Amanda Knox: The Italians Are Calling

The Italian courts, which earlier this year reversed Amanda Knox's acquittal in the 2007 murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher, are seeking her extradition to face a new trial. The U.S. State Department can refuse to grant extradition or they can accede to the Italians request. We have an extradition treaty with Italy. In most cases, it would be a routine matter to sign the papers and send her on her way.

If she is sent back, she will almost certainly spend more than twenty years in an Italian prison. The prosecutors in the case are adamant she is guilty and they convicted her once already. I suspect they will make certain she has the opportunity to resume writing in her diary and brushing up on her language skills.

What is the Obama Administration to do?

Should the State Department refuse to extradite Amanda Knox, some pundits argue, our relationship with the Italian government would suffer. Their fear is that the Italians would then be in a position to thumb their noses at us if, say, a terrorist fled to their country after committing a grievous act here in the states. I disagree. The Italians would certainly lodge a formal protest, the State Department would step in, some quiet offers of compensation would be made and bam! Amanda Knox? Chi è quello? (Amanda Knox? Who's that again?).

The question is...should the U.S. get involved? CNN legal analyst Paul Callan believes, it's an entirely political decision. If enough Americans think Knox should not be sent back, she won't be. Treaty be damned. I absolutely agree.

Has Knox helped her position with her TV appearances and writings? Many Americans believe her claims that she had nothing to do with Kercher's murder. I think she's a cold fish who's been expertly trained how to handle even the toughest reporter's questions and whose book was professionally written by someone else. Has she always been that frosty? I have no idea. There's a strong suggestion she seemed disinterested in the killing before she was arrested but four years behind foreign bars would leave most people pretty jaded.

However, I'm no longer sure she's guilty of murder. The evidence was so poorly handled and the prosecution so clearly inept if not criminally prejudiced, the Italian courts certainly did not meet the U.S. standard of "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."  And, she's spent four years in an abysmal jail. Some convicted murderers in this country go free in far less time than that.

Were I a Roman, and she in the pit with the lions, I'd throw her a thumbs up.