Amanda Knox screamed with delight today as she was sensationally cleared of murdering her former room-mate Meredith Kercher, seven years after the British student was found dead in Italy. <br />Joyous shouting was heard from Knox's back garden in Seattle as news came through that Italy's highest court had overturned the murder conviction against her and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. <br />The decision by the Supreme Court of Cassation is the final ruling in the case and definitively ends the gruelling legal battle waged by Knox and her co-defendant Sollecito. <br />Following the verdict, Ms Knox released a statement saying she is 'tremendously relieved and grateful' and knowing she was innocent gave her 'strength in the darkest times of this ordeal'. <br />She added: ‘Throughout this ordeal, I have received invaluable support from family, friends, and strangers. To them, I say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your kindness has sustained me.’ <br />And her father was seen hugging and kissing his wife Cassandra while her step-sisters Ashley and Delaney happily waved to photographers. <br />Those three women left the house and spoke openly about their excitment at the acquittal, saying: 'We're happy campers, we're happy happy! Its about time - we knew all along.' <br /> <br />Their joy contrasts the shock felt by the family of deceased student Meredith Kercher whose mother Arline said: 'I am a bit surprised, and very shocked if I'm honest. <br />I don't know what to say. They have been convicted twice so it's a bit odd that it should change now.' <br />She added that she could not see how evidence previously accepted could now be discredited. <br />Various friends and family members gathered in the back garden amid an atmosphere of relief and jubilation and people could be heard yelling: 'Freedom! Freedom!' <br />Earlier this afternoon, two men arrived at Knox's home with what looked like a case of beer and shortly afterwards her step-sister Ashley Knox, sister Deanna and stepmother Cassandra turned up with bags of food and looked positive and happy as they awaited the court in Rome's verdict. <br />'Finished!' her lawyer Carlo Vedova yelled in Rome after the decision was read out, adding: 'It couldn't be better than this.' <br /> <br />And her spokesman David Marriott admitted the verdict was unexpected, adding: 'I personally feel overjoyed that the truth has won out, that she is innocent.' <br />Both Knox, who was awaiting the verdict in her home town of Seattle, and Sollecito have long maintained their innocence. <br />Knox and Sollecito were originally convicted of murder and sexual assault in December 2009 and sentenced to 26 and 25 years in jail respectively. <br />But after they had already served four years in prison, a court in Perugia threw out the couple's coviction and declared them innocent. <br />Knox returned to the US before another U-turn in the sensational case in January last year when a court in Florence reinstated the original 2009 conviction and increased Knox's sentence to 28-and-a-half years. <br />Now Italy's highest court in Rome has overturned last year's convictions and declined to order another trial.
