Every week for the past four years, at least one member of Amanda Knox's family has made the trip to the Italian prison where the American student is being held.
This morning, Knox's parents, step parents, aunts and sisters made what they hope will be their final visit to the prison as the appeals case in her 2009 murder conviction nears its conclusion and what Knox hopes will be a verdict that will free her from a sentence of 26 years.
"She's doing really good," Knox's sister, Deana, told "Good Morning America" today in an exclusive interview from Italy with Knox's two other sisters, Ashley and Delaney, after their visit.
Knox, 24, and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 27, were convicted in 2009 of murdering Knox's British roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, where both women were spending a year abroad to study. Knox has been sentenced to 26 years, while Sollecito got 25 years in prison.
Giuseppe Bellini/Getty Images
Amanda Knox's Family: 'Hoping for the Best'
Watch Video "I cherish every moment I get with her because you don't know when it could be your last," Knox's younger sister, Delaney, who had not seen her sister in two years before today's visit, told "GMA." "But I'm hoping for the best and things are going good."
Knox's family said they now see new reason for hope in the final days of the often tense trial. Knox herself looked more optimistic in court this week as her lawyers urged the judge and jury, "If you have any doubt about the DNA evidence, you must set her free."
At the end of Tuesday's session, Edda Mellas, Knox's mother, told ABC News that she saw Knox smile for the first time and asked her daughter, "'Can you feel the light?' because today's hearing was great."
"I think we got past all of the hard stuff in the last couple of days," Deana said on "GMA." "We finally started the good days with all the defense and she was really happy that process has begun."
The judge presiding over the appeal by Knox and Sollecito said that the final arguments were moving along so quickly that a verdict could come as soon as Saturday. It had originally been anticipated to be delivered early next week.
A key moment in the trial still to come will be when Amanda Knox addresses the court, either Friday or Saturday. Knox will be the last person to speak before the six jurors and two judges retire to decide whether to overturn her murder conviction and set her free, or increase her 26 year prison sentence to life in prison.
Knox's family has said she has been working on the statement, which she plans to deliver in Italian, for more than three months.
"She really wants to just show the court who she really is," Deana said on "GMA." "She doesn't want them to believe the character that all the prosecutors have played out. She wants them to know who she is."
沒有留言:
張貼留言