. ALL OF THEM. Did you see that tv show with young Nicole Kidman where she was trapped in the Thailand prison because some guy put a drugs in her bag? And that movie with Claire Danes too.
Did you see that innocent doggy eyes look on Hayden’s face? Of course she is innocent. How could she be not? Those young pretty chicks kill other people only in USA. They never kill overseas
It’s unbelievable. That spoiled chick kills her American friend and get’s her punishment. And then there are people who scream – she is innocent. Look at her doggy-eyes look. Those evil Italians. 22-years old college student can’t be murderer. We never put those young woman in jail in USA. Because they are not capable of murdering someone…
Haha .. I love what you said. It’s soooooo true. Americans can’t accept the possibility that someone like her would kill someone. cause you know, she’s pretty and educated and American !!!!!
Shut up you american..she had a fair trial and our justice worked well.
Of course this movie’s going to show how a lovely girl she is.
Law is equal for everyone, even for lovely american girls.
The movie has not yet been shown yet everybody seems to have an opinion about it. Family members of everybody concerned seem to be afraid of what might or might not reveal so they want to stop the movie. I can see just speculation about what is in the movie as coused an uproar by itself. When the movie is shown on Lifetime then there might be, maybe, a call for another look at the evidence. Lets not pass judgement on this movie until after we have seen it.
it has been shown on lifetime i see it and i dont think she did it
I agree with the others, Amanda is guilty. Her wholesome American girl looks and spin on ‘being unjustly accused in a foreign land’ are the tools she tried to use to get off.
This is in poor taste even for Lifetime, this just happened and the are already exploiting Amanda and the deceased. They couldn’t have waited a little longer. It reminds me of how quickly Lifetime aired the Craigslist Killer not thinking of the families and victims that may have been upset by it’s airing.
I am an American living in Italy for 10 years now; I have followed the trial closely. If one does not know the facts of the case, one simply cannot claim that Knox is innocent. America only cared about this case once she was sentenced, more than a year after the crime occured, and claims of anti-Americanism and a faulty justice system in Italy are absurd and insulting. Many thanks to the above posters who provided some of the facts in this case–all true–the evidence, the lies. Knox also had motive. I am sure that Amanda was the mastermind in the murder of Meredith, and it is Meredith who deserves our attention, not Amanda.
You seem to me to be a nitwit. If you can live in Italy for 10 years and not know about the rampant, open, openly-known, widely-detested, and widely-documented legal corruption and false imprisonments all in the interest of forwarding political careers, you’d have to be an ostrich. I have no idea whether this particular girl committed a crime or not (as opposed to so many others, who claim to be oh-so sure). And neither do you (or anyone else here, or perhaps in the world). But what I do know is that the Italian legal system is well known for railroading scores of foreigners under the pretext of combating supposedly “satanic” behavior. I know nothing. But I’m skeptical. As everyone ought to be.
Thank you, this posting made more sense than any other I’ve read yet. I don’t know the facts in this case, but I do know how career incentives can motivate a prosecutor to omit facts and railroad a suspect, without any regard to actual guilt or justice. It happens here in the United States as well, and has been thoroughly documented in the news. That’s the great thing about the appeals process, it can often reveal new evidence. And evidence of corrupt prosecution.
Thank you my American friend.I am Italian,and I know your country because I lived in california for 11 years,and you know Italy quite well,I understand.Thank you for the words you says about this case.I don’t understand why many American media are not saying the whole true about this case.Maybe,can you explain me why?I found that only N.B.C. “The trial of Amanda Knox” was a imparticial and well document programms,the others are only full of lies and cover up.This is sad.I trusted very much the American media,but now…..
Stay classy, Lifetime!
She was found guilty by the court of law; air the movie.
Knox and Sollecito are victims of the crime solving “education” gifted to the public by TV. In TV land, people who give conflicting statements are always malicious liars, forensic evidence comes from the mouth of God, and you only leave DNA lying around when you ejaculate on corpses.
In real life, people give conflicting statements all the time, whether guilty or innocent. Go ahead and talk to any half decent defense attorney. They’ll all tell you the same damn thing; never talk to the police, even if you’re innocent.
