For more information on this truly bizarre case, search on keyword SusanPolk.
She should fire her lawyer.
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2nd degree was all they could agree on, I guess.
MARTINEZ - A jury today convicted an Orinda housewife of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of her husband, a psychologist she met as a teenage patient and later married.
The jury deliberated three days before deciding that Susan Polk, 48, killed her husband, 70-year-old Felix Polk in 2002 during a fight in the pool house of their home.
The defendant, who represented herself at trial, looked relieved when the clerk pronounced her not guilty of first-degree, but showed no reaction when the final second-degree guilty verdict was read.
Prosecutor Paul Sequeira pushed back in his chair when he heard the verdict and expelled a long breath.
Polk had testified that she lived in an abusive marriage for decades, and that her husband victimized her by rape and through hypnosis.
She faces a prison term of 15 years to life.
She told the jury that that on Oct. 13, 2002, her husband attacked her and she defended herself by stabbing him. A pathologist who testified on her behalf said the victim's stab wounds were not fatal, and he ultimately died of a heart attack.
During the trial, Polk made dozen of motions for mistrial, usually accusing the prosecutor and judge of misconduct and colluding with each other for a conviction.
Two of her three sons testified against her, one saying she spoke on a regular basis about killing her husband and the other saying his father was not abusive.
Her middle son testified on her behalf, backing up her statements that his father abused her and influenced schools and the justice system when the son got in trouble to control the family.
Polk told the jury that her husband was a spy and hypnotized her, using her psychic powers to predict world events, including assassinations and the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Before taking on the role of defense attorney, Polk had hired and fire four attorneys. A first trial ended in a mistrial in October when the wife of her then-attorney, Daniel Horowitz, was killed.
Who is the judge?
BREAKING NEWS: Polk gets second degree murder
| By Jason Dearen, STAFF WRITER Inside Bay Area |
|
MARTINEZ — After four days spent cloistered in a deliberation room, the jury in the Susan Polk murder trial found her guilty of second degree murder with special enhancement for using a knife. Polk sat quietly, as if stunned, as the verdict was read. Two of her sons, Adam and Gabriel, who had testified against her, registered no emotion as they sat in the front row of the courtroom. Polk, 48, has spent the week in a holding cell in the Martinez courthouse awaiting her fate. She was convicted of second-degree murder of her 70-year-old psychologist husband Frank "Felix" Polk. However, the judge included lesser offenses for the jury to weigh including voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. If convicted of those charges Polk could be sentenced to only a few years in prison and be eligible for parole very soon. The verdict concludes a bizarre and hard fought trial that pitted veteran prosecutor Paul Sequeira against the defendant, who represented herself. While Polk at times had trouble grasping legal concepts — like how to properly identify exceptions to hearsay objections — she challenged the prosecutor at every turn, making the trial a test of endurance. Prosecutor Sequeira argued that Polk is mentally ill, and that her delusions and anger over losing custody of her youngest son, Gabriel Polk, spurred her to stab her husband to death. Polk told the jury that her husband raped her when she was his teenage therapy patient and that he abused her mentally and physically throughout their 20-year marriage. She says on the night she stabbed him, he attacked her and that she fought back in self defense. |
*sigh* I wish I cared. 2nd degree is OK by me. Please tell me there won't be a sentencing hearing now, with mitigations and aggravations and more family circus cartoons.
If so, it will give a whole new meaning to "character" witnesses. Everyone's a *character*!