Amanda Knox Begins Appeals Process

Amanda Knox's parents were so confident in an "innocent" verdict that they bought her a return ticket, but that ticket will go unused, at least for now. Knox is on track spend 26 years in an Italian prison, having been convicted last week of the murder of fellow student Meredith Kircher.

Granted, it's a prison that offers foreign language lessons, stages Shakespeare readings, and allows her to continue pursuing a degree from UW, but prison is prison, when it comes down to it. Citing a lack of physical evidence, the Knox camp has begun the appeals process to keep her out of those metaphorically gilded walls. Knox's parents have accused the court of "character assassination" and have expressed absolute confidence that their daughter is innocent. It's hard to argue with the accusations of character assassination--the prosecution referred to her as a "Luciferina" and "a dirty-minded she-devil" in its closing arguments, terms that seem a little loaded for the pursuit of facts. (Not that the defense is rosy-cheeked and innocent, though: Knox's parents were investigated for defamation of Italian police in 2008.

"I believe this court didn't have the courage to say 'not guilty' and just push it off to the appeals level, which is completely unacceptable to me," Knox's father was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying. He's also hoping to involve the US State Department in the appeals.

Besides the prison sentence, Knox must pay monetary remunerations to the victim's family. She and Raffaele Sollecito, who was also sentenced to 25 years for the murder, must pay 5 million euros to the family of Meredith Kircher. Knox faces separate civil penalties from Kercher's family members, who reportedly are seeking $36 million in damages for her death. That's $43 million in non-Monopoly American-recession cash, if you're keeping track.