Tearful Amanda Knox tells jury: "I did not kill"

(AFP/Reuters) - American student Amanda Knox has made a tearful plea to be acquitted of murdering her British roommate, saying she was paying with her life for a crime she did not commit.

"I did not do the things they say I did. I did not kill, rape or steal. I was not there," Knox said in Italian.

"I want to go home. I want to go back to my life. I do not want to be punished. I do not want to be deprived of my life for something I did not do, because I am innocent."

The Seattle native and her Italian boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, are fighting a 2009 verdict that found them guilty of stabbing Leeds University exchange student Meredith Kercher to death during a drug-fuelled sexual assault.

"I am the same person I was four years ago," said Knox, visibly shaking and fighting to hold back tears.

"I lost a friend, in the most brutal and inexplicable way possible. My absolute faith in the police authorities was betrayed.

"I've had to face absolutely unfair ... and baseless accusations. I am paying with my life for things I did not commit."

She raised her voice to say through tears: "I insist on the truth, I insist after four desperate years on our innocence ... I do not want to be punished. I do not want to be deprived of my life for something I did not do, because I am innocent."

The panel of two professional and six lay judges retired to consider a verdict after Knox's final plea.

A verdict is not expected until after 5:00am (AEDT) Tuesday.

Expectations are high among many in the US that 24-year-old Knox will walk free from the Italian prison she has been held in for nearly four years after a forensics review cast doubt on DNA evidence used to convict her.

One of Knox's lawyers said over the weekend she was worried, but trying to keep positive ahead of the verdict.

"She is confident, she is jittery, she is waiting and a little bit frightened by the wait," lawyer Maria Del Grosso told reporters after visiting her in prison.

Evidence review

Ms Kercher, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was on a year-long exchange program in Perugia when she was murdered. Her body was found with more than 40 wounds and her throat had been slashed.

Knox and Sollecito were arrested days after the murder, but have steadfastly maintained their innocence throughout. A third man, Ivorian drug dealer Rudy Guede, was imprisoned for his role in the murder.

Prosecutors say Ms Kercher was pinned down and stabbed to death when she resisted attempts by the three to involve her in an orgy. They say Knox was a cold-blooded, sex-obsessed girl who led her boyfriend astray.

They have also pointed to a fraught relationship between the two women, saying the British exchange student resented her American room-mate's promiscuity.

But the prosecution's case was weakened by a review by forensic experts that undermined police scientific evidence saying traces of DNA belonging to Knox were found on a kitchen knife identified as the murder weapon.

They also said alleged traces of Sollecito's DNA on the Briton's bra clasp could have been contaminated.

The defence has argued that no clear motive or evidence linking the defendants to the crime has emerged, and say Knox is an innocent, falsely implicated in the murder by prosecutors determined to convict her regardless of the evidence.

The prosecution says plenty of other evidence links Knox to the crime, including her false accusation against a Congolese barman and a theft she and Sollecito are alleged to have staged in the apartment to throw police off track.

Sollecito's lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, said her client was very emotional but strengthened by hopes of freedom.

"We think that there were some big errors in the first phases of the trial but in this phase there has been more attention from the court on the key evidence."

AFP/Reuters