SEATTLE?? Amanda Knox arrived home in Seattle on Tuesday and in a halting voice choking with emotion told the people who supported her fight to overturn her Italian murder conviction: "Thank you for being there for me."
-
Only on msnbc.com
- Knox: 'I'm really overwhelmed right now'
- Wall Street rallies could be left?s Tea Party
- As farmers markets thrive, so do concerns
- Apathetic Italians moved to anger by verdict
- Little bug leads to big prize
- Stealing elderly parents' IDs a common, hidden crime
- Cancer kiss-off: Getting dumped after diagnosis
The British Airways jet carrying Knox landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport about 5:09 p.m., one day after an Italian court cleared the 24-year-old college student of murder and freed her after nearly four years in prison.
Wearing a sweater and black pants, Knox walked into a terminal area for a news conference in front of supporters and dozens of national and international reporters and was greeted by cheers.
After her lawyer, father and mother spoke briefly, Knox stood shakily at a podium set up in a garage area for her first words to the public since she was released.
"They're reminding me to speak in English, because I'm having problems with that," said Knox, who spent nearly four years in an Italian prison.
"I'm really overwhelmed right now. I was looking down from the airplane, and it seemed like everything wasn't real."
"What's important for me to say is just thank you to everyone who's believed in me, who's defended me and who's supported my family. My family is the most important thing to me right now, and I just want to go be with them. So, thank you for being there for me."
Video: Knox: 'Thank you for being there for me' (on this page)Theodore Simon, a Philadelphia attorney who was part of Knox's defense team, saidthat Knox asked for prayers for the family of Meredith Kercher, the 21-year-old English woman who was found brutally slain on Nov. 1, 2007, in the home she shared with Amanda Knox in Perugia, Italy.
But he said the Italian appeals court's ruling showed that Knox was innocent.
"We couldn't have made it without you people out there who were supporting us," said Knox's father, Curt Knox.
Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, had been convicted of murdering Kercher in what prosecutors called a sex fantasy gone awry. But on Monday, the Italian appeals court overturned their convictions.
The court's decision, fueled by doubts over DNA evidence, stunned the victim's family and angered the prosecution, which insists that she was among three people who killed Kercher. But for Knox's grandmother Elisabeth Huff, "it was like the weight of the world had gone."
Speaking to reporters outside his home in West Seattle after his daughter arrived home, Curt Knox said the family had been on the aircraft when they saw reports that the Italian prosecutor would challenge the appeals court decision.
He said his daughter would need time to "re-connect" with friends. He refused to tell reporters whether his daughter was at his house or elsewhere.
Asked how her imprisonment might change his daughter, he said: "I think this experience will possibly change what she wants to do with her life."
He said he thought his daughter eventually would re-enroll at the University of Washington.
Her family steadfastly argued her case during her four years in prison, and her advocates set up a group called Friends of Amanda Knox to help the family with its crushing legal fees.
Her neighborhood in West Seattle, framed by Puget Sound waters on three sides, is one of Seattle's oldest neighborhoods and is known for its strong sense of community.
Knox: 'I'm really overwhelmed right now'"WELCOME HOME AMANDA," read the marquee at a record store in the neighborhood where Knox grew up. Another welcome sign was hung at her father's house.
"We always talked about what we would do when she gets home," said her uncle, Michael Huff. "... She wanted to lay down on the lawn, her grass."
Huff said his niece was able to handle her ordeal because "she's a strong kid. She's unbelievable." "We always knew that she was innocent. It was trying to get the court to see that," Huff said. "The defense team did a fantastic job to show that."
Story: Meredith Kercher's family seeks answers as Amanda Knox walks freeEvan Hundley, head of the private Explorer Middle School, where Knox attended sixth, seventh and eighth grades, described West Seattle as "a city within a city."
"When something happens here, it's big news," Hundley said. "We're a strong neighborhood."
Hundley said students whooped with delight during the school's daily student assembly on Monday when the news of Knox's release was announced.
Knox won the school's first Manvel Schauffler Award, named after a founder of the school, which has about 100 students who pay an annual average tuition of about $15,000, said Debbie Ehri, the school's business manager, who knew Knox.
The major players in the Amanda Knox trial'Most outstanding student'
"It was our first award for our most outstanding student. Amanda was an academically strong student. She was genuinely a lovely, kind and talented student.
"Teachers absolutely adored her. She was just delightful to have in class," Ehri told Reuters. "She was caring, not only with her studies, but she was a kind, lovely girl."
Knox also attended Seattle Preparatory School, a small Jesuit high school, graduating in 2005. The school organized letter-writing campaigns on her behalf and fund-raising efforts to help pay for her defense.
Slideshow: A murder in Italy (on this page)"She should be free, it's really sad that she was in prison for four years," 47-year-old Cora Ploetz said at the Westwood Village shopping center, a few miles from the home of Curt Knox, Amanda's father.
Ploetz's friend, Ken Iverson, said he felt relief for Knox.
"I was under the impression it was like the Inquisition," Iverson, 63, said of the court proceedings against the college student.
Farewell to Italy
Knox left Perugia's Capanne prison Monday night amid cheers that a companion compared to those at a soccer stadium.
Hundreds of inmates ? most of them in the men's wing ? shouted "Amanda, ciao!" and "Freedom!" as she walked into the central courtyard, said Corrado Maria Daclon, head of the Italy-US Foundation, which championed Knox's cause.
Apathetic Italians moved to anger by verdict
"They were screaming like crazy," said Daclon, who accompanied Knox in her first hours of freedom. Daclon said Knox jumped a little for joy and waved to the prisoners.
In a letter released hours before she left Italy, Knox thanked those Italians who supported her. "Those who wrote, those who defended me, those who were close, those who prayed for me," Knox wrote, "I love you."
"During the trip from Perugia to Rome, Amanda was serene," said Daclon, who was with Knox in the car.
Knox flew from Rome to London, where she took a direct flight to Seattle, flying business class in the upper deck of a British Airways 747 with full-length seat and menu options including champagne, smoked salmon and prawn salad.
Reporters on board the flight hoping to talk to Knox, now a tabloid staple on two continents, were blocked on the stairs by a flight attendant who politely informed them that the family would speak publicly only after the plane touched down at Sea-Tac Airport.
As the plane neared Seattle, the flight crew told reporters that once the plane landed, they would have to remain seated while customs officials escorted Knox and her entourage out of the plane. "You will not see her," the cabin crew chief said. After the plane landed, Knox and her family were taken by shuttle van to go through customs.
Prosecutor not giving up
Back in Italy, prosecutor Giuliano Mignini expressed disbelief at the innocent verdicts of Knox and Sollecito. Mignini maintains that Knox, Sollecito and another man killed Kercher during a drug-fueled sex game.
Mignini said he will appeal to Italy's highest criminal court after receiving the reasoning behind the acquittals, due within 90 days.
"Let's wait and we will see who was right. The first court or the appeal court," Mignini said. "This trial was done under unacceptable media pressure."
One conviction in the slaying still stands: that of Ivory Coast native Rudy Hermann Guede, who sentence was cut to 16 years in his final appeal. His lawyer said Tuesday he will seek a retrial.
Reuters, The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this story.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44777225/ns/us_news-life/
cochlear implant navy football navy football 50/50 50/50 dreamhouse pan am
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন