Knox leaves prison after murder conviction overturned

[Playinghardball]

Source: MSNBC


Print Font: +-PERUGIA, Italy — Amanda Knox, the 24-year-old American found guilty in 2009 of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher, was a free woman after an appeals court jury on Monday acquitted her and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

Amanda Knox is led away from court in tears on Monday after being acquitted in the killing of Meredith Kercher. Knox, 24, collapsed in tears after the jury declared that the evidence against the two was not reliable.

After briefly returning to prison for a formal discharge, Knox was seen being driven away in a convoy. Rocco Girlanda, an Italian lawmaker who is close to the Knox family, said she planned to leave Italy on Tuesday.

In court, the Kercher family looked on grimly as the verdict was read out by the judge after 11 hours of deliberations by the eight-member jury.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44752948/ns/world_news-europe/?GT1=43001

[SkyDaddy7]

1. At least she gets to come home and...

start her life over despite having 4yrs stolen from her.

WTF?!?! I REC this & it remained at 0...So I guess this means DU feels she should remain in prison for a crime she had nothing to do with. SAD!

[dipsydoodle]

2. Part of that

was the slander charge so she's lost nothin'.

[joshcryer]

13. To be fair the slander charge wouldn't have happened if the police didn't manipulate her.

[SkyDaddy7]

36. Whatever!

4 years for suggesting someone else did it when you are the one being accused of something you did not do? Yeah, whatever!

[DesertFlower]

23. i just recommended it.

[elfin]

3. Foregone conclusion - her family spent the most

Mega cynic here. Her family was able to "play" the situation with PR and lawyers, even though the "reasonable doubt" was there all along. However it was ignored by the greedy hands everywhere until they could not get any more money and?or until they could not plausibly continue the light of mass media attention orchestrated by the now strapped family. I don't think she committed murder, but I do resent the constant coverage - along with creep Conrad Murray.

Oh, wait, there will probably be at least one book by her and maybe a made for TV movie to replenish the coffers.

[maxsolomon]

10. i don't understand your point at all

her now deeply-in-debt family spent the most - on what? "playing" the situation? bribes? she may have no choice but to avail herself of book and TV offers - to get her family out of debt.

it was far from a foregone conclusion - watch the video of Knox before the reversal - she's in tears with anxiety. after being freed, she collapsed in tears and could barely walk.

[Scairp]

14. Once again...

WHAT are you talking about?! They guy who did it all by himself, who's DNA actually WAS in the room, on Meredith's body, IN Meredith's body, who's fingerprints were in the room, who fled the country after the murder, didn't have much, so far as I know, and got himself a great deal of 16 years just for saying what they wanted him to say, which was that Amanda and Raffaele helped him kill Meredith. This case is so obvious, it makes me want to pull my hair out. Guede saw Meredith and/or Amanda somewhere, followed them/her home, and was waiting for an opportunity to catch one of the girls alone. My theory is that he cased the apartment for a day or two, maybe saw Raffaele or the boyfriend of Meredith there once or twice (yes, Meredith also had an Italian boyfriend), went away and came back until he was sure one of the girls was home alone, no boyfriends around, and attacked her. He is a predator and was on the hunt for a victim. It could very easily have been Amanda who got killed instead. Then, they would have done the same thing to Meredith that they did to Amanda...she partyed! she had a new Italian boyfriend & she was having SEX with him! she dressed up as a vampire for Halloween (yikes! she would have gotten life just for doing that), etc. Very simple, no fucking novel-like scenarios where the three of them went in and forced Meredith to participate in some satanic sex orgy thing. Or whatever that crazy prosecutor's fantasy was about. I don't know what is wrong with you and the minority of people like you who think that the original verdict was the correct one. All I can think is that you've been watching too much television, so turn the thing off, or if you just HAVE to watch t.v., put on the baseball play-offs. That's fun, and your brain doesn't turn to mush and cause your common sense to fly out the window into the ether. The truth, revealed today, is beyond clear.

[pnwmom]

28. If this was a foregone conclusion why didn't it happen the first trial?

They had already had to spend a fortune for the first trial, with no success. Watching Amanda wait for the verdict today, it was obvious that she was terrified.

Do you think any amount of money could make up to these young people for ruining four years of their lives?

[BigDemVoter]

4. I sincerely hope

that the Kercher family finds out what DID happen, as they are the ones who REALLY lost something permanent.

[jberryhill]

6. The actual murderer was convicted a while ago, and remains in jail - Rudy Guede

Except that his sentence was shortened in exchange for making up testimony against Knox.

[DURHAM D]

8. The guy who left his DNA all over the crime scene is already convicted.

I don't understand why half of Italy and others think it takes several people to commit murder and rape. Apparently one person can't act alone...

[Raster]

15. The guy who left his DNA all over the victim, all over the crime scene, and...

...left his DNA *inside* the victim.

[Scairp]

18. See my post above

I think it's pretty clear what happened to Meredith.

[McCamy Taylor]

27. They already know who did it. They would rather believe it was the roommate than accept

that their little angel brought a guy back to her room.

