Yet this week, the release of Netflix's hotly-anticipated Amanda Knox documentary about the woman convicted, then acquitted, of killing her is about to set the tornado of controversy surrounding her death turning once again.
The film promises to examine the case again from every angle. In a series of interviews, Knox protests her innocence, describing how it felt to become one of the world's most vilified women. In a snippet released as a teaser trailer, she says, arrestingly: "Either I'm a psychopath in sheep's clothing… Or I'm you."
Some critics have condemned Knox for participating, accusing her of cashing in on her notoriety again – having already written a book - and exacerbating the Kerchers' pain. Those eager to watch the film have also been criticised for treating a young woman's murder as entertainment.
I take their point; there's an undeniable element of ghoulishness about our obsession with true crime. But do I blame Knox for wanting to share her perspective on a terrible event which cut short one young woman's life, but also changed her own irrevocably? No, I don't.
On the evening of November 3, 2007, I was sent to Perugia to report on Meredith's murder for the newspaper I worked for. Her body had been found earlier that day in the whitewashed house overlooking the Umbrian countryside which she shared with Knox, a 20-year-old from the US who, like Meredith, was studying at Perugia's University for Foreigners. She had a knife wound to her neck and was thought to have been sexually assaulted.
I worked with Nick Pisa, a British reporter based in Italy who went on to cover the case so extensively that he features as an expert in the Netflix documentary, Amanda Knox. We roamed around the city's bars and cafes, speaking to people who'd known Meredith, all of whom described her as sociable, sweet, clever and conscientious.
Then something happened which I've thought about countless times since. An Italian journalist told us the police already had a suspect: 'the American housemate', as they called Knox. How could they have reached such a dramatic conclusion just a day after finding Meredith's body?
When Nick called a senior detective, he confirmed police were questioning Knox. Three days later, she was arrested, along with her boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito, and both were charged with murder and sexual violence. It all seemed strangely hasty, particularly when police then belatedly discovered fingerprints belonging to Rudy Guede – the man whose conviction for Meredith's murder still stands. But the wheels had been set in motion on an anti-Amanda Knox juggernaut which would prove unstoppable.
I reported on the case many times over the following months and years. I was fascinated by Knox's bizarre behaviour after Meredith's body was found: her yoga exercises at the police station; her 'confession' in which she claimed to have heard Meredith's screams, which she later said had been coerced. Even now, in the trailers for the documentary she often appears emotionally detached. But an unsympathetic demeanour isn't proof of guilt – and who dictates how someone in her situation is supposed to behave?
Either I'm a psychopath in sheep's clothing... Or I'm you.
When Knox was convicted in 2009, despite a lack of convincing physical evidence tying her to the crime, I was shocked, but few others seemed to be. She was portrayed very successfully by her prosecutor and the press alike as a sexually voracious, soulless 'she-devil'. I interviewed Knox's mother, Edda, and sister Deanna, for Grazia, and they spoke of their frustration that everyone had made up their minds about her.
Despite her acquittal in 2011 – and second, definitive exoneration by the Italian Supreme Court last year - there are many people who still believe Amanda Knox is guilty. Despite her release from prison after serving four years, she'll never really be free. That's why, although I don't know if her participation in the documentary will change the minds of anyone determined to believe she's a cold-blooded murderer, I can understand her wanting to try.
Amanda Knox will be released on Netflix on September 30.
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