Amanda Knox Found Guilty in Stabbing Death of Meredith Kercher

By Deena on

Amanda+Knox in The Meredith Kercher Trial Draws To A Close

Defendant Amanda Knox (R) arrives at the Meredith Kercher trial for the closing arguments on December 3, 2009 in Perugia, Italy. (Getty Images)more pics »Amanda Knox was found guilty Thursday for the stabbing death of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy. The 22-year-old American has been sentenced to a 26-year life sentence for the crime, along with Italian co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito, 25.

Amanda Knox (ngepress.com)
Knox's family plans to give a short statement outside the Italian courthouse and take no questions. Kercher's parents were said to have flown to Italy to hear the verdict, which was announced at midnight, Italian time.

Knox and her Italian boyfriend, Sollecito, have been in prison since November 2007, when Kercher's body was found inside the apartment where she and Sollecito lived while the girls were studying abroad in Italy.

Throughout her trial, Knox and her family have fought her image as a party girl and a killer. Knox said in a prepared statement before the jury began deliberations that she was nervous and afraid of what would happen next.

"They say that I am calm. I am not calm," Knox said in Italian. "I fear to lose myself, to have the mask of the killer forced upon me. I fear to be defined as someone I am not."

Knox is expected to begin an appeals process as soon as the paperwork for her verdict is handed down.