AMANDA KNOX, whose conviction and eventual acquittal over the murder of British student Meredith Kercher made headlines worldwide, has signed an agreement with HarperCollins to tell her story.
Ms Knox (24), a Seattle resident, was imprisoned for four years in Perugia, Italy. She has not publicly discussed her ordeal beyond a brief expression of gratitude upon her release last October.
“Knox will give a full and unflinching account of the events that led to her arrest in Perugia and her struggles with the complexities of the Italian judicial system,” HarperCollins said in a statement. “Aided by journals she kept during her imprisonment, Knox will talk about her harrowing experience at the hands of the Italian police and later prison guards and inmates. She will reveal never-before-told details surrounding her case.”
Financial terms were not disclosed for what is surely a seven-figure deal, negotiated on Ms Knox’s behalf by Washington lawyer Robert Barnett, whose other clients include US president Barack Obama and former president George W Bush.
Twenty publishers were interested in the book and Ms Knox met seven.
HarperCollins publisher Jonathan Burnham said that Ms Knox, who studied creative writing, would work with a collaborator.
Publishers in recent years have shied away from controversial defendants, especially since the fiasco of OJ Simpson's If I Did It, the fictionalised account of Nicole Brown Simpson's murder that was cancelled in 2006 by HarperCollins in response to public outrage.
Knox’s legal issues are not over.
Earlier this week, prosecutors asked Italy’s highest criminal court to reinstate the murder convictions of Ms Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito.
Giovanni Galati said he was “very convinced” that Mr Sollecito and exchange student Ms Knox were responsible for the stabbing death, on November 1st, 2007, of Ms Kercher (21), who shared an apartment with Ms Knox in Perugia.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Ms Knox recently filed an appeal against her slander conviction in Italy. The same court that overturned her murder conviction upheld the charges for slander for falsely accusing bar owner Diya “Patrick” Lumumba of involvement in the killing. – (AP)