Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito murder verdict: live 19.50 Our man on the West Coast, Nick Allen, sends this update from Seattle, Knox's hometown. Under leaden skies in her home town of Seattle, Amanda Knox braced for the verdict behind closed doors with her family and closest friends. Her father Curt Knox, mother Edda Mellas, stepfather Chris Mellas, sister Deanna and best friend Madison Paxton, were among those with her at a house in a quiet tree-lined street in the suburbs. A pick up and inflatable boat sat in the drive of the two-storey home with a brown fence and neatly trimmed lawn. It was a quiet setting that matched the "serene" mood Knox's Italian lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova had described his client as being in ahead of the verdict. Other friends and supporters arrived for a second gathering at Knox's father's house, less than a mile away, where they were believed to have been hosted by her stepmother. 19.20 The verdict is now not expected until around 9-9.30pm in Florence or 8-8.30 London time. 19.10 A little more from Nick Squires in the courtroom: Raffaele Sollecito is "stressed" and will not come to the court room to hear the verdict, his lawyers say. He had earlier pledged to be in court along with his father. But he has now changed his mind. He is believed to be still in Florence. If his original guilty verdict is upheld, then the court could order him to be arrested, or for his passport to be confiscated. 18.50 Here's the scene inside the court as journalists and lawyers wait around for the verdict. There's a livestream here if you're interested, catching chatter in both English and Italian. 18.25 Ahhh, and it now looks like the verdict could come later still. It's going to be a long night in Florence. 17.50 We're expecting the verdict in the next hour or so although the Italian justice system moves in its own way. CNN is reporting that Sollecito has left the court and is not expected to be presented when the verdict is announced. 17.30 While we wait... On background, the prosecution's case against Knox was widely criticised as seriously flawed. Yet the extradition treaty does not require Italy to convince the US of her guilt. For extradition candidates who have already been convicted, the treaty states that Italy must merely produce "a brief statement of the facts of the case," as well as the text of the laws governing the crime committed, the punishment it would receive, and its statute of limitations. 17.10 We've now been told the court will not be passing down the verdict until 19.00 GMT at the earliest. 16.58 Nick Squires, our reporter in the courtroom, has managed to speak to Meredith's brother Lyle Kercher, 34, is anxiously awaiting the verdict and will be in the courtroom when the jury returns. It's very much a waiting game. The anxiety builds as we get nearer the time. It's really hard to say what we expect the verdict to be. I asked him how he would feel if the 2011 acquittals of Knox and Sollecito were upheld. It's not in our control. No matter what the verdict, I believe it then goes to a further appeal with the Supreme Court. We are not going to get closure today, so there won't be any celebration on our part, but it's hopefully a step towards reaching a conclusion. But it's not the final word. To lose someone you love so dearly is hard enough, especially in the way she died, but that has been compounded by the fact that it has gone on for six years and three months. It makes it very difficult to start the grieving in earnest. We do (think Knox is guilty), although we can only go on the information we are given by our legal team and the information that was collected by forensic officers and detectives in the case. 16.55 The public gallery is full to the brim of people eagerly awaiting the decision. 16.30 Nick Squires, our correspondent in Italy, is currently waiting very patiently inside the Florence court for news, which is now not expected for another 30 minutes at least. He adds: This painfully slow legal process has now lasted longer than the Second World War - it was seven years ago, in 2007, that Knox and Sollecito were arrested and jailed on suspicion of murdering Meredith Kercher. Their original trial was in 2009, then their appeals trial in 2011, which resulted in them being acquitted and freed from jail. Even after today's verdict, it's not over. If their original convictions are upheld, their lawyers will almost certainly launch an appeal, and the case will go back to the Supreme Court in Rome 16.22 Our correspondent in New York, Jon Swaine, says the US media isn't paying much notice to the case, with no major networks currently covering the story. No one is taking the prospect of her being convicted again very seriously. 16.14 Meredith Kercher's brother Lyle and sister Stephanie are in Florence for the verdict and gave interviews to Sky Italia earlier today. This is the gist of what they told the TV channel: We just want to find out the truth of what happened on that night and to get justice. The only people that can do that are the judges, the jury, who are there with the evidence. They are the ones who will make the decision based on what they have heard. As we have always said we don't want the wrong people to pay, we are ready to accept whatever decision. 16.07 Giving an indication of how she might respond to another guilty verdict, Knox said in an interview recently that she was ready to become a fugitive, refusing to return to Italy to serve her sentence. She has been criticised by the bar tender she accused of murdering Kercher for not appearing in court, who said if she was telling the truth she had nothing to fear 15.51 Writing about it at the time to new trial was announced, our reporter David Barrett wrote about the unhealthy obsession with Amanda Knox. The impending retrial for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher fills many court-watchers with dread, myself included. Details of the crime are horrific enough. But during the lengthy court processes which we have already witnessed, my discomfort was intensified by the obsession with Amanda Knox. The photogenic young American, now 25, was convicted and then acquitted of the 2007 murder. She received more sympathy than most suspects who have ever stood in the dock on such a serious charge. 