Long-distance defense

Say what you will about Philadelphia lawyer Theodore Simon, the guy has stamina.

Certainly, defending Amanda Knox -- the 24-year-old Seattle college student acquitted and freed Oct. 3 after four years in an Italian prison for killing her roommate -- required the ability to get by with little sleep.

Simon, 61, was hired by Knox's parents as her U.S. attorney in December 2009 and from then until she was acquitted he worked with Knox's Italian lawyers, Carlo Dalla Vedova, Luciano Ghirga and Maria Del Grosso.

But Perugia, Italy, where Knox was imprisoned and where her trial and appeal took place, is six hours ahead of Philadelphia time.

"Thank God for Skype," said Simon, referring to the Internet videophone program that enables people to speak with and see each other via computer or smart phone.

Simon said Skype gave him and his Italian colleagues the ability to meet face-to-face for sessions involving legal strategy and other issues.

On days when Knox's appeal trial was in session, Simon said, he was able to get real-time updates from the courtroom. Of course, the six-hour time difference made for some long days, especially for a lawyer with other clients in Philadelphia and around the country.

"I would be getting up at 3 a.m.," Simon said, referring days when the Italian court was in session. On other days, Simon said, he would be up and in a television studio by 7 a.m. to be interviewed for one of the morning network news programs.

The day Knox was acquitted and set free by the Italian jury of two judges and six citizens, Simon was in New York City, where he appeared on several morning news programs, followed by a day preparing for Knox's homecoming. At about 6 p.m. that day he boarded a jet to fly to Seattle and then took part in the Knox family's news conference at the airport late the night of Oct. 4.

Simon did not get home until the weekend, in time for the Yom Kippur holiday.

Simon continues to get calls and emails from Amanda Knox and her family and he said he was amazed by the large family's cohesiveness: "I was able to observe some remarkable interactions within this family."

"She is doing very well," Simon said, adding that Knox's extended family – her mother and father are divorced and her mother remarried -- went to great lengths to make sure Amanda was not emotionally separated from her family while in prison.

There was always a family member living in Italy so that Amanda could have in-person visits, Simon said. And every weekend, Knox's relatives gathered in one house in Seattle to get her weekly telephone call that was put on a speaker so she could hear the family together.

That's why when Knox was reunited with her family on Oct. 4 "it was almost like she didn't miss a beat," Simon said.

Simon said he was also impressed by the fact that, after the whirlwind of events between her acquittal and arrival in Seattle, Knox wanted to first make a statement of thanks to those who had supported her and a statement of sympathy and condolences to the family of Meredith Kercher, the 21-year-old British student and roommate who Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, now 27, were wrongly convicted of killing in 2007.

"Most of all, I think about what she said, her sweetness of heart, the generosity to others and the charitableness she has," Simon added.