As Amanda Knox prepares to "plead for her life" before an Italian jury in her murder appeals trial, her father says he is not concerned her statement might overshadow doubts that have been raised over the physical evidence in the case.
"I really don't think so," Curt Knox told TODAY. "It's going to be a heartfelt statement she's going to make. I think she just wants to have the judge and jury hear one more time that she had nothing to do with this horrific case and that she is innocent of the charges and hopes for an acquittal."
Curt Knox doesn't know exactly what his daughter is going to say, but he nonetheless is bracing himself for the emotional impact.
"It's going to be very tough. Amanda is going to be making spontaneous statements and it's going to be very tough to hear her have to really struggle for her life. She's going to be pleading for her life, and that's going to be very difficult to listen to,” he said.
Because Curt Knox doesn't speak Italian, he's going to be in suspense even as the statement is being made.
Amanda Knox is hoping to get her 26-year prison sentence overturned. Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were both convicted of murdering her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, and their appeals are being heard together.
If the guilty verdicts are overturned, both would be freed immediately. Speculation has been rife that Knox would be whisked home to the United States if she is freed from the Umbrian prison where she has been held for nearly four years.
Their hopes have been boosted by a forensics review that cast major doubt on two key pieces of police evidence.
Knox was able to call her grandmother in Seattle for about 10 minutes on Saturday. She also attended mass in prison. The prison chaplain described her as calm and collected.
Rudy Guede, an Ivorian who lived in Perugia from age 5, is serving a 16-year sentence for his role in the murder.
At this point Curt Knox isn't sure how the court will rule.
"Amanda and Raffaele have the same alibi, they were together the night Meredith was murdered... they're their own alibi, so it's probably going to go acquittal or guilty," he said.
A verdict in the appeals trial is expected Monday. A decision could take several hours -- jurors are not allowed to leave the deliberation room until they agree on a verdict. Whatever the outcome, both sides can still appeal the verdict to the Italian supreme court.
Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was on a year-long exchange program in Perugia when she was murdered. Her body was found with more than 40 wounds and her throat had been slashed.
Knox and Sollecito were arrested days after the murder, but have steadfastly maintained their innocence throughout. A third man, Ivorian drug dealer Rudy Guede, was also imprisoned for his role in the murder.
Prosecutors say Kercher was pinned down and stabbed to death when she resisted attempts by the three to involve her in an orgy. They say Knox was a cold-blooded, sex-obsessed girl who led her boyfriend astray to pull off the murder.
They have also pointed to a fraught relationship between the two women, saying the British exchange student resented her American roommate's promiscuity and dirty habits.
But the prosecution's case was weakened by a review by forensic experts that found traces of DNA belonging to Knox and Kercher on a kitchen knife identified as the murder weapon were unreliable and that Sollecito's DNA traces found on the Briton's bra clasp could have been contaminated.
The defense has also argued that no clear motive or evidence linking the defendants to the crime has emerged, and say Knox is an innocent young girl falsely implicated in the murder by prosecutors on a witch-hunt.
The prosecution says plenty of other evidence links Knox to the crime, including her false accusation against a Congolese barman and a theft she and Sollecito are alleged to have staged in the apartment to throw police off track.