Amanda Knox, the U.S. college junior who was cleared of murder charges by an Italian court after four years in prison, will speak publicly about the trial for the first time to ABC News in April, the network said Monday.

Knox, 25, will discuss the case that made international headlines with Diane Sawyer in an interview that will first air as a primetime special on April 30 at 10:00 p.m. It is an exclusive interview - the first time that Knox will open up about the case since being acquitted and ultimately released.

Born in Seattle, Wash., to a divorced math teacher and a vice president of finance at Macy's, Knox attended Seattle Preparatory School, from which she graduated in 2005. That same year she began her studies at the University of Washington.

Knox was convicted of murdering her then 21-year-old British roommate Meredith Kercher in December 2009 and she spent four years in prison on the murder charge. Knox was given a 26-year prison sentence but was released and eventually cleared of charges in October 2011. She was cleared on appeal and returned from Italy to her Seattle-area home, where she has since maintained a low-key profile.

Kercher's half-naked body, which had more than forty knife wounds and a deep gash in the throat, was discovered in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy, where both young students were studying. ABC said Knox will reveal details she has never shared about her journey.

Knox's firsthand account with Sawyer will tell her story starting from her as an American student studying abroad, to a young woman who could have potentially faced nearly 30 years in a foreign prison.

The crime and the trial gained both worldwide attention and criticism of the Italian legal system.

ABC said the interview airs in tandem with the publication of Knox's highly anticipated book Waiting to Be Heard, which will be published by HarperCollins.

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