Welcome to our weekly review of the events at crimestory.com.
We dedicated this week at Crime Story to Amanda Knox, the legacy of her story, and the work that she has pursued as a voice for compassionate and restorative justice with her partner, Christopher Robinson, since she was exonerated by the Italian Supreme Court from any responsibility for the murder of Meredith Kercher.
Since August of last year, Amanda and Chris have contributed four pieces to Crime Story. Each offers a unique perspective on how our society approaches crime, justice and punishment. The pieces are: The Injustice of Nancy Grace; Expressions of Guilt; Conviction and Apology; and The Case for E-Carceration… At Least for Now. On Monday, we offered a compilation of all four of those pieces.
On Tuesday (Part One) and Wednesday (Part Two), we presented a two-part interview with Brian McGinn, Director and Producer of the Netflix documentary Amanda Knox.
I connected with Brian through my USC colleague, Filmmaker Ted Braun who joins me in interviewing McGinn on the podcast. I found Brian’s perspective on filmmaking in general and the Knox story in particular, refreshingly down to earth and unpretentious. The Knox film is especially insightful, as the New York Times put it, about “how we judge attractive young women who dare to stray from what we consider appropriate social behavior.”
On Thursday (Part One) and Friday (Part Two), we offered a deeply insightful and emotional two-part interview with Amanda and Chris about their experiences as creators and journalists in the world of crime and justice.
In part one of the interview, Amanda and Chris talk about the early influences on their perceptions of storytelling and on their respective world views. We discuss Amanda‘s experience of the creation of the Netflix documentary, how she and Chris met during the final stages of the making of that film, her experience of watching that film and of how people responded to her after viewing the film.
In part two of the interview, Amanda expresses her perspective on the tabloid journalists who covered her story, and where she takes inspiration for her own journalism. Amanda and Chris discuss how they approach their work on The Truth about True Crime, particularly the podcasts that they wrote and produced about the murder of Jessica Levin and the story of Jens Söring, both of which echoed Amanda‘s experience during her four year ordeal in Italy.
For those of you wondering how you can catch up on previous Crime Story newsletters, just click here and your question shall be answered.
We close this week, as is our habit, with Hannah Teich’s curated selection of some of the more interesting stories from Crime Story Daily over the past week.
Hannah, who edits this Daily section, groups the aggregation into four general topic areas: criminal justice policy reporting; muckraking/watchdog reporting; complex crime storytelling; and stories that examine the impact of criminal justice and true-crime in the culture.
Click here below to go to Hannah’s weekly essay.
Thanks for reading and listening.
Kary Antholis
Publisher/Editor, Crime Story
