The Christian Science Monitor reports:

ROME - Amanda Knox diplomatically tip-toed around the furore in the US over her 26-year-prison sentence for murdering her British flatmate, saying Tuesday that she felt she had received a fair trial but that she hoped the guilty verdict would be overturned on appeal...

..."The trial was carried out correctly," Knox told the legislator, Walter Verini, from the centre-left opposition Democratic Party. "My rights were respected."

Here is one of the many examples of how this firm rubbed people the wrong way:

Knox's parents hired a PR agency(David Marriott) and founded the Friends of Amanda Knox organization, composed of various lawyers and other well-placed friends who appear on television to essentially LIE about the prosecution's case against Amanda. They say there is no evidence. In fact, there is plenty of evidence, both circumstantial and DNA. They attack the entire Italian justice system with xenophobic remarks. They say the prosecutor hates Amanda. They say Italians hate Americans. The italians hate sex (she's a big fan). ETC ETC ETC And now Amanda's parents are being sued for slander

Another example of the firm's bad impact:

Suddenly, it's all about how awful the media is, the cultural norms of nations, and what a misogynistic bunch we are to be so fascinated by stories of predatory sexual females.

Oh yes, and how cr*p Italians are. At everything. (Apart from running ice cream shops and organised crime syndicates, obviously.)

First, we’re told — thanks to to a bit of Cup-a-Soup cultural analysis — that the whole case was a charade because not losing face is a huge thing with Italians. (All that's missing is Marlon Brando with cotton wool stuffed in his cheeks.)

Then, it’s how the Italians are just hapless ‘Whatsamatteryou’ incompetents. Even the jury’s revelations about tears in the decision room is taken as proof they’re an unstable lot. Italy is guilty. Of something. Or other.

Gogerty-Stark-Marriott's hardline approach might very well have cost Amanda the case. This is pure speculation, of course. But Amanda's new change in tone, her sudden softening to the realities of her situation, means her team is not planning on repeating the same, obnoxious circus of arrogance and American chauvinism.

EDITOR'S NOTE: On October 3, 2011, Amanda Knox was acquitted of the murder of Meredith Kercher and released from prison.