The long saga of the Amanda Knox murder case finally ended today when the highest court in Italy, the Court of Cassation, overturned her murder conviction. The case had been through twists and turns throughout the past 8 years. Knox and her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, spent four years in prison for the 2007 murder of Knox’s then roommate Meredith Kercher. They were both acquitted and released by a higher court in 2011 but the Italian Supreme Court ordered the trial to be re-heard. In 2014 Knox was found guilty again. She was in the U.S. at the time and faced extradition to Italy to serve out her prison sentence. There was debate over whether this would actually happen. Some legal experts doubted that she would be extradited back to Italy and that she wouldn’t have to worry about her freedom. Others argued that the U.S. would have handed Knox over if Italy officially asked for her. Whatever the case, Knox would come out on national TV expressing her concern about the verdict. The case finally ended today March 27, 2015 when the conviction was overturned a second time, this time by the highest court in Italy.

This case received much notoriety. Immediately after the murder, Knox was reported to have acted inappropriately for someone whose roommate had just been stabbed to death and for someone who could be the murder suspect. She was seen on video kissing and hugging her boyfriend as the police were still on the murder scene. People reported seeing the two of them going out all over town and buying lingerie days after the murder. Knox was also reportedly doing cartwheels in the police station on the day she was being interrogated (similar to Jodi Arias doing a headstand in her interrogation room?). Knox blamed someone else for the murder and that person was later exonerated.

One of the memorable moments of the case occurred when Knox was in jail serving her time. She took a test for AIDS and she was told it was positive. Believing she had AIDS, she wrote in her journal all the recent sexual partners she had. There were seven. This journal entry was leaked to the press and created a firestorm, embarrassing Knox and making her look promiscuous. This also fueled the prosecutor’s view that the murder was motivated by sex.

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