Court confirms new trial for man convicted of killing wife

Listen to this article

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an appellate court decision to order a new trial for a Kenosha County man convicted in the 1998 poisoning death of his wife.

Mark Jensen, of Pleasant Prairie, was eventually convicted in 2008, on evidence that included a letter Julie Jensen wrote before her death and gave to a neighbor. In it, she wrote that “if anything happens to me” that her husband “would be my first suspect.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling said Julie Jensen’s incriminating statement cannot be entered as evidence in the new trial, the Journal Sentinel reported.

Mark Jensen has maintained his innocence. His attorneys argued Julie Jensen was depressed and killed herself after framing her husband. Prosecutors said Jensen killed his wife with antifreeze in order to be with his mistress and that he searched the internet for ways to make her death look like a suicide.

The case has bounced between the Wisconsin Supreme Court and several federal courts. A new trial has not been scheduled.