Lady Gaga has compared fame to prison, but an American woman who was wrongfully convicted for murder says the metaphor is inaccurate at best.
The Bad Romance singer, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, tweeted on Friday that “fame is prison.” Fame is the name of her debut album, which focused on the nature of stardom and the meaning of being a celebrity.
Fame is prison
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) October 25, 2019
While some users came up with sarcastic responses, like “Then you must be a free woman” and “You should try poverty with kids”, there was one person that just wasn’t having it.
Her name is Amanda Knox, and she has been convicted and exonerated in the sensational Meredith Kercher murder case.
She quote-tweeted Lady Gaga, writing: “I hear you, but… prison is prison.”
I hear you, but...prison is prison. https://t.co/5cclYYZxk7
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox) October 25, 2019
Amanda, 20 years old at the time, and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were arrested in November 2007 on charges including the murder of Kercher in the university town of Perugia. Kercher was found nude in their apartment under a blanket, with her throat slit.
Knox and Sollecito were convicted in December 2009, receiving 26- and 25-year prison terms, respectively, and acquitted in October 2011.
The process has drawn increased media attention in the United States, where forensic experts have long cited a lack of evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Knox and Sollecito. Prosecution successfully appealed their acquittal in a second-level trial, and Knox and Sollecito were found guilty again in January 2014 but ultimately exonerated in March 2015.
Ivorian immigrant Rudy Guede, an acquaintance of Knox and Sollecito, was arrested shortly after the discovery of his bloody handprints in Kercher’s apartment and his DNA in a vaginal swab taken from the victim. He was found guilty in a special fast-track procedure and is currently serving a 16-year prison term. He has been granted permission to leave prison during the daytime to work at a centre for criminology studies.
In January this year, Europe's human rights court ordered Italy to pay Amanda Knox around $20,000 in damages, costs and expenses for police failure to provide her legal assistance and a translator during the initial questioning following the murder.
“For me this is a certification of a mistake, probably the biggest legal mistake in the last years in Italy, also because the attention that this case has had,” Knox’s defence attorney Dalla Vedova said at the time.
