Retrial of Nancy Kessel in 'milkshake murder' case to begin in Hong Kong
Woman jailed for life for murdering banker husband by feeding him spiked milkshake and clubbing him to death won appeal against conviction in February
The retrial of the American housewife Nancy Kissel will begin in Hong Kong tomorrow after a court quashed her murder conviction earlier this year.
Kissel – who was jailed for life for murdering her banker husband by feeding him a spiked milkshake and clubbing him to death – won an appeal against the conviction in Februaryn.
The 2005 "milkshake murder" trial captured media attention with tales of rough sex, marital violence and adultery.
Kissel, originally from Michigan, appealed against the verdict, saying the prosecution had used hearsay and other forms of inadmissible evidence and that she had been improperly cross-examined.
She had admitted killing her husband, Robert, a banker at Merrill Lynch, on 2 November 2003, but pleaded not guilty to murder, a charge that requires premeditation.
However, a jury unanimously found her guilty after a three-month trial.
Prosecutors said Kissel gave her 40-year-old husband a milkshake spiked with sedatives before cracking his skull with a heavy statuette several times.
They said she had tried to dispose of his body by rolling it up in a carpet and putting it into a storage room, but the stench ave her away.
Lawyers for Kissel argued that she had been provoked into the killing and had acted in self-defence.
They said the original judge had misdirected the jury while presenting his case summary before the verdict.
Kissel – who claimed at her trial that she could not remember striking her husband – was nevertheless found to have taken steps to cover up the crime, including ordering new bedsheets to replace the bloodied ones, having the storeroom cleaned out and sending her domestic helpers to buy items such as packing boxes and nylon rope.
The case inspired a book, Never Enough, which painted an unflattering portrait of Kissel as a cold-blooded killer who wanted to grab her husband's money and flee to the US to be with her lover.
Kissel recently spoke out about her intention to ask for a permanent stay in the proceedings, claiming the publicity the case has received would negatively affect the fairness of the retrial.
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