LONDON — Former American exchange student Amanda Knox
became a free woman Monday after an Italian appeals jury threw out her
murder conviction in the slaying of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, four
years ago.
After hours of deliberation, jurors in
the town of Perugia, Italy, decided to free Knox and her alleged
accomplice, Italian Raffaele Sollecito. Knox, 24, and Sollecito, 27,
were convicted in 2009 of murdering Kercher and sentenced to 26 years
and 25 years in prison, respectively.
The verdict
was read Monday night amid intense international media attention. Knox, a
native of Seattle, looked tense and fearful as she was led into the
courtroom. She burst into tears when the verdict was announced.
Prosecutors
have said that they would bring the case to Italy’s high court if the
verdict went against them. They contend that DNA and circumstantial
evidence tie Knox firmly to the killing of her British roommate. But
Knox’s supporters say she has been the victim of a botched police
investigation and prejudicial media coverage.
The
jury found that the evidence against her was not credible. But it found
her guilty of slander against police and against a Congolese barman whom
she had falsely accused of involvement in the crime.
Knox
is free to return to the United States. Her family celebrated in the
courtroom, crying and hugging each other in relief. Kercher’s family sat
impassively in the courtroom absorbing the news.
Earlier
Monday, Knox made an emotional appeal for her freedom, telling the
eight members of the jury that she was not the violent, promiscuous
killer portrayed by the prosecution, and that her trust in the Italian
police had been betrayed.
“I was manipulated. I am
not what they say,” Knox said. “I have not killed; I have not raped.
… I wasn’t present at the crime.”
Knox addressed the court in Italian, at times emphatic and at other moments too overcome by emotion to continue speaking.
She
has been in prison since the November 2007 slaying of the 21-year-old
Kercher, whose throat was slashed in what authorities described as a sex
game gone wrong.
Knox’s lawyers argued that the
police investigation into Kercher’s death was bungled and that the case
against Knox and Sollecito was based on flawed DNA evidence. An
independent review of the DNA evidence has found it to be unreliable.
But prosecutors take issue with that finding and say that circumstantial evidence also points to the defendants’ guilt.
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