Media reacts to Amanda Knox acquittal

 
Tense before the verdict, Amanda Knox burst into tears after the verdict was read

Below are reactions from Italian, British and American media to the acquittal on appeal of US citizen Amanda Knox and Italian Raffaele Sollecito of the murder of UK student Meredith Kercher in 2007.

La Repubblica, Italy Outside the courtroom, after the verdict, the anger of the crowd exploded. They shouted: "Shame! Bastards!" to the judges and lawyers who were being interviewed. More than 1,000 people, mostly youths, shouted their rage, kept back by the cordon and police officers.
But from the American TV trucks parked in front of the building there were cries of joy.
The Guardian, UK The "many faces of Amanda" was not all media hype, or overheated lawyers' rhetoric. Part of the continuing fascination of the affair will be to see which one is the true one.
Is she just an older version of the compassionate, diligent girl her parents knew back in Seattle - or the predatory and provocative young woman described by some who knew her in Perugia?
Prison may even have made her more enigmatic. "Like all the women in here, she puts a mask on in the morning that she only takes off in the evening, in her own bed, when she is alone," said Father Saulo Scarabattoli, the chaplain at Capanne prison, where she has spent the last four years.
Daily Mail, UK They have endured four years of the most terrible torment as the murder of their daughter was pulled apart in the minutest detail.
And for Meredith Kercher's family, the agony will now only continue after last night's dramatic court decision leaves them still wondering how exactly their 'lovely, lovely girl' came to be so horrifically killed.
Adding to their pain, the family have told how their simple search for justice has been overshadowed by the circus surrounding Amanda Knox and her appeal.
When Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty two years ago, the Kerchers' legal team had told them it was an open-and-shut case.
That should have been their closure, marking the end of their questions and the beginning of acceptance.
The Seattle Times, US The 2007 murder case is a tragedy on many fronts. Kercher's family has every right to want justice for their slain beloved daughter and sister. The family has ached deeply for four years.
The family was not satisfied that there was only one person involved in the killing, a local drifter, Rudy Guede, who admitted to being at the cottage the night of the murder and whose DNA was found all over Kercher's room, on her clothes and body.
But the other tragedy is for a Seattle family and Knox, who has spent more than 1,000 days of her young life behind bars.
Knox is not entirely without fault. In the wild, media-fuelled frenzy following the murder accusations, she falsely accused a bar owner, Patrick Lumumba, for whom she worked at the time and caused him undue pain and suffering.
Still, it is time for Knox to come back to Seattle and resume her life.
Forbes, US Knox was not guilty of the charges against her. She was tried largely in the tabloids and the court of public opinion. Her case was badly mangled by Italy's postal police, and the trial was more of a show trial than anything, with headlines declaring her a sex-crazed monster and impugning her reputation with no facts to support them.
Knox faced 26 years in prison. She would have been middle aged before she was released, having spent more than half her life in a foreign prison. She will spend the rest of her life facing down rumours of her guilt and a tarnished reputation.