Amanda Knox thanks supporters, heads for home

Updated at 7:55 a.m. Eastern

PERUGIA, Italy - Amanda Knox on Tuesday thanked those Italians who supported her throughout her four years of prison, a day after an appeals court cleared the young American of murdering her British roommate and freed her to return home to the United States.

Knox left her prison outside Perugia Monday night, less than two hours after the verdict was read out in a packed court acquitting her and her Italian one-time boyfriend of the brutal murder.

The Italy-US Foundation, which has championed Knox's cause, said the American was at Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome boarding a flight to London, where she will catch a connecting flight to the United States.

AP photographers and camera crew at Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome saw Knox family members in a terminal. Knox was not immediately seen, and was believed to have been escorted by police through a non-public entrance to the airport.

"She just couldn't wait to get on the plane. She told me that, even though she wasn't yet on the plane, she felt like she was already flying." Knox's friend Giulia Alagna tells "The Early Show."

"She was just very, very happy to get on that flight," added Alagna, who spoke to her friend on the phone as she waited to board her flight Tuesday morning. She said Knox's voice sounded "strong" in spite of her ordeal.

The freed American thanked those "who shared my suffering and helped me survive with hope," in a letter to the foundation, which seeks to promote ties between Italy and the United States.

"Those who wrote, those who defended me, those who were close, those who prayed for me," Knox wrote. "I love you, Amanda."

Timeline of the Amanda Knox case
Video: Italian court frees Amanda Knox
Complete coverage: Amanda Knox murder appeal

Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted in 2009 of sexually assaulting and murdering Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British student who shared an apartment with Knox in Perugia. Knox was convicted to 26 years, Sollecito to 25.

In a stunning reversal, the appeals court in Perugia overturned those convictions and set the two free. They had been in prison since Nov. 6, 2007, four days after Kercher's body had been found at the apartment.

The prosecutor in the case announced Tuesday morning that he would appeal the acquittal to Italy's highest court, but that process won't begin until the appeals court issues a complete explanation as to how it arrived at Monday's decision.

The 24-year-old Knox dissolved into tears as the verdict was read in a packed courtroom after 11 hours of deliberations, and needed to be propped up by her lawyers on either side. (Click player at left to see Knox's tearful appeal to court)

Two hours later Knox was in a dark limousine that took her out of the Capanne prison just outside Perugia, where she had spent the past four years, and headed to Rome.

"During the trip from Perugia to Rome Amanda was serene," said Corrado Maria Daclon, the secretary general of the Italy-US Foundation, who was with Knox in the car. "She confirmed to me that in the future she intends to come back to our country."

The prosecution's case was blown apart by a court-ordered DNA review that discredited crucial genetic evidence used to convict the two in 2009.

While waves of relief swept through the defendants' benches in the courtroom, members of the Kercher family, who flew in for the verdict, appeared dazed and perplexed. Meredith's older sister Stephanie shed a quiet tear, her mother Arline looked straight ahead.

There was little joy Tuesday for the Kerchers as Knox and her family put Italy behind them, reports "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Peter Van Sant.

Speaking at a hotel in Perugia Tuesday morning, Kercher's brother said the family felt as though they had been thrown back to "square one" after Knox and Sollecito's acquittal.

"That's the biggest disappointment, not knowing still," said Meredith's sister Stephanie Kercher at the news conference. "Knowing that there is obviously someone, or people, out there who have done this."

The Kercher family stressed that they respected the court's decision, and they wouldn't want anyone innocent spending time behind bars for no reason.

"We respect the decision of the judges but we do not understand how the decision of the first trial could be so radically overturned," the Kerchers said in a statement. "We still trust the Italian justice system and hope that the truth will eventually emerge." (Click player at left to watch Kercher family give statement)

The Kerchers had pressed for the court to uphold the guilty verdicts passed two years ago, and resisted theories that a third man convicted in the case, Rudy Hermann Guede, had acted alone. Guede, convicted in a separate trial, is serving a 16-year sentence.

