She was once a simple college student from the U.S. studying in Italy, but since 2007 Amanda Knox has become one of the most famous faces in the world.

Amanda Knox Maintains Her Innocence

The Seattle-based American has become the face of one of the most controversial international court cases since her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, was found in the Perugia, Italy home they shared as they both studied in the area. Since Kercher's body was discovered on Nov. 2, 2007, Knox has been a topic of endless speculation, as critics who maintain she is guilty of murder have tried to punish her for her crime-while those who believe she is innocent continue to work towards keeping her safe from what many are calling a corrupt Italian justice system.

With her final appeal scheduled to appear before Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation in March 2015, Enstars is taking a look back at some of the biggest moments in the case thus far:

Amanda Knox Convicted Because She's An Outsider?

1. British Student Meredith Kercher's body is found in the Perugia, Italy home she shared with Amanda Knox and two Italian roommates.

Kercher is found dead on the floor of her bedroom on Nov. 1, 2007 after Knox reported an attempted burglary when she arrived home from boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito's apartment that morning. Within hours, investigators believed the signs of the break-in were staged to cover up a bigger crime, causing suspicion to fall on Knox.

2. Knox, Sollecito, and Knox's boss, Patrick Lumumba are arrested in connection with Kercher's murder

Just days after Kercher's body was found, Knox, her boyfriend and her boss were all arrested in suspicion of killing Kercher together. Lumumba was released two weeks later after Knox recanted an earlier statement implicating his guilt. Forensic evidence also surfaced from the crime scene which connected Ivory Coast native Rudy Guede to the crime scene, and he was soon extradited back to Italy and placed in jail alongside Knox and Sollecito. After pleading guilty, his trial was fast-tracked and he soon began serving a 16-year sentence for murder and sexual assault. Knox and Sollecito were officially indicted for the crimes as well almost one year after the case began, on October 28, 2008.

3. Knox and Sollecito are convicted of murder and sexual assault, almost two years after Kercher's body was found.

Despite a trial which saw Knox accusing Italian police of hitting her over the head during her interrogation and claiming she was forced into giving a false confession, a lack of genuine forensic evidence against both her and Sollecito, and presumably airtight alibis that the two had been together at his apartment the night Kercher was murdered, the couple was convicted on December 4, 2009, with Sollecito sentenced to 25 years in prison, and Knox sentenced to 26. The two appealed the decision and returned to court the following year.

4. Evidence against Knox and Sollecito is ruled unreliable and results in their convictions being overturned in October 2011.

After serving four years in prison, Knox and Sollecito were acquitted of the charges at their second-level trial after judges determined there was a "material non-existence" of evidence to support the initial verdicts, and that "proof of guilt" was lacking. A juror on the appeals case later spoke out and said that mistakes by forensic investigators led to a lack of conclusive motive, causing the convictions to be reversed.

5. Amanda Knox returns to the United States and gives a tearful homecoming speech thanking her supporters

Knox returned to the U.S. on Oct. 4, 2011, thanking her supporters with a tearful speech where she said "What is important for me is to just say thank you to everyone who's believed in me, who's defended me, who's supported my family." Her happiness in the U.S. was short-lived however, after the highest criminal court in Italy reversed the appeals court's decision and announced a re-trial.

6. Knox and Sollecito are re-convicted of Kercher's murder and Knox vows to never "willingly go back" to Italy to serve new sentence

Knox and Sollecito are reconvicted of murdering Kercher on Jan. 30, 2014. Sollecito is re-sentenced to 25 years, and Knox's sentence is upgraded to 28 years. She appeared on Good Morning America the morning after the verdict and maintained her innocence while rallying for her supporters, saying "I'm not prepared. I will never willingly go back. I'm going to fight this until the very end. It's not right and it's not fair and I'm going to do everything I can. But I need a lot of help. I can't do this on my own.


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7. As Knox and Sollecito begin working on their appeals cases, a coroners ruling is released which details the cause of Kercher's death

A coroners ruling was released in March which detailed the cause of Kercher's death and labeled it as clearly unnatural.

8. The Nencini Report detailing why Knox and Sollecito were re-convicted is released and details the evidence against them-but also dismisses a sexual motive in the crime.

The 337-page explanation for why Knox and Sollecito were reconvicted was released in April, and indicated that Kercher was stabbed by multiple assailants but dismissed that there was a sexual motive and indicated that the former roommates had been involved in a mounting quarrel over money and housekeeping issues. The reasoning also claimed that while Sollecito and Guede assaulted Kercher, Knox was the one to deliver the mortal blow by slicing Kercher across the neck.

9. Raffaele Sollecito and his lawyers move for separate appeals trials for the first time, and causes questions into Knox's alibi for the night of the murder-the first time the stories between the two differed.

While making a plea to have his case tried separately from his ex-girlfriend's, Sollecito added new claims that Knox was not with him the entire night of Kercher's murder, destroying her alibi that she had been at his apartment all night-while he had never left his home. "Only a madman or a criminal would change versions, and I'm neither mad nor criminal," he said. "There's proof that I was at my place and I was watching Japanese cartoons."

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