Amanda Knox Case Latest News: Jubilation in Seattle as Knox is Acquitted of Murder

In a surprise verdict, Italy's top court fully acquitted Amanda Knox of the brutal murder of her British flatmate in 2007, annulling her earlier conviction and thus ending a decade of courtroom drama.

The fatal stabbing of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher leading to Knox's numerous trials has been the subject of intense media scrutiny in the United States and Europe, spurring the publication of books and films on the highly controversial case.

"I am tremendously relieved and grateful for the decision of the Supreme Court of Italy," Knox, 27, said in a statement provided by her U.S.-based attorney as reported by Reuters.

"The knowledge of my innocence has given me strength in the darkest times of this ordeal," Knox said, as she conveyed her thanks to supporters whose "kindness has sustained me."

Italy's Court of Cassation scrapped the second guilty verdict against Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 31, for the murder, ruling that there was insufficient evidence to convict either of them.

Kercher was found stabbed to death in a house she shared with Knox in the Italian town of Perugia in 2007. Rudy Guede, a native of Ivory Coast, was convicted of the crime and is still serving a 16-year sentence. But judges in the previous trials ruled that he did not act alone and that Knox and Sollecito were also involved.

Prior to Friday's ruling, it was widely expected that even if the court overturned Knox's previous convictions, it would still order a retrial.

But in a major surprise, the court totally cleared Knox and Sollecito of the charges, ruling out any more retrial.

Knox and Sollecito, who faced some 28 years and 24 years in jail, respectively, have both already served four years in jail after an original conviction in 2009.

The latest court verdict from Italy is expected to raise new questions on the Italian justice system which has seen two guilty verdicts in the case overturned.

Cries of joy were heard in Seattle, where the Knox family resides, as family members had gathered to await the verdict. Residents in the family's neighborhood showed up with food and drinks.

Speaking on phone, Bill Knox, her grandfather, said he was "relieved and ecstatic" that Knox could finally move on with her life in Seattle, where she has worked as a journalist at a local newspaper and is engaged to a rock musician who she has known since childhood.

While Knox and her supporters were in jubilant mood, the Kercher family expressed very different sentiments.

Commenting on the court verdict, Francesco Maresca, a lawyer for the Kercher family, said, "This is not so much a defeat for the prosecution as a defeat for Italy's justice system."