PERUGIA, Italy, Nov. 29, 2007

U.S. Student "Going Crazy" In Italy Jail

20-Year-Old Seattle Woman Remains Jailed In Connection With British Student's Murder

    • Amanda Knox, in a photo taken November 2, 2007, said in an interview with an Italian paper that during her first days of detention she was kept isolated before being transferred to a ward housing people suspected of sex crimes. Photo

      Amanda Knox, in a photo taken November 2, 2007, said in an interview with an Italian paper that during her first days of detention she was kept isolated before being transferred to a ward housing people suspected of sex crimes.  (AP Photo/Stefano Medici)

    • Amanda Knox, American housemate of murdered British student Meredith Kercher, is shown here on Nov. 6 being escorted by Italian police, Perugia, Italy. Reports say her blood and fingerprint places her in Italy apartment the night her roommate was murdered, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007. Photo

      Amanda Knox, American housemate of murdered British student Meredith Kercher, is shown here on Nov. 6 being escorted by Italian police, Perugia, Italy. Reports say her blood and fingerprint places her in Italy apartment the night her roommate was murdered, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007.  (AP)

    • Italian police released this photo of 22-year-old British university student Meredith Kercher, who was found dead with her throat slashed in the bedroom of a house in the Umbrian town of Perugia. Photo

      Italian police released this photo of 22-year-old British university student Meredith Kercher, who was found dead with her throat slashed in the bedroom of a house in the Umbrian town of Perugia.  (AP Photo/Stefano Medici)

    • View taken Nov. 5, 2007 of the house of British exchange student Meredith Kercher in Perugia. Photo

      View taken Nov. 5, 2007 of the house of British exchange student Meredith Kercher in Perugia.  (Getty Images/AFP/STR)

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  • Video Co-Ed Murder Suspect Speaks

    In a newly released statement, Amanda Knox, the American student arrested in connection with the murder of her British roommate, maintains her innocence. Allen Pizzey reports.

  • Video Who Is Amanda Knox?

    Jeff Tripoli, a friend and fellow student of Amanda Knox at the University of Washington, speaks with Harry Smith about the murder allegations Knox faces abroad in Italy.

  • Interactive Crime Beat

    Statistics and specifics on crime in America.

  • Fast Facts Italy

    Learn about the people, economy and history.

(CBS/AP)  An American student jailed in connection with the slaying of her British roommate was quoted Thursday as saying she was "going crazy" during her first days in jail.

Amanda Marie Knox, a 20-year-old from Seattle, has been jailed in Perugia since Nov. 6. On Friday, a judge must decide whether she and another suspect - her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito - should remain behind bars.

Knox agreed to talk to the Turin newspaper La Stampa, but not about the night Meredith Kercher was killed.

"No questions about that night; I don't want to be affected by things that I learn from outside," she is quoted as saying, speaking Italian. "Whenever I see Perugia footage on TV, I switch channels. What I have to say I want to say to judges alone. And to my lawyer."

Knox has given conflicting statements since Kercher was found dead in their Perugia apartment on Nov. 2. Kercher, a 21-year-old Leeds University student, was killed by a knife wound to the neck, and prosecutors said she died fighting off a sexual assault.

Knox first said she wasn't home the night of the slaying, but later told prosecutors she was in the apartment, saying she had to cover her ears to drown out Kercher's screams.

Her lawyer, however, is expected Friday to go back to the original version - that Knox was not at home - when he speaks to the judge ruling on Knox's detention, according to La Stampa and other Italian reports citing a defense document prepared for the hearing.

Knox told La Stampa that the first days in jail were difficult.

"The first days, I was kept isolated," she told the newspaper, speaking in Italian. "It was very hard; I couldn't have any relations with anybody." Then she was transferred to a ward housing people accused of sexual crimes, the newspaper said.

"My God, those days were terrible; nobody talked to me," Knox is quoted as saying. "I thought I was going crazy and I prayed that they would move me. When I arrived here, everything changed."'

