ROME — Italy’s highest court overturned the murder conviction against Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Friday, bringing to a definitive end the high-profile case.
“Finished!” Knox’s attorney, Carlo Dalla Vedova, exulted after the decision was read out. “It couldn’t be better than this.”
In a statement, Knox said she was “tremendously relieved and grateful.” She said that knowing she was innocent gave her “strength in the darkest times of this ordeal.”
The decision by the supreme Court of Cassation is the final ruling in the case, ending the long legal battle waged by Knox and Italian co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito.
Both Knox, who was awaiting the verdict in her hometown of Seattle, and Sollecito have long maintained their innocence in the death of British student Meredith Kercher, 21. Kercher was found dead Nov. 2, 2007, in the apartment she shared with Knox and two other students.
The supreme Court of Cassation overturned last year’s convictions by a Florence appeals court, and declined to order another trial.
