I can imagine the excitement Amanda Knox must have felt on her flight to Italy at the start of her study abroad program four years ago. But I can’t even begin to imagine the emotions she is feeling today as she awaits her fate in an Italian courtroom. As the prime suspect in the murder of her roommate, British student Merdith Kercher, in Perugia, Knox has professed her innocence, but that hasn’t stopped an Italian prosecution team from convicting her and the judge handing down a 26-year sentence.

The Amanda Knox trial should have a verdict later today.

I’ve followed Knox’s appeal, and I’m not convinced she is a murderer; it’s a combination of a gut feeling and the more logical fact that the DNA evidence is inconclusive. So I’m truly pulling for her to be released.

But here’s what scares me: I was CONVINCED Casey Anthony was guilty and…well, we all know how that story went.

A good friend of mine who has been more closely following the case than I have (I call her my personal CNN correspondent) offered some good advice to future students looking to study in a foreign country: “At the very least, students should familiarize themselves with the laws of that country.” She used jaywalking as an example: It’s common occurrence here in New York City, and it’s one that’s usually frowned upon, though it can result in a citation. However, try jaywalking in another country and you could find yourself behind bars, in a jail where they don’t take kindly to foreign prisoners.

Granted, being a murder suspect in ANY country is pretty bad, but when the language you need to defend yourself is not your own, well, it’s a nightmare–or incubo in Italian. Knox was fully intent on learning some italiano while she was in Perugia, but she probably figured she’d learn phrases such as “How much is that gelato?” and “Where is the train station?” Certainly not “I did not kill; I did not rape; I did not steal; I was not there,” which is indeed part of the statement she gave today, in Italian, to the court, in what sounds to me like fluent, flawless Italian.

Italian is the language that she’ll need to use for the rest of her life if she is not released today. If she is released back to her family in Washington State, then I, as an Italian-American, wouldn’t begrudge her one small bit if she decided never to speak another word of Italian in her life–provided, of course, that she is truly innocent.

I’ll stay tuned…

–Barbara Bellesi