Knox acquitted

Amanda Knox acquitted of murder in Perugia: American imprisoned in Italy willfinally return home

It's the stuff of horror films. Amanda Knox, a college student from Seattle studying abroad in Italy, was convicted of the brutal 2007 murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, in a bizarre case that had prosecutors and the media portraying Knox and her then-boyfriend Rafaele Sollecito as sex-crazed maniacs who raped and murdered Kercher as part of a pagan orgy.

But her four years of detention ended today when an appeals court acquitted Knox and Sollecito of the charges against them. The two appealed their convictions based on new DNA analysis amidst increasing scrutiny over the way evidence and the case in general was handled. As of today, both are free to go. A third defendant, Rudy Guede, was separately convicted and sentenced to 16 years.

Knox spoke in Italian to the two judges and six jurors in her tearful final statement, saying, "I've lost a friend in the worst, most brutal, most inexplicable way possible. I'm paying with my life for things that I didn't do."

Deliberations lasted just 11 hours. Watch a CBS News video of Knox's closing statements below:

unspecified

Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

undefined

Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”