Amanda Knox was found not guilty of murder tonight in a stunning verdict in an Italian courtroom.
The verdict from an appeals jury came in about 8:30 pm, local Perugia time — 3:30 pm Eastern time. Knox looked pale and on the verge of tears as she entered the courtroom, and she sobbed as she left the courtroom even after hearing the good news. She looked to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Knox is expected to fly out of Italy and home to Seattle almost immediately.
Had the jury upheld her murder conviction, Amanda Knox would have returned to jail until 2035. But instead, the jury declared that the 2009 guilty verdicts for Knox and her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecitoare, were not supported by evidence.
Knox was found guilty of a false accusation of a fourth man, Diya ‘Patrick’ Lumumba; she had told police during a long interrogation that Lumumba was in her apartment the night of the murder. This charge was upheld and Knox was given three years in prison for the crime, but was released for time served.
The Guardian was live blogging the verdict from Italy.
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