Court lets East Boston man continue to rot in jail for strangling his wife

The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Kevin Hensley, found guilty of strangling his wife Nancy with a necktie in 2002.

The court ruled the prosecutors did nothing wrong by having the state medical examiner testify in the case even though he did not perform the autopsy himself and that Hensley's lawyer did not introduce evidence of Hensley's mental illness as "a strategic decision," rather than as an incompetent mistake - because a doctor who examined Hensley had written he still had sufficient judgment to know right from wrong.

Also, New Hampshire police who questioned Hensley after he drove there and tried to kill himself by downing a bottle of sleeping pills and attaching a hose from his car exhaust pipe into the car cabin did not violate Hensley's Miranda rights because they questioned him only after making sure he could still lucidly answer questions, the court ruled.

Complete ruling.