Oregonian's excellent crime reporter Kimberly A.C. Wilson provides this picture of the situation:
Many English language news reports of Knox's dilemma have emphasized the emotional cost to the Seattle graduate student. But international coverage has also focused on the victim and subsequent convictions of Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and another man, Rudy Guede.

Reporter Andrea Vogt began covering the story shortly after Briton Meredith Kercher was found stabbed inside the villa she shared with Knox and two other women in Perugia in November, 2007.

On Friday, Vogt penned a column for U.K. editions of The Week that slammed American arrogance in coverage of the crime and criminal prosecution:

Frankly, it makes a mockery of the Italian magistrates who professionally managed this appeal, and who regularly risk their lives prosecuting the mafia in that very same courtroom. Has American arrogance ever been so bold? Have the western media ever been so complicit in such an orchestrated public relations sham?

I have a feeling that this business might get even worse for Knox. Why? Because it's hard to imagine that Raffaele Sollecito will go into prison without attempting to reduce his sentence somehow. The fact that she is here and he is entering the slammer is bound to undo an important element of the "prisoner's dilemma."

One other thing that most Americans do not know is this: Guede, the black African guy, is actually looking the end of his days in prison. His lawyer told me back in October that, with continued good behaviour, he will be out next year, and still in his 20s, and his debt to society settled.

My last point: As a black man, I would much prefer to face the Italian legal system than the monstrously insatiable American one. That's just some real talk.