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Amanda Knox

Kercher family shocked after Knox is cleared in murder

Yamiche Alcindor
USA TODAY
Meredith Kercher, a British student, was found dead in an apartment in Perugia, Italy on Nov. 2, 2007. Italy's Supreme Court on March 27, 2015, overturned the murder convictions of Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito.

The decision by Italy's highest court on Friday to overturn the murder convictions of Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend set off feelings of relief for two families and disappointment in another.

As Knox expressed gratitude for having her life back, the mother of murdered British student Meredith Kercher told the United Kingdom's Press Association she was "surprised and very shocked" at the outcome.

Arline Kercher spoke late Friday night and said the verdict was not what the family had wished for or expected.

"I am a bit surprised, and very shocked, but that is about it at the moment," the mother said. "They have been convicted twice, so it's a bit odd that it should change now."

She added that she didn't have any plans "at the moment" to take any actions after the court's decision.

Meanwhile, Knox, 27, in a statement from her home in Seattle, thanked her supporters and said their kindness had sustained her.

"I am tremendously relieved and grateful for the decision of the Supreme Court of Italy," Knox said. "The knowledge of my innocence has given me strength in the darkest times of this ordeal."

Her Italian lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said she "was crying because she was so happy" when he called to deliver the news. Knox's mother, Edda Mallas, said the family needed "time to digest" the news.

In late 2007, Kercher, 21, was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in her bedroom while studying in Perugia, Italy. Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele 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.

Friday's ruling, which struck down last year's guilty verdicts from the Florence appeals court, brings the eight-year case to a close. The judges concluded that the evidence did not support a conviction, and they declined to order another trial. Their reasoning will be released within 90 days.

When the verdict was announced, Giulia Bongiorno, Sollecito's lawyer, shouted, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" and leaped into the arms of a defense colleague. "You never saw Raffaele pleading or praying. He has been a rock," she said, according to Agence France-Presse. "He is at home with his father and he is very happy. The verdict has proved him completely right.

Francesco Maresca, the lawyer for the Kercher family, said he was disappointed by the ruling. "I think that it's a defeat for the Italian justice system," he said, according to The Guardian.

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