New Italian court decision could make Amanda Knox a fugitive

Italy’s highest court is expected to announce by Friday whether Amanda Knox must face another trial, or possibly extradition, for the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

In 2011, the words of an Italian appellate judge set Knox free to return to Seattle after four years in prison.

“The evidence is not reliable. Thus the court orders the immediate release of Amanda and Raffaele Sollecito.”

The future looked bright as Knox’s friends celebrated her homecoming at Sea-Tac Airport, where she tearfully thanked supporters.

Knox and Sollecito were first convicted in 2009 for the stabbing death of her Perugia roommate. Those convictions were thrown out on appeal in 2011, only to be reinstated in 2013.

Now, yet another court will announce a decision on Knox’s future.

Barbie Latza Nadeau covers the Knox trial from Italy for the Daily Beast and Newsweek. She’s the author of Angel Face: Sex, Murder and the Inside Story of Amanda Knox.

“We think everything should work the way it does in the United States,” Nadeau observed.

While the Italian legal process is different, she argues, that doesn’t mean it is wrong.

“It’s got problems, as every system does. But it’s a system that the Italians believe does protect those accused of crimes.”

Under Italy’s three-tier system, every defendant is heard by three separate courts. Appeals are automatic. It is common for an Italian case to be sent back multiple times for appeal.

Nadeau explained that one long-running Italian case has bounced between the high court and the appellate court for 22 years.

“I don’t think the case of Knox and Sollecito will last that long. But it is a way to prove you are not rushing to justice,” she said.

This time around, the high court could send one or both of Knox and Sollecito back for a third appellate trial.

Alternatively it may uphold their convictions, making a final judgment, effectively setting their guilt and prison terms in stone.

Nadeau predicts if the court confirms a guilty verdict, an Interpol arrest warrant would immediately be issued for Knox.

The warrant could apply if she crossed the border into Canada or Mexico.

“It would apply anywhere outside of the United States, which would mean she would be effectively a prisoner in the United States,” Nadeau said.

This would also force the American State Department to make a delicate decision about extradition.

There is a treaty between the two countries, which indicates the American justice system respects the rule of law in Italy. Double jeopardy, for example, doesn’t exist under the Italian system.

“Amanda Knox would have a very hard time convincing the American judicial system, based on this treaty, that she is somehow an exception,” Nadeau said.

Some observers question whether the Italians would risk a diplomatic rift with the U.S. by demanding Knox serve time. But, as Nadeau pointed out, public opinion in Italy is very much in favor of extradition.

“The idea that an Italian citizen, Sollecito, would be in jail for 25 years while his counterpart in the crime is free to carry on her life … I think Italians would see it as a great injustice.”

For her part, Knox maintained her innocence to the British newspaper The Guardian last year, saying there was no forensic evidence to put her at the crime scene.

“I’m definitely not going back (willingly),” Knox told a reporter at a West Seattle coffee shop. “They’ll have to catch me and pull me back kicking and screaming into a prison that I don’t deserve to be in.”

Nadeau believes that isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

She said an Interpol warrant would make Knox vulnerable to bounty hunters who could remove her from the U.S. to face prison in Italy.

Other than going on the run, Knox has legal options to prolong her freedom.

There is a backlog of extradition cases within Italy. Depending on the timing of the upcoming presidential election, the American State Department would be in no hurry to decide Knox’s fate. They could even request Knox serve her sentence in her home country, on the grounds that Italian prisons are overcrowded. And her legal team would certainly fight tooth-and-nail in U.S. courts every step of the way.

Nadeau said there are mitigating factors to consider, like whether Knox decides to have a child. Each baby could delay extradition for up to three years.

An Ivory-Coast man, Rudy Guede, has served half of a 16-year-sentence for killing Meredith Kercher. Investigators found his DNA all over the exchange students’ home. But the court ruled he did not act alone, and pointed the finger at Knox and Sollecito.

In the latest appellate trial, the only physical evidence the judge re-examined was a kitchen knife of Sollecito’s that was found to have a tiny amount of Kercher’s DNA in a groove on the blade.

Experts double-tested the handle of that blade, and traces of Amanda Knox’s DNA were found. The defense said that is no surprise. Knox used the knife many times to cook at her boyfriend’s apartment.