15.42 The defence and prosecution contest whether Kercher's DNA was on the blade of a kitchen knife from Sollecito's apartment, which had been used by Knox. Whatever the verdict, one side is likely to challenge it, and it will have to be confirmed by Italy's high court to become definitive. Italy could ask for Knox to be extradited to serve any sentence, but her legal team is likely to challenge this. 15.35 Prosecutors have asked for Knox to be given a 30-year sentence and Sollecito 26 years, saying the punishment should be harsher for her because she initially accused someone else of the crime, bar owner Patrick Lumumba. "I expect Amanda to be convicted," Lumumba said. Amanda has a part to play in all of this. I am sure that she is involved in the death of poor Meredith. 15.25 Sollecito made a rather grand entrance to the Florence court earlier today, walking confidently past reporters in dark glasses and refusing to stop to answer questions. 15.20 Her lawyers in Florence said they are confident the American will be cleared of guilt in the murder of Miss Kercher, a Leeds University student who was studying in Perugia in Umbria when she was killed in 2007. Carlo Dalla Vedova, one of the Italian lawyers representing the woman nicknamed "Foxy Knoxy," said he felt "serene" about the verdict, which is expected to be handed down later today. He said the only possible outcome from the jury's discussions must be "the innocence of Amanda Knox." 15.08 The verdict is expected in about an hour, or 16.00 GMT. As a recap, Sollecito is in court to hear the verdict, while Knox had refused to return, and will instead her fate from her home in Seattle. 15.05 Nick Pisa, a reporter who is in court, has spoken to Kercher's mother Arline. It is easy to forget that she too has had to live through the three trials and had to listen to the evidence again and again surrounding her daughter's death. 14.51 In an interview with the New York Times earlier this week, Knox said nothing would ever take away the experience of being wrongfully imprisoned, explaining why she chose not to attend, as is her right. It remains that I would be putting myself in the hands of people who very clearly want me in prison for something that I didn't do. And I can't do that. I just can't. No way, no how. They said, "If you go to the court, they're going to be paying attention to you - they're going to be looking at your face, they're going to be trying to read your gestures, they're not going to be listening, and that is a huge problem. People who accuse me argue that justice cannot be done for Meredith unless I am convicted. It's a mind-set where there are criminals and there are victims, and if you're accused of being a criminal, there's no way you can be a victim. 14.50 if Knox is convicted again for the murder of Meredith Kercher could create a complicated diplomatic dispute between Italy and the US, our New York correspondent Jon Swaine writes. Italian authorities must now decide whether to ask President Barack Obama's administration to deport Ms Knox to Italy under the 1983 extradition treaty between the two countries. Yet the US-Italy extradition treaty only protects Americans against extradition to face prosecution again in Italy for an offence that was already dealt with by the US legal system. In any case, Italy would be likely to argue that under the definitions of its legal system, Ms Knox was not actually tried twice, but rather found guilty at the end of one extended trial process, which saw her earlier acquittal reviewed. 14.49 Not quite the media scrum it was for the first two trial in 2009 and 2011, but there is still over an hour to go before the court returns. Our correspondent in the courtroom, Nick Squires, has taken this picture: So the wait continues. The jury went out this morning and the large courtroom here in the court complex on the outskirts of Florence is now occupied mostly by journalists awaiting the verdict. Lawyers pass through from time to time and members of the public are sitting towards the back of the room. Outside the court complex, TV cameramen are trying to stay dry in pouring winter rain and correspondents are doing live two-ways with their networks. Miserable weather. TV crews shelter from driving rain outside the court complex in Florence 15.46 Knox's absence does not formally hurt her case since she was freed by a court and defendants in Italy are not required to appear at their trials. However, Nencini reacted sternly to her emailed statement, noting that defendants have a right to be heard if they appear physically before the panel. Amanda Knox, pictured yesterday in her hometown of Seattle, has cut her hair short Sollecito, on the other hand, has made frequent court appearances, always in a purple sweater, the color of the local Florentine football club. He was in court again today wearing sunglasses and looking rather confident, accompanied by his father and othe relatives 14.45 Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, now household names thanks to the three very public trials over the murder of British student Meredith Kercher - face another verdict this afternoon. Prosecutor Alessandro Crini, who has demanded 26 years on the murder charge for each of the defendants, has asked the court to take measures to ensure any verdict could be enforced. He also asked the court to raise Knox's sentence on the slander conviction, which has been finalised, from three to four years because he alleges she accused the wrong man to remove suspicion from herself. If convicted, Sollecito, who like Knox spent four years in jail, risks immediate arrest. The situation for Knox remains complicated by her absence. In the case of a guilty verdict, experts have said it is unlikely Italy would seek her extradition until a verdict is finalized, a process that can take a year.