Mercy-killer tries appeal

Euthanasia campaigner Lesley Martin is heading to