Marie Hess of Burlington Township pleaded guilty this week to aggravated manslaughter in the 1999 shooting death of Jimmy Hess, a township police officer. That's the same charge she pleaded guilty to in 2001.
But under a new plea deal with Burlington County prosecutors, her lawyer will be permitted to seek leniency because of evidence that Hess was an abused wife and a psychiatrist diagnosed her with battered wife syndrome.
Hess' sentence was overturned by the state Supreme Court, which found her 2001 plea bargain violated her rights because it barred her then-lawyer from mentioning any reasons why leniency might be appropriate.
