Susan Lucille Wright (born April24, 1976) is an American criminal from Houston, Texas, who madeheadlines in 2003 for stabbing her husband, Jeff Wright, 193 times inan act of mariticide and then burying his body in their backyard. She was convicted of murder in 2004, and was given a 20-year sentenceat the Crain Unit in Gatesville, Texas. She was denied parole onJune 12, 2014, and July 24, 2017. She was granted parole in July 2020and released from prison on December 30, 2020.
Early life
Susan Lucille Wright was born on April24, 1976, in Houston, Texas, to Sue Wella (née Tschoepe) and JimmyLawrence Wyche. At the age of 17, she worked as a topless dancer atGold Cup for two months. In 1997, while working as a restaurantwaitress in Galveston, she met Jeff Wright and they married in 1998while she was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with their first son,Bradley. In 2002, a daughter, Kailey was born. Mrs. Wright claimsthat her husband began to abuse her during the first few years oftheir marriage.
Crime
The crime occurred at the Wright familyhouse in the White Oak Bend subdivision in unincorporated northwestHarris County, Texas.
According to evidence presented by theprosecution, on January 13, 2003, Susan Wright, 26, tied her husband,Jeff Wright, 34, to their bed and stabbed him 193 times with twodifferent knives. She buried his body in their Houston backyard. Sheattempted to cover up the crime scene by painting the bedroom. Thenext day, Wright filed a false domestic abuse report in order to geta restraining order against her husband.
On January 18, Wright asked herattorney, Neal Davis, to come to her home and admitted to stabbingher husband. Davis contacted the Harris County district attorney'soffice to inform them a body was buried under Susan Wright's houseand that she had confessed to the killing.
Wright turned herself in to authoritiesat the Harris County Courthouse on January 24 and was arraigned onmurder charges the following Monday.
Trial
Thirteen months after her arraignment,Wright's murder trial commenced on February 24, 2004. She hadalready pleaded not guilty to killing her husband by reason ofself-defense.
The prosecutor and Wright's defenseattorney had very different portrayals of her.
Assistant district attorney KellySiegler depicted Wright as a scheming wife who seduced her husbandinto bed, tied him up, repeatedly stabbed him, and then buried hisbody in their backyard, all in hopes of collecting a $200,000 lifeinsurance policy. Wright's defense attorney Neal Davis claimed thathis client had suffered years of physical and emotional abuse by herhusband, and killed him to protect herself and her two youngchildren.
At her trial, Susan Wright testified inher own defense. In her emotional testimony on the stand, Wrightclaimed: "I couldn't stop stabbing him; I couldn't stop. Iknew as soon as I stopped, he was going to get the knife back and hewas going to kill me. I didn't want to die." She testifiedthat on the night of the murder, Jeff Wright was on a cocaine bingeand was violent, having allegedly beaten her. Wright once againinsisted that she stabbed her husband in self-defense. Susan Wright'smother, among others, testified for the defense, claiming theywitnessed Wright's bruises.
Siegler said Wright's tears were fakedto try and sway the jury. The prosecution presented an unusualdemonstration by bringing the Wrights' actual bed into the courtroom.
During closing arguments, Sieglerbrought up to the jury how Wright had been a topless dancer, and saidshe believed Wright's emotions were insincere. She contended thatSusan Wright was a "card-carrying, obvious,no-doubt-about-it, caught-red handed, confirmed, documented liar",whose frequent shows of emotion during the trial were deliberateefforts to influence the jury.
Verdict
On March 3, 2004, after more than fivehours of deliberations, the jury convicted Wright of murder. Wrightshowed little reaction to the guilty verdict.
Wright was sentenced on the followingday. Prosecutors were hoping for at least a 55-year sentence, whileWright's attorneys argued for probation for their client. The jurysentenced Wright to 25 years in prison.
She was imprisoned at the Crain Unit,under SID Number: 04835513.
Appeal
In 2005, the Fourteenth Court ofAppeals of Texas in Houston upheld Susan Wright's conviction.
With a re-appeal in 2008, a newwitness, Misty McMichael, the wife of former NFL Super Bowl championSteve McMichael and ex-fiancée of Jeff Wright, came forward to tellher story of how she endured abuse and violence during her four-yearrelationship with Jeff Wright.
In 2009, the Texas Court of CriminalAppeals granted Wright a new sentencing hearing, after determiningthat Wright's "counsel rendered ineffective assistance duringthe punishment phase of trial" in 2004.
According to the evidence adducedduring the 2010 punishment trial, it was shown that the prosecution'stheory that Jeff was tied to the bed was not supported by the medicalexaminer who excavated the body. The medical examiner testified thatJeff had a significant amount of cocaine in his body the night hedied - so much so that Jeff's body had not metabolized all thecocaine. The cocaine evidence supported the defense's assertion thatJeff was intoxicated the night of his death, when he came home from aboxing class and punched his son. Jeff also had several knife woundson his hands, forearms, back, and the backs of his legs, indicatingdefensive wounds inconsistent with being tied to a bed.
On November 20, 2010, Wright had hersentence reduced to 20 years in prison, five years less than heroriginal sentence. Wright has been eligible for parole since February28, 2014, at the age of 38. She was denied parole on June 12, 2014and July 24, 2017. Wright was approved for parole on July 2, 2020.
On Wednesday, December 30th, 2020Wright was released on parole at the age of 44.
In popular culture
Wright's murder trial had beennationally televised on CourtTV. Wright's case was also profiled onSnapped in 2004, 48 Hours Mystery in 2005, on an E! special entitledWomen Who Kill, on the Deadly Women episode "Lethal Love"on ID in 2011, and on an episode of Secret Lives of Stepford Wives in2014.
Wright's case was also the subject ofthe 2012 Lifetime original movie, Blue Eyed Butcher, starring SaraPaxton as Wright and Lisa Edelstein as Kelly Siegler.
In 2014, Canadian director ChloeBellande released a seventeen-minute short-film entitled Will ofFortune, which was inspired by the murder trials of Wright and GuyTurcotte, a man who had stabbed his two children to death in Canada.The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2014.