Waiting To Be Heard by Amanda Knox

I'm a sucker for a good true-crime anything. I'm the weirdo that would usually rather watch a bloody gory crime show than a comedy. So finally getting to hear Amanda Knox tell her side of the story was something I couldn't wait for.

Like most of America, I was enamored by the Amanda Knox trial in Italy. But unfortunately for us here in the United States, everything was in Italian...and any trial footage they did show no one could understand. It made it very hard to form my own opinion about the case without the "help" of the media and press. I will say though, that I never thought Amanda killed Meredith Kercher - never. Her innocence in that was something I never doubted. What I wasn't convinced of though was if she knew about it ahead of time, or if she was there the night it happened. I also had no clue who Amanda Knox was. The media portrayed her as this rebellious sex-crazed party girl who just couldn't control herself. From day one I never got that feeling about her, but I also know how good some people are at putting up a front.

All that to say that I went into this book with a very open mind. You have to. If you've already got these preconceived notions about her then this will be a waste of your time because they won't change just because some pages were written well. This was a very intriguing read, and different from most. I knew exactly how this story ended but I still found myself riveted to every page. If there is one thing I did learn it's just how much influence the media has over the way we perceive certain situations, people, places, and things. The media over in Italy pegged Amanda as guilty before she was even named a person of interest, let alone a suspect. By the time she was actually taken to trial everyone had already made up their mind. The legal system in Italy is very different from ours here. Jurors weren't sequestered and had access to as much television, radio, and Internet as they wanted throughout the course of the trial. The way the cops collected evidence was so incredibly flawed that it wouldn't have even been admissible over here, yet was the nail in the coffin against her over there (at one point they took pictures of a piece of evidence and then put it back on the floor and left it there for three days before they actually collected it!). Seriously. The legal aficionado in me about had an aneurysm. The guy tapped to prosecute her was so shady that he was actually arrested not long after her conviction was overturned for his own issues involving a type of obstruction of justice.

Am I now convinced that she is completely and 100% innocent? No. There are still a few things that don't quite add up. But what I do know is that she didn't kill her roommate, and that the way she was portrayed by the Italian (and often times American) media was completely defamatory. I really recommend this book but like I said, approach it with an open mind.