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First Married Lesbian Murder Case in Mass. Ends in Hung Jury

First Married Lesbian Murder Case in Mass. Ends in Hung Jury

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After a 16-day trial and five days of deliberations, jurors were deadlocked.

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The strange, sad saga of Cara and Annamarie Rintala was supposed to come to an end this week, but when jurors failed to either aquit or convict Cara -- on trial for murdering her wife in their Granby, Mass. home in 2010 -- a Hampshire Superior Court jury declared a mistrial. Prosecutor Steven Gagne told ABC40 that Rintala won't be getting a pass, saying, "We certainly look forward to re-trying the case, we are fully committed to re-trying this case."

The case made history: it is allegedly the first murder between a same-sex married couple in the state of Massachusetts. After Annamarie was found strangled to death in the basement of their home in 2010 it took 18 months or prosecutors to pull together a case against Rintala. According to ABC40, the juorors were shown more than 100 pieces of evidence, with prosecutors arguing that Rintala murdered her wife over battles she'd had with the victim about money and custody of their daughter, Brianna.

The jury deliberated for five days before the mistrial was declared. MassLive.com did fairly riveting daily reports from inside the courtroom during the 16-day trial as well as updates on juror instructions and requests during the deliberations.

Read more on the case at MassLive.

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Diane Anderson-Minshall

Diane Anderson-Minshall is the CEO of Pride Media, and editorial director of The Advocate, Out, and Plus magazine. She's the winner of numerous awards from GLAAD, the NLGJA, WPA, and was named to Folio's Top Women in Media list. She and her co-pilot of 30 years, transgender journalist Jacob Anderson-Minshall penned several books including Queerly Beloved: A Love Across Genders.
Diane Anderson-Minshall is the CEO of Pride Media, and editorial director of The Advocate, Out, and Plus magazine. She's the winner of numerous awards from GLAAD, the NLGJA, WPA, and was named to Folio's Top Women in Media list. She and her co-pilot of 30 years, transgender journalist Jacob Anderson-Minshall penned several books including Queerly Beloved: A Love Across Genders.