Nancy Crampton Brophy, who wrote an essay titled “How to murder your husband”, has been sentenced to life in prison in the United States for murdering her husband of 26 years.
The 71-year-old who also authored novels such as “The Wrong Husband” and “The Wrong Lover” was found guilty of second degree murder last month and was sentenced on Monday.
A jury in Oregon found that she shot her husband in 2018 for a $1.5m (over K1.5 billion) life insurance pay-out.
The BBC reported that the woman’s late husband, Daniel Brophy, was a chef and in June 2018 he was found shot twice in the kitchen of the Oregon Culinary Institute where he was a teacher.
Prosecutors presented surveillance footage in court that showed Crampton Brophy driving to and from the Institute at the time of the crime.
She also purchased a gun of the same make and model as the murder weapon.
Prosecutors successfully argued that Crampton Brophy had the motive and the means to murder her partner since the couple was struggling financially, and the woman stood to pocket a hefty insurance pay-out after his death.
Taking the stand in her own defence, the author claimed she had a “memory hole” from the morning of Brophy’s death.
She could not however deny it was her driving around the Institute on the day of the crime
A jury of 12 found her guilty of second-degree murder after deliberating for less than two days. She was sentenced to life in prison but there is possibility of parole after 25 years.
Crampton Brophy had written years before the crime, the essay titled “How to murder your husband”.
In the essay, she said: “The thing I know about murder is that every one of us have it in him/her when pushed far enough.”
She listed a number of ways to commit the murder, from guns and knives to poison and hitmen.
She added: “It is easier to wish people dead than to actually kill them”.
The essay was not used as evidence in the trial as a judge rejected because it was penned years earlier as part of a writing seminar.
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