In Perugia, Italy, jury deliberations began Friday in the trial of an American student accused of murdering her British roommate.
As the prosecution and defense wound up their closing arguments Thursday, Amanda Knox made her final plea to the jury.
Speaking in Italian, the 22-year-old Seattle native said she's disappointed, sad and frustrated over her two years in jail.
"I am afraid of being defined as a person who I am not, and by acts that do not belong to me. I am afraid a killer's mask is being forced onto my skin," she said.
Ever since the body of British student Meredith Kercher was found naked and stabbed in November 2007, this medieval university town has become the scene of a media circus. Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were fingered by police almost immediately. The case has become an obsession for opinionated bloggers on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Italian media describe Knox as angel-faced. The prosecution claims she's a narcissistic she-devil capable of cold-hearted murder. Defense lawyers counter with a description of a naive, warm-hearted Seattle version of the French film character Amelie.
Kurt Knox says that after months of negative pounding by the prosecution, the defense's closing argument gave his daughter a strong psychological boost.
"She's hanging in there," he says. "She is actually doing quite well. It is always nice to hear things about you that are real versus fantasy, so that makes you that much stronger as time passes."
The prosecution claims Kercher was annoyed by Knox's poor hygiene and promiscuity and that one night, fueled by alcohol and drugs, Knox, boyfriend Sollecito and Rudy Guede, a drifter from the Ivory Coast, tried to draw a reluctant Kercher into a sex game and then stabbed her to death with a knife.
Guede opted for a fast-track trial and was sentenced to 30 years in jail as an accomplice to the Kercher murder.
Knox and Sollecito have stuck to a common defense, saying they were not at the house on the night of the crime.
Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini says their alibi doesn't hold up. "It's obvious, this pact proves their complicity in the crime. The fate of one depends on the fate of the other," he said.
Defense lawyers counter that the case is based purely on circumstantial evidence and hardly credible witnesses. They say there is no confession and no motive, and police conducted a sloppy forensic investigation.
At the outset, Knox repeatedly changed her story. At first she said she was in the house with Kercher and heard her death screams. She even implicated a Congolese man who was later cleared.
Knox also raised Italians' eyebrows with her bizarre behavior — such as reportedly doing cartwheels at the police station.
While some of her supporters claim the trial is a witch hunt, defense lawyer Luciano Ghirga accused Italian police of showing provincial bias and discrimination in their treatment of the newly arrived American student who could barely understand Italian.
"Not only is this trial tainted by a whiff of anti-feminism and racism, it is a clash between women, between the policewomen and Amanda Knox, who is the victim," Ghirga said.
The verdict could come as early as Friday night. Whatever the outcome, Knox will remain an enigma.
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