The verdict reverberated through the streets of this medieval hilltop town, where both Knox and Kercher had arrived with so much anticipation for overseas studies programs four years ago.

Hundreds of mostly university-age youths gathered in the piazza outside the courtroom jeered as news of the acquittals spread. "Shame, shame," they yelled, adding that a black man had been made to shoulder all of the guilt for the murder.

The jury upheld Knox's conviction on a charge of slander for accusing bar owner Diya "Patrick" Lumumba of carrying out the killing. But the judge set the sentence at three years, less than the time Knox had spent in prison.

Prosecutors said they would appeal to the nation's highest criminal court, after reading the court's reasoning due out within 90 days.

"Tonight's sentence is wrong and confounding," prosecutor Giuliano Mignini told the ANSA news agency. "There is a heavy conviction for slander. Why did she accuse him? We don't know."

Just before deliberations began Monday, Knox tearfully told the court she did not kill her roommate.

"I've lost a friend in the worst, most brutal, most inexplicable way possible," she said of the 2007 murder of Kercher, who shared an apartment with Knox when they were both students in Perugia. "I'm paying with my life for things that I didn't do."

[supportersb]

Welcome home Amanda! It is about time that these Italian "Prosecutors" just accept the fact that they didn't have enough evidence from the start. The point being --- they did not have a case from the beginning -- they lost. AND to charge you with slander?? Well, I think you simply just told it like it was... There was NO slander! What poor blamers, prosecutors, ect. Appeals, extraditions?? Really? We'd all just laugh if they actually were dumb enough to try that, and then we'd ignore it. Their flawed system would embrace what we fairly and judicially call in the USA no "double jeapordy" if they were worth their salt. Bless God for the Jury and your appeal. Again Amanda, welcome home to the PNW and Seattle! I sincerely hope that you move forward and are able to regain the past four years that have been unjustly taken away from you.

[kdd333]

They also tried to sue her parents for slander, if the police are allowed to sue people and press for slander Amanda should be allowed to sue the police and press for slander. But there would be so many to sue she'd probably get tens of millions in that alone

[mooring7]

The whole idea of DNA evidence is to try and place Amanda Knox at the scene in order to prove she killed merideth. What gets me is that Rudy Guede admits to being there and the idea of him killing her seems secondary to nailing Amanda Knox.

[pococolo]

My family was vacationing in Italy when this all began. Amanda did herself no favors by acting zany and then signing a statement she quickly alleged not to be true. Above all, she fingered, or appeared to associate, a provably innocent man with a crime. He could have gone to jail right alone with her had not a iron-clad alibi witness come forward. Thank God she did. Who knows what really happened? A beautiful young woman was dead, horribly murdered. Another young woman cartwheeled herself from the police station into horrible trouble. Throughout, there were shades of misioginy, prudishness, bigotry and some bizarre Satanic theories. I don't know what Amanda did, and for some of the time, Amanda didn't seem to know what she did either. THAT was a big problem for her. Drugs, kiddies...if you're going off to a foreign country where you are learning the language but no where close to fluent, best to keep your wits about you. Everybody might be doin' 'em, but since you might need to clearly remember your actions and whereabouts and explain them (without accusing innocent others) in a language not your own, maybe you shouldn't, as it would be easier to do all those things if you didn't. Though I tend to believe that Amanda and Rafaelle didn't murder anyone, but Amanda's confusion made her look guilty (and Rafaelle by association.) Can't blame the Italians for that or for starting to look at her as a result. Does seem that over time, they blamed her based on less sensible grounds,,,Satanism (?), her sex and that someone of her sex had sex- her supposed promiscuity. Aren't Italians and British not supposed to be prudes and therefore superior in the opinion of some to those silly prudish Americans? In addition, the blame seemed focused on her looks, her ethnicity, the supposed economic status of her family, her nationality. Her DNA didn't seem to be very much associated with the crime scene.

Rudy, on the other hand, acted guilty as well, and his DNA was everywhere- reportedly recorded at least 100 times at the murder scene along with many bloody prints tying him to the crime. There no such substantial evidence tying either Amanda or Rafaelle to the horrible murder of the beautiful young woman. There was talk of a clean-up, but how did A and R clean only there DNA while leaving so much of Rudy's?

