Attorneys for the Kalispell woman who fatally pushed her husband off a cliff in Glacier National Park in 2013 made the case for a reduced sentence before a federal appellate court on Tuesday.
Lawyers for Jordan Graham and federal prosecutors met before Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judges Raymond C. Fisher, Marsha S. Berzon and Paul J. Watford in Portland, Oregon, nearly two years after the woman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Graham was accused of first- and second-degree murder soon after her husband of seven days, Cody Johnson, was found at the bottom of a cliff near The Loop along Going-to-the-Sun Road. Four days into her murder trial in December 2013, Graham took a plea deal and admitted to the charge of second-degree murder.
In exchange for the plea, federal prosecutors agreed to drop the first-degree murder charge. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison four months later. She is currently incarcerated at a federal prison in Alabama.
Federal Public Defender Michael Donahoe argued on Tuesday the sentence was extreme. He also criticized federal prosecutors for alleging that Graham may have planned the murder in their sentencing recommendation. Federal prosecutor Zeno Baucus responded that they simply made a recommendation and that U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy made the final decision on sentencing.
However, one of the judges on the panel appeared to agree with the defense team.
“It seemed that you violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the plea agreement,” Judge Watford said, according to the Missoulian. “I think implicit in that is understanding that you would make a sentencing recommendation consistent with a second-degree murder conviction.”
The three-judge panel will now decide if Graham’s sentence should be overturned. It’s unclear when the judges will make a decision.