[pnwmom]

30. That's what I couldn't understand.

Why they chose to believe Guede when he was claiming Raffaele and Amanda were involved in the murder (while he sat on the toilet). And yet, to believe THAT story, they would have to believe the rest of the story -- that Amanda had consensual sex with Guede.

[toopers]

35. Guede was not brought back to the room . . .

he cased the house, and then broke into it just like he had done before (he was in possesson of electronics from another crime scene). The difference this time was that he either did not know Kercher was there or he intended to rape her when he broke into the flat.

[pnwmom]

29. There is no doubt what happened. The real murderer left his semen inside Meredith

and his fingerprints in blood on the pillow under her. Among dozens of other pieces of physical evidence.

[midnight]

5. K&R.... Very happy for this young women and hope she is able to get on with her new life...

[plumbob]

7. Time will tell.

Looks to me like a case of the best justice money can buy.

But we'll see.

[Scairp]

12. What are you talking about?

The guy who did it all by himself told that corrupt prosecutor what he wanted to hear and got himself a sweet deal, 16 years. Also, the Knox family aren't wealthy, so far as I know, and they have had to stay in private homes over the past four years when they went to see Amanda because they are so broke from going back and forth from here to Italy so many times. Money had fuck all to do with this case. What upsets me so much is that the true murderer, Guede, got a great deal from the corrupt prosecutor (what civilized society allows a convicted felon to still be a prosecutor?!), and now he has a mere 14-15 years to go. Considering what kind of crime this was, he can do that standing on his head. It's nothing. Oh, and did anyone read about the geologists in Italy who are being charged with manslaughter for NOT predicting an earthquake so that no one would die? What the hell kind of judicial system is that? They have not dragged themselves into the 20th century yet, let alone the 21st. I love Italy, I want to go there so badly, but I can't in good conscience spend any Euros in a country that has such a fucked up judiciary. The place is quite mad if you ask me.

[B2G]

20. +1000

[pnwmom]

33. He has only 12 to go -- and maybe fewer with time off for good behavior. And yes,

that is infuriating.

I heard about the seismologists, too. Sounds like their judicial system has even worse problems than ours. We don't prosecute women for being witches (or we haven't in a while) and we don't prosecute scientists for lacking crystal balls.

[Liquorice]

21. That is ridiculous. nt

[pnwmom]

31. Money took four years to get justice. Not too impressive.

There was NO physical evidence of Amanda or Raffaele at the crime scene, versus dozens of pieces of physical evidence (including fingerprints) linking a known knife-wielding burglar to the murder.
There were no witnesses placing the students at the murder, unless you rely on heroin addicts who can't get their dates straight.
There was no murder weapon, because the kitchen knife (selected out of a drawer because the police said it looked too clean) was to big to fit two of the three wounds.
There was, even by the admission of the prosecutor, no motive.

This is no mystery. The knife-wielding burglar, Rudy Guede, the one who left physical evidence all over the murder room, was the guilty party. Too bad the police decided to release him a few weeks earlier, after arresting him after he broke into a day care center, robbing them and carrying a knife. If they hadn't released him then, Meredith Kercher would be alive today.

[DeSwiss]

9. K&R n/t

[tea and oranges]

11. This is Cause to Celebrate

Her family has been through hell, as has she. Living in Seattle, I know people who know her family, whose daughters played hockey with Amanda Knox. It seems to me she was convicted at a time of great anti-American sentiment in Italy.

[a la izquierda]

16. Good for her.

May she do something useful with her life. Preferably something to better mankind.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Scairp]

19. For fuck's sake

Give it a rest. A young woman was viciously raped and murdered and two other young people were railroaded. I think the jokes should be shit-canned.

[bengalherder]

22. Which guy? The transgendered one?

Cute, baby, cute.

[Left Coast2020]

26. I'm happy for her. She has suffered during these 4 years.

Welcome home Amanda.

[blackspade]

24. I'm happy that they finally let her and her BF free.

It must have been terrifying for them both.

[McCamy Taylor]

25. The Kercher family should be mad because the real killer will be out in a couple of years

ready to rape and murder again. He got his sentence cut in half (after conviction) for changing his story and fingering Amanda. I don't know why the Kerchers are so obsessed with pinning it on the roommate. Maybe they like the idea that their pure little daughter was attacked by her satanic roommate better than the thought that she brought her rapist/murderer home with her. Which is pretty silly. No one deserves to be raped and murdered just for bringing a guy home. But this whole case seems obsessed with notions of female virtue, as if Kercher was a virginal saint and the American was a devil worshiping whore.

[pnwmom]

34. There is no reason they should have to think Meredith brought him home.

The Court has ruled that there was no staged break in. That means the evidence of a break in -- with a rock thrown through a window, which was Guede's M.O. -- is real. Guede most likely raped Meredith when she came home while he was in the middle of his burglary.

[AmBlue]

32. Rolling Stone: The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-neverending-nightmare-of-amanda-knox-20110627

In case you never read about this case in depth, this is a good article about what happened and the cast of characters. It really was a mess this very young girl was ensnared in. I'm very relieved she was acquitted and released.