“[If convicted] legally I'll be defined a ‘fugitive,’ but I will continue to fight for my innocence,’’ Knox said in the statement. Knox, 26, is facing the possible reinstatement of a hefty sentence for her alleged part in the death of the 21-year-old Leeds University student in Perugia in 2007. But tThe Italian supreme court, in the reasoning for its decision last year, said the Florence court should re-examine the possibility that Guede did not act alone. Knox apparently made the ill-advised remarks to Meo Ponte, the La Repubblica correspondent who has been covering the Kercher murder case that has been lumbering through the Italian legal system for more than six years, in an unrecorded Skype interview ahead of Thursday’s hearing. Legal experts, however, say the picture is by no means clear cut as the 2011 appeal verdict that quashed Knox and Sollecito's convictions was not confirmed by the supreme court, which ruled last year that the decision to acquit was flawed. EPA / EPA 
 
 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of A new trial Francesco Maresca, lawyer for the family of Meredith Kercher, talks to reporters as he arrives for the start of Amanda Knox's second appeals trial in Florence, Italy, Monday, Sept. 30, 2013. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are awaiting the verdict of their appeal that could see their conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher overturned. American says she will not return to Italy if appeal court upholds conviction for murder of Meredith Kercher 
 
 Amanda Knox says she will be fugitive from justice if court decides she is guilty 
 
 Amanda Knox, the American accused of killing her British flatmate Meredith Kercher, has said she will become a fugitive from justice if an Italian court decides to uphold her murder conviction later this month. Her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was also convicted of the murder charges. Knox’s lawyers delivered her closing arguments on December 17, which included an email sent to the court. Reuters / Reuters 
 
 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Back in court Amanda Knox, one of three suspects in the murder of Meredith Kercher, arrives at a Sept. 27, 2008 court hearing in Perugia, Italy. Getty Images / Getty Images 
 
 Amanda Knox: Her long legal saga of Another suspect In December 2007, police in Germany arrested Rudy Hermann Guede, a native of the Ivory Coast, in connection with Meredith Kercher's murder. Knox and her erstwhile Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are fighting to keep their freedom after Italy’s high court threw out their 2011 acquittals that had cleared them of Kercher’s murder last March. On Thursday, the Florence appellate court heard closing arguments by Sollecito’s legal team. The second thing on the list might well be, “When all of this is over, I want to visit the victim’s parents.” 
 
 But that’s exactly what Amanda Knox, the now 26-year-old Seattle native who is appealing her 2009 conviction for the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher, told Italy’s top national newspaper La Repubblica ahead of the last day of defense closing arguments in her second appellate trial, now being held in Florence. "I really hope that that isn't the case,'' Knox told Lauer in September.
– If convicted again of murder, Amanda Knox says she won't willingly return to Italy to face punishment; instead, she told an Italian journalist, "I will be—how do you put it?—a fugitive," the Guardian reports. The reporter, Meo Ponte, who interviewed her over Skype, has previously called Knox innocent of the murder of former roommate Meredith Kercher; he says her "fugitive" comment was likely a joke, the Daily Beast notes. But in a statement to the Today show, Knox was clearer: "(If convicted), legally I'll be defined a 'fugitive,' but I will continue to fight for my innocence," she said. "I will not willingly submit myself to injustice." Such a verdict would need to be upheld by the country's top court, and even then it's not clear whether Italy would ask the US to extradite her, or how the US would respond (double jeopardy could be at play, but it's complicated). Still, such a comment may not serve her well, the Daily Beast points out: US officials may now have to keep her on their radar in case she is found guilty. The verdict is due Jan. 30.