A tearful and emotional Amanda Knox told an Italian court that she had nothing to do with the murder of Meredith Kercher as a jury went out to decide whether to acquit her or uphold her 26-year prison sentence.
Amanda Knox
© EPAAn emotional Amanda Knox denied being behind Meredith Kercher's murder, saying 'I am innocent'

Her voice trembling and struggling to maintain her composure, Knox stood up in the frescoed, medieval courtroom in Perugia and declared: "I did not kill, I did not rape, I did not steal. I was not there."


At her trial in 2009 she and her Italian former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of sexual assault, murder and the theft of Miss Kercher's two mobile phones and a sum of cash.

On Monday Knox, wearing a green blouse, black jacket and black trousers, said that Miss Kercher had been killed "in the most brutal and inexplicable manner possible".

She denied there was any enmity between them, saying they were good friends and that the British exchange student "was always nice to me".

Writing is one of the American student's passions, but the address she gave to the six jurors and two judges who will decide her fate was the most important piece of prose she will ever write.

"I want to go home," she said, declining an invitation from the appeal judge to sit down if she felt too shaky and nervous to stand. "I want to go back to my life. I am paying with my life for a crime I didn't commit."

Immediately after she spoke, the jury went into chambers to consider their decision, with Knox's heartfelt declaration still ringing in their ears.

Knox, 24, said she was "completely different" to how she has been depicted by prosecution lawyers, who in their summing up last week labelled her a "diabolical witch" and a "she-devil".

"I am not who they say I am," she said, insisting that her conviction for murdering the Leeds University student had been "absolutely unjust, without foundation".

"I am paying with my life for something I did not do," she told the jury, barely able to hold back tears.

She said that during an all-night interrogation by police on four days after Miss Kercher was murdered, during which she confessed to being in the house on the night of the killing, she had been "manipulated" by police and highly stressed.

In contrast to Knox's passionate and strongly delivered address, that of her ex-boyfriend was halting and tentative.

Sollecito told the court he had never hurt anybody in his life in his appeal for his 25 year sentence to be overturned.

Meredith Kercher's mother, Arline, and her sister, Stephanie, flew into Perugia airport this morning on a flight from Stansted. They joined one of Meredith's two brothers, Lyle, at a hotel in the university town.

They are due to give a press conference this afternoon.

Francesco Maresco, the Kerchers' lawyer, spoke outside court after Knox had given her address to the court and the jury went into their deliberations.

"The Kercher family accepted the court's decision that they (Knox and Sollecito) were guilty and so they are now interested in seeing that sentence confirmed," Mr Maresca said.

He said he did not think there would be tensions between the Kerchers and the Knox family when they sit together in the court room this evening to hear the sentence handed down.

"It is more the wait that creates tension, and the Kerchers are more interested in remembering their daughter outside the courtroom. Their attention is on that."