Any pitch means some degree of pressure but imagine if you were pitching for your life, or 26 years of it!
While the verdict may have been going her way it must have seemed that any outcome was possible in the chaos of the Italian judicial process. Four years ago her appeal failed and she ended up in prison. Amanda Knox knew she had to give the performance of a lifetime and she did.
The speech was remarkable. She probably had help in writing it but the impression conveyed was that it came from her. Short heartfelt sentences were delivered, in Italian, with surprising composure and stillness but combined with powerful downward hand movements that left you in no doubt about the passion behind her words. Even on shaky news footage it was compelling.
It was skillfully constructed with an emotive ‘four years ago’ theme at its heart and repeated frequently. With three main arguments relating to tragedy, passion and relationships it would seem the pitching ‘rule of three’ was in operation! Certainly the orator’s tricolon of three short phrases or sentences used for optimum effect was in evidence.
The transcript in full, with words in bold relating to these points:
“It was said many times that I’m a different person from the way I look. And that people cannot figure out who I am. I’m the same person I was four years ago. I’ve always been the same.”
“The only difference is what I suffered in four years. I lost a friend in the most brutal inexplicable way. My trust, my full trust in the police has been betrayed. I had to face absolutely unjust charges, accusations and I’m paying with my life for something that I did not commit.”
Four years ago I was four years younger, but fundamentally I was younger because I had never suffered before four years ago. Because of four years ago, I didn’t know what tragedy was. It was something I would watch on television. That didn’t belong to me.
I had never faced so much fear and tragedy and suffering. I did not know how to face that. I didn’t know how to live that, deeply. How I felt when we found out that Maddy had been killed, I couldn’t believe it. How that was possible, first of all, then fear, because the person whom I shared my life with, who had the bed next to mine had been killed in our home. And if I would have been home that night, I’d be dead. I would have been killed just like her. The only difference is I was not there. I was with Raffaele, at Raffaele’s place.
I had no one. He was everything to me at that moment. At that very moment at that moment in time I had him.
And another thing was my passion. I had a sense of duty before justice. I had a sense of duty before authorities which I trusted because they were there to find out who the culprit was, there to protect us. I blindly trusted them wholly, completely, absolutely. And when I made myself available up to the point of utter exhaustion those days, I was betrayed starting Nov. 5. I wasn’t, I wasn’t only stressed. I was manipulated.
I am not what they say I am,the violence, the spite of life, the life of someone that was not mine. And I didn’t do what they say I did. I didn’t kill. I didn’t rape. I didn’t steal.I was not there
.I remember the guy that we met in the apartment downstairs, but I didn’t know him even by name. He was just someone around, a face. He was not a person that I had some contact with. So when they say, ‘Oh, you knew him,” I never did what they said that I did. They also say that that’s what happened, but just like this. It’s not like that.
I was untidy. We had a good relationship. We were all available to each other. I shared my life, especially with Meredith. We had a friendship. We were friends. She was concerned for me. She was always kind to me. She cared about me.
Maddy was killed, was murdered and I always wanted justice for her. I’m not escaping truth. I never escaped. I’m not fleeing from justice. I insist on the truth. I insist after four hopeless years. My innocence, our innocence is true. It deserves to be defended and acknowledged.
I want to go home. I want to go back to my life. I don’t want to be punished. I don’t want my future to be taken away from me for something I didn’t do. Because I am innocent. Just like he is innocent. We deserve freedom. We didn’t do anything not to deserve freedom.
I have all the respect for this court, for the care shown during our trial. Thank you.”