Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito Acquitted.

[BigV]

Wow.

(CBS/AP)

Last Updated 3:55 p.m. ET

PERUGIA, Italy - American student Amanda Knox, who was convicted by an Italian court for the 2007 murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher, was acquitted today by an appeals court.

Her murder conviction in the 2007 slaying of her roommate Meredith Kercher was thrown out by the jury, and she was ordered immediately released from prison.

Knox collapsed in tears after the verdict was read out Monday.

Her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito was also found not guilty.

Knox and Sollecito had been convicted in 2009 of sexually assaulting and murdering Kercher, who was stabbed to death in her bedroom. She was found in a pool of blood and covered by a duvet the following day.

Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, Sollecito to 25. Also convicted in separate proceedings was Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivorian man. They all denied wrongdoing.

[DanaC]

Really pleased about this. It looked such a shaky conviction.

I feel sorry for the Kercher family, but they were let down by the investigating officers.

[Lamplighter]

Me being cynical...particularly since I did not follow the trial at all.

Raffaele chose wisely having such a good-looking girlfriend.
I doubt the media would not have paid attention to a less gifted co-defendant.

[classicman]

I did not follow the trial much either. I did read up on it a bit but not that much.
The gist of what I saw was that there was little evidence that she was really guilty. They had DNA of hers at the scene. No shit, she lived there.
I also did not know that the BF was also a part of this appeal. Nothing I read even mentioned him.

[Sundae]

Knox lied and acted in a very peculiar manner for someone who was innocent.
And her parents launched a smear campaign.

I'm really not sure she was guilty.
But it all tasted wrong in my mouth.
Honestly? I think Italian and American justice systems collided.
It knocked truth & honesty out of the window.

And yes, I feel for Kercher's family. Dead girl, full of promise, no answer.

[glatt]

I'm surprised. I figured she would grow old in prison. If I were her, I'd be on the first plane out of there.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Sundae

Knox lied and acted in a very peculiar manner for someone who was innocent.
And her parents launched a smear campaign.

I'm really not sure she was guilty.
But it all tasted wrong in my mouth.
Honestly? I think Italian and American justice systems collided.
It knocked truth & honesty out of the window.

And yes, I feel for Kercher's family. Dead girl, full of promise, no answer.

Four days of very little sleep and intense and by all accounts highly manipulative interrogation can wrap a person up so they barely know what's true and what's not.

In this i have some minor experience, having been arrested on an arson charge and made to doubt my own story of events by the questioning that followed. To all intents and purposes I appearesd to 'lie' and change my story. Had it ever gone to court that would have played very badly against me. In fact the original story i told was mistaken, and the events I related had been coloured in my memory by things others had said ( I forgot that on this occasion I had actually left with everyone else, and had agreed with initial witness statements that said I'd left a little after the others, which was what i usually did).

[Sundae]

Shush.
Arsonist.

[DanaC]

lol

[TheMercenary]

Really great news, they really botched the investigation, she should have never been sent to prison.

[footfootfoot]

I an very happy for the young woman and her family. Hopefully, her nightmare is over.

[DanaC]

I never thought they were guilty. That whole demonic ritual angle that the investigation went with at first, then changed to a sex game gone wrong. It just seemed so over the top, and right from the get go it seemed like a circus.

[footfootfoot]

Not to mention the very obvious fact of none of Knox or Solecito's finger prints were in the room nor any of their DNA on her supposed rough sex ravaged body.

Helleaux?

I remind myself that it's only been a couple of hundred years since they put to death scientists who disagreed with the Catholic church and or pope and they still believe in Malocchio

[DanaC]

To be fair 3ft this isn't necessarily about the flaws o fthe Italian justice system as whole. but the conduct of particular parts of that system. By the same token, Texas has recently executed a man who was almost certainly innocent of the crime he was convicted of (Troy davis was he called?).

And in my own country we intermittently have a flurry of people being freed after serving a few years of a sentence having been convicted in an unsafe manner.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by DanaC

By the same token, Texas has recently executed a man who was almost certainly innocent of the crime he was convicted of (Troy davis was he called?).

Georgia, happened here in my town, Savannah.

They should have commuted his conviction to Life in prison IMHO.