On November 2, 2007, authorities found 21 year-old British student, Meredith Kercher, dead in her apartment in Perugia, Italy. Her throat had been slit, and the entire crime scene clearly pointed to murder. Authorities executed the investigations rather haphazardly, and contamination seemed to be the least of their concerns. They were quick to point fingers at Kercher’s roommate, Amanda Knox, and her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. These two suspects irked the Italian authorities present at the crime scene through excessive public displays of affection and hostility while being questioned. Being in an new and foreign country, Knox was terrified, and they kept pressing her for an answer to their question, the answer they wanted to hear. After her sticking to her alibi despite being asked the same question over and over again, she became so confused and frazzled from being hit across the head that she finally changed and made up a story to get them off her back. Naturally, they turned the story they had been waiting for against her and labeled her as a liar, causing even more bias against her.

Since Britain, Italy and the United States were all major players in the scandal, media all around the world went crazy over the news. The newest gossip made the front page of every magazine and newspaper, and the whole world anxiously awaited updates, even if they were simply minor details of the case. Unfortunately, a majority of reports were exaggerations or false evidence presented by Italian authorities, yet the information contributed to the creation of Knox’s wild reputation. While the United States stands for innocent until proven guilty, Knox suffered through guilty until proven innocent for eight years after. The suspicions and hatred towards her caused the Italian authorities to draw conclusions from scarce evidence, and they neglected any evidence that disproved their trending, scandalous story. Even the man, Rudy Guede, who was a confirmed killer in the case received little attention because it was far less interesting than a roommate “cat fight.”

Years later, the improper hygiene during the investigation was exposed, and the evidence was ruled inadequate. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were officially victims of social media bias, spending five years in jail with no legitimate evidence against them. To this day, the question of their innocence remains unanswered, but the injustice that the Italian judicial process put them through calls into question mankind’s ethics. Upon hearing an absurd news story in the media, one simply takes the reporter’s word for it and forms strong opinions, resulting in harm to an innocent person’s life. Little does the public know that the authorities told Knox she tested HIV positive when she did not, for no reason at all. With the power to make such obscure evidence mean so much to an entire jury, why is that power not used for good?