The last time we checked in on Amanda Knox, her second murder conviction (as in, the second time she had been convicted of murdering Meredith Kercher in a second trial) had been overturned by the Italian Supreme Court. That was back in March of this year. Shortly after the second conviction was overturned, Amanda’s lawyer announced that they would be seeking financial compensation from the Italian government for “wrongful imprisonment.” It was sort of a baller move, especially considering it was seemingly up in the air as to whether the Italian authorities were going to pursue Knox for any other criminal charges. Now the Italian Supreme Court is basically saying that the prosecutors never should have tried Amanda in the first place. Sort of.
Italy’s top criminal court revealed on Monday that it overturned Amanda Knox’s murder conviction earlier this year because of “glaring errors” in the prosecution’s case. It’s the latest twist in the long saga. Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were first convicted of the 2007 murder of Knox’s roommate, British exchange student Meredith Kercher, in 2009. She was found dead in a pool of blood in the girls’ shared apartment, with as many as 40 stab wounds to her body.
But the murder convictions were overturned in 2011. Italy’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, then ordered a new trial for the pair after determining that the acquittal was full of “deficiencies, contradictions and illogical” conclusions. In that time, Knox fled Italy for Seattle, where she vowed to remain even if a second trial found her guilty again. Knox and Sollecito ultimately ended up being convicted again in 2014. However, that conviction was overturned in March. The same court that had ordered the new trial criticized police and prosecutors for “stunning weakness” and “investigative bouts of amnesia,” according to the decision made public on Monday.
“There was no shortage of glaring errors in the underlying fabric of the sentence in question,” the court wrote, NBC News reports.
In a statement posted to her website on Monday afternoon, Knox, now 28, wrote that she was grateful the court was forced to declare her innocence.
“This has been a long struggle for me, my family, my friends, and my supporters. While I am glad it is now over, I will remain forever grateful to the many individuals who gave their time and talents to help me,” she wrote. “Today would not have been possible without your unwavering support. I will now begin the rest of my life with one of my goals being to help others who have been wrongfully accused.”
I’ve said before that I really don’t know this case backwards and forwards like many of you, but it always struck me that even though the physical evidence wasn’t there, the cops were right to investigate her because, truly, her behavior was very odd. Knox’s behavior was odd when she was promoting her book too, but whatever. I guess it’s over now. Hopefully.
