Amanda Knox Case: US, UK Can’t Agree
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ABC News(NEW YORK) — The United States and the United Kingdom have a lot in common, but not opinions on Amanda Knox.
The Seattle woman accused of killing British student Meredith Kercher while the two studied in Italy in 2007 was re-convicted Thursday night in Italy. Knox had previously been convicted and then acquitted as the case moved through the Italian court system.
Throughout the seven-year ordeal, Knox has been a global media sensation, with each twist and turn of her case landing front-page stories on British and American tabloids. Coverage of the case in each country, though, has been nearly completely opposite from the other.
The difference could be seen in tabloid headlines. Britain’s Mirror blared, “Foxy Knoxy Guilty,” an irreverent reference to Knox’s good looks and a childhood nickname Knox insists was actually a reference to her evasive schoolgirl soccer skills.
In New York, The Daily News announced the new guilty verdict with, “Amanda Knox Vows to Fight Guilty Verdict: ‘This Is Wrong’”
In the U.S., when Knox was released from prison in 2011 and acquitted of the murder, People magazine ran a sympathetic story titled “Amanda Knox Goes Free: Inside Her Prison Ordeal.”
Over in the U.K., papers declared “Weeping Foxy is Freed to Make a Fortune,” and “Meredith Who?”
She has been called both a “Bambi-eyed killer” (Britain’s The Daily Mirror)” and a “naive kid from Seattle” (Rolling Stone).
An ABC/Washington Post Poll from 2013 showed that a majority of Americans, 65 percent, are sympathetic toward Knox.
In the United States, Knox has launched a memoir and given interviews defending herself from the Italian prosecutors’ accusations that she killed Kercher.
Similar polling of the British public could not be found, but one tabloid cover may clarify the difference of opinion. After she was freed in 2011, the Daily Mail begged “Give Our Girl Justice, Too.”
In Italy, where the alleged crime took place, a 2010 survey among Italian university students found that opinion was evenly split over whether Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were guilty or innocent.
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