Amanda Knox Condemns 'Spectacle' of Johnny Depp, Amber Heard Case: 'Who Wins in a Trial Like This?'

Amanda Knox is speaking out against public furor and attention directed at the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard defamation case, which is being broadcast live for the public.

Knox was wrongfully convicted and then exonerated for the 2007 murder of her roommate when she was a 20-year-old American student studying abroad in Perugia, Italy. She spent four years in prison.

In a new op-ed — titled "I feel for Depp and Heard – I know what it's like to have the public decide you're guilty" — for U.K. outlet The Independent, Knox, 34, recalls receiving international attention and scrutiny during her court case. She said she is "still dealing with the psychological trauma of the public shaming I've endured."

Heard, 36, has testified about "vitriol from Johnny Depp supporters" and being the subject of online "attacks" and death threats.

Wrote Knox, "As someone who's received plenty of death threats, I can tell you that, while it's a fairly safe assumption that most are empty rhetoric fueled by rageful echo chambers, misinformation and anonymity, you never know. And that slim chance is terrifying."

"Who wins in a trial like this? Not Depp. Not Heard. Not us," continued Knox. "But can't we condemn the spectacle and yet still sift the evidence to arrive at our conclusions about the guilt and innocence of these two human beings whose trauma and pain and ugliness has been paraded before us?"

She added, "I'm not going to tell you my opinion on the Depp v. Heard trial. My opinion is just that, an opinion, and it doesn't matter. And frankly, neither does yours."

Depp, 58, is suing ex-wife Heard for $50 million in damages, claiming she defamed him by writing a 2018 op-ed about coming forward with domestic abuse accusations, though she did not mention him by name. Meanwhile, Heard filed a countersuit seeking $100 million in damages, claiming Depp spearheaded a campaign to discredit her and her allegations as "fake" and a "hoax," harming her career and reputation.

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Back in November 2020, Depp lost his highly publicized U.K. libel lawsuit case against British tabloid The Sun for calling him a "wife-beater." The court upheld the outlet's claims as being "substantially true" and Heard testified to back up the claims. In March 2021, Depp's attempt to overturn the decision was overruled.

In this case in Fairfax, Virginia, the Pirates of the Caribbean actor has testified that his "goal is the truth" as he seeks to clear his name in the trial, which is being televised live via various outlets. He has said multiple times under oath that he has never struck Heard or any woman. Because of Heard's allegations, Depp said he lost "nothing short of everything."

Entertainment litigator and defamation expert Daniel Gutenplan, a partner at Enenstein Pham & Glass, said on the PEOPLE Every Day podcast that the prevalent pro-Depp posts on social media "frankly means nothing for the case."

"But it gives you an idea of how the public is signing on this," he said, adding that he believes Depp's "reputation and his career has been irreparably tarnished because of this, these allegations, these incidents that have come to light."

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The expert explained, "I think it's a case and a war on public opinion. ... As much as he'd like to go get money in that pot of gold at the end of the lawsuit, I think he also has been taking this case all the way because he's trying to regain his image in the court of public opinion."

"What you're seeing day to day in the trial in terms of the dirty laundry that's being aired ... I think it doesn't necessarily bear on the defamation case so much, but it bears on the public's opinion of [Depp]," said Gutenplan.

Heard has testified that all she wanted from their divorce was for Depp to "leave me alone." She also wanted him to state publicly that she was not a liar. (They issued a joint statement in 2016 saying, in part, "Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain.")

"I was begging Johnny to not make me prove what I've had to sit on this stand in front of all of you and prove and talk about. I was begging not to have to do this, and sit where I am sitting. I didn't want this. I don't wanna be here. ... I was trying to get him to not call me a liar, because everything that I had said to date and everything I've said to date now is the truth," Heard said on the stand.