Amanda Knox Signs Book Deal With HarperCollins
Amanda Knox, the American who was cleared on appeal of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Italy, has signed a book deal to "share the truth about her terrifying ordeal".
Publishing giant HarperCollins has acquired world rights to a memoir by Knox which it has tentatively scheduled to come out next year.
The company said: "For the very first time since her trial for murder, her four-year incarceration in Perugia, Italy, and her appeal and acquittal of all charges, Amanda Knox will share the truth about her terrifying ordeal.
"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.
"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, and describe how she used her inner strength and strong family ties to cope with the most challenging time of her young life."
The publisher has not said how much it is paying for the memoir but some reports have suggested the Knox deal is worth four million US dollars (£2.5 million).
Jonathan Burnham, senior vice president, Harper, said: "Many accounts have been written of the Amanda Knox case, and countless writers and reporters have speculated on what role, if any, was played by Knox in that tragic and terrifying sequence of events.
"No one has yet heard Amanda Knox's own account of what happened, and this book will give Knox an opportunity to tell the story in full detail, for the first time.
"It will be the story of a crime and a trial, but also a moving account of a young woman's struggle to cope with a nightmarish ordeal that placed her at the centre of a media storm, and led to her imprisonment."
The news comes two days after it was announced that prosecutors have asked Italy's highest criminal court to reinstate the murder convictions of Knox and her former boyfriend for the murder.
They lodged the appeal more than four months after an appeal court threw out the convictions of Knox, 24, and Raffaele Sollecito, 27.
Prosecutor Giovanni Galati said he was "very convinced" that Sollecito and Knox were responsible for stabbing to death 21-year-old Miss Kercher, who shared an apartment with Knox in Perugia.
The appeal, which was expected, marks the third and final stage in the criminal case against the pair.
They were found guilty in a lower court of killing Miss Kercher, from Coulsden, Surrey, in what prosecutors described as a sex-fuelled attack, and sentenced to 26 years and 25 years respectively.
An appeals court rejected the conviction, freeing Knox to return home to the United States after serving four years in prison.
A court-ordered DNA review in the appeal discredited evidence used to convict Knox and Sollecito in 2009.
The appeal court in October said the guilty verdicts against the pair were not corroborated, and the court had not proved they were in the house when Leeds University student Miss Kercher was killed in 2007.
Ivory Coast-born drifter Rudy Guede was convicted in a separate trial of sexually assaulting and stabbing Miss Kercher. His 16-year sentence, reduced on appeal from an initial 30 years, was upheld by Italy's highest court in 2010.
The high court is expected to issue its decision towards the end of the year. It cannot hear new evidence, and will make its decision based on what has been submitted in earlier trials.
Knox and her family have said they are not worried about the appeal, as her innocence "was clearly and convincingly proven in her appeal trial".
They have described the move as "simply another example of harassment by the prosecution against Amanda".
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First Posted: 16/02/2012 20:54 Updated: 16/02/2012 20:54