News from Perugia, a small Italian town, shocked the world as reports of a misterious murder began to surface. Meredith Kercher, an exchange student from the United Kingdom, had been brutally murdered under suspicious circumstances.

The case generated buzz among the International Media and Italian authorities were quick to arrest Amanda Knox, a student from Seattle, Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Hermann Guede, all of whom were tried and prosecuted on murder charges.

After spending four years in jail, both Knox and Sollecito have been freed, after an appeal’s court ruled in their favour. Rude Guede is the only one now accused of sexually assaulting and killing Meredith Kercher and his lawyer admits he will seek a retrial. On the other hand, the prosecution is now seeking an appeal:

“We will appeal,” prosecutor Giuliano Mignini told Reuters. “The court will decide whether to confirm the first sentence or the second sentence.”

According to Italian Law, the prosecution can only file an appeal after the court publishes a formal explanation of the decision, which might take a couple of months. In the meanwhile, Meredith Kercher’s family seemed overwhelmed by the court’s decision, believed to have been ruled based on sloppy investigation and the contamination of several DNA samples.

“It was a bit of a shock,” Meredith Kercher’s sister told reporters, “It’s very upsetting … We still have no answers.”

After 11 hours of deliberations the verdict was read, as hundreds of protesters took over the streets in Perugia. Back home in Seattle, her supporters cheered and applauded over her release. According to a recent interview, John Lange, Knox’s high school drama teacher, admits that “When I knew her she was kind, hard-working and a team player. There was not a mean bone in her body.”

After a whirldwind media coverage, Knox is finally back home in Seattle and no one quite knows what the future holds for her; interviews are a sure thing but it won’t be easy being thrown back into all the media attention Amanda Knox has been getting for the past several years.

Knox took a moment to thank her Italian supporters “who shared my suffering and helped me survive with hope”, while also ackowledging “those who wrote, those who defended me, those who were close, those who prayed for me. I love you, Amanda.”

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Beatriz Gil

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