Amanda Knox faces Italian court decision

SEATTLE, March 24 (UPI) -- An Italian court is set to decide on whether to overturn or uphold the conviction of American Amanda Knox for the murder of Briton Meredith Kercher.

In 2009, Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty of stabbing Kercher to death during a sexual assault. Rudy Guede, a Peruvian drifter with a criminal record for burglary, was tied forensically to the scene, and his DNA was found in Kercher's body. He is serving a 16-year sentence in an Italian jail.

Knox and Sollecito maintained their innocence, saying Guede acted alone in the murder.

Knox was imprisoned for four years before being freed and returning to the United States. She now lives and works in Seattle and is engaged.

In March 2013, a court ordered a retrial, claiming the reversal of the verdict was invalid and they were re-convicted in January 2014.

Now an appeals court is expected to decide whether to uphold the conviction and confirm the prison sentence or overturn it and send a new trial to the appeals court. They could also overturn all guilty verdicts and clear Knox and Sollecito, but that is unlikely.

Knox has previously said she will never return to Italy voluntarily for trial.

"I will never go willingly back to the place where I -- I'm going to fight this to the very end," she told ABC News in 2014.