Meredith's killer set to learn fate

Almost four years after her imprisonment for the murder of Meredith Kercher, Amanda Knox is set to learn whether she may walk free. Following an 11-month appeal against her conviction and 26-year prison sentence, the young American is counting down the final hours before an Italian court in Perugia determines her fate. Prosecutors have fought a desperate battle to keep her behind bars for the killing they claim marked the gruesome finale to an extreme sex game forced on British student Miss Kercher. Knox, 24, claims that she had nothing to do with the violent death of the young woman she shared a house with while both were studying in Italy. But others are adamant she is lying and played a leading role in the crime, accompanied by her well-to-do Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and small-time drug dealer Rudy Guede. The proceedings have brought a series of attacks on Knox's character, as defence and prosecution lawyers went into battle. Religion, sex and race have been woven into the courtroom showdowns of recent days. The spectre of the "Madonna/whore" caricature has been raised - there has even been a reference to the animated 80s' film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And the defendant known simply to many observers as "Foxy Knoxy" has also been compared with a witch. Carlo Pacelli, who represents Diya "Patrick" Lumumba - a barman Knox falsely accused of the murder early on and, she says, under pressure from the police - asked the court last week: "Who is Amanda Knox? Is she the mild-looking, fresh-faced person you see here, or the one devoted to lust, drugs and alcohol that emerges from the court documents?" But the Kercher family feels the true victim, Meredith, has been all but eclipsed by the relentless focus on photogenic Knox. In a recent interview on Italian television, her sister Stephanie said: "In these four years, Meredith has been completely forgotten. But we need to find justice for her, we need to find the truth for her. There's not much of Meredith in the media. There aren't photos of her in the media. The focus has completely moved away from Meredith to Amanda and Raffaele." Leeds University student Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was 21 when she suffered her brutal death. Her body was found on November 2, 2007 in her bedroom at the Perugia cottage. Her throat had been slit and her semi-naked corpse was partially covered by a duvet. Sollecito, 27, has also maintained his innocence from the start and is hoping the appeal jury will overturn his guilty verdict too. Serving 25 years for the murder, he was convicted along with Knox in a year-long trial in 2009. But the two were locked up shortly after the murder in 2007 as Italian law allows the detention of suspects for up to a year before they are charged. Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was convicted in separate proceedings and jailed for 30 years, reduced to 16 on appeal. He too maintains his innocence.