Forensic evidence isn’t ironclad. It’s often inconclusive and prone to mishaps. There’s quite a few cases in the US where innocent people have gone to jail because some dumb ass lab tech screwed up.
DNA gets left everywhere. Of course Knox had DNA in her own damn apartment. The DNA evidence is meaningless.
It doesn’t matter that Knox is pretty. Pretty people commit crimes all the time. Being pretty just means that there’s a good chance of igniting a media firestorm, making the facts of the case irrelevant. You can say that the only reason people think she’s innocent is because she’s pretty, but her attractiveness did more to work against her. There was a huge Knox smear campaign in the European tabloids portraying her as a gorgeous femme fatale drug fiend who used her sex appeal to seduce men into killing for her. If she was ugly she would have been far better off.
Rudy Guede shot the prosecution’s case to hell. Once it became obvious that he did it, the prosecution had to contort itself into outlandish stories to tack Knox and Sollecito onto the crime. The prosecution’s first theory, under lunatic conspiracy theorist Migini, was that Knox and Sollecito joined up with some random drug dealer that they didn’t know to have a satanic blood orgy. It’s a big stretch to believe that two sober kids with no criminal record and no history of mental illness decided to rape and murder their friend. It enters the realm of the absurd when you say that they recruited some lowlife that they’d never met to join them in this. That kind of thing just doesn’t happen.
Once the case left Migini’s hands (on account of the press getting wind that he was a complete lunatic), the prosecution sensibly threw out the blood orgy theory. Then they came up with an even stupider idea. In the new story, Knox and Sollecito joined up with random drug dealer guy to murder Kercher for her rent money. That’s right, two kids from affluent families decide to murder their friend with a guy they don’t know for around two hundred euros.
I stopped following the case around that point, it had become pretty obvious that there were serious problems in the prosecution’s case. I imagine they dumped the “murder for 70 euros each” theory for something more sensible. Maybe demonic possession.
1.) amanda knox is not pretty
2.) amanda knox lost me when she fingered an innocent guy as the killer and chose a random black person. –which used to be quite common to do in the u.s. back in the clan era. the guy she fingered had an iron clad alibi. hats off to the italian police for actually investigating.
That’s one of the things people like Harry Rag like to copy and paste all over the place.
Amanda did not finger the guy. The police fingered the guy because Amanda had sent him a text that day saying “see you later”. At one point during her overnight interrogation the police asked her to describe what an imaginary scene of her boss killing Meredith would look like.
You can look up the things she said that night. They’re the crazy products of a sleep deprived mind. There’s a reason the Italian Supreme Court ruled all of that garbage inadmissible.
Whether or not Amanda Knox is guilty will never be known for sure because of the laughable Italian trial; she would not have been convicted in the United States because our court system does not allow many of the things the Italian prosecutors got away with.
Oh, I love this debate. It shows tv movies are still able to create some real emotion in the viewing public. Don’t count long-form out, it has its place in cable programming! This movie will do really well, given the amount of venom spewing in the comments. This only means good things for us producers still trying to bring compelling true stories to the small screen. The Knox case is fascinating, and for that reason it’s a great story to tell. Otherwise, why would we all be discussing it? Keep it up, Lifetime…
ps. The woman was convicted of murder. Her case is a matter of public record, which is what was used in the teleplay. In this instance, no one had to make anything up.
F her looks I’m from America n wish she wasn’t from here n any1 who has changed their story a bunch of times n has DNA evidence against her is guilty n 4 the knox’s trying 2 pull the movie go F urselves she deserves it she deserves 2 have every1 watch it n see Wut she did this way it’s hard 4 her 2 have a life after she gets out she should have the guilt of Wut she did 2 that girl follow her 4ever
I have never heard about the story before seeing the movie. And I’ve been in the U.S. for the past 2 years. So, I would have to say, I’m glad Lifetime made the movie. It made me think about many things, and made me certain that my theory is right. NEVER GET A ROOMMATE !!!!!