(Image source: CBS)
BY TRACY PFEIFFER
ANCHOR EMILY SPAIN
A jury has overturned the conviction of American Amanda Knox in the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher. But she was still found guilty of another charge.
“They’ve found her guilty of defamation. But part of the murder conviction has been overturned. …There she is breaking down at this moment as the judge continues to speak. …Amanda Knox has won her appeal. The conviction, the verdict, has been overturned for murder.”
Knox has been in an Italian jail for four years - so the judge’s sentence of three years for the defamation charge means time served. She will have to pay 22,000 euros to the man she blamed for the murder. The jury also overturned the murder conviction of Knox’s former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. (Video: HLN)
The Wall Street Journal reexamines the saga and how both sides portrayed it.
“The murder of 21-year-old Ms. Kercher, who was found partially naked in a pool of blood in 2007 … set in motion a legal drama that has riveted the world media. Prosecutors have portrayed Ms. Knox as the mastermind of the assault while Ms. Knox and her lawyers maintain she is a falsely-accused martyr, caught up in a study-abroad nightmare.”
A legal analyst tells CNN’s The Situation Room, from an American perspective the verdict is no surprise.
“If this were an American courtroom, they would have reached the same result. This was a very thin case. Remember there were three defendants in this case. There is an overwhelming evidence for guilt against one of the defendants, Guede, who is in prison serving 16 years. But as for Amanda Knox and her boyfriend, the evidence is almost entirely these garbled, forced confessions and a highly, highly disputed one example of DNA.”
But as the BBC reports -- from many Italians’ perspectives -- Knox deserved her original conviction.
“Hundreds of people had gathered in the streets outside the court ahead of the verdict and some shouted ‘shame’ when they heard about the decision.”
And CNN’s Paula Newton tells HLN, it’s important not to forget the family of Meredith Kercher in all of this.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN: “Her family stood stunned in the courtroom, I saw them. I saw her sister -- started crying. Her mother, just looking straight ahead, not knowing what to think. And her brother, just putting his head in his hands and thinking, ‘What has happened here?’ They said they would respect the decision of this court, but it was clear as their family spoke in court earlier this week, they believed Amanda Knox did kill their daughter and their sister.”
Amanda Knox is expected to make a speedy return to the United States.
