PORTLAND ( AP) — Maine’s highest court upheld the conviction of a Portland man who’s serving a 40-year sentence for fatally stabbing his girlfriend in 2009.
In a unanimous ruling Thursday, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court rejected the appeal of William Hanaman, who was convicted of murder in the death of 47- year- old Marian Shea. Testimony revealed that Hanaman stabbed Shea eight times before a failed attempt to take his own life.
In his appeal, Hanaman argued that the judge in his 2010 trial made a mistake when he refused to instruct jurors that they could find him guilty of manslaughter if they believed he killed Shea in the heat of passion after being provoked.
Supreme court justices disagreed, concluding that the evidence at trial didn’t support his claim.
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