Appeals Court Upholds 30-Year Prison Term for Montana Woman
An appeals court has upheld the 30-year prison sentence for a woman who admitted to pushing her husband to his death off a cliff in Glacier National Park.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that federal prosecutors did not breach a plea agreement with Jordan Graham, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the July 2013 death of Cody Johnson just days after they married.
They also found that a federal judge was right in denying Graham's motion to withdraw her guilty plea after she was sentenced.
Graham's attorney said that prosecutors unfairly claimed that Johnson's death was premeditated at sentencing and argued for a sentence in line with premeditated first-degree murder. The judges ruled that the plea deal did not prohibit such arguments.