The U.S. Supreme Court won't review whether Dalia Dippolito's lawyers were unfairly silenced by a gag order before her third murder-for-hire trial last year.
The decision Monday by the high court will not affect Dippolito's attempt to have her conviction and 16-year prison term overturned by a Florida appellate court. Dippolito, now 35, was found guilty of trying to hire a cop posing as a hitman to kill her newlywed husband.
Attorneys Greg Rosenfeld and Andrew Greenlee had argued that their First Amendment rights were violated by Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley, who prohibited both sides from making statements to reporters about the case until after the jurors were sworn in.
The attorneys say the issue isn't moot, even though the trial is history. They hoped to prevent future judicial gag orders should Dippolito get a fourth trial, and they said their fight was important for defense attorneys in high-profile cases elsewhere.
The many faces of Dalia DippolitoAfter eight years, three trials, one baby and countless legal twists and turns, there's another number looming large for Dalia Dippolito -- 16 years.
That's how long the former escort was sentenced to be behind bars after a jury convicted her in July of trying to hire a hit man to kill her husband, Michael Dippolito. They'd been married just six months.
But the hit man turned out to be an undercover cop. And instead of a bullet for the groom, the bride shot to notoriety when video of her breaking down in front of police officers was shown on national TV.
Dippolito was 26 at the time of the sting. Born in New York to an Egyptian dad and a Peruvian mom, her life had taken a sinister turn since she moved to Boynton Beach when she was 13.
And her trials and tribulations since the day of her arrest in 2009 have taken a visible toll.
From a girlish suspect, to a groomed defendant, to a mother (still no word on the identity of the father), to a 34-year-old convict in jailhouse scrubs.
About the only thing that hasn't changed for the former Dalia Mohammed is her decision to keep her married name, although she divorced in 2011.
Her high-profile courtoom appearances have all been captured in closeup over the years. Smiling, sobbing, glamorous, haunted, impassive, enigmatic and -- in the end -- crushed.