The Kercher family against the Amanda Knox show

Victims of murder, particularly if they are young women who have suffered sexual violence, deserve the utmost respect and, if the word had any meaning, sympathy too. This is the case of Meredith Kercher, murdered in Perugia in 2007; the only person definitively convicted of the crime was Rudy Guede, but only for ‘complicity’ in murder: the other two defendants, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, were definitively acquitted. The victims’ relatives sometimes inspire less sympathy when they insist on extending their victim narrative indefinitely. To the point of signing a petition to stop a show (which is, in itself, legitimate) and calling on the British Prime Minister to intervene to halt it. The show (a stand-up comedy – is it really funny?) written and performed by Amanda Knox, which opens today at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, is dedicated to that tragic incident. The author’s good taste – or something worse – is questionable: Repubblica asked Stephanie Kercher whether Amanda is obsessed with Meredith: “You should ask her” – in returning yet again to that story. Even bearing in mind that Knox was found innocent in 2015 following a tumultuous legal process: conviction at first instance, acquittal on appeal, the acquittal overturned by the Court of Cassation leading to a further appeal, and a new conviction. The Court of Cassation then quashed the conviction without referral, adding heavy criticism of the shortcomings in the investigation. Not to mention that Knox was convicted of slander against Patrick Lumumba, whom she had identified as the culprit. As for the media trial: it seems like the Stasi case in reverse.

The show is titled Cartwheel, a reference to the ‘wheel’ that Knox allegedly performed at the police station. For her sister, the show ‘normalises and trivialises violence against women’ and ‘is shocking’. Knox turns the accusation on its head: it is a condemnation of the violence suffered ‘by her and by me’. A story that could not be more morally indisputable. Her former co-defendant, Sollecito, has also commented: “A choice I do not agree with”. Unless one asks what Amanda Knox really intends to portray on stage. And judging by her few statements, the central theme seems to be the grueling legal ordeal she endured in Italy. A judicial ordeal lasting years, accompanied by a despicable media trial, which outraged the American public, unaccustomed to an Italian-style ‘Vietnam tribunal’. In short, it could well be the case that "Cartwheel" is not so much about Meredith (which would indeed make little sense) but about our judicial system, about an investigation that the Court of Cassation itself criticised, and about media coverage with which we are all too familiar. A newspaper committed to due process such as Il Dubbio, on the other hand, commented critically a few days ago, emphasising that there would be a risk of mocking “Italy and the Kerchers’ grief”. In the case of Amanda Knox, it writes, “it fell to the United States of America, in terms of public opinion and the ‘system’ of pressure, to express outrage and treat the Italian justice system as a coven of impostors. Well, this ‘history’ seems to be the only plausible explanation for the attitude adopted by the woman who was accused and then definitively acquitted”. “At best, even if Knox’s words and choices were not an affront to a 21-year-old whose throat was slit, they clearly show little regard for Italy.” One might, however, also suppose that even if Knox’s attitude were “clearly one of scant regard for Italy”, she would have plenty of reasons to think that way. And the Kercher family might have even more. Would all this have happened with a better judicial system than Italy’s? (Said with the benefit of the doubt).