SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The California Supreme Court on Monday threw out the murder conviction of a woman who was convicted of bludgeoning to death her boyfriend in 2003.
The court agreed with a lower court ruling that said expert testimony estimating the time of death could have raised reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors who convicted Kimberly Long.
Prosecutors said she killed Oswaldo Conde, 33, at her home in Corona, southeast of Los Angeles.
Long had said she found him dead after returning home after spending the evening with friends. The weapon was never found.
Long’s first trial ended in a mistrial but she was convicted of murder in 2005. She wasn’t sent to jail until losing an appeal in 2009 and spent seven years behind bars before being freed in 2016 after the Riverside County judge reversed the conviction.
The Riverside County district attorney’s office will review the Supreme Court decision before deciding whether to seek a retrial, spokesman John Hall told the Orange County Register.
Long, 45, said she remembers “breaking down” after hearing that the Supreme Court had overturned her conviction.
“I feel like justice is finally being served,” she told the Register.
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