Amanda Knox writes letter pledging to help wrongfully convicted people

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/03/amanda-knox-letter-wrongfully-convicted

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Amanda Knox, who was last week cleared of two convictions for murder after more than seven years with charges hanging over her head, has promised to “give voice to others who have been wrongfully convicted”.

Related: Meredith Kercher murder: Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito acquitted

In a letter published on Friday in the Seattle Times, a week after Italy’s highest court acquitted her in the 2007 murder of Briton Meredith Kercher, Knox thanked her supporters for years of donations and activism and said she intends “to pay forward all everyone has done for me”.

“Countless other wrongfully convicted persons do not have such support,” she wrote on Friday. “I will work to give a voice to those individuals. I will do this because I know how a wrongful conviction can destroy one’s life and because we best honor crime victims by ensuring that the actual perpetrators are brought to justice.”

Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito served four years in prison before their 2009 convictions were overturned on appeal. Knox returned to the US but that decision was vacated and in 2014 the pair were again found guilty of murder.

Besides frequently appearing with signs in hand at court dates and rallying near her Seattle home, Knox’s supporters provided financial assistance and contacts to DNA experts and former law enforcement investigators.

Since her return to the US in 2011, Knox has attempted to carve out a normal life despite the persistence of the paparazzi and the tortuous workings of the Italian courts. She became engaged to musician Colin Sutherland and began working as a freelance reporter for a small west Seattle newspaper.

Knox, 27, said she was “grateful to have my life back” after her acquittal, a sentiment repeated many times by friends of her family in Seattle.

She did not specify how she means to pursue her advocacy for the wrongfully convicted.

Sollecito, 31, was also acquitted. He has also suggested he wants to restore normalcy to his life, saying on Monday: “I’ll be ready to defend my dignity.”

Related: Who is Amanda Knox?

In her letter, Knox acknowledged that “this story does not have a happy ending”.

“Unlike a wrongful conviction, which can be overturned, nothing will ever bring Meredith Kercher back to her family and loved ones,” she wrote.

After the verdict, Kercher’s family said the Italian justice system had failed.

One man, Rudy Guede, remains in prison for the crime.