Murder of Robert Kissel

It was arguably the highest profile criminal case involving an expatriate in Hong Kong's history, and was closely covered in the media.

[1] Coincidentally his brother, Andrew, a former American real estate developer, was murdered on 3 April 2006 in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States.

Robert Kissel became suspicious of his wife's infidelity and had hired a private detective, Frank Shea, to spy on her.

The trial began in June 2005 at the High Court, with the prosecution alleging that Nancy murdered her husband; she pleaded not guilty.

[2][3] Nancy admitted under cross-examination that she had bludgeoned her husband to death, but maintained that she was defending herself and further claimed memory loss, testifying she had no knowledge of how she inflicted five head wounds with a heavy metal sculpture.

At the end of the trial, lasting 65 days, on 1 September 2005 the jury of five men and two women unanimously decided on her guilt after eight hours of deliberation.

[10] On 11 February 2010, the Court of Final Appeal quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial, citing prosecution use of inadmissible evidence.

[17] On 25 March 2011, after hearing evidence from over 50 prosecution and defense witnesses over ten weeks,[16] the jury of seven women and two men unanimously found Kissel guilty as charged.

On 24 April 2014, the Court of Final Appeal refused to allow an appeal against the verdict of her 2011 retrial, rejecting the arguments of Kissel's lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, that the prosecution was wrong to tell the retrial's jury that his client was not suffering any psychiatric illness and that the trial judge had erred in directing the jury.