Italy's highest court to rule on convictions of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito

Italy's highest court will hear Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito's appeal of their guilty verdicts Credit: Reuters

It is eight years since Meredith Kercher was stabbed to death in her bedroom in the Italian town of Perugia.

For eight years back in the UK, her family have mourned their loss and sought justice for the murdered 21-year-old.

Throughout those years, two of three people accused of killing her have sought to clear their names.

Today, Italy’s highest court will rule on their guilt or innocence - a milestone in this case for sure, but by no means the end.

The Supreme Court justices sitting in Rome can either uphold the murder convictions of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, over-rule them or order another trial for one or both. There is likely to be years more legal wrangle ahead.

If the convictions are upheld Sollecito, now 30, is likely to be taken straight from court to prison to start a 28-and-a-half year sentence. There would be no way out for him.

Meredith Kercher was found dead in November 2007 in her bedroom in Italy

Amanda Knox, however, will be free to go about her day at home in Seattle. She will be a convicted murder beyond the reach of law - and that is where the next stage in this legal battle will begin.

In order to jail her, Italy must request and be granted extradition from the United States. Extradition is a notoriously difficult political and diplomatic process requiring a country to give up one of their own to another.

Knox has previously said she would have to be “dragged kicking and screaming” back to Europe. The Italians would be allowed three months to request her return. The Americans would have six months to decide whether or not to concede. That decision would go first to the State Department, then the Department of Justice then to court. If Knox chose to appeal, the final decision would be down to the Secretary of State - currently John Kerry.

Under the strict terms of the US/Italian extradition treaty signed into law on October 13th 1983, there is no obvious reason for the US to deny the return of Amanda Knox to the Italian judiciary - but make no mistake this case will not follow clear lines.

Many here in America believe Knox to be victim of a terrible foreign injustice. Whoever makes the decision will have to decide whether political uproar and protection of the citizen carries more or less weight than maintaining harmonious foreign and diplomatic relations.

Timeline of events:

  • November 2007: Meredith Kercher murdered

  • October 2008: Rudy Guede convicted of murder and sentenced to 30 years in a fast track trial

  • December 2009: Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito convicted of her killing

  • October 2011: Both are cleared and freed. After four years in prison, Knox returns to the US vowing not to return to Italy

  • March 2013: Court of Cassation over-rules the acquittals and orders a retrial

  • January 2014: Both are convicted of murder once more