The American woman once jailed for her roommate's murder will speak at a conference about wrongly accused criminal defendants Amanda Knox to Return to Italy for First Time Since She Was Falsely Convicted of Murdering Roommate Amanda Knox is returning to Italy. Knox, 31, will return to the country for the first time since she was convicted and imprisoned — but later acquitted — of the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher. Get push notifications with news, features and more. She will be attending a conference that will be organized by Italy Innocence Project, an organization that helps people who have been convicted of crimes they did not commit. She will speak about the role of the media in criminal proceedings. Knox announced the upcoming appearance on Twitter. “The Italy Innocence Project didn’t yet exist when I was wrongly convicted in Perugia,” she wrote. “I’m honored to accept their invitation to speak to the Italian people at this historic event and return to Italy for the first time.” Knox expressed a desire to return to Italy during a 2017 interview with PEOPLE. “Perugia is probably the least welcome place for me in the entire world,” she told PEOPLE. “And that’s scary. But the only way that I’m going to come full circle is by physically, literally, coming full circle.” Knox was an American student studying abroad in Perugia in 2007 when she was accused of brutally murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher, who was found dead in her bedroom on November 2. It was a dramatic case that saw controversial twists for years to come. Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were both convicted for the murder of Kercher, 21, a British exchange student who lived with Knox in Perugia. Prosecutors alleged the crime had taken place during a sex game run amok, though hard evidence against the young couple was scant. Knox and Sollecito spent four years in prison before their convictions were overturned in 2011. However, the pair were convicted again in absentia in 2013 before being acquitted again in 2015. • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. F:PHOTOReady RoomActionsInsert Take48034A1#Amanda Friedman HR656865.jpg Credit: Amanda Friedman “I am tremendously relieved and grateful for the decision of the Supreme Court of Italy,” Knox said when her conviction was definitively overturned by Italy’s highest court on March 27, 2015, according to the New York Times. “The knowledge of my innocence has given me strength in the darkest times of this ordeal.”<doc-sep>(CNN) Amanda Knox once told reporters she would never "willingly" go back to Italy, after a retrial in 2014 saw her convicted for a second time of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher. However, the American former exchange student has announced her plans to return to the country in order to speak at a criminal justice conference, after Italy's Supreme Court overturned her conviction in 2015. Knox will speak at the Criminal Justice Festival in Modena, in northern Italy, which is being organized by the Italy Innocence Project and the Camera Penale di Modena, an association of lawyers. The festival will run from June 13 to 15. "The Italy Innocence Project didn't yet exist when I was wrongly convicted in Perugia," Knox wrote on Twitter . "I'm honored to accept their invitation to speak to the Italian people at this historic event and return to Italy for the first time." Guido Sola, one of the festival's organizers, told CNN: "Amanda Knox is the icon of trials that the media carry out before the trial in court is conducted." Read More<doc-sep>Amanda Knox once told reporters she would never "willingly" go back to Italy, after a retrial in 2014 saw her convicted for a second time of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher. However, the American former exchange student has announced her plans to return to the country in order to speak at a criminal justice conference, after Italy's Supreme Court overturned her conviction in 2015. Knox will speak at the Criminal Justice Festival in Modena, in northern Italy, which is being organised by the Italy Innocence Project and the Camera Penale di Modena, an association of lawyers. The festival will run from June 13 to 15. Amanda Knox speaking after her acquittal in 2015 by Italy's highest court. (AP AAP) "The Italy Innocence Project didn't yet exist when I was wrongly convicted in Perugia," Knox wrote on Twitter. "I'm honoured to accept their invitation to speak to the Italian people at this historic event and return to Italy for the first time." Guido Sola, one of the festival's organisers, told CNN: "Amanda Knox is the icon of trials that the media carry out before the trial in court is conducted." "Amanda has been definitively acquitted in court, but in the popular imagination she is still guilty, because she has been the victim of a barbaric media trial." Knox will take part in a panel titled 'Trial by Media', alongside Martina Cagossi, program manager of the Italy Innocence Project, Andrea Mascherin, president of Italy's bar association and Vinicio Nardo, president of Milan's bar association. Cagossi told CNN that she personally invited Knox after meeting her in Atlanta through the Innocence Network. " British student Meredith Kercher, left, was murdered in Perugia, Italy, in 2007. (AP AAP) Amanda always said that she wanted to return to Italy. And now the moment has come," Cagossi said. In 2007, Knox was arrested alongside her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, after the murder of her housemate, Meredith Kercher. The body of Kercher, 21, was found in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy. Kercher's throat had been slashed. Another man, Rudy Guede, was arrested and