Nancy Kissel lost an appeal against a conviction for murdering her investment banker husband in 2003 for which she was imprisoned for life

Nancy Kissel lost an appeal against a conviction for murdering her investment banker husband in 2003 for which she was imprisoned for life in Hong Kong.Justice Michael Stuart-Moore announced the decision by the three judges who heard the case in the Court of Appeal today after almost five months of deliberation. Nancy, 44, plans to take the case to the city's Court of Final Appeal, her lawyers and family said.
Nancy Kissel was sentenced to life in 2005 for killing millionaire Merrill Lynch & Co. banker Robert Kissel, and hiding his body in a carpet in a storeroom. The prosecution said she drugged his milkshake then battered him with an ornament.She admitted to killing him, saying he was abusive. Her lawyers appealed on grounds that she had been improperly cross- examined in the trial regarding statements made on her behalf for her bail application; the trial judge erred in allowing ``hearsay'' evidence based on conversations between Robert Kissel and various witnesses; the trial judge misdirected the jury on whether she acted in response to provocation.
``This was as cogent a case of murder as might be imagined,'' Stuart-Moore and fellow justices Frank Stock and A. R. Wright wrote in a 271-page judgment. ``In the welter of arguments and details that have been churned in the course of this case, both at first instance and upon appeal, the wood is in danger of being obscured by the trees.''The Court of Appeal justices found no merit in those grounds and others raised by Kissel, the judgment said. There was ``no material misdirection or irregularity'' in the trial, and ``none would have affected the inevitability of a conviction,'' they wrote.Nancy Kissel's mother, Jean McGlothlin, described herself as ``disappointed'' that her daughter didn't ``get more support from these three justices.'' Speaking outside the court building in a trembling voice, she added that her daughter hadn't received ``a completely fair hearing'' from the very beginning.
``We just do what we need to do next,'' she said. ``We know this case has merit in the Court of Final Appeal.''Simon Clarke, a defense lawyer for Nancy Kissel, said the case might be heard in the Court of Final Appeal in six to nine months.
In the original murder trial, the prosecution pointed to the value of Robert Kissel's $18 million estate, made up of stocks, life insurance polices, cash and real estate. Nancy Kissel was the beneficiary of her husband's will and life insurance policies, prosecution evidence showed.The Kissels were married in 1989 in the U.S. and later moved to Hong Kong. Nancy Kissel is serving her sentence at the Tai Lam Women's Prison in Hong Kong's New Territories, close to the Chinese border.
The Court of Appeal justices said there are no reasonable arguments against key ``central and clear'' facts, including that Robert Kissel consumed a milkshake before his death prepared by Nancy Kissel. Five drugs, including four prescribed for Nancy in the 10 days before the killing, were found in her husband's stomach.
Nancy Kissel obtained the drugs from two doctors without divulging to either she had consulted the other. She had searched Web sites for side-effects of drugs.
Nancy Kissel would be well provided for in the event of her husband's death and was having an affair with a man in the U.S. around the time of the killing, they added.
Nancy Kissel claimed she acted in self-defense against her husband who attacked her with a baseball bat. Yet she didn't mention the baseball bat to the police when she made a report and upon her arrest. Neither did she mention the baseball bat to her family, domestic helpers, a family friend, a doctor and a colleague of her husband's.
Instead, she told ``a variety of lies to all who enquired'' to explain Robert Kissel's absence, the judgment said.
Forensic evidence suggested Robert Kissel was lying on his bed when the fatal blows were dealt to his head. His body bore no sign of defensive wounds, the justices said.
Neither work colleagues, family friends and relatives on either side, nor domestic helpers were aware of Robert Kissel's alleged drinking, drug problems or past abuse of Nancy Kissel, they said. There was no mention of violence or sexual abuse in Nancy Kissel's diaries.Nancy appeared in court today pale and clad in black. At the end of the session, she had to be helped out of the court room by two female officers.Her mother described Kissel as ``very fragile'' and often transported in a wheelchair because of a knee problem. ``But her spirit is strong, her will is strong,'' she added.The family and Kissel aren't allowed to communicate through phone calls though often write, she said.