Rome (CNN) A tearful Amanda Knox said she is glad to have her life back after an eight-year legal drama that gripped the United States, Britain and Italy.

Knox made a brief statement after Italy's Supreme Court overturned her murder conviction late Friday.

She was prosecuted after the semi-naked body of British student Meredith Kercher, 21, her throat slashed, was found in November 2007 in the apartment the two women shared.

Raffaele Sollecito, Knox's Italian boyfriend, was convicted as well. He was cleared along with Knox on Friday night.

"She was my friend ... she deserved so much better," Knox said of Kercher.

Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Amanda Knox at her parents' home in Seattle, Washington, on March 27, 2015. Knox and Raffaele Sollecito (not pictured) were acquitted by Italy's highest court in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher. Hide Caption 1 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Amanda Knox appears on NBC's "Today" show. Knox spent four years in jail because of murder charges in the death of her roommate Meredith Kercher while studying abroad in Perugia, Italy. Hide Caption 2 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Appeals Court Judge Alessandro Nencini, center, reads the verdict in the death of British student Meredith Kercher in Florence, Italy, on Thursday, January 30, 2014. The appeals court upheld the convictions of Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the 2007 murder of her British roommate. Knox was sentenced to 28½ years in prison, raising the specter of a long legal battle over her extradition. Sollecito's sentence was 25 years. Hide Caption 3 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Sollecito, left, and his father, Francesco, leave after attending the final hearing before the verdict on January 30. After nearly 12 hours of deliberation, the court reinstated the guilty verdict first handed down against Knox and Sollecito in 2009. Hide Caption 4 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Patrick Lumumba, the Congolese bartender Knox originally accused of Kercher's murder, talks to the press outside the courthouse during a break form the appeal trial of Knox and Sollecito on September 30. Hide Caption 5 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Knox and her former boyfriend Sollecito were convicted in 2009 to 25 years in prison (Sollecito got 26 years). The conviction was overturned in 2011 for "lack of evidence." But Italy's Supreme Court decided last year to retry the case, saying the jury that acquitted them didn't consider all the evidence and that discrepancies in testimony needed to be answered. Hide Caption 6 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found dead with her throat slit in an apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy, on November 2, 2007. Hide Caption 7 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial When Knox was detained for questioning in 2007, she implicated Lumumba, the owner of a bar where Knox worked. Lumumba was taken into custody and released after two weeks in prison when his alibi was corroborated. He later won a libel suit against Knox. Hide Caption 8 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Sollecito , Knox's boyfriend at the time of the murder, was convicted in December 2009 with Knox and released when their cases were overturned. Prosecutors testified that police scientists found Sollecito's genetic material on a bra clasp of Kercher's found in her room, while his defense claimed there wasn't enough DNA for a positive ID. Hide Caption 9 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native raised in Perugia, was convicted separately from Knox and Sollecito and is now serving 16 years. Guede admitted to being with Kercher on the night she died, but said he didn't kill her. Both Knox and Sollecito argued that he was the killer, and Guede suggested the couple took Kercher's life. Hide Caption 10 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Meredith Kercher's family lawyer Francesco Maresca, left, argued in court in 2011 that the multiple stab wounds implied more than one aggressor killed Kercher. Pictured from left are Maresca, Kercher's father John, sister Stephanie, brother Lyle and brother John at a press conference in 2008. Hide Caption 11 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Carlo Dalla Vedova, one lawyer on Knox's defense team, argued in court that "the only possible decision to take is that of absolving Amanda Knox" in his closing argument for her appeal hearing. Hide Caption 12 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Carlo Pacelli represented Patrick Lumumba in his civil suit case. He called Knox two-faced and a "she-devil." Hide Caption 13 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Giulia Bongiorno, the lead lawyer on Raffaele Sollecito's defense team, compared Knox to Jessica Rabbit on the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Knox is not bad, just "drawn that way," Bongiorno said in her closing statements in the 2011 trial. Hide Caption 14 of 14

Knox had been facing 28½ years in prison. Now she can seek a normal life.

She was in the United States when the decision was announced in Rome and issued a statement, saying she was "relieved and grateful."

"The knowledge of my innocence has given me strength in the darkest times of this ordeal," the statement said. "And throughout this ordeal, I have received invaluable support from family, friends and strangers. To them, I say: Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your kindness has sustained me. I only wish that I could thank each and every one of you in person."

Knox's family said in their own statement: "We want to express our profound gratitude to all of those who have supported Amanda and our family. Countless people -- from world-renowned DNA experts to former FBI agents to everyday citizens committed to justice -- have spoken about her innocence. We are thrilled with and grateful for today's decision from the Supreme Court of Italy. And we are grateful beyond measure for all that so many of you have done for her."

Prosecutors in the university town of Perugia said Knox directed Sollecito and another man infatuated with her, Rudy Guede, to hold Kercher down as Knox played with a knife before slashing her throat.

Both Sollecito and Knox were convicted in 2009 and sentenced to lengthy jail terms. Guede, a drifter originally from the Ivory Coast, was tried separately and is serving a 16-year sentence.

Sollecito and Knox spent about four years in Italian prisons. After the evidence was re-examined, an appeals court quashed the two students' convictions in October 2011, citing a lack of evidence against them, and both were set free.

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Two years later, they were retried and their acquittals overturned. Knox was sentenced in absentia to 28½ years. Her ex-boyfriend got 25 years.

Then, on Friday, the Italian High Court brought the legal saga to an end.

If the decision had gone the other way, Sollecito, now 31, could have been sent to prison immediately. He has been living in Italy.

"This is truly a very important day, not just, I believe, for Raffaele Sollecito, but I believe also for all of those who believe strongly in justice," Sollecito's attorney, Giulia Bongiorno, told reporters in Rome.

Knox's Italian lawyer, Dalla Vedova, also expressed relief.

"We finally got the right decision," he said. "Right now she has to stay with her family and recover from this very bad experience."

An attorney for the Kercher family, Francesco Maresca, said Friday's decision "is a failure to find justice for Meredith."

"The Kerchers will handle this as they always have, with respect, but it is a difficult moment for them," Maresca said Saturday. "But they are ready to end the legal battle and start remembering Meredith outside the courtroom."

Knox can freely travel to Italy if she wants to, said CNN reporter Barbie Nadeau, but there's one legal issue hanging over her head.

Knox had originally accused bartender Patrick Lumumba of being involved in the slaying. He spent several weeks in jail after Knox accused him and he won a defamation suit for which she was ordered to pay about $54,000 in damages, Nadeau said.

Knox hasn't paid the money, Nadeau said.