Festival Organisers Defend Amanda Knox Show After Criticism From Meredith Kercher's Sister

Festival organisers have defended the show after criticism from Stephanie Kercher, sister of Meredith Kercher, who said it “normalises and trivialises violence against women”. A petition calling for the show to be cancelled has been signed by more than 6,000 people. Knox, from Seattle in the US, and her then Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted in 2009 for the murder and sexual assault of Kercher, a British foreign exchange student living in Perugia. They maintained their innocence and, after years of legal battles, were acquitted by Italy’s highest court in 2015. In a statement posted on Instagram, Knox, 39, said of the petition: Cartwheel is a show about motherhood, raising a daughter in a world that is unfair and dangerous for women, and what it costs to be the kind of mother who tells her the truth about that.