Since its release my husband has been pushing me to watch the Amanda Knox documentary on Netflix, one because he loves documentaries and thought it looked interesting and two because he knows that I’m a total nerd when it comes to true crime. At least I have been since the whole Serial phenomenon. I have definitely always been into mysteries but recently I’ve been completely caught up in true crime stories.

What’s ironic is that at the time when this was happening, I had no real knowledge about the case…I mean sure I was aware of it, but I guess I was in my 20s, too self absorbed and caught up in partying to really dive deep into the inner workings of what was happening with Foxy Knoxy.

If you are fascinated by true crime stories then I would highly recommend watching this documentary. It gave a good overview of the case and was very enlightening in both good and bad ways.

Ok now it’s ranting time.

SPOILERS AHEAD….

Watching this also made me feel rage. Rage against the system, rage against slut shaming, rage against interrogation tactics that garner false convictions…the list goes on.

Quick sidebar – after the podcast Serial ended I was hungry for more information on the case…so I stumbled across the Undisclosed podcast, which featured a group of lawyers diving deep into the case and opening your eyes to the misconduct that occurred during the investigation and trial. Then I dove even further into that world with Serial Dynasty, now known as the Truth and Justice podcast which featured one man and his world of listeners trying to find the truth with the case. Ultimately both of these podcasts have moved on to other cases (not forgetting about Adnan) but in hopes of bringing justice to the wrongfully accused. It’s through these podcasts that I heard / learned about how easy it is for someone to be wrongfully convicted if an investigation is done incorrectly…and that’s what I saw here with Amanda Knox. My main issues:

1. A police force who had tunnel vision – they wanted it to be these two people so badly that they didn’t consider any other scenarios or suspects. They made the evidence match what they wanted it to say.
2. Because of the tunnel vision no other scenarios or suspects were considered – what that means now is that there’s no way to go back and reinvestigate….who does that hurt? It hurts the victim and their families, because they won’t get justice.
3. Interrogation tactics that garner false confessions – you are keeping suspects locked away for who knows how many hours, asking them the same questions over and over again, feeding them false information…..people always ask if someone is innocent why did they confess? There are so many exonerated people out there who gave a false confession. I mean hell look at Brendan Dassey from Making a Murderer, I’m not sure if he’s innocent but I can say I don’t think his confession is true.
4. Cross contamination of evidence – this comes down to bad procedures by the police department. But then it’s trotted out like it’s 100% accurate.
5. Circumstantial evidence – quotes from the head detective “she’s guilty because she hates being questioned”….well I for one know I love being accused crimes and interrogated by the police, doesn’t everyone?!

Other things that drove me nuts about this case…..

• Sensationalizing – look at the slut shaming that happened for Amanda Knox…she was 20 years old and had sex…the horror?!!! And that was just the beginning of it. Maybe if the media and police had spent less time focusing on Foxy Knoxy then they would have found justice for Meredith.
• This detective was such a caricature of himself – he smoked a freaking pipe, like in all the footage of him during the trials! Plus he couldn’t be consistent. At first he said, “they are guilty because of the DNA evidence”…then after that was proven to be contaminated he said, “DNA isn’t everything”….like come on!

All in all I enjoyed this documentary but I would have enjoyed a deeper dive into the evidence and facts.

I’m sure people will draw their own conclusions but I know mine, I have not been shown anything concrete enough for me to believe in the guilt of Amanda Knox or Raffaele Sollecito. 

Here’s hoping that another one of my favorite podcasts Real Crime Profile  will cover it in more in depth in future episodes.