Hong Kong: American Nancy Kissel, who won a retrial in the killing of her high-flying investment banker husband, will ask a Hong Kong court to dismiss the charges and set her free, her lawyer said Thursday.
The mother of three was convicted of drugging Robert Kissel with a sedatives-laced strawberry milkshake before bludgeoning him to death in 2003, earning her the moniker "Milkshake Murderer" in one of Hong Kong's most infamous killings.
Kissel, 46, was handed a life sentence in 2005, but the southern Chinese city's Court of Final Appeal overturned the conviction in February, citing legal errors at her first trial, and ordered a fresh hearing.
Kissel will argue that intense media publicity surrounding the case would doom her chances of getting a fair hearing at a retrial scheduled for January, said barrister Derek Chan.
"The basis for the application is that pre-trial publicity would affect the fairness of the trial," he told AFP.
If a High Court judge agrees with that argument, Kissel could ultimately be set free, barring a successful appeal by prosecutors, Chan added.
The application is scheduled to be heard in November, Chan said.
The Michigan-born woman's original trial featured a heady mix of adultery, violence, spying, greed and enormous wealth, gripping the former British colony and inspiring books and films.
Gruesome details emerged in the three-month hearing, including evidence she rolled up her husband's body in a carpet and left it in the bedroom of their luxury apartment for days before hiring workmen to carry it to a storeroom.
