Amanda Knox reaches out to Meredith Kercher’s family on Daybreak: ‘She was my friend, I had nothing to do with her murder’

The 26-year-old American was convicted of Meredith’s murder in Umbria, Italy alongside former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito in 2009.

She served four years of a 26-year sentence before the murder conviction was overturned in 2011 in a high profile appeal case.

Speaking on Daybreak today, Knox explained her refusal to return to Italy.

‘I have plenty to fear because I was already imprisoned wrongfully, I was already convicted wrongfully and this is everything to fear, this, as an innocent person, is the ultimate nightmare, this does not make sense,’ she said.

‘One of the major reasons is because I have done this, I have given testimony ... I can’t financially afford to be going back and forth to Italy.

'I am in school, I am trying to rebuild my life. Then there is the very real fact that I was imprisoned wrongfully and I cannot reconcile that experience with the choice of going back. It doesn’t make sense.

'This isn’t a complicated case. It has been resolved and for people to hold on to circumstantial things that have been proven wrong... At the very beginning, I never had a chance to defend myself. Over the course of the trial, it was shown that I wasn’t the monster that was being made of me.'

She added: 'There is proof of my innocence in there being no trace of me in the room where my friend was murdered.

'There was no reason for me to have done this, there is nothing that is a part of me that would ever do something like this.

[ASSETHERE=image]

'It is so scary to have go to through this again, I did not expect this to happen.

'I've been hunted. I'm being hunted down. I'm trying to fight back now that I have the opportunity.’

Knox, who lives in Seattle, confirmed: 'I would do anything to prove my innocence. I don’t think that is necessary, but like I said, I am doing everything I can to prove my innocence.

‘A lie-detector test – I would be fine with that,’ Knox added.

Reaching out to Meredith’s family she said:

‘I also want them to understand that Meredith really was my friend. She was very kind to me and I had nothing to do with her murder. And I am truly innocent. And I truly believe that the only way that any of us are going to be able to heal from all of this is if we come together and acknowledge the pain that we have all gone through.'

Meredith Kercher was found with with her throat slashed in the bedroom of the house they shared in Perugia, central Italy in 2007.

Meredith Kercher case facts