Miss Knox, 24, and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were released from prison on Monday night after the acquittals. The American, who wept with relief in court when the verdict was read out, will now fly home from Rome to the US. She had been serving a 26-year sentence and Sollecito 25 years for the murder of Meredith, a British student, in Perugia in November 2007. The 21-year-old was discovered semi-naked with her throat cut in her bedroom of the house she shared with Miss Knox.
Her parents, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas, who have regularly travelled from their home in Seattle to Italy to visit her over the past four years, hugged their lawyers and cried with joy. Speaking outside court soon after the judgment, Miss Knox's family said the "nightmare was over". Her sister Deanna Knox said she was "thankful", adding: "(Amanda) has suffered for four years for a crime that she did not commit."
But some of the hundreds of observers gathered outside shouted "Shame, shame!" when they heard the verdict. One bystander shouted: "Run off back to America on your private jet."
Miss Knox, 24, who has been in prison since November 2007, was found guilty of the murder of 21-year-old Miss Kercher two years later, despite protesting her innocence. Although she has been acquitted of murder, the judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman upheld her conviction on a charge of slander for accusing bar owner Diya "Patrick" Lumumba of carrying out the killing. She was given a three-year prison sentence, all of which she has already served. Miss Knox was told she must pay 22,000 euros (£18,792) in compensation to Mr Lumumba. Mr Sollecito, 27, Miss Knox's Italian ex-boyfriend, had been serving a 25-year jail sentence over the killing of Miss Kercher.
The court decision means Miss Knox will now almost certainly strike a $1m deal with an American TV network as all the main stations have been frantically trying to secure rights to her first interview. In Seattle, about a dozen Knox supporters were overjoyed that she has been cleared of the murder conviction. At a hotel where they watched the court proceedings on TV, they shouted: "She's free!" and "We did it!". Meanwhile, Miss Kercher's mother Arline did not show a great deal of emotion.
She remained seated in the courtroom with her other children Lyle and Stephanie, who comforted each other. Miss Knox was acquitted "for not committing the act", the judge said, adding the evidence was not reliable, as he read out the ruling after 11 hours of jury deliberations. Although Miss Knox, her family and friends will be delighted with the decision of the judge and his jury of five women and one man, it means the heartbroken Kercher family still have no clear picture of what happened to their daughter. Key to the latest verdict was an independent court ordered report into hotly disputed DNA evidence.
Two forensic professors from Rome's La Sapienza University Carla Vecchiotti and Stefano Conti had poured scorn on the original police forensic investigation of the crime scene, producing a damning conclusion of techniques and methods used. Key to the case was a 30cm kitchen knife retrieved in Mr Sollecito's flat and on which the original trial heard was found DNA from Miss Kercher on the blade and that of Miss Knox on the handle. Prosecutors confusingly said it was "not incompatible" with the murder weapon - which has never been found - while defence teams argued it was too big to have caused the wounds on Miss Kercher's throat. In addition the report also said that no blood was found on it and the DNA of Miss Kercher was so low is should be ruled inadmissible - in fact there was such a small amount it could not even be re-tested.
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Un result bonus por Amanda y Raffaele mas estu un resultu bonus por familu d'Meredith? Multi kvesti remaner...
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