Italy's top court overturns Amanda Knox conviction

In a final ruling, Italy's highest court on Friday overturned the convictions of American Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend in the sensational murder case of Knox's British roommate.
The six judges announced their decision about 10:30 p.m. in Rome (5:30 p.m. ET). Read more after d cut


Knox was 20 and studying in Italy in 2007 when Kercher was found dead of multiple knife wounds in the flat they shared in the picturesque hillside town of Peruggia. Authorities determined she had been sexually assaulted and her throat had been slashed.
Under police questioning, Knox said she was in the flat and heard the murder but did not participate. She later recanted, saying she gave the statement under duress.
Knox, then-boyfriend Sollecito and another man, Rudy Guede, were charged with the murder. Guede, whose DNA was found on Kercher's body, agreed to a fast-track trial and was convicted of murder in 2008. The native of the Ivory Coast is serving 16 years in an Italian prison.
In 2009, an Italian court convicted Knox and Sollecito, now 30, of murder. Knox was sentenced to 28½ years in prison, Sollecito to 25. Both served four years before an appeals court overturned their convictions and acquitted them in 2011. Knox returned to Seattle.
But Italy's highest court threw out the acquittals in March 2013 and sent the case to a Florence appeals court, which convicted them again last year. Knox, who did not return to Italy for the trial, was sentenced to 28 ½ years in prison and Sollecito to 25 years.

The Florence court cited "reliable" evidence placing Knox, Sollecito and Guede in the flat when Kercher was killed. The Florence court found Kercher was killed after a "mounting quarrel" with Knox — rejecting the initial prosecution theory that Kercher was killed after a drug-fueled sex game gone wrong.