Pittsburgh researcher convicted of poisoning wife

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By JOE MANDAK

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jurors who convicted a University of Pittsburgh researcher of first-degree murder in the cyanide poisoning death of his wife say they didn't find his explanations believable and were moved by a 911 call.

Dr. Robert Ferrante, who hung his head when the verdict was read in court Friday, faces a mandatory life sentence in the April 2013 death of his wife, 41-year-old neurologist Dr. Autumn Klein.

"I think he had incredible coaches," juror Helen Ewing said. "I think he had a year to think about what story he wanted to tell."

Ewing said she was "horrified" by the suffering of Klein heard on the 911 call Ferrante made while his wife was groaning, moaning and gasping for air in the background. Fellow juror Lance Deweese said: "It got you in the gut. It got you in the heart."

FULL story at link.



FILE - This undated photo provided by the Allegheny County District Attorney shows University of Pittsburgh medical researcher Dr. Robert Ferrante. Fernante was convicted on Friday, Nov. 7, 2014, of first-degree murder and faces a mandatory life sentence in the April 2013 death of 41-year-old neurologist Dr. Autumn Klein. (AP Photo/Allegheny County District Attorney, File)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141108/us-doctor-death-cyanide-345174f470.html

[John1956PA]

1. The defense raised interesting arguments, but the jury went with the prosecution.

The defendant testified on his own behalf, which is something the defense attorney would not have let him do if the attorney thought that the defendant committed the crime.

Also, last evening, in a television interview of three jurors, one of them was making a point that the defendant first told the police hat he was in the kitchen when his wife came home that fateful evening, but that, when he took the stand, he testified that he was upstairs in the residence when his wife arrived home. I do not know if the defendant bothered to explain this apparent contradiction when he took the stand, but it seems to me that it would be logical to assume that the defendant's shock over his wife's collapse and death three days later would have caused him to make a few misstatements when the police first interviewed him.

I am not arguing that the jurors got it wrong; after all, they heard the testimony.

Regardless, the eventual appeal will not result in long-lasting controversy such as that regarding the Dr. Sam Sheppard murder trial in Cleveland in the mid-1950s. Society has changed, and there are now more subjects which interest the public than there were back in the 1950s.