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Italian court overturns Knox murder verdict
AN INTERNATIONAL legal drama has come to an end as Italy’s highest court overturned the murder conviction of Amanda Knox, the court announced Friday.
Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted last year for the 2007 murder of her British roommate, 21-yearold Meredith Kercher.
The ruling by the Supreme Court of Cassation Friday overturned that ruling and brought an end to the saga that had already seen two convictions and an acquittal.
Kercher’s mother, Arline Kercher, told Britain’s Press Association news agency that she was “a bit surprised and very shocked.”
“They have been convicted twice so it is a bit odd that it should change now,” she said.
Knox’s lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova had argued the conviction be overturned due to errors made by investigators and a lack of forensic evidence.
“It’s a victory of justice,” Vedova said outside the courtroom. “This was a mistake from the beginning.”
Outside Knox’s home in Seattle, a sign read “The World Loves Amanda.”
“I am so grateful for the justice I have received,” a tearful Knox told reporters. “I am so grateful to have my life back.”
The 27-year-old wouldn’t comment on who she thinks killed Kercher, but said of her late roommate, “Meredith was my friend … She deserved so much in this life. I'm the lucky one.”
The judges’ decision will be released within 90 days.
Both Knox, who was awaiting the verdict in Seattle were she works for a newspaper, and Sollecito have long maintained their innocence.
Kercher was found with her throat slashed in the apartment she shared with Knox and two other students in Perugia, Italy on Nov. 2, 2007. She had also been sexually assaulted. Knox and Sollecito were arrested days later, jailed, and first convicted in 2009 after prosecutors argued the murder was part of a ritualistic sex party gone wrong.
In 2011, an appellate judge overturned the conviction and Knox returned to the U.S. after four years in behind bars.
Eventually another man, Rudy Guede, from Ivory Coast, was arrested, tried and convicted of the murder in a separate trial and sentenced to 16 year s in jail.
But Italy’s high court threw out the Knox acquittal last year and ordered new trials for her and Sollecito at a Florence appeals court.
Knox had been sentenced to 28½ years and Sollecito to 25 years in prison before Friday’s decision.
Sollecito’s lawyer, Luca Maori, called his client with the good news from the steps of the courthouse.
“You have your whole life ahead of you now, Raf,” he told Sollecito.
“He almost couldn’t speak,” Maori said after the call. “Eight years of nightmare over.” But not everyone was as relieved. Francesco Maresca, an attorney representing the Kercher family, was disappointed by the ruling.
“I think that it’s a defeat for the Italian justice system,” he said.