(CNN) —
Italy’s highest court will decide whether to uphold Amanda Knox’s murder conviction in the infamous 2007 case for which she had previously been found guilty and later acquitted.
But when the Italian court renders its verdict on Friday, Knox will be thousands of miles away, beyond the reach of Italian officials – for now.
Italian police officers can’t just disembark on American soil and drag Knox back to prison in Italy. But if Knox is found guilty, Italian officials could commence extradition proceedings, asking their American counterparts to put Knox on a plane back to Italy so she can face what could be a 28-year prison sentence.
Knox trial: Both sides say the truth is in the evidence
Under normal circumstances, the U.S. would be required to extradite Knox because of a 1983 extradition treaty between the U.S. and Italy that establishes a framework for individuals charged or convicted of certain crimes in one country to be detained by officials in the other and sent back to the former.
It’s nothing unusual. The U.S. actually has extradition agreements with more than 100 countries.
But the high-profile nature of the case and the controversial evidence around which prosecutors have built their argument make Knox’s extradition anything but certain.
That likely won’t stop Italian officials from calling up their American counterparts and asking for Knox’s extradition – but U.S. officials might be inclined to say no.
It wouldn’t be the first time the extradition treaty between the U.S. and Italy has broken down, but past cases in which the U.S. refused to extradite individuals convicted in Italy – or Italy didn’t request their extradition – involved U.S. military and intelligence officials.
READ: Italy high court to take up Amanda Knox case Friday
Knox’s case would be a new test for American diplomatic and justice officials.
And while some legal experts contend Knox could very well be extradited, others say U.S. officials could refuse to hand over Knox by leaning on a double-jeopardy clause included in the extradition treaty between the two countries.
“Extradition shall not be granted when the person sought has been convicted, acquitted or pardoned, or has served the sentence imposed, by the Requested Party for the same acts for which extradition is requested,” the treaty states.
And Knox was, according to M. Cherif Bassiouni, a former U.N. lawyer and international extradition law expert.
American and Italian officials may interpret the treaty’s double-jeopardy clause differently based on their own judicial systems, but Bassiouni said no interpretation would pass muster.
“Whatever the interpretation of article VI may be … Amanda Knox would not be extraditable to Italy should Italy seek her extradition because she was retried for the same acts, the same facts, and the same conduct,” Bassiouni wrote in an Oxford University Press blog post. “Her case was reviewed three times with different outcomes even though she was not actually tried three times.”
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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Amanda Knox at her parents' home in Seattle, Washington, on March 27, 2015. Knox and Raffaele Sollecito (not pictured) were acquitted by Italy's highest court in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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Amanda Knox appears on NBC's "Today" show. Knox spent four years in jail because of murder charges in the death of her roommate Meredith Kercher while studying abroad in Perugia, Italy.
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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Fabrizio Giovannozzi/AP
Appeals Court Judge Alessandro Nencini, center, reads the verdict in the death of British student Meredith Kercher in Florence, Italy, on Thursday, January 30, 2014. The appeals court upheld the convictions of Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the 2007 murder of her British roommate. Knox was sentenced to 28½ years in prison, raising the specter of a long legal battle over her extradition. Sollecito's sentence was 25 years.
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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Antonio Calanni/AP
Sollecito, left, and his father, Francesco, leave after attending the final hearing before the verdict on January 30. After nearly 12 hours of deliberation, the court reinstated the guilty verdict first handed down against Knox and Sollecito in 2009.
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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Giorgio Cosulich/Getty Images
Patrick Lumumba, the Congolese bartender Knox originally accused of Kercher's murder, talks to the press outside the courthouse during a break form the appeal trial of Knox and Sollecito on September 30.
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images
Knox and her former boyfriend Sollecito were convicted in 2009 to 25 years in prison (Sollecito got 26 years). The conviction was overturned in 2011 for "lack of evidence." But Italy's Supreme Court decided last year to retry the case, saying the jury that acquitted them didn't consider all the evidence and that discrepancies in testimony needed to be answered.
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found dead with her throat slit in an apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy, on November 2, 2007.
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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When Knox was detained for questioning in 2007, she implicated Lumumba, the owner of a bar where Knox worked. Lumumba was taken into custody and released after two weeks in prison when his alibi was corroborated. He later won a libel suit against Knox.
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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Sollecito, Knox's boyfriend at the time of the murder, was convicted in December 2009 with Knox and released when their cases were overturned. Prosecutors testified that police scientists found Sollecito's genetic material on a bra clasp of Kercher's found in her room, while his defense claimed there wasn't enough DNA for a positive ID.
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images
Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native raised in Perugia, was convicted separately from Knox and Sollecito and is now serving 16 years. Guede admitted to being with Kercher on the night she died, but said he didn't kill her. Both Knox and Sollecito argued that he was the killer, and Guede suggested the couple took Kercher's life.
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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File/ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images
Meredith Kercher's family lawyer Francesco Maresca, left, argued in court in 2011 that the multiple stab wounds implied more than one aggressor killed Kercher. Pictured from left are Maresca, Kercher's father John, sister Stephanie, brother Lyle and brother John at a press conference in 2008.
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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Giuseppe Bellini/Getty Images
Carlo Dalla Vedova, one lawyer on Knox's defense team, argued in court that "the only possible decision to take is that of absolving Amanda Knox" in his closing argument for her appeal hearing.
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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File/Giuseppe Bellini/Getty Images
Carlo Pacelli represented Patrick Lumumba in his civil suit case. He called Knox two-faced and a "she-devil."
Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial
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Giuseppe Bellini/Getty Images
Giulia Bongiorno, the lead lawyer on Raffaele Sollecito's defense team, compared Knox to Jessica Rabbit on the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Knox is not bad, just "drawn that way," Bongiorno said in her closing statements in the 2011 trial.