Sunday Times 2
Italy clears Knox of murder that gripped the world
View(s):ROME, March 28 (AFP) -Italy’s top court has thrown out Amanda Knox’s conviction for the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher, bringing a sensational end to an eight-year legal drama that has gripped a global audience.
Judges at the Court of Cassation on Friday also quashed all charges against Knox’s Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito after ten hours of deliberations in Rome.
Amanda Knox talks to the press surrounded by family outside her mother's home in Seattle (Reuters)
Knox said she was “tremendously relieved and grateful” for the court’s decision.
“Meredith was my friend, she deserved so much in this life. I’m the lucky one,” a tearful Knox told reporters in Seattle.
The 27-year-old, who served four years in prison before being freed on appeal in 2011, said: “The knowledge of my innocence has given me strength in the darkest times of this ordeal.” However Kercher’s mother said she was “surprised and very shocked” at the ruling.
Arline Kercher called the decision “odd” given the pair had been convicted twice following the British student’s killing in 2007.
Sollecito, 31, learned of the verdict at his home in Puglia in southern Italy, where he had driven after attending the final hearing in the high court review on Friday morning.
“Finally I can resume my life,” he said. “I still can’t quite believe it. Finally I will no longer have to spend all my time with legal papers. I can return to normal.” The shock verdict was greeted with chaotic, jubilant scenes in the great hall of the Roman courthouse.
Chairs went flying as Sollecito’s lawyer Giulia Bongiorno reacted to the shock verdict by shouting “yes, yes, yes” and leaping up into the arms of a colleague.