Hopefully, justice has now been done.

[GeorgeThea]

She's on her way!
Can see her BA flight live on Plane Finder!
http://planefinder.net/flight/BAW49

[lyvane]

Next for Amanda are nightmares with Meredith asking " How come, Amanda, how could you get away with such a crime?..


Her parents are up to very big and ugly surprises.One day they will be gravely sorry for getting her offspring out of jail.

[Jeepsrule]

You are a pathetic loser!

[petergrime]

The family of Meridith Kercher i hope will appeal against the verdict to a higher court in Rome.And i hope some truth comes out of it.The only reason why Amanda Knox and her Boyfriend have had the charges of murder dropped is because the italian police made such a mess of the dna evidence.It is doubtfull that if there is an appeal in Rome and another trial,. Amanda will not set foot out of the usa.Amanda has told so many lies i dont think she knows the truth, She had been tacking drugs and drinking with her boyfriend ,and accused another of murder. she changed her story so many times that she has no credability.She thinks she is safe now but one day the truth will come out and i hope i will be around.I agree with IYVANE comments

[kdd333]

Revise: They found Meredith's phone in a field because Amanda Knox was calling her repeatedly. When they arrived to find out why Meredith's phone was in a field, Amanda Knox and Rafaelle were of primary suspicion because they were the ones at the crime scene. The claim was that they called police after the police already showed up records later showed that they called before that. Investigators suspected Lumumba of being involved because of text messages between him and Amanda and they found the hair of a black man there before the dna tests. Amanda was only in Italy for a month and could not speak fluent Italian. They thought it was suspicious that she came home for the purpose of taking a shower and she was being uncooperative by claiming she stayed the night at Rafaelle's. They interrogated her for days and finally got the confession they wanted. Amanda claims her confession was based on them asking what do you believe could have happened if you were there? The bloody footprint which they claimed to be Amanda's on the pillow turned out to be Rudy's. Rafaelle's footprint was in the hallway but there was no blood on it. When Amanda discovered the blood in the sink, the broken window, and the unflushed toilet she called police and went to get Rafaelle to stay with her. The knife they claimed was the murder weapon that had Amanda's fingerprints and dna on the handle and a speck of dna from Meredith on the blade always tested negative for blood, implying the dna initially found was not from blood. Right away they realized that the knife did not fit the wounds and instead of dismissing it as the murder weapon prosecutors claimed there were 2 knives used. When the knife was retested there was no dna at all on the blade, only rye bread. When a person stabs someone their hand often slips down onto the blade from the force of hiting bone and they cut their palm. Amanda had no cuts. Rudy, however, had a cut on his palm. Rudy has a record of using a rock to break into places and stealing. These facts compel me to believe he acted alone. I think what could have happened is he broke into an empty house to burglerize it, and had to use the bathroom, while he was in the bathroom Meredith came home that's why he didn't flush. He then attacked her. Mignini, during the monster of Florence case made the theory that it was a satanic cult that needed human body parts for a ritual. He became so convinced of his theory that he got two people arrested who were investigating a separate theory that the killer was acting solo. Mignini falsely accused one of being part of the satanic cult and being involved in the murders.

[kdd333]

