Hong Kong ‘milkshake murderer’ Nancy Kissel, 53, says ‘inhumane’ not telling her when early release might happen
American convicted of giving husband drug-laced milkshake then bludgeoning him to death
An American woman who was jailed for life in Hong Kong for drugging and bludgeoning her husband to death in 2003 argued on Friday it was inhumane to keep her in the dark about when she would be considered for early release.
Nancy Kissel, 53, advanced the claim in a judicial review challenging the Long-Term Prison Sentences Review Board’s decision last year to refuse her application for conditional release or a fixed sentence.
Her case raises the question of whether prisoners serving mandatory life sentences for murder are entitled to know what the board considered the necessary minimum period of time to be served before they would be seriously considered for a conditional release or converted sentence.
“It’s right that the person bringing this [judicial review] is Nancy Kissel,” her counsel Edward Fitzgerald QC said. “But the point that’s being raised is in everyone’s benefit.”
Kissel earned the nickname “milkshake murderer” after she incapacitated her husband, Robert Kissel, a Merrill Lynch investment banker, with a drug-laced milkshake and bludgeoned him to death with a lead ornament at their luxury flat in Tai Tam.
