Some of you have asked my thoughts on the case regarding Amanda Knox. I feel our situations are truly worlds apart and nothing I say has much relation to the situation she finds herself in. But I will admit that when the carabinieri came to my hotel room just an hour after the attack in Nov 2008, I was thinking of her and how she was interrogated by police without an Embassy-assigned interpreter. I remember seeing that video of her being interviewed and remember reading how she was interrogated for 53 hours (see Police Interviews). It made me resolute to stick with the advice of the US Embassy officer on duty who had told me I could wait until I got to the Embassy to begin the process of filing a report and that the Embassy could get me an interpreter. So, strangely, Amanda Knox’s case influenced my decision on when and how to make my report.

After having been through the filing of a police report – with an interpreter – and experiencing first-hand how easily things I said were misunderstood and/or inaccurately recorded after repeated attempts to explain, I must say, I don’t think the case against her started on fair ground. I just find myself not quite believing many of the things the media report that the prosecutor claims she said during that initial interrogation. When I take you through the errors in my police report in a future post, you will see how just a handful of misunderstood facts can change the meaning and veracity of one’s statement. I still get angry when I think of the errors made in my police report, that if I had not cleared up, could have ended my case prematurely.

Also, the way the Italian media dubbed her “Foxy Knoxy” and made every last detail about her seem so sensational and tabloidesque made me, at times, ill to think about what they’d do to me once I found myself at trial against one of their beloved citizens. In those early days especially, every time the news came on about her trial, I’d have a visceral reaction. I still do because I had, in comparison to her, mere flirtations with the Italian police and judicial system. And, strangely, Marco is originally from Perugia, the same city where she was tried, convicted and is being held in prison.