They found Meredith's phone because it was Amanda Knox calling her repeatedly. When they arrived to find out why Meredith's phone was in a field, Amanda Knox and Rafaelle were of primary suspicion because they were the ones at the crime scene. The claim was that they called after the police already showed up because they had Meredith's phone, records later cleared that they called before that. Investigators suspected Lumumba of being involved because of text messages between them and they found the hair of a black man there. Amanda was only in Italy for a month and could not speak fluent Italian. They thought it was suspicious that she came home for the purpose of taking a shower and she was being cooperative by claiming she stayed the night at Rafaele's. They interrogated her for days and finally got the confession they wanted. Amanda claims her confession was based on them asking what do you imagine could have happened if you were there? The bloody footprint which they claimed to be Amanda's turned out to be Rudy's. Rafaelle's footprint was in the hallway but there was no blood on it. When Amanda discovered the blood in the sink, the broken window, and the unflushed toilet she called police and went to get Rafaelle to stay with her. The knife they claimed was the murder weapon that had Amanda's fingerprints and dna on the handle and a speck of dna from Meredith on the blade tested negative for blood, the dna initially found was not from blood. Right away they realized that the knife did not fit the wounds and instead of dismissing it prosecutors claimed there were 2 knives used. When the knife was retested there was no dna at all on the blade, only rye bread. When a person stabs someone there hand often slips down onto the blade from the force of hiting bone and they cut there palm. Amanda had no cuts. Rudy, however, had a cut on his palm. Rudy has a record of using a rock to break into places and stealing. These facts compel me to believe he acted alone. I think what could have happened is he broke into an empty house to burglerize it, and had to use the bathroom, while he was in the bathroom Meredith came home that's why he didn't flush. He then attacked her. Mignini, during the monster of Florence case made the theory that it was a satanic cult that needed human body parts for a ritual. He became so convinced of his theory that he got two people arrested who were investigating a separate theory that the killer was acting solo and falsely accused one of being part of the satanic cult and being involved in the murders.

[pococolo]

Random. Knox didn't help herself by her bizarre behavior after the crime. Coerced or not, her placing of Patrick in legal jeopardy by signing a false statement is completely unacceptable. If a witness hadn't heard about his dilemma and come forward to clear him with an iron clad alibi, he may have shared the same fate as Amanda and Rafaelle. Guede may not have been found and held accountable for raping and murdering Meredith. If Guede's DNA was everywhere, in and out of Ms. Kercher, and it was, it makes no sense that Socecito's and Knox's wouldn't have been found as conclusively, and it was not. Guede had a history of break ins and robbery. He frequented the area. There was evidence of a break in.

Blaming people simply because their action ares perceived to be strange should be done with care. Much more proof should be required without manufacture. Lots of people act weirdly. That doesn't make them murderers necessarily. Blaming young people because they are attractive and perceived as being privileged and of current or distant European origin has disturbing class-ist and really disturbing
racist undertones. Vilifying young people, particularly young women for having sex, a little or a lot, seems an unreasonable contradiction to the Western world, from which most of this criticism has come, which routinely accepts, even promotes, such behavior. Just because men or women have sex doesn't mean they are devil murderers. Even promiscuity, though fairly common these days in the West, does not define any individual as a murderer. This case has spawned a shocking level of misogyny and prudish judgement, which coming from so many Europeans, is interesting in view of the fact that many of the same Europeans so often turn up their noses in superiority when they accuse Americans of being prudes.

[ibsteve2u]

Good thing this took place in Italy; over here, we have a Supreme Court justice - Scalia (joined by Thomas in the dissent in the case) - who holds that even if a second court finds you innocent, it is still lawful and Constitutional to execute you.

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dorf/20090826.html

God save America from the "conservatives".

[rbeecro]

Scalia!

Lord knows we shouldn't be casting stones.

Right now Amanda is coming home.... I am relieved.... I am happy.

[rubtwostix]

So in Italy, if your DNA is on your knife in your drawer, You might be a suspect?

The prosecutor screwed up when he let the DNA labs prove the guilt of the drug dealer. Had they just let him go, They would still have an American in their corrupt system.

Now thats a missed opportunity!

[rbeecro]

The DNA on the knife conclusively proved that it was a loaf of Rye bread that involved in the satanic ritual.

It's a good thing that Italy does not have a death penalty or that rye bread would be toast right now.

[rbeecro]

Mignini is now in the hot chair! The italian "system of justice" will now go after their fair haired boy and will find him guilty so that they can say he was a prosecutor gone crazy. (which he was)

This will save *******'s face.

Truly.... truly.... poetic justice!

If Italy was truly interested in justice they would begin an immediate review of all his cases.

How many people has he done this to?