Italy’s highest court reviewing Amanda Knox’s fate

Amanda Knox’s case has made it to another courtroom.

Italy’s highest court is ready to hear appeals over the murder convictions against Knox, 27, and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffael Sollecito, 30, both found guilty almost eight years ago for killing Knox’s roommate, Meredith Kercher. The high court ruling will determine whether to uphold the verdicts, order another appeal or toss out the convictions altogether.

On Wednesday, journalists shot photos and called out questions to Sollecito as he entered Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation. If the court upholds the pair’s murder convictions, the prosecutor would get an order to carry out their sentences, according to the Associated Press. Sollecito would be taken into custody and the prosecutor would seek an extradition for Knox, who is back in the United States.

In November 2007, Kercher, a 21-year-old British college student, was found dead — her throat slashed — in her apartment in Perugia, a city sandwiched between Florence and Rome. There were also signs she was sexually assaulted, police said. Knox, a student from the University of Washington, and her boyfriend at the time, Sollecito, were the prime suspects.

They were convicted in 2009.

Two years later, an appeals court overturned their guilty verdicts, and after a long legal battle and four years behind bars, Knox went home in Seattle.

It seemed their saga was starting to simmer down.

Then in 2013, Italy’s supreme court reversed their acquittals and bumped the case back down to an appeals court. Last year, that court re-convicted the couple and sentenced Knox and Sollecito to 28 1/2 years and 25 years in prison, respectively.

They appealed again, which is why the case has made its way back to the country’s supreme court. The court will hear arguments on Wednesday and likely make a decision.

But perhaps the biggest question remains what will happen to Knox should Italy’s supreme court decide to uphold her murder conviction.

Washington attorney Dan Suleiman, former deputy chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal division, told the Wall Street Journal that the Italian government can issue an extradition request, which would be sent to the U.S. State Department. The Justice Department along with the State Department would make the call. Then it would go before a federal court, probably in Seattle, where Knox’s attorneys would make a case against it.

However, Kercher’s family attorney has already said the victim’s family will fight for extradition.

“In these cases, the United States normally extradites because they are constantly asking other countries to extradite,” Julian Ku, an international law professor at Hofstra University, told the New York Times. “It would weaken the United States’ case when it asks other countries to return people.”

But, he added, it “would be politically unpopular because she’s so popular and gets so much attention. It will be hard.”