convicted separately of Kercher's murder; he is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence. Prosecutors continued to insist on Knox and Sollecito's involvement, however, accusing Knox of delivering the fatal blow. Both Knox and Sollecito were found guilty in 2009 despite maintaining their innocence, and sentenced to 26 and 25 years in prison, respectively. Knox was additionally convicted of making a malicious accusation, after she blamed her boss, Patrick Lumumba, for Kercher's murder while under questioning. Lumumba was later found to be innocent, after spending two weeks in prison. Amanda Knox's then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. (AAP) Knox and Sollecito were freed in 2011 when an appeals court quashed their convictions, citing a lack of evidence, and Knox returned to Seattle. However, a retrial saw their convictions restored in 2014; Knox was sentenced in absentia to 28½ years, while Sollecito received a 25-year sentence. Italy's highest appeals court, the Court of Cassation, finally exonerated Knox and Sollecito in 2015, though Knox's malicious accusation conviction was not overturned.<doc-sep>Amanda Knox will soon be back on Italian soil. The American is making a return to Italy for the first time since being convicted, imprisoned and then ultimately acquitted of the 2007 murder and sexual assault of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, in town of Perugia. Knox, 31, will attend a conference in Modena on June 14-15 organized by the Criminal Chamber of the northern city and the Italy Innocence Project, which seeks to help people who have been convicted of crimes they did not commit. AMANDA KNOX SAYS 'FOXY KNOXY' NICKNAME STILL HAUNTS HER: 'THE REAL YOU IS GONE' "The Italy Innocence Project didn't yet exist when I was wrongly convicted in Perugia," Knox tweeted Tuesday. "I'm honored to accept their invitation to speak to the Italian people at this historic event and return to Italy for the first time." The 31-year-old Seattle native will speak at an event on "trial by media," and the role of the media in judicial errors on the last day of the conference. "We wanted to invite her because we believe that she is an icon of trial by mass media," Guido Sola, one of the organizers of the event, told the ANSA news agency. Knox appeared to acknowledge her high-profile media presence in a subsequent tweet, writing "Here we go! Anyone know a thrift shop where I can find some of this paparazzi resistant clothing?" Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaelle Sollecito, were initially convicted in 2007 of Kercher's slaying in the hilltop university town. AMANDA KNOX'S INSTAGRAM MURDER JOKE LIGHTS UP SOCIAL MEDIA The sensational murder of the 21-year-old woman attracted global attention, especially after suspicion fell on Knox, and Sollecito. Kercher was found nude under a blanket, with her throat slit. Their convictions were ultimately annulled by the country's highest court in 2015 after a yearslong series of flip-flop higher-court decisions. Judges in that final ruling cited flaws in the investigation and said there was a lack of evidence to prove their wrongdoing beyond a reasonable doubt, including a lack of "biological traces" connecting them to the crime. Italy's highest court did, however, confirm a conviction against Knox for falsely accusing a Congolese bar owner. CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP In January, Europe's human rights court ordered Italy to pay Knox financial damages for police failure to provide legal assistance and a translator during a long night of questioning after Kercher's slaying. The European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg, France, said in its ruling that Italy hadn't succeeded in proving that "the restriction of Ms. Knox's access to a lawyer...had not irreparably undermined the fairness of the proceedings as a whole," and ordered that Italy must pay Knox $20,000 in damages, costs and expenses. The only person to have been convicted of Kercher's murder is an Ivorian immigrant, who is now serving a 16-year sentence for the killing. The Associated Press contributed to this report.<doc-sep>
ROME (AP) — Amanda Knox is returning to Italy for the first time since she was convicted and imprisoned, but ultimately acquitted, in the murder and sexual assault of her British roommate in the hilltop university town of Perugia. The American was invited to attend a conference June 14-15 organized in Modena by the Criminal Chamber of the northern city and the Italy Innocence Project, which seeks to help people who have been convicted of crimes they did not commit. Knox, 31, will be speaking on the role of the media in judicial errors on the last day of the conference. "The Italy Innocence Project didn't yet exist when I was wrongly convicted in Perugia. I'm honored to accept their invitation to speak to the Italian people at this historic event and return to Italy for the first time," Knox, who is from Seattle, said Tuesday on Twitter. Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were initially convicted in the slaying of student Meredith Kercher in 2007. Their convictions were annulled by the country's highest court in 2015 after a yearslong series of flip-flop higher-court decisions. Judges in that final ruling cited flaws in the investigation and said there was a lack of evidence to prove their wrongdoing beyond reasonable doubt, including a lack of "biological traces" connecting them to the crime. Italy's highest court did, however, confirm a conviction against Knox for falsely accusing a Congolese bar owner in the case. An Ivorian immigrant is serving a 16-year sentence for the murder. ___ This story corrects the spelling of Sollecito's first name to Raffaele.