Typically I put a “let’s learn” spin on my columns, but this is just news, plain, simple…and incredible.
Just moments ago, American and former student Amanda Knox entered the courtroom in Perugia, Italy, where she only yesterday made an emotional plea for her innocence in the brutal 2007 murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher. “I did not kill!” she had exclaimed to the court, at one point.
Apparently, the court agreed as the judge dispassionately read the verdict -- which took a jury 11 hours to hand down -- that Knox was to be freed from Italian custody, as she had been found not guilty on all charges save the last, slander, a crime which carries a 3 year sentence. However, Knox got time served and will be released.
Upon hearing the verdict, Knox had to be physically supported by her lawyer as she neared collapse, and accepted a tissue from a bystander.
Knox, along with her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was convicted of the vicious murder in 2009 and they were sentenced to 26 and 25 years in prison, respectively. Independent experts have weighed in for years, reiterating that there wasn't sufficient evidence to convict. Earlier this year, Knox’s lawyers filed an appeal to the controversial verdict, the results of which were read today.
