Hong Kong jury charging American housewife for murdering her husband banker

A jury on Thursday began debating the fate of an American housewife accused of murdering her husband in Hong Kong by drugging and bludgeoning him nearly two years ago.

High Kong Court Judge Michael Lunn instructed the five-man, two-woman jury to convict Nancy Kissel only on a vote of 5-2 or greater.

The sensational trial, which has dragged on for nearly three months, has captivated Hong Kong with explicit testimony about drugs, violence and sex.

Kissel, 41, has characterized her husband Robert, 40, a banker at Merrill Lynch, New-York, as a cocaine-using workaholic who physically abused her and demanded rough sex.

The prosecution has claimed that Kissel is a cold-blooded killer who drugged her husband with a sedative-laced milkshake, then smashed in his skull with five blows with a metal ornament.

Kissel, who said she sought refuge from her troubled marriage in an affair, has admitted killing her spouse in a confrontation, but denied murder.