Conviction Overturned for 'Milkshake Killer'
The top court in Hong Kong has overturned conviction of Nancy Kissel, the American woman who is said to have murdered her investment banker husband.
A retrial has been ordered for Nancy Kissel, the 'Milkshake Killer', who was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering her husband Robert. She had allegedly put sedatives in his strawberry milkshake and bludgeoned him to death with a statue.
The 'Milkshake Killer' was dressed in black and appeared fragile. She had to be supported by others as she entered the court and sat down. Her lawyers argued that the prosecutors had breached evidence rules during the trial. Her defense attorney Gerard McCoy said, "There has been a degree of unfairness that impaired the safety of the verdict,'' to the court.
"The court unanimously allows the appeal, quashes the conviction and orders a re-trial," Court of Final Appeal Chief Justice Andrew Li said. Kissel is 45 years old and a mother of two. She had lost her first appeal and was serving her life sentence.
In November 2003, Kissel admitted killing her husband, a banker at Merrill Lynch. She however, denied murder, a charge that needs to be premeditated. The prosecutors said that the 'Milkshake Killer' gave Robert, 40, a strawberry milkshake laced with the 'date-rape drug' Rohypnol, and hours later hit him with a metal ornament on the head, in the bedroom of their luxury apartment.
She then tried to dispose his body by rolling it over in a carpet and kept the body in the storage room at the luxury Parkview apartments complex on Hong Kong island. The stench of the body, however, lead to her arrest.
The prosecutors also argued that she had planned the murder of her husband as she developed uncontrolled passion for her lover, a TV repairman in the US. They further argued that she stood to gain $18 million in life insurance payouts from the death of her husband.
The 'Milkshake Killer' lost her appeal in 2008 on the basis of her claim that she acted in self-defense as Robert threatened her with a baseball bat. She also said, Robert had a violent short-temper, and was a cocaine addict who frequently forced her to undergo painful sex. Finally, in 2010 the court has ordered a retrial and overturned her conviction.
The 'Milkshake Killer' was dressed in black and appeared fragile. She had to be supported by others as she entered the court and sat down. Her lawyers argued that the prosecutors had breached evidence rules during the trial. Her defense attorney Gerard McCoy said, "There has been a degree of unfairness that impaired the safety of the verdict,'' to the court.
"The court unanimously allows the appeal, quashes the conviction and orders a re-trial," Court of Final Appeal Chief Justice Andrew Li said. Kissel is 45 years old and a mother of two. She had lost her first appeal and was serving her life sentence.
In November 2003, Kissel admitted killing her husband, a banker at Merrill Lynch. She however, denied murder, a charge that needs to be premeditated. The prosecutors said that the 'Milkshake Killer' gave Robert, 40, a strawberry milkshake laced with the 'date-rape drug' Rohypnol, and hours later hit him with a metal ornament on the head, in the bedroom of their luxury apartment.
She then tried to dispose his body by rolling it over in a carpet and kept the body in the storage room at the luxury Parkview apartments complex on Hong Kong island. The stench of the body, however, lead to her arrest.
The prosecutors also argued that she had planned the murder of her husband as she developed uncontrolled passion for her lover, a TV repairman in the US. They further argued that she stood to gain $18 million in life insurance payouts from the death of her husband.
The 'Milkshake Killer' lost her appeal in 2008 on the basis of her claim that she acted in self-defense as Robert threatened her with a baseball bat. She also said, Robert had a violent short-temper, and was a cocaine addict who frequently forced her to undergo painful sex. Finally, in 2010 the court has ordered a retrial and overturned her conviction.
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