Detroit, MI: New trial ordered for woman in ax slaying of husband

Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News
Detroit —A Farmington Hills school teacher in prison since 2005 for killing her husband with a hatchet has a new chance for freedom.
U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman last week found several problems with Nancy Seaman's conviction and has given prosecutors 120 days to re-try the case or release her. She is being held at the women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti.
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A former award-winning elementary school teacher, Seaman was convicted in the 2004 Mother's Day slaying of her husband, Robert, inside their Farmington Hills home. She claimed she attacked him in self-defense and suffered from battered spouse syndrome.
Prosecutors said Seaman struck her husband on the head and neck with a hatchet 16 times, slashed him with a knife on the neck and stabbed him 21 times. They said the killing was planned and that Seaman went to Home Depot the night before the murder to purchase the hatchet.
The state Attorney General's Office has appealed Friedman's ruling and is expected to file a motion today for a stay in the case, pending the appeal process, office spokeswoman Joy Yearout said. "We expect Ms. Seaman's attorney to file a motion for bond, which we will appeal," Yearout said.
Seaman's appellate lawyer, Richard B. Ginsberg, said he's pleased with the ruling. He said he plans to meet with her in prison today.
"The judge found the (battered spouse syndrome) defense wasn't properly presented and the jury didn't have enough information to consider that defense," Ginsberg said.
In his 53-page ruling, Friedman found that Seaman's trial attorney failed to argue to admit "the full breadth of expert testimony." The judge also found that a prosecutor committed misconduct by waving a hatchet purchased by police before the jury and saying Seaman used it to kill her husband. A judge later told the jury to ignore the remark.