In December of 2006, Daniel Ku confessed to killing his common-law-wife Ana Marie Basto in Orange Walk, stabbing her 32 times in the chest and then cutting her throat.
It was a vicious wife killing and the 31 year old Ku was sentenced to life imprisonment.
But yesterday, the Court of Appeals allowed his appeal.
His attorney Simeon Sampson submitted that Ku was willing to accept manslaughter instead of murder.
But the DPP Cheryl Lyn Vidal instead made an application for a retrial and today the Court of Appeal decided to allow that instead of substituting the manslaughter plea.
The appeal succeeded on the ground that the trial judge, Michelle Arana misdirected the jury on the principle of the loss of self-control. There was evidence that Ku lost his self-control, and the judge did not direct the jury on that.
Basto - who was a nurse - was killed with a surgical instrument. In his confession, Ku said that he and his wife had an altercation and that provoked him to stab her repeatedly and slash her throat.
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