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Emotional pressure eases as Knox goes free

The emotional strain built steadily for years as Amanda Knox sat in prison far from her loved ones, wondering whether anyone would ever believe her claims of innocence.
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/ Source: msnbc.com staff and news service reports

The emotional strain built steadily for years as Amanda Knox sat locked away thousands of miles from her loved ones, all the while maintaining her innocence, wondering whether anyone who mattered would ever believe her.

Knox's father, Curt, suggested that at least some of that pressure was released when she gained her freedom. "She pretty much squished the air out of us when she hugged us," he said.

Curt Knox, for the time, is no longer a legal advocate, he's only a father. And, as Amanda Knox returned to her hometown of Seattle on Tuesday after being acquitted on murder charges after four years in prison, he shifted his concern to her future.

"The focus simply is Amanda's well-being and getting her re-associated with just being a regular person again," he said in front of his home in West Seattle.

He said Amanda would like to return to the University of Washington at some point to finish her degree, but for now, he's apprehensive about what four years in prison may have done to his daughter, though there are no immediate plans for her to get counseling. "What's the trauma ... and when will it show up, if it even shows up?" he said. "She's a very strong girl, but it's been a tough time for her."

The 24-year-old's life turned around dramatically Monday when an Italian appeals court threw out her conviction in the sexual assault and fatal stabbing of her British roommate.

Cheers, crying and hugs
Knox's supporters cheered, cried and hugged at the news that she had been released after spending almost four years in an Italian prison after being convicted for murdering Meredith Kercher. The 21-year-old woman was found brutally slain on Nov. 1, 2007, in the home she shared with Amanda Knox in Perugia, Italy.

Knox was acquitted thanks to doubts fueled by DNA evidence, although the prosecution still insists that she was among three people who killed Kercher.

Theodore Simon, a Philadelphia attorney who was part of Knox's defense team, said on Tuesday that Knox asked for prayers for Kercher's family.

Knox's grandmother Elisabeth Huff said "it was like the weight of the world had gone" now that her granddaughter was back.

"We all are as happy as can be. I can't tell you how long we've been looking forward to this day," Huff told The Associated Press outside her home in West Seattle, a tight-knit community a few miles across Elliott Bay from downtown.

Knox's home, framed by Puget Sound waters on three sides, is one of the city's oldest neighborhoods and is known for its strong sense of community.

Evan Hundley, head of the private Explorer Middle School, where Knox attended sixth, seventh and eighth grades, described West Seattle as "a city within a city.

"When something happens here, it's big news," Hundley said. "We're a strong neighborhood."

Hundley said students whooped with delight during the school's daily student assembly on Monday when the news of Knox's release was announced.

Knox won the school's first Manvel Schauffler Award, named after a founder of the school, which has about 100 students who pay an annual average tuition of about $15,000, said Debbie Ehri, the school's business manager, who knew Knox.

"It was our first award for our most outstanding student. Amanda was an academically strong student. She was genuinely a lovely, kind and talented student," Ehri told Reuters.

"Teachers absolutely adored her. She was just delightful to have in class," she said. "She was caring, not only with her studies, but she was a kind, lovely girl."

Knox also attended Seattle Preparatory School, a small Jesuit high school, graduating in 2005. The school organized letter-writing campaigns on her behalf and fund-raising efforts to help pay for her defense.

"She should be free, it's really sad that she was in prison for four years," 47-year-old Cora Ploetz said at the Westwood Village shopping center, a few miles from the home of Curt Knox, Amanda's father.

Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga

Slideshow  39 photos

Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga

The long legal saga of Amanda Knox, an American student accused of the violent death of her roommate, British student Meredith Kercher, has made headlines around the world since it began in Perugia, Italy, in late 2007.

Her friend, Ken Iverson, said he felt relief for Knox.

"I was under the impression it was like the Inquisition," Iverson, 63, said of the court proceedings.

"She has earning power now that she is free," said Candace Dempsey, Seattle-based author of "Murder in Italy," one of around a dozen books that have been written on the case.

"She can write a book and she can certainly help her family pay back the bills" they incurred in her defense, and on their prolonged visits to Italy.