Amanda Knox will return to Italy for first time since her acquittal

Posted By: Staff
May 8, 2019 @ 1:40 pm
ABC World

Paula Lobo/ABC via Getty Images

Paula Lobo/ABC via Getty Images(ROME) — Amanda Knox will take part in a three-day conference on criminal law in Italy, according to the conference’s organizers.

The conference, scheduled to take place in the northern Italian city of Modena from July 13-15, is devoted to the subject of wrongful convictions and judicial populism. Knox will debate the topic of the media’s role in criminal trials on the final day of the conference.

Knox, 31, said in a tweet that she was “honored” to accept the invitation from The Italy Innocence Project.

The Italy Innocence Project, founded in 2013, is a non-profit organization that studies issues related to wrongful convictions in Italy and is part of the Law Department of the University of Roma.

Knox was a 20-year-old college student studying abroad in Italy when she was accused of murdering her roommate, British student Meredith Kercher, in November 2007. After a long judicial ordeal, which involved two appeal court trials and two Supreme Court decisions, Knox, along with Raffaele Sollecito, her Italian boyfriend at the time, were finally acquitted of murder in 2015. Knox left Italy immediately after the acquittal and has not returned to the country.

Rudy Guede was found guilty of Kercher’s murder in a separate trail in 2008 and is serving a 16-year sentence.

Martina Cagossi, a criminal lawyer and one of the founders of The Italy Innocence Project, told ABC News that she met Knox at a conference in the U.S. and said Knox had shown interest in her organization.