Why Amanda Knox Says She Gave a False Confession After Her 2007 Arrest

Amanda Knox is a household name—albeit not for the reasons one may want. However, the man she falsely accused of murdering her roommate did not gain the same notoriety, though he suffered measurable fallout due to Knox’s actions.

Twenty-one-year-old Meredith Kercher was found dead in the apartment she shared with American exchange student Knox nearly 20 years ago in Perugia, Italy. The case serves as  a bellwether for how a false accusation can alter public opinion forever, especially for one Congolese bar owner whose reputation still suffers from Knox’s accusation, which she said was coerced.

In November 2007, Italian Postal Police discovered Kercher unresponsive in the home she shared with Knox after Knox reported a break-in in their apartment. Kercher was partly undressed with a series of stab wounds, and authorities determined she had also been sexually assaulted. Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were arrested in connection with the crime, each serving nearly four years in prison. 

Both Knox and Sollecito maintained their innocence and were later acquitted. Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native who moved to Italy when he was 5, was ultimately convicted of murdering Kercher and was released from prison in 2021 after serving 16 years.

Knox was also charged with defamation of local bar owner Patrick Lumumba, for whom she worked part time, telling authorities she had “covered her ears as [Lumumba] killed” Kercher in the apartment. Authorities detained Lumumba, who they later released due to a solid alibi and a lack of forensic evidence tying him to the crime. He maintained throughout his detention that he was not involved in Kercher’s murder.

Knox, who directed authorities to Lumumba, later accused police of coercing her to make a false allegation against Lumumba claiming they “threatened me with 30 years in prison” and that “an officer slapped me three times saying 'Remember, remember.'" 

Knox also stated that she tried to retract the allegation hours after making it, but the police ignored her and announced that the case was closed following the arrest of herself, Sollecito and Lumumba. "I, in no way, knowingly and willingly accused an innocent man,” Knox said on a 2024 episode of her podcast. “I was psychologically tortured by the police, and even in the immediate aftermath of that, I attempted to do the right thing and I attempted to recant, and the police didn't listen to me."

When Knox was acquitted in Kercher’s murder in 2015, Lumumba told the press that he believed it was due to her privilege as an American, arguing that Americans should not be held to different standards.

“This is not good for justice, I think it shows the power available for rich people–she’s American and rich,” he told the British press at the time. “For a country like Italy, this is not good. I think there were diplomatic problems with the U.S. and it makes things difficult with the U.S. so they let her free.”

Despite her murder conviction definitively being absolved following three trials, the appeals courts upheld her original slander conviction from 2009, when Knox was ordered to pay nearly $60,000 to Lumumba in damages. In June 2024, Knox returned to Italy in an attempt to get her slander conviction overturned after a European Court of Human Rights determined that her rights were violated when she wasn’t provided an adequate interpreter or proper legal counsel during long stretches of police questioning around the time of Kercher’s death. The court said Italy should pay Knox approximately $21,000 in damages, although it found no evidence to support the claim that the police mistreated Knox while she was in custody. “I never wanted to slander Patrick; he was my friend,” Knox said to the judge. 

Knox, who was 20 at the time of the questioning, had signed two statements with accusations against Lumumba. She later turned over a handwritten note questioning whether Lumumba committed the crime at all.

Knox further recalled during the trial that she felt like a “scared” young student during the extensive police questioning and “gave the testimony in a moment of existential crisis.”

“I didn’t know who the murderer was,” she said. “I was exhausted, confused and forced to submit. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to resist the pressure and that he suffered. I humbly ask you to declare me innocent.” 

The Florence court ultimately upheld the slander conviction. 

Knox appealed the decision, but in January 2025, Italy’s high court again upheld the slander conviction. Lumumba expressed relief that the conviction would stand in the end.

“Amanda did wrong, this sentence must accompany her for the rest of her life. I had a good feeling about this since the afternoon. I hail Italian justice with great honor,” he said outside the hearing. 

Lumumba’s lawyer said that the bar owner’s reputation suffered greatly from the false allegation—his pub was seized for multiple months and eventually closed, which Lumumba attributes to his arrest. Lumumba had become known as the “monster of Perugia,” and eventually moved to Poland.

Meanwhile, Knox, now residing in Washington State, became a public figure, podcast host and author, aiming to advocate for those who are wrongfully convicted and remain behind bars.