FILE PHOTOS COMBO - File photos combo shows, from left; Italian student Raffaele Sollecito, slain 21-year-old British woman Meredith Kercher, her American roommate Amanda Knox. Few international criminal cases have cleaved along national biases as that of American student Amanda Knox, awaiting half world away her third Italian court verdict in the 2007 slaying of her British roommate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher. Whatever is decided this week, the protracted legal battle that has grabbed global headlines and polarized trial-watchers in three nations probably won't end in Florence. With the first two trials producing flip-flop guilty-then-innocent verdicts against Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, the case has produced harshly clashing versions of events. A Florence appeals panel designated by Italy's supreme court to address errors in the appeals acquittal is set to deliberate Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, with a verdict expected later in the day. (AP Photo/files)
FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — A Florence appeals court has begun deliberations in the murder trial of U.S. student Amanda Knox in the absence of the star defendant.
The court entered chambers at 10:15 Thursday morning, with the last round of rebuttals by Knox's defense team closing four months of arguments in the third trial for the brutal 2007 murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher.
Knox's lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova told the court he is "serene" about the verdict because he believes the only conclusion from the case files is "the innocence of Amanda Knox."
While Knox awaited the verdict half-world away in her hometown of Seattle, her co-defendant and ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was in court.
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