her former boyfriend, rafael solacito. jail for the crime and then there was an appeal. she was cleared. and they ordered a new trial and they were convicted again. it was a ying yang back and forth. could have been sentenced to 28.5 more years in prison. cnn's barbie jo live from rome with the latest. barbie this is pretty stunning. they finished the session today. they took hours. they worked until after midnight. many, many people thought that this was going to come back guilty. i mean this is shocking to a lot of people. >> reporter: yes. absolutely it is very shocking. i think everyone really felt they would come back the high court come back with upholding the conviction which would mean rafael would go immediately back to jail and the extradition process would start for extradition of amanda knox. people were surprised of this outcome. rafael chose not to stay in rome for the court. he went back to his home in the south of italy to hear the decision there. he obviously had no confidence in what exactly was going to