Amanda Knox's Mom Thrilled: 'It's Hard to Stay Grounded'

TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images(PERUGIA, Italy) -- Amanda Knox's mother was thrilled Tuesday after the first round of defense summations in the appeal of her murder conviction, saying that "it's hard to stay grounded" as the case nears its conclusion and what Knox hopes will be a verdict that will free her from an Italian prison.

The judge presiding over the appeal by Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito said that the final arguments were moving along so quickly that a verdict could come as soon as Saturday. It had originally been anticipated to be delivered early next week.

Knox, 24, and Sollectito, 27, were convicted in 2009 of murdering Knox's British roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, where both women were spending a year abroad to study. Knox has been sentenced to 26 years, while Sollecito got 25 years in prison.

At the end of Tuesday's session, Edda Mellas, Knox's mother, told ABC News that she asked her daughter, "'Can you feel the light?' because today's hearing was great."

"It's hard to stay grounded in these final days," Mellas added.

A key moment in the trial still to come will be when Amanda Knox addresses the court. Knox will be the last person in the trial to speak before the six jurors and two judges retire to deliberate, and she has been working on what to say for more than three months, her father Curt Knox told ABC News.

When she does get up to speak, which could be either Friday or Saturday, "she will be fighting for her life," her mother said Tuesday.

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Amanda Knox's Parents to Face Trial in Italy for Libel

Photo Courtesy - Tiziana Fabi/AFP/ Getty Images(ROME) -- The parents of Amanda Knox were ordered by an Italian judge Tuesday to stand trial for libel for saying in a newspaper interview their daughter had been mistreated by homicide police during a night-long interrogation.

Knox is appealing her murder conviction for the 2007 stabbing death of roommate Meredith Kercher.  Part of her defense is that she was abused by police who grilled her for hours without an attorney present.  She also claims the police cuffed her on the back of the head, denied her food and water, and yelled at her.

During that overnight interrogation, Knox told police she had a "vision" that she was in the cottage when Kercher was killed and heard her scream, placing herself at the scene of the crime.  Although Knox tried to retract the statement the next morning, it was used as evidence against her in her trial which resulted in a 26-year prison term.

Knox, who is from Seattle, has since been charged with slander for saying the police were abusive.

Her parents, who repeated their daughter's explanation in an interview with Sunday Times of London in 2009, have now also been ordered tried for libel.

The trial date for the parents, Edda Mellas and Curt Knox, was set for July 4 in Perugia, Italy.

The preliminary hearing judge charged that "in particular, they said, contrary to the truth, that Amanda had not been assisted by an interpreter, that she hadn't been given food or water, that she had been abused both physically and verbally," and finally "that she had been slapped on the back of the head and threatened," according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio