Shocking: The Trials of Amanda Knox Continue

Seattle-native and convicted murderer Amanda Knox was in Italian court today to answer for her brutal victimization of the Italian justice system. Twelve Italian detectives are pressing slander charges against Knox relating to statements she made in her defense in which she claimed a myriad of abuses by police, ranging from being denied food and water to being physically struck. Knox's defense had attempted to call her confession into question, claiming that it was coerced. Italian authorities described the questioning that led to the confession as "polite but firm." Knox's parents repeated her claims in the media, and are facing a separate libel trial. Like most European countries, Italy maintains a much lower standard for what can be considered slanderous or libelous than the American one.

With their characteristic sensitivity and professionalism, the European tabloid media seem to have swallowed uncritically the prosecution's outlandish theory of drug-fueled, violent orgies. The prosecution, police and press have tarred Knox as an emotionless sex-and-killing machine. "Foxy Knoxy" is a creature of fiction, belonging more to airport novels or cable crime shows than to newspapers, but she has consequences for the real-life Amanda Knox. Unlike in the US, those who passed judgment on Knox were not sequestered from media coverage of the case. The sensationalist, cartoon figure of "Foxy Knoxy" loomed from the newspaper pages and TV sets of those who sentenced Knox every day of her arrest, trial, sentencing and appeal.

It might seem ironic to observers that the woman who has been pilloried by the press of an entire continent (and a fair number of outlets on our side of the Atlantic) now faces added jail time based on the presumption that she may have overstated just how coercive the gang of men who made her confess were. It may also seem ironic that her parents may face sanction for repeating those claims to try to defend their daughter from the same media hounds who clamored so furiously for her downfall. Unfortunately, the Italian courts seem to have lost the requisite perspective on this case to register irony.