Wrongfully convicted Amanda Knox says Ghislaine Maxwell trial gives 'flashbacks' to her own
Knox says she can 'empathize and sympathize' with Maxwell's situation
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Amanda Knox, who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 2009, said that the Ghislaine Maxwell and Elizabeth Holmes trials are giving her "flashbacks" of her own trial.
"It’s not every day that a prominent man accused of heinous wrongdoing is put on trial while the world sits captivated," Knox, who was accused of killing her British roommate Meredith Kercher in 2007, wrote in a piece Monday on Bari Weiss's Substack channel, Common Sense. "It’s even rarer when that person is a woman. Right now, there are two of them—Elizabeth Holmes and Ghislaine Maxwell—and it’s giving me flashbacks."
Amanda Knox attends a cocktail for the opening of the Innocence Project conference, in Modena, Italy, Thursday, June 13, 2019. Knox has returned to Italy for the first time since she was convicted and imprisoned but ultimately acquitted, for the murder and sexual assault of her British roommate Meredith Kercher in the university town of Perugia in 2007. Knox is in Italy to attend a conference in Modena organized by the Italy Innocence Project, which seeks to help people who have been convicted for crimes they did not commit. In the background at left wearing a hat is her boyfriend Christopher Robinson. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni) (Antonio Calanni)
AMANDA KNOX SAYS SHE'S TRIED TO CONTACT FAMILY OF MURDERED ROOMMATE: ‘IT COULD’VE BEEN ME'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of the murder and sexual assault of her former roommate, Kercher. She was acquitted in 2011 after spending four years in custody. The murder conviction was reinstated in 2014, but she was definitively acquitted by Italy’s highest court in 2015.
"When it comes to being held accountable for the crimes of men, and being manipulated by other, powerful men within a system and situation wildly out of your control … hi, my name is Amanda Knox," Knox said.
In 2008, Rudy Hermann Guede, 34, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the death of Kercher.
"Guede raped and killed her, leaving his fingerprints and footprints in her blood, his DNA inside her body, and immediately fled the country," Knox wrote. "But none of that was evident the day after the murder. It was a small town, shocked by a horrible crime, and the local police felt immense pressure to arrest a suspect. That suspect was me."
British socialite Maxwell, 59, has denied charges she groomed underage girls for accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who is suspected of sex trafficking. Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019. Her lawyers say the government is making her a scapegoat for alleged sex crimes committed by her onetime boyfriend and moved immediately for a judgment of acquittal after prosecutors rested Friday afternoon.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ghislaine Maxwell rubbing Jeffrey Epstein's foot on a private jet in an undated photo. (SDNY)
GHISLAINE MAXWELL TRIAL: DEFENSE COULD CALL MORE WITNESSES THAN PROSECTION
Knox says she can "empathize and sympathize" with Maxwell's situation. "I know very well what it’s like to be scapegoated for a man’s crimes and to be a victim of true coercion," Knox writes. Holmes, who Knox also mentioned, is accused of knowingly tricking investors about Theranos' faulty blood test technology and claiming she was coerced by an older man.
Elizabeth Holmes, CEO of Theranos, attends a panel discussion during the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York, September 29, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo - RTX2KCH3
Knox says she felt coerced into her confession by police who "slapped" her and prompted her into "confused and incoherent speculation." They even threatened that she wouldn't see her family again if she didn't remember the "truth." Knox said she eventually signed statements confessing to the crime authored and typed up by the police. When she later recanted, she was ignored.
Knox is glad Maxwell and Holmes are getting their days in court, but can't help but balk at their defense strategies. She feels like both women are refusing to be held accountable, and the most vulnerable people in the equations are the victims she believes are being brushed aside or discredited.
Ghislaine Maxwell, founder of the TerraMar Project, attends a press conference on the Issue of Oceans in Sustainable Development Goals, at United Nations headquarters, June 25, 2013. Maxwell spent the first half of her life with her father, a rags-to-riches billionaire who looted his companies' pension funds before dying a mysterious death. She spent the second with another tycoon, Jeffrey Epstein, who died while charged with sexually abusing teenage girls. Now, after a life of both scandal and luxury, Maxwell's next act will be decided by a U.S. trial. ___ In this courtroom sketch, Annie Farmer, far right, testifies on the witness stand during the Ghislaine Maxwell sex abuse trial, Friday, Dec. 10, 2021, in New York. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz is at far left, at the podium questioning Farmer. Judge Alison Nathan is on the bench, center. (United Nations Photo/Rick Bajornas via AP | Elizabeth Williams via AP)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Knox wraps the piece by saying it would be a lot easier to buy the claims of coercion and scapegoating from both women if they themselves expressed remorse to those directly harmed by their actions.
"Whether they are truly scapegoats, or whether they are using those men to diminish their own culpability, is a question that will be settled by each jury soon."