Quote

My God, those days were terrible; nobody talked to me. I thought I was going crazy and I prayed that they would move me.

Amanda Knox
"They treat me with dignity," she said, adding that her fellow inmates are "wonderful."

Knox's and Kercher's DNA were found on a knife that investigators believe may have been the murder weapon; the knife was found in Sollecito's home.

The top investigating prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, wrote that the body of evidence against Knox has only grown as the probe continued.

It has been reported that Knox and Sollecito purchased thong underwear at a lingerie store two days after the murder was discovered, behaved provocatively and were overheard talking about going home to indulge in wild sex, reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey.

In addition to Knox and Sollecito, 23, Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native, has been detained in the slaying. Guede is to be extradited from Germany. All have denied any wrongdoing.

© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Add a Comment See all 31 Comments
by pelosisaho1 November 29, 2007 8:01 AM PST
This ho did nothing while her Italian boyfriend, a coward, and his friends brutally raped and murdered a beautiful British girl because she refused to do the deed with one of his buddies.

Tough. Let her rot. It''s all about choices, and the one she made was stooooopid. She was there to be a student, not a ho and a pimp for murder.
Reply to this comment
by ronjjj157 November 29, 2007 8:50 AM PST
Must be desperate for blog material?
Reply to this comment
by antoniof123 November 29, 2007 9:27 AM PST
Knox told La Stampa that the first days in jail were difficult.

Get use to it that is where you are going to be spending a long time.
Reply to this comment
by prinzowhales November 29, 2007 9:36 AM PST
Watch for the insanity defense...poor little American girl under the influence of bad ole Euro-trash...the photos of her and her ''luv'' after the murder tell just about everything one needs to know about the dark side turn ons these creatures were into...hopefully, she''ll be a crone when the doors of the gaol open again for her--if ever.
Reply to this comment
by rf35 November 29, 2007 9:45 AM PST
What do thong underware have to do with anything??
Reply to this comment
by bobpcoll--2008 November 29, 2007 9:53 AM PST
The thong underwear are part of the legal " brief"....
Reply to this comment
by mediabrat60 November 29, 2007 9:54 AM PST
That''s my thought exactly...thongs?!...huh? Must not be much heard of in Italy!
Reply to this comment
by airport1207 November 29, 2007 10:22 AM PST
I feel that the world is getting more corrupted than I ever thought..
Reply to this comment
by November 29, 2007 10:23 AM PST
If she escapes this the porn industry is waiting on her.
This is not news worthy.
Reply to this comment
by dredre2k November 29, 2007 10:25 AM PST
Who cares?
I''m sure all of the other people that are in jail aren''t enjoying their stays either...
Reply to this comment
by jhoe4 November 29, 2007 10:44 AM PST
So, sounds like auther of this article is the nutty one. So who cares about a double speak girl?
Reply to this comment
by lochlan-2009 November 29, 2007 11:08 AM PST
If you can''t do the time, don''t do the crime. She feels the walls closing in around her.

BTW: Why is this the main story?
Reply to this comment
by ladyjaneg November 29, 2007 11:28 AM PST
So what? Is she going to complain about her pillow not being soft enough, or her breakfast not being to her satisfaction? Please.
Reply to this comment
by erasmus6 November 29, 2007 11:38 AM PST
"An American student jailed in connection with the slaying of her British roommate was quoted Thursday as saying she was "going crazy" during her first days in jail."

