Knox Family Wants U.S. Government Involved

For centuries the town of Perugia has drawn scholars, tourists and in recent years foreign students eager to study and bask in its glories.

Amanda Knox had just arrived from Seattle to spend her junior year learning Italian when she met a nice Italian boy named Raffaele Sollecito, reports CBS News correspondent Alan Pizzey.

The two said they were in his apartment smoking marijuana, watching a movie and making love the night before police broke down the door of the cottage Knox shared with British student Meredith Kercher.

There was blood everywhere, and the body of Kercher with her throat slashed.

Knox went to the police voluntarily to give evidence. But they thought she acted strangely. She kept changing her story and two days later she and Sollecito were arrested and charged with Kercher's murder.

Journalist Andrea Vogt began covering story for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer online.

"Amanda knox's attorneys explained that behavior as sort of a cultural and generational gap, that she was a young foreigner. She was kind of an odd bird
from Seattle. She didn't act like they thought she was supposed to. And therefore they started to suspect her early on," Vogt explained.

Questioned without a lawyer, Knox claimed police were verbally abusive and even hit her. She implicated a local bar owner in the murder. He was later cleared.

The DNA of a drifter named Rudy Guede was all over the crime scene. He was arrested, tried separately and sentenced to 30 years in jail.

More on the Amanda Knox Trial:
Amanda Knox Visited in Prison by Family
Amanda Knox Found Guilty of Murder
Photo Essay: Verdict In Italy
Case Timeline
Amanda Knox: I am Not a Killer
Knox's Lawyer Cries in Court

When Knox and Sollecito got their turn in court, the prosecution claimed that they and Guede forced Kercher into a drug-fueled sex game because she had criticized Knox for being promiscuous and untidy. They said she ended up killing the British girl.

The Italian judicial system uses a jury of two judges and six citizens who are not sequestered. Amanda Knox became a media sensation dubbed "Foxy
Knoxy," her childhood nickname.

The defense contended evidence was tainted, that DNA samples were too small to count.

In a final plea to the court, Knox - speaking in Italian - said she was "scared of being branded what I am not…scared of having the mask of an assassin forced onto me."

The verdict came at midnight: Guilty. Twenty-six years in jail for Knox, 25 for Sollecito.

Knox sobbed as she was led away.

"I am terrified of what she is going through right now because she is alone. I have my parents, I have my aunts, I have my younger sisters with me. She has no one," Knox's sister Deanna Knox said.

Knox's divorced parents bankrupted themselves to pay for her defense and to be in court every day. They were outraged.

"It's a complete miscarriage of justice. It's a travesty to the Italian judicial system," Curt Knox, Amanda's father, told 48 Hours.

Knox has an automatic right of appeal.

"Many cases are overthrown on appeal here in Italy," Vogt said. "Also it's very common that a sentence will be halfed."

The family says they let Italian justice run its course and are turning to political pressure from the United States.

"Now I do want the government involved and I would be very, very disappointed if they did not get involved," Curt Knox said.

But until her appeal comes up, probably next October, Amanda Knox will stay in the women's wing of the jail outside the town where she came to study and have a fun-filled year.