In Perugia,Ghosts of Knox Case Still Linger
10 Years Later, American Students Report on Drugs, Objectification of Women that Defined the Trials
We set out to investigate how Perugia has changed. Answer: Not much
This was the place to be. College students from far and wide came to Perugia, Italy, for a party town that compared to the atmosphere in Ibiza. Until Nov. 2, 2007, when Meredith Kercher, a study abroad student from the U.K., was found brutally murdered on her bedroom floor. From then on, Perugia would be shackled by the chains of this strange case.
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American journalism students from the Miami University Dolibois European Center in Differdange, Luxembourg, traveled to the picturesque, hillside city of Perugia in November 2017. That was10 years after another American study abroad student, Amanda Knox, and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were arrested in Kercher's murder.
We wanted to know how things had changed since Knox was accused of her roommate's death, and since she spent years in prison here for a crime that Italian courts finally decided neither she nor Sollecito committed.
The challenge in this excursion was that Perugians were still timid when we asked to speak with them. And we weren't sure, at first, what our stories would be.
This website is a compilation of our research, interviews, and first-hand experiences in Perugia. Our professor, Annie-Laurie Blair, was integral in framing this project; our job was to find and tell stories.
And we did find stories -- about college student life, the continuing objectification of women, the drug culture and changes to Italian criminal law processes. There certainly was a ripple effect as a result of the case, which is what we intended to analyze.
The back and forth of Knox and Sollecito being tried four times, and imprisoned for four years, went on until Italy's Supreme Court finally cleared them in 2015. This means that reporters and journalists were constantly in Perugia, bombarding locals with questions until just two years ago.
It's no wonder why they were hesitant to speak to us - on top of the fact that we were American. Most Perugians still believe Knox is guilty.
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We enjoyed our time spent in Perugia and would gladly go back as tourists one day. But it is the nature of this project that we expose the dirty parts of the city (which are present in cities all over the world) and analyze the societal effect of the Amanda Knox case. By no means do we wish to deter our audience from this magnificent, historical gem in the heart of Italy.
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By Camille Bode, project editor
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Web design by Michaela Coughlin
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