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Amanda Knox Acquitted Of Murder By Highest Court In Italy

Amanda Knox Trial

Amanda Knox, who has maintained that she and her former boyfriend were innocent of the murder of her British roommate, was relieved on Friday when Italy’s highest court threw out her conviction for good.

The surprise decision puts an end to the more than seven-year legal battle 27-year-old Knox and her co-defendant, Raffaele Sollecito, have waged to clear their names in the 2007 sexual assault and murder of Meredith Kercher.

The supreme court of Cassation panel deliberated for ten hours before declaring the pair did not commit the crime. If the court had upheld the convictions, Knox would have faced a complicated extradition back to Italy and a 28-and-a-half year sentence, while Sollecito faced 25 years in prison, ABC News reported.

[quote text_size=”small” author=”– Amanda Knox” author_title=”American acquitted of murder”]

The knowledge of my innocence has given me strength in the darkest times of this ordeal.

[/quote]

The case attracted international attention due to the brutality of the crime and the allegations that Knox, a young American student, and her new Italian boyfriend joined a third man in killing the 21-year-old in a sex game gone wrong.

While Knox was cleared of the murder charge, the court upheld a slander conviction against her for accusing a Congolese-born bar owner of the crime. The court reduced the sentence to three years, although Knox will not serve any of the sentence as she has spent four years in an Italian prison already.

Kercher was found stabbed to death in a home she shared with Knox in Perugia. Rudy Guede is currently serving a 16-year sentence for the murder, although judges in previous trials have ruled that Guede did not act alone, according to Reuters.

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