WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Attorneys for the Boynton Beach woman who hired an undercover police officer to kill her husband are asking for a sentence of two years in prison.
Dalia Dippolito is scheduled to be sentenced Friday. She was convicted last month of solicitation to commit first-degree murder.
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Attorneys Brian Claypool, Greg Rosenfeld and Andrew B. Greenlee wrote Thursday in a motion for downward departure that Dippolito "has been a law-abiding citizen her entire life." They said Dippolito "has lived a truly exemplary life" aside from the crime for which she was convicted.
They've asked Palm Beach County Judge Glenn Kelley to sentence Dippolito to 48 months in prison with credit for time served. The request would mean Dippolito would serve just 24 months in state prison, plus jail credit for 163 days, followed by eight years of probation with restitution.
Dippolito, 34, was found guilty of hiring an undercover police detective whom she thought was a hit man to kill her then-husband in 2009, saying that she was "5,000 percent sure" she wanted him dead. The Boynton Beach Police Department staged a phony crime scene on the day that Dippolito's husband was supposed to be killed and recorded her reaction.
A 2011 conviction and 20-year sentence were thrown out on appeal. Last year's trial ended with a 3-3 hung jury.
Dippolito has since given birth to a son, who is now 1 year old, while she was out of jail on house arrest. She was remanded into custody after her third trial resulted in another conviction.
Her attorneys criticized the state for "inexplicably" pursuing the maximum 30-year sentence. They argue that the shorter sentence is justified because Dippolito "poses no future threat to society."
A motion seeking a fourth trial was recently denied after Kelley ruled that a juror wasn't sleeping during last month's trial.