Amanda Knox has once again claimed her innocence as she told an Italian court that she didn’t kill her British roommate Meredith Kercher, and she was instead betrayed by police, ABC News is reporting. The American student, who has spent the past four years in prison, and is currently serving a 26 year term, told the jury “I want to go home. I want my life back….I don’t want my future taken away from me something I didn’t do because I am innocent.”

Knox also insisted that she was friends with Kercher. She also dismissed the prosecutors’ claims that their friendship became strained, saying “She was concerned for me. She was always kind to me. She cared about me.” Knox added that Kercher’s death scared her.

During her plea, Knox added that she didn’t believe it when she found out Kercher was murdered. Then she was overcome with fear, as “if I had been there (at the cottage she shared with Kercher) that night, I would be dead.” She added that she wasn’t home because she was at her co-defendant and ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito’s, house the night of the murder.

Knox added that she didn’t kill her roommate, but she “made myself available up to the point of total exhaustion…I was manipulated.” Knox also insisted “I didn’t do what they say I did. I didn’t kill…I was not there.”

While asking the six jurors and two judges to overturn her conviction, Knox added “I am not escaping truth. I am not fleeing from justice. I insist on the truth.” Knox and Sollecito, who was also asking for the courts to overturn his conviction, were returned to prison while the judges and jury deliberated to consider a verdict.

Written by: Karen Benardello