Amanda Knox movie on Lifetime skips gruesome murder scene

The controversial story of Amanda Knox, an American student convicted of murdering her British roommate, has been made into a movie, expected to be aired on the U.S. channel Lifetime Monday.

The movie, "Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy," does not include a gruesome murder sequence after protests from the lawyers of Knox and the family of the victim, British student Meredith Kercher.

Knox, 23, and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted in 2009 of sexually assaulting and murdering Kercher two years earlier. Kercher was Knox's roommate.

Knox is serving a 26-year sentence, and Sollecito a 25-year sentence. Both have always denied the charges, and are appealing their convictions.

Rudy Guede, an Ivory Coast citizen, was convicted of participating in the murder in a separate trial.

The movie tells the story of the murder of Kercher in the town of Perugia in Italy in November 2007. Knox is portrayed in the film by Hayden Panettiere, the star of the hit series, "Heroes."

In the cut scene, the three alleged killers pin down Meredith, who wears only jeans and a bra, and stab her. In the released movie, the murder scene appears as brief flashback sequences, the NY Daily News reports.

"A later scene has Knox returning to her apartment to quarrel with Kercher while the prosecutor summarizes to the judges what he believes happened on the night of Kercher’s death. As he describes Knox pulling a knife and stabbing Kercher, a very blurry image shows one person lunging at another, but it is so fuzzy it is hard to make out who is involved," it states.

Lawyers for Knox's ex-boyfriend, Sollecito, have threatened to sue Lifetime over the movie, which they called inaccurate and full of "implausible scenes," the Telegraph reports.

The "film is shameful because it besmirches the name of poor Meredith Kercher and offers a version of reality which is wildly different from the evidence that was heard in court," said one of the lawyers, Luca Maori. “It is trash – it’s based on a totally implausible reconstruction of events.”

There are also accusations that Lifetime should not air the movie while the appeals are continuing.

DISCUSSION: Should Lifetime show the movie on the Meredith Kercher murder? Should it wait for the appeals process to finish? Leave your comments below.

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