Italy’s highest court overturned Amanda Knox’s murder conviction and put an end to her eight-year legal battle on Friday.
Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted, acquitted, then convicted again during three separate trials in the murder case of Knox’s college roommate, Meredith Kercher, in 2007.
The 27-year-old from Seattle was convicted in 2009 for killing Kercher, who shared an apartment with Knox in the Italian university town of Perugia while they were both studying overseas. Kercher, from London, England, was stabbed, her throat was slashed and she had been sexually assaulted.
“I am tremendously relieved and grateful for the decision of the Supreme Court of Italy,” said Knox in a statement from her home after the judges’ decision was announced following over 10 hours of deliberation. “The knowledge of my innocence has given me strength in the darkest times of this ordeal.”
She also thanked everyone who had supported her, “Your kindness has sustained me.”
During the back-and-forth case, both Knox and Sollecito were acquitted in 2011 on appeal, and Knox returned to the U.S.
Two years later, however, they were retried and their acquittals overturned. Knox was sentenced in absentia to 28 years in prison, while Sollecito received 25 years.
The latest ruling means that Knox will not be sent back again to Italy. Lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova, who was her representative in court, said that Friday’s decision was the “best thing that could happen,” reported ABC News.
Before the verdict, the attorney called the reconviction “a big mistake that has to be rectified.”
“I did not expect this to happen,” Knox told ABC News in January 2014. “I really expected so much better from the Italian justice system. They found me innocent once before.
“I will never go willingly back,” she added.
Since retiring to America, Knox has rebuilt her life in Seattle where she works as a freelance journalist writing theater reviews for a local paper and working at a bookstore. She is engaged to Colin Sutherland, a friend whom she met in middle school.
9 Infamous Hollywood Murders, From Black Dahlia to Sharon Tate (Photos)
TheWrap takes a look back at some of the grisliest killings in L.A. history
1947: The brutal murder of Elizabeth Short, a 22-year-old woman nicknamed "Black Dahlia," remains one of Hollywood's most grisly unsolved crimes and has since sparked numerous TV, film and literary adaptations.
Santa Barbara Police Department
1969: Charles Manson, leader of the so-called "Manson Family," ordered the deaths of actress Sharon Tate; writer Wojciech Frykowski and his partner, the coffee bean heiress Abigail Folger; and celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring and several friends at the Beverly Hills home of director Roman Polanski.
ABC News
Red Lion/20th Century Fox
1976: Sal Mineo, the star of "Rebel Without a Cause," was stabbed to death near the Sunset Strip. Pizza deliveryman Lionel Ray Williams was later arrested and convicted of the murder.
ABC Network
1978: The "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his Arizona apartment. John Henry Carpenter was arrested and charged with the murder in 1992.
CBS
1994: Former NFL star O.J. Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death at her Brentwood home. The former football star-turned-actor was arrested and charged with the double homicide but found not guilty in a notorious trial.
YouTube
1998: "Saturday Night Live" star Phil Hartman was shot and killed in his sleep in his Encino home by his wife, Brynn Omdahl, who then turned the gun on herself.
NBC
2003: Phil Spector, a music producer famed for his so-called Wall of Sound, was convicted in 2009 of the 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson in his own home.
BBC Arena
Investigation Discovery
2010: The celebrated publicist Ronni Chasen was killed in an apparent robbery while driving home from the premiere of the Cher movie "Burlesque." The man who is believed by police to have killed her has since committed suicide.
Getty
2012: Nearly a year after his disappearance, former Fox executive Gavin Smith's car was found at a Simi Valley storage facility that was connected to John Creech, and Smith’s remains were discovered in a shallow grave in the Angeles National Forest. Creech was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
1 of 10
TheWrap takes a look back at some of the grisliest killings in L.A. history
TheWrap takes a look back at some of the grisliest killings in L.A. history