Amanda Knox’s friends and family in Seattle cheer release
Reporting from Seattle — It has surely been a long four years for Amanda Knox as she sought exoneration in the murder of her college roommate in Italy.
But it has also been a long haul for friends and family in Seattle who knew the former University of Washington student and local coffee barista before she became an international celebrity depicted in the tabloids as “Foxy Knoxy,” the “she-devil” who had supposedly helped stab 21-year-old Meredith Kercher to death.
Local rock bands performed at the popular Showbox music club downtown to raise legal defense money for Knox. There was a “Bowling for Amanda” event in West Seattle, where her schoolteacher mother raised her in a modest home. Local authors started blogs and wrote books about the legal marathon that ended, for the moment, as a jury Monday overturned Knox’s murder conviction and news came that she wanted to head home.
Two dozen friends and supporters had gathered in a hotel suite Sunday night to watch the trial’s conclusion. After a sleepless night as the decision was read, they raised clenched hands together and swooped cheering to their feet. Some clutched their cheeks, weeping. A few huddled for a quick prayer.
“We heard ‘murder overturned.’ And the one next to me on my right, and the supporter on my left, it was like the electricity went right through us, and it was like, did they really say that? She’s free! She’s free!” said Margaret Ralph, an old friend of Knox’s mother.
Said Kellanne Henry, another family friend: “I feel like passing out. I mean, I’m just so overwhelmed. It’s amazing. I can’t remember a time in my life when I felt more relieved. I just keep thinking of her mother … and the relief of knowing that your daughter is going to be safe for the first time in four years tonight.
“Now I just want to see that plane touch down on American soil,” she said.
Knox maintained a close clutch of friends from the Jesuit high school she attended, Seattle Preparatory School, where she played soccer and joined school theater productions. She was also a popular student at the University of Washington, where she majored in German and Italian studies before leaving, at the age of 19, to study in Perugia, Italy.
People who knew her in Seattle kept saying Knox bore no resemblance to the flirtatious, hard-partying girl portrayed during the trial.
“We knew there was no way she could have done this,” said John Lange, Knox’s drama teacher at Seattle Prep. “She was sweet. She never did anything to harm anybody else. She was not conniving. She was not mean-spirited.” His voice breaking, he pulled off his glasses and wiped back tears.
Supporters kept nervously switching back and forth between Fox News and CNN before the decision. They murmured and shouted approval as Knox addressed the court at 1 a.m. Seattle time.
“We felt she did a tremendous job. So courageous, in poise and eloquence. It was just beautifully said, and all Amanda,” said Tom Wright, a screenwriter whose daughter was friends in high school with Knox. He coordinated the group Friends of Amanda.
“She just absolutely rocked,” Lange said.
After the cheers and shouting quieted down, several supporters briefly circled for a prayer. It was, they said, for Kercher.
“We prayed for Meredith because only she knew — only she knew — and she can’t talk to us,” Ralph said. Many felt that Kercher’s spirit spoke to the jury, she said.
“It’s like, we’re banking on you, you’re no longer in any pain. The biggest gift you can give for your life is to give back Amanda — and she did it,” Ralph said. “That’s pretty amazing. She did it.”
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