Amanda Knox Retrial Verdict: Italian Court Rules Knox Is Guilty In Meredith Kercher Murder Case

Amanda Knox has been found guilty of murder today, Jan. 30, by an Italian court. The retrial case on the charge of murder began on Sep. 30, 2013, however Knox herself was not in the court room, this verdict is a string of decision made by the Italian court system since the initial trial for the murder of Meredith Kercher began in November of 2007. The latest verdict was reached by two judges and six jurors within a Florence courthouse, after several hours of deliberations according to ABC News. Knox has been sentenced to 28 years in prison, in addition to Knox’s guilty verdict, her former boyfriend and now co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito was sentenced to 25 years. The deliberations began early on Thrusday after prosecutors claimed the couple had killed Kercher in November 2007. This is the fourth time that Knox has faced a verdict regarding the murder of her roommate Kercher, when the pair were studying aboard together in Perugia, Italy.

Knox, 26, and Sollecito, 29, were convicted in 2009. After serving four years in prison they were freed in 2011 when an appeals court threw out the murder conviction. But then on March 26, 2013 Italy's Supreme Court ordered another appeals, overturning Knox’s acquittal which sent the murder case to the lower courts of Florence. Given the guilty verdict, presiding Italian judge Alessandro Nencini has up till 90 days to write his arguments behind the jury's ruling, after that time the defendant’s lawyers have 90 days to appeal the ruling. Despite Knox losing her appeal of her conviction at retrial, it is unlikely the American citizen will return to Italy to serve additional jail time. A legal expert for CNN reported that according to United States law, a person cannot be tried twice on the same charge. In accordance with this law, if Italy was to ask for extradition of Knox, U.S. officials would most likely deny the request. "She was once put in jeopardy and later acquitted," said Sean Casey, a former prosecutor who is now a partner at Kobre & Kim in New York. "Under the treaty, extradition should not be granted."

Throughout the long and grueling years of seemingly perpetual trails, retrials, and acquittals, Knox and Sollecito have maintained their innocence. Knox stated her innocence and denied murdering Kercher in a written statement to the lower courts of Florence. "I must repeat to you. I'm innocent. I did not rape, I did not steal ... I did not kill Meredith," Knox wrote in an e-mail presented by her lawyer to the court in December.