After four years Amanda Knox walks free

AN ITALIAN appeals court threw out Amanda Knox’s murder conviction in dramatic fashion last night, freeing the young American four years after she was jailed for the death of her British room mate Meredith Kercher.

Knox, 24, collapsed in tears after the verdict overturning her 2009 conviction was read out. Her co-defendant, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, also was cleared of killing 21-year-old Kercher in 2007.

The eight-member jury acquitted both Knox and Sollecito of murder after a court-ordered review of the DNA evidence cast serious doubts over the main DNA evidence linking the two to the crime.

“We’ve been waiting for this for four years,” said one of Sollecito’s lawyers, Giulia Bongiorno.

The judge upheld Knox’s conviction on a charge of slander for accusing bar owner Diya “Patrick” Lumumba of carrying out the killing. He set the sentence at three years, meaning for time served. Knox has been in prison since Nov. 6, 2007.

The Kercher family looked on grimly and a bit dazed as the verdict was read out by the judge after 11 hours of deliberations. Outside the courthouse, some of the hundreds of observers shouted “Shame, shame!”

The victim’s sister, Stephanie Kercher, who was in Perugia with her mother and brother for the verdict, lamented that her sister “has been nearly forgotten.”

“We want to keep her memory alive,” she said after the verdict.

Inside the courtroom, Knox’s parents, who have regularly travelled from their home in Seattle to Perugia to visit Knox over the past four years, hugged their lawyers and cried with joy. Knox herself was so overwhelmed with tears that two guards pulled her arms to escort her out of the courtroom.

Prosecutors can appeal the acquittal to Italy’s highest court. There was no word late last night if they planned to do so.

In Seattle, about a dozen Knox supporters were overjoyed that she has been cleared of the murder conviction.

“She’s free!” and “We did it!” they shouted at a hotel where they watched the court proceedings on TV.

Earlier yesterday, Knox tearfully told the court she did not kill her roommate. Knox frequently paused for breath and fought back tears as she spoke in Italian to the eight members of the jury in a packed courtroom, but managed to maintain her composure during the 10-minute address.

“I’ve lost a friend in the worst, most brutal, most inexplicable way possible,” she said of the 2007 murder of Kercher, who shared an apartment with Knox when they were both students in Perugia. “I’m paying with my life for things that I didn’t do.”

Knox and Sollecito, Knox’s former boyfriend from Italy, were convicted in 2009 of sexually assaulting and murdering Kercher, who was stabbed to death in her bedroom. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, Sollecito to 25. They both denied wrongdoing.

“I never hurt anyone, never in my life,” Sollecito said Monday in his own speech to the jury.

Kercher’s mother, sister and a brother travelled to Perugia for the verdict. They had expressed worry over the possibility of an acquittal but told reporters as deliberations were under way that they hoped the jury would do the right thing and not be influenced by the Knox family’s media campaign.

“They fully believe in her innocence. You can’t blame them for that,” said Lyle Kercher, the victim’s brother. “But it’s obviously hard for us.”

The trial has captivated audiences worldwide: Knox and Sollecito had been convicted of murdering Meredith in what the lower court said had begun as a drug-fuelled sexual assault.

Knox insisted Monday that she had nothing to do with the murder and that Kercher was a friend who was always nice to her. Gesticulating, at times clasping her hands together, the American said she has always wanted justice for Kercher.

“I did not kill. I did not rape. I did not steal. I wasn’t there,” Knox said.