Nancy Ann Seaman (née D'Onofrio; born May 13, 1952) is an American woman and former teacher at Longacre Elementary School in Farmington Hills, Michigan, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2005 for killing her husband with a hatchet.
[1] Shortly into the couple's marriage, Nancy cites her first incident of spousal abuse, where her drunken husband attempted to push her out of a moving car.
She later claimed that other incidents of physical abuse occurred in her marriage sporadically, but intensified after her husband lost his job at Borg Warner Automotive.
In February, Nancy was planning to move out of the couple's home and into a condo, which she told her husband was for their younger son, Greg.
Just a day before the killing, video surveillance captured Nancy purchasing the hatchet at the Home Depot, which she said was used to cut down a stump in their front yard.
The following day, Nancy returned to Home Depot, where she purchased duct tape, the tarp, bleach, and other cleaning products.
She alleged that after a marital fight, Nancy went straight to Home Depot where she purchased the hatchet she would use to kill her husband.
In the end however, Nancy was convicted of first-degree, premeditated murder,[3] which in Michigan carries an automatic life sentence.
On November 4, 2010, her conviction was overturned by United States federal judge Bernard A. Friedman[6] on the basis that her defense attorneys were not fully able to develop their theory of battered woman syndrome.
However, on November 25, 2012, it was announced that a three-judge panel for the Sixth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals denied Nancy's motion for a new trial, citing that: "Battered spouse syndrome (Battered person syndrome) is not itself a defense under Michigan law."