The Business of High Profile Court Cases

As Amanda Knox is awaiting notice if she will have to undergo a retrial for the 2007 murder of her flatmate, 21-year old Meredith Kercher, she has been biding her time writing a book. Recently, she signed a $4 million dollar book deal with the publishing company HarperCollins to release a book on her life spent in Perugia, Italy before the murder incident and during the trial. She had a number of publishing houses contact her and put in bids for her book, but she ultimately settled with HarperCollins. The book was scheduled to be released in early 2013 and now Knox’s Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir can be purchased at your local bookstores. Even though the story is already released, the retrial can definitely put a wrench in the story-line  Her memoir details overcoming an unfair accusation that would have imprisoned her for up to 25 years and the end of that negative chapter of her life. If she is re-trialed,  the ending of the her story doesn't fit.  The Coroners and Justice Act 2009 states that the courts can recover any assets that a criminal has acquired from writing about their crimes and can be prevented from actually publishing their manuscripts, even though this law has been haphazardly enforced.

If you’re wondering why publishing houses would be fighting over a criminal author , you have to look no further than your news outlets. When the Amanda Knox trial originally came to light it was splashed all over Italian and American headlines. Journalists such as Nina Burleigh in The Fatal Gift of Beauty: The Trials of Amanda Knox constantly heightened Amanda Knox’s fame. The media was especially intrigued in this case because of the speculation that American students abroad Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito killed Knox’s roommate in a sexual game gone too far. Knox’s roommate, Meredith Kercher, who was taking a year abroad from Leeds University in London was found partially naked in her bedroom, sexually assaulted and throat sliced. Originally she was found not guilty in October 2011 for insufficient DNA evidence stemming from technicalities of poor procedures that may have had the DNA on the alleged murder weapon, the knife, but prosecutors have rebutted that key evidence was disregarded.

This case has made public headlines because people think it’s interesting, horrifying, and sexually arousing at the same time, but this is not the first time that a criminal case has garnered the world’s attention. I’m sure everyone has heard or made an OJ Simpson joke. Orenthal James “OJ” Simpson was a football star who was on trial in 1995 for murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. He was not found guilty and later released a book titled “If I did It” which was a hypothetical account of how he would murder his wife and her friend if he actually did do it. The book deal was part of a broadcasting and publishing package that was worth $3.5 million dollars. And OJ Simpson wasn't the first to turn his crime into profit.

Even earlier in history, there have been books from the perspective of criminals. In the 1920’s, Eddie Guerin Sparks wrote Crime: The Autobiography of a Crook. He robbed the American Express office in 1901 and had a reputation as the “king of the underworld” in Chicago and Paris. Criminals were the original celebrities before singers and actors were ever held om that pedestal.  There is something about crime that is associated with mystery and intrigue that is attractive to viewers. It’s the sensational stories that everyone wants to talk about, and as we can see in the case with Sparks, Simpson, and Knox- read about.

Tell me what you think. How do you feel about alleged criminals making a profit off of their criminal cases or reputations?