A tearful Amanda Knox returned home to Seattle last night, one day after an Italian court cleared the 24-year-old college student of murder and freed her from prison.
A plane carrying Ms Knox, who grew up in the close-knit West Seattle neighbourhood where both of her divorced parents still live, landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport shortly after 5pm local time.
Ms Knox wiped away tears as she spoke to a throng of reporters at the airport minutes after she stepped off the plane.
"They are reminding me to speak in English because I'm having trouble with that," Ms Knox (24) said in brief remarks. "I'm really overwhelmed right now. I was looking down from the airplane and it seemed like everything wasn't real."
A former University of Washington student, Ms Knox thanked "everyone who has believed in me, who has defended me," during her ordeal. "I just want my family. That's the most important thing to me right now, and I just want to go be with them."
Anne Bremner, a Seattle lawyer and spokeswoman for Friends of Amanda Knox, said that, according to her family, Ms Knox was looking forward to having a barbecue, being outside in the grass, playing soccer and seeing old friends.
"Just normal things that you would want to do after being in prison for four years for a crime you didn't do," she said.
Ms Knox sobbed on hearing that the court had overturned her 2009 conviction for murdering her housemate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, in what prosecutors have said was a drug-fueled sexual assault.
Also cleared was her former boyfriend, Rafaele Sollecito, leaving Ivorian drifter Rudy Guede as the only person convicted in a killing which investigators believe was carried out by more than one person.
Ms Kercher's half-naked body was found, with more than 40 wounds and a deep gash in her throat, in the apartment she shared with Amanda Knox in Perugia, where both were studying.
The trial gripped attention on both sides of the Atlantic. There was an outpouring of sympathy and outrage from many in the United States who regarded Amanda Knox as an innocent girl caught in the clutches of a medieval justice system.
Perugia public prosecutors confirmed they intended to appeal Monday night’s appeals court ruling that acquitted both her and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito of murder.
Public prosecutor Giuliano Mignini confirmed he would now appeal to Italy’s Cassazione or supreme court, telling Sky Italia TV. “This was a mistaken verdict, we will take this to the third level [supreme court] and we’ll see who is right”.
Mr Mignini pointed out that Monday night’s acquittal had confirmed a three-year prison sentence handed down to Ms Knox for “calumny” for wrongly accusing, shortly after her arrest, Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba of the killing of Meredith Kercher.
He said: “How can you separate that from the murder charge?”
Mr Mignini also suggested that the unprecedented international media interest generated by the case, allied to much hyped campaigns in favour of Ms Knox, had worked against the best interests of justice in Perugia.
This point was reiterated by another of the public prosecutors, Manuela Commodi, who told reporters this was “a totally predictable sentence”, in reference to the media pressure.
Legal experts say there likely would be a heated diplomatic dispute before the US would agree to extradite Ms Knox.
Agencies