It was a brutal murder, and the trial of the decade. On 1 November 2007, 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher was slaughtered in cold blood in the apartment in Perugia, Italy, that she shared with three other girls. Two bright young people, Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, stood accused of the killing in a trial that lasted through 2009. They were found guilty and sentenced to twenty-six and twenty-five years respectively on 4 December. A second man, Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede, 22, had already been found guilty of the sexual assault and murder of Meredith in a separate trial in 2008 and sentenced to thirty years, but the prosecution always stated that he didn't act alone. Kercher was a model student whilst American Knox acquired a reputation that fuelled specualtion about her character. Her bizarre behaviour just after Meredith's body was found, her false accusation of an innocent man, her weak alibi and her DNA on the murder weapon - a kitchen knife found to be scubbed with bleach - went against her. TV producer Paul Russell and critically acclaimed crime writer Graham Johnson have teamed up with leading Italian forensics expert General Luciano Garofano to reveal the full truth behind this sensational murder and its trial. They unravel all the details and study all the personalities in this case that has stunned the world. Complex, and some say controversial, DNA evidence is explained in simple language and, bit by bit, a story emerges of brutality and jealousy in a university town where all was not what it seemed. Their findings make for gripping, sensational reading.

In November 2007 the body of British student Meredith Kercher was discovered in her bedroom in Perugia, Italy. She had been brutally killed. Over the course of the next eight years one man, Rudy Guede, would be convicted of her murder and two other suspects, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, would be convicted, acquitted and convicted again for their part in the crime, before having their convictions overturned for the final time in 2015. Almost two decades on from this horrific event Rudy Guede is now a free man, released in 2021 after spending 13 years in jail. Amanda Knox is married with a daughter and Raffaele Sollecito has slipped into relative obscurity. For many, Amanda was, and remains, the central character in this story. Why? And why the controversy? Through piecing together a timeline of events and investigating the conflicting opinions found in the countless books, articles, films, documentaries, and discussions which have emerged over the years, the author takes the reader on a journey to find out. Including interviews with often unwavering web forum users where posters pit allegations of corruption, coerced confessions, and flawed procedures against those of wilful deceit, callous disregard for life, damning forensics and inappropriate behaviour, Helen investigates if confirmation bias plays a part and asks the ultimate question; can any of us who weren’t there that fateful night ever really claim to know what happened?

Analyses questions of cultural violence

Reports on crime in newspapers do not provide a neutral representation of criminals and their offences but instead construct them in accordance with societal discourse surrounding this issue. This book takes an interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of Linguistics, Criminology, and Media Studies and demonstrates how Linguistics can contribute to the study of crime in the media. By combining the tools offered by Corpus Linguistics and Critical Stylistics (a text-based framework for Critical Discourse Analysis), evidence is provided for predominant perceptions of crime and their underlying ideologies in both British and German society. This study names and illustrates the most significant linguistic devices used to construct offenders, victims, and crimes in two newspaper corpora compiled from the German and British press. These devices are then linked to criminological frameworks.

Award-winning author and journalist Nina Burleigh’s mesmerizing literary investigation of the murder of Meredith Kercher, the controversial prosecution, the conviction and twenty-six-year sentence of Amanda Knox, the machinations of Italian justice, and the underground depravity and clash of cultures in one of central Italy’s most beloved cities. The sexually violent murder of twenty-one-year-old British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, on the night of November 1, 2007, became an international sensation when one of Kercher’s housemates, twenty-year-old Seattle native Amanda Knox, as well as her Italian boyfriend and a troubled local man Knox said she “vaguely” knew, was arrested and charged with the murder. When Perugia authorities concluded that the murder was part of a dark, twisted rite—a “sex game”—led by the American with an uncanny resemblance to Perugia’s Madonna, they unleashed a media frenzy from Rome to London to New York and Seattle. The story drew an international cult obsessed with “Foxy Knoxy,” a pretty honor student on a junior year abroad, who either woke up one morning into a nightmare of superstition and misogyny—the dark side of Italy—or participated in something unspeakable. The investigation begins in the old stone cottage overlooking bucolic olive groves where Kercher’s body was found in her locked bedroom. It winds through the shadowy, arched alleys of Perugia, a city of art that is also a magnet for tens of thousands of students who frequent its bars, clubs, and drug bazaar on the steps of the Duomo. It climaxes in an up-close account of Italy’s dysfunctional legal system, as the trial slowly unfolds at the town’s Tribunale, and the prosecution’s thunderous final appeal to God before the quivering girl defendant resembles a scene from the Inquisition. To reveal what actually happened on that terrible night after Halloween, Nina Burleigh lived in Perugia, attended the trial, and corresponded with the incarcerated defendants. She also delved deeply into the history, secrets, and customs of Perugia, renowned equally for its Etruscan tunnels, early Christian art, medieval sorcerers, and pagan roots. A New York Times bestseller, The Fatal Gift of Beauty is the thoughtful, compelling examination of an enduring mystery, an ancient, storied place, and a disquieting facet of Italian culture: an obsession with female eroticism. By including the real story of Rudy Guede, it is also an acute window into the minds and personalities of the accused killers and of the conservative Italian magistrate striving to make sense of an inexplicable act of evil. But at its core is an indelible portrait of Amanda Knox, the strangely childlike, enigmatic beauty, whose photogenic face became the focal point of international speculation about the shadow side of youth and freedom.

A new perspective on the roles of psychopathology, confirmation bias, false confessions, the media and internet (amongst other causes) of unjust accusations. Putting lack of empathy at the fore in terms of police, prosecutors and others, it considers a wide range of other psychopathological aspects of miscarriages of justice. By looking at three high profile cases, those of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito (Italy), Stefan Kiszko (UK) and Darlie Routier (USA)—the authors show that motive forces are a mind-set in which psychopathy (what they term ‘constitutional negative empathy’) may be present and the need to reinforce existing supposition or lose face plays a large part.

The definitive account of the killing of British student, Meredith Kercher, in Perugia - the shocking case that appalled the world.