Mark Jensen is retried in the death of his wife. Here's what's different from the 2008 trial
Opening arguments began Wednesday in a Kenosha County courtroom in the retrial of a man once convicted in the 1998 poisoning death of his wife.
Mark Jensen was convicted in 2008 of first-degree intentional homicide for poisoning Julie Jensen, 40, with antifreeze and sleeping pills, then suffocating her with a pillow in the garage of the couple's Pleasant Prairie home in December 1998.
Jensen, 63, was sentenced to life in prison.
However, what followed was a trail of appeals that revolved around key pieces of evidence that were shown to the jury during his first trial and pointed to him as a suspect. Among them were a letter Julie Jensen left with a neighbor and voicemails to a police officer suggesting that if she was found dead, her husband was likely responsible.
Attorney for Jensen argued the recordings violated his Sixth Amendment right to confront his accuser; the judge in the earlier trial found Jensen had forfeited that right by causing her death, therefore making her unavailable to testify.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld an appellate court decision the case should be retried.
The trial is expected to last a month, according to online court records.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Retrial for Mark Jensen begins in wife's 1998 antifreeze poisoning death
