ROME (AP) -- Italy's highest court has overturned the murder conviction against Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend, bringing to a definitive end the high-profile case.

The decision by the supreme Court of Cassation is the final ruling in the case, ending the long legal battle waged by Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito. Both Knox, who was awaiting the verdict in her hometown of Seattle, and Sollecito have long maintained their innocence.

This is a country where Mafia bosses roam the streets and yet they want to throw this girl in prison on trumped up evidence.

I'm boycotting everything "Italian" until the Italian Justice System clears her.

The American TV networks, especially, were generous to the Knox family, paying for airline tickets and meals when trials were in session. On the night of one of the verdicts, a high-powered American producer even babysat Knox's little sisters in exchange for God only knows what. And because Kercher's family rarely came to trial - after all, no media outlets were paying their airfare - the victim slipped off the front page.

We, the Italian-speaking media covering the case from Perugia, were unable to be seen to be covering the case objectively, and instead we were grouped into camps that became like extreme political parties: "innocentisti", who thought Knox was being railroaded, or "colpevolisti" who thought she wasn't. I received hate mail from strangers accusing me of not sticking up for the American girl, some wishing me "a fate like Meredith's". I even got a nasty note from Knox's stepfather telling me I seemed like someone "who was abused as a child".

Things were drastically different in the beginning, before the first verdict. I remember drinking at a back table of the Joyce Pub in Perugia with Knox's mother, who, distraught and desperate, sobbed as she held my hand and pleaded with me to believe her daughter. She knew all the journalists by name but said she never read anyone's stories unless they were pro-Amanda. That was back when even she could be seen talking to the colpevolisti.

All of that changed when more big name media types got involved, and when the idea of an American "innocent abroad" made good morning TV. The story lost its way completely when Knox's PR firm started trading family interviews for positive coverage. If you quoted both sides or mentioned damning court evidence, you could bet you'd hear that they didn't like the reporting. Soon people who needed the Knox family on TV only quoted their side of the story, and the truth disappeared for good.

The defence pointed out that no shoe prints, clothing fibers, hairs, fingerprints, skin cells or DNA of Knox were found on Kercher's body, clothes, handbag or anywhere in the bedroom.

Guede's shoe prints, fingerprints, and DNA were found in Kercher's bedroom, where the murder took place. Guede's DNA was on the strap of her bra, which had been torn off, and his DNA was found on a vaginal swab taken from Kercher's body. Guede's bloody palm print was on a pillow that had been placed under Kercher's hips. Guede's DNA mixed with Kercher's was on the left sleeve of her bloody sweatshirt and in bloodstains on the inside of her shoulder bag, which 300 euros and credit cards had been stolen from.

The prosecution alleged that all forensic traces in the bedroom which incriminated Knox had been wiped away by her and Sollecito.

Yeh sure -- Amanda knew which fingerprints, DNA, hair fibers were hers and only wiped those away, making sure to leave Guede's fingerprints, footprints, and DNA at the scene undisturbed.

And they did this without the benefit of a crime lab, and the Italian court falls for this excuse???

Guede refused to answer questions at the trial.