The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision on Christchurch woman Helen Milner’s fight for her dead husband’s body parts. Milner dubbed the “Black Widow”, was convicted of the murder of her second husband Phil Nisbet by poisoning him with crushed sedatives in his food in 2009. She was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.
Nisbet’s death was originally ruled a suicide, but Coroner Sue Johnson raised suspicions which then led to police reviewing the case and ultimately launching a homicide investigation. Milner, 55, has so far unsuccessfully appealed against her murder conviction.
Her latest bid in the Court of Appeal today, is an attempt to secure the release of Christchurch truck driver Nisbet’s hair, blood, urine, and liver samples, which she says will prove her innocence. This is after the Court of Appeal earlier said it had no jurisdiction over the samples.
However, in a High Court judgment released in July, Justice David Gendall ruled the Court of Appeal does, in fact, have “custody” of the samples and must now decide whether they are to be released to Milner’s lawyers. The samples are held by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR).
Milner hopes the test results may support an application to the Governor-General for an exercise of the royal prerogative of mercy, which provides a special avenue for criminal cases to be reopened “where a person may have been wrongly convicted or sentenced”.
Source: Nzherald
Featured Image: The Nisbet family, from left, sister Lee-Anne Cartier, brother Andrew Nisbet, parents Jim and Yvonne Nisbet and brother Roger Nisbet. Photo / Nzherald
