KEY DATES IN THE CONVICTION OF AMANDA KNOX

Nov 2, 2007: Body of Meredith Kercher is found in Perugia apartment. Investigators say she was killed the night before.

Nov 6, 2007: Knox is arrested with then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and Diya ‘Patrick’ Lumumba, Congolese owner of pub where Knox occasionally worked.

Nov 20, 2007: Lumumba, implicated by Knox statements to police, is released from jail for lack of evidence.

Dec 6, 2007: Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede is extradited from Germany, where he was arrested, and jailed upon arrival in Italy.

Dec 14, 2007: Meredith is laid to rest after funeral in London.

Oct 28, 2008: Judge indicts Knox and Sollecito on murder and sexual assault charges. Guede, who was granted a fast-track trial, is convicted of murder and sexual assault and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Jan 16, 2009: Trial of Knox and Sollecito opens in Perugia.

Jun 12, 2009: Knox takes stand; tells court she was shocked by Meredith’s death, offers alibi and says police beat her into making false statements.

Dec 4, 2009: Court finds Knox guilty of murder and sexual assault; sentences her to 26 years in prison. Sollecito is convicted of same charges and sentenced to 25 years.

Dec 22, 2009: Appeals court upholds Guede conviction and cuts sentence to 16 years.

Nov 8, 2010: Judge orders Knox to stand trial on slander charges for claiming police beating.

Nov 24, 2010: Appeals trial for Knox and Sollecito opens in Perugia.

Dec 16, 2010: Italy’s highest criminal court upholds Guede’s conviction and 16-year prison sentence.

June 29, 2011: Independent forensic report ordered by appeals court finds much of the DNA evidence used to convict Knox and Sollecito is unreliable.

October 3, 2011: Knox and Sollecito are freed after appeals court overturns conviction for murder.

Good timeline of Kercher murder and Knox 4-year drama. I followed this story the whole time and thought that she was innocent at the beginning. It just didn’t add up. So when the verdict to overturn her conviction was reached today, I was watching it live and was actually holding my breath. I’m very glad for the outcome. Welcome home Amanda.

Over the course of the appeals trial, the defendants’ positions have significantly improved, mainly because a court-ordered independent review cast serious doubts over the main DNA evidence linking the two to the crime.

Prosecutors maintain that Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of a kitchen knife believed to be the murder weapon, and that Kercher’s DNA was found on the blade. They said Sollecito’s DNA was on the clasp of Kercher’s bra as part of a mix of evidence that also included the victim’s genetic profile.

But the independent review — ordered at the request of the defense, which had always disputed those findings — reached a different conclusion.

The two experts found that police conducting the investigation had made glaring errors in evidence-collecting and that below-standard testing and possible contamination raised doubts over the attribution of DNA traces, both on the blade and on the bra clasp, which was collected from the crime scene 46 days after the murder.

The review was crucial in the case because no motive has emerged and witness testimony was contradictory. It was a huge boost for the defense’s hope and a potentially fatal blow for the prosecution.

The prosecutors, however, refute the review and stand by their original conclusions.

I’m very glad for her. I thought she was innocent from the beginning of this 4 year nightmare.