“I am innocent. I did not kill, rape, steal mastermind, instigate,” wrote accused killer Amanda Knox in an email to an Italian court. The email was read aloud by her lawyer Lucian Ghirga.

It’s been almost five years since Knox and her then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito was convicted of murder, sexual assault and simulating a burglary against 21-year old Meredith Kercher, and it’s been almost three years since the decision was overturned by an appellate court in 2011.

However, Knox isn’t completely out of the woods yet, as Italy’s supreme court–the Court of Cassation–ordered both Knox and Sollecito to face retrial.

It was Knox’s lawyer who made the request to Judge Allesandro Nencini, asking if the 26-year old defendant would be able to make a “spontaneous declaration” by way of email, which was granted.

In Knox’s statement she said the prosecution never proved that she was at the home that her and Kercher shared on the night of the murder, and DNA evidence supports that.

“The prosecution has failed in its attempt to prove that I was on the murder scene and that I was the one to fatally stab her without leaving any DNA of mine on the scene, wrote Knox,” who’s now living in her hometown of Seattle. “This is because it would have been impossible for me to erase all of my DNA evidence on the crime scene and leave that of another person. Either I was there or I wasn’t and all of the forensic evidence proves I was not.”

Knox then went on to say she decided to send an email to the court instead of showing up in person due to fear. “I am not present in court because I am scared,” she wrote. “I am scared that the vehemence of the prosecutor will move you and that the smoke they are using will blind you.”

Knox and Sollecito have always denied their involvement of these crimes since being questioned back in 2009, while Rudy Guede, who admitted to being at the murder scene, was found guilty of sexual assault and murder in October of 2008.

Image via YouTube