The Italian judge who announced the verdict in Florence today also ordered that Knox be sentenced to 28 years and six months for the murder of her former roommate, Meredith Kercher. Simon said that if extradition does become an issue, Knox has "very substantial defenses" that can be used. What Happens if U.S. Officials Approve An Extradition Request 
 
 If U.S. officials determine the Italian case to extradite Knox falls under the treaty, they will send their findings to federal prosecutors in Seattle, where Knox lives and attends college. In the treaty, we functionally accept their system of justice, but it's up to a magistrate to decide whether" the double jeopardy clause of the Constitution was violated and if that trumps the treaty. Amanda Knox Legal Drama Through the Years 
 
 Here's How Knox Could Be Extradited 
 
 Extradition is long, drawn out process and there are a lot of twists and turns the case could take before Knox could possibly be extradited to Italy. READ AMANDA KNOX'S FULL STATEMENT ON HER GUILTY VERDICT FOR MURDER 
 
 Most people do no expect a request for extradition to be issued until the verdict is appealed to Italy's supreme court. Hide Caption 5 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Knox and her former boyfriend Sollecito were convicted in 2009 to 25 years in prison (Sollecito got 26 years). The Kercher family welcomed the retrial ruling, Maresca said in March, adding they believed the ruling that acquitted Knox and Sollecito was "superficial and unbalanced."
– Amanda Knox has once again been found guilty of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, but will she be sent back to Italy to serve a 28-year sentence? Legal experts say any attempts to extradite the Seattle resident are unlikely to begin until the appeals process has finished, and since she was retried after being found innocent of the same offense, the American ban on "double jeopardy" convictions could help keep her out of an Italian prison. If Italy does decide to extradite her, they will have to make a formal request to the State Department, where officials will consider it. But if they choose to reject the request, there could be diplomatic consequences, a lawyer specializing in extradition tells ABC. "The US often wants Italy to extradite all kinds of people, so if the US refuses to even process the case, especially a case involving violence, that could have some adverse consequences for bilateral relations," he says. The American review of any extradition request could, however, be quite limited in scope and will focus mainly on paperwork, another expert tells the Seattle Times. "It’s not a retrial of the case, and it’s not a retrial of another country’s justice system." Knox, who has said she won't return to Italy willingly, slammed the fresh guilty verdict and said it would not be a consolation to the Kercher family, CNN reports. "This has gotten out of hand. Most troubling is that it was entirely preventable," she said in a statement. "I beseech those with the knowledge and authority to address and remediate the problems that worked to pervert the course of justice and waste the valuable resources of the system," she said. Knox's co-accused, ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, was also found guilty again and sentenced to 25 years. After the verdict, police found him at a hotel near Italy's borders with Slovenia and Austria, the AP reports. He was taken to a police station, where a stamp was put in his passport stating that he cannot leave the country.