Arizona woman convicted of killing husband with hammer found to be eligible for execution

PHOENIX – A jury has decided that an Arizona woman should be eligible for the death penalty for killing her husband with a hammer.

The decision on Monday clears the way for jurors to now consider whether they will imprison Marissa Suzanne Devault for life or sentence her to death for the fatal beating of Dale Harrell in 2009.

To make her eligible for the death penalty, the jury had to determine that she killed her husband in an especially cruel manner.

If jurors had found Devault didn’t qualify for execution, then a judge would have had to sentence her to life in prison.

Attorneys on both sides will now make arguments to jurors on whether she should be imprisoned or executed.