The Slatest

Amanda Knox Guilty Verdict Overturned by Italy’s Highest Court

Amanda Knox, 2011
Amanda Knox, the U.S. student convicted of killing her British flatmate in Italy in 2007, looks on during a trial session in Perugia January 22, 2011.

Photo by Alessia Pierdomenico/Reuters

Italy’s supreme court has overturned the murder convictions of American Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito in the 2007 killing of Meredith Kercher, a British woman. Knox and Sollecito, who is Italian, were previously convicted in 2009, acquitted on appeal in 2011, and re-convicted in 2014.

The court’s explanation of its decision will be released within 90 days, the New York Times says, adding that “gasps went up among spectators” when the ruling was announced.

Further legal action against Knox is not expected. The AP quotes her attorney’s exclamation: “Finished!” The conviction of a man named Rudy Guede, who was also accused of participating in Kercher’s murder, still stands.

Incidentally, the AP described Knox and Sollecito’s alibi by writing that the pair claimed to have been “smoking marijuana and making love” on the night of the murder, while NBC went with “smoking pot and having sex.”