LONDON (AP) 鈥� Amanda Knox, the American student convicted of the murder and sexual assault of her British roommate Meredith Kercher 19 years ago in Italy, is defending herself against accusations from Kercher鈥檚 sister that her comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in Scotland trivializes violence against women.
said Thursday in a post on Instagram that her show 鈥渉onors Meredith Kercher鈥檚 memory and calls out the violence that was done to her and to me.鈥�
The show is called 鈥淐artwheel,鈥� a reference to a story that claimed Knox did cartwheels in the police station after Kercher’s death. The show debuts Friday evening and is due to run for 11 straight nights at the annual mish-mash of stand-up, theater and musical offerings in the Scottish capital.
The show is being marketed as a woman 鈥渁pproaching forty, juggling motherhood and finally getting around to being furious about the whole wrongful-imprisonment thing. Especially when half the world is telling her to get over it, while the other half still thinks she鈥檚 guilty.鈥�
Knox was a 20-year-old student in Perugia when Kercher was found stabbed to death on Nov. 2, 2007, in her bedroom in the apartment they shared with two Italian women.
The case made global headlines as suspicion quickly fell on Knox and her boyfriend of just days, Raffaele Sollecito. She served nearly four years in prison during the investigation, initial murder trial and when she was freed by an appeals court in Perugia. The couple were acquitted
Another man, , from the Ivory Coast, was eventually convicted of murder after his DNA was found at the crime scene. He was freed in 2021, after serving most of his 16-year sentence.
Knox returned to the United States in 2011, after being freed by the appeals court in Perugia, and has since established herself as a global campaigner for the wrongly convicted. She has a podcast with her husband and last year published a memoir titled, 鈥淔ree: My Search for Meaning.鈥�
Knox’s post follows an interview that Meredith Kercher’s sister, Stephanie Kercher, gave to the BBC during which she said the show 鈥渘ormalizes and trivializes violence against women.鈥�
While insisting that Knox is 鈥渘aturally free to continue with her life as she wishes,鈥� she said 鈥渢he problem with this particular project is that it is comedy.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 not about whether people think she鈥檚 guilty or innocent, if someone else was doing the show specifically against Meredith, I would still feel the same, it is obviously an added wound that it鈥檚 coming from her at the same time, but I do feel very strongly that it should be something that鈥檚 not given a platform,鈥� she said.
An online petition calling for the show to be canceled has been launched and so far has more than 4,400 signatories. It states that the show 鈥渕ocks the horrific events surrounding Meredith鈥檚 murder and aims to somehow turn this tragedy into entertainment.鈥�
Knox said 鈥渁 petition to cancel a show no one has seen, on the grounds of false accusations intended to shame and vilify a wronged woman into silence, is not an argument against Cartwheel.鈥�
The Edinburgh Fringe, she added, 鈥渋s the perfect place for a show like this.鈥�
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