Ah geez, that''s too bad.
Reply to this comment
by jetlizhan November 29, 2007 11:40 AM PST
i agree with all of you - boo hoo - who cares? she should''ve thought before getting herself in this mess. i have no sympathy for her.
Reply to this comment
by krenz4 November 29, 2007 11:51 AM PST
This chick is going to try to trade on her poor me,blond, innocent American cards. Have you seen the footage of she and her Italian boyfriend, standing there looking like something from a Fellini movie? Wide eyed, dark, confused. I hope that the Italians give her a fair trial and them put her ''poor innocent, wide eyed blond American student a s s in jail!
Reply to this comment
by denn034 November 29, 2007 12:50 PM PST
If she committed the murder, then, she was crazy before entering that jail.
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by godofredo29 November 29, 2007 1:00 PM PST
Quello che abbiamo qui e una storia veramente incredible.
Reply to this comment
by gunnerv1 November 29, 2007 1:03 PM PST
Get use to it, Knife girl.
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by prinzowhales November 29, 2007 2:26 PM PST
Her boyfriend, pictured earlier with his sweater tied around his neck with the standard Euro-trash youth pouty face, can be seen vapidly standing beside millions of Vespas all over Western Europe...I''m just surprised he didn''t have the racing leathers...
Reply to this comment
by greeneyes222 November 29, 2007 2:43 PM PST
Poor Amanda. She was going crazy ... I feel as much pity for her as she apparently felt for her roommate. Being American is no ticket out of murder, Amanda, get used to it.
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by chipsgrl November 29, 2007 3:23 PM PST
The media are hilarious. Over on abcnews.com, there''s an article on how "Foxy Knoxy" is feeling "serene" in her Italian jail cell. So which is it - "serene" or "going crazy"? I know, I know, who cares.
Reply to this comment
by itsnotaboutu November 29, 2007 4:11 PM PST
Does anybody know the Italian translation for plunger rape because that is a term she will become VERY familiar with in prison.
Posted by koko98

That''s only if she''s lucky. Expand your imagination a little, and think: fists, brushes (the bristle end) flashlights, roled up magazines...oh yeah, it''s none too good.
Reply to this comment
by vittoria1 November 29, 2007 4:44 PM PST
Plunger rape? Stupro da sturalavandino might do, though I''m sure there''s some more idiomatic term.

To tell you all the truth, If I were to go to prison for murder, I''d rather it happen in Italy than in the U.S. For one thing, my sentence would definitely be shorter. If Knox is convicted, she will not do particularly hard time. Italy''s justice system is more lenient than ours, and the prisons are by no means hellholes.
Reply to this comment
by excoachken November 29, 2007 5:39 PM PST
Did she think that everybody deserves Paris Hilton treatment?
Reply to this comment
by wheezel3 November 29, 2007 5:51 PM PST
Wormy murderer! Aw, she has to change the TV channel sometimes...poor baby...going crazy, aw...hope some big italian *** takes a shine to her wormy face.
Reply to this comment
by wheezel3 November 29, 2007 5:52 PM PST
Um, you can''t say d_y_k_e on these comments? Maybe in Italian it''s "el d''yikia" or something.
Reply to this comment
by krazykat2525 November 29, 2007 7:24 PM PST
trying to use temporarily insane as a plea? This is just beyond sick; think of the poor girl; instead of helping her roommate or calling for help/going for help she had "to put her hands over her ears";
Reply to this comment
by joanna38 November 30, 2007 12:45 PM PST
So....more corruption comes to Italy. What do these American , and other foreign parents, think when they send their daughters to Italy to study in Perugia? This Amanda was all set up in her apartment when she took Kercher in as a roommate. She also worked at the bar owned by Lumumba from the Congo. Now there is another person, German I think, involved in this. Cox did the killing as far as I can figure this out. Jealousy. Most prob caught the Italian boyfriend trying to *** up the roommate. But in the meantime these "students" are smoking hash and what else, who knows. Mr and Mrs Cox, so much for your pure, angelic Amanda! If she was not caught up in this murder who knows what her next step would be.....local bar Ho? If not already that.
Reply to this comment
by joanna38 November 30, 2007 12:48 PM PST
Oops...Knox and NOT Cox.
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by joanna38 November 30, 2007 12:49 PM PST
Cox killed noone and then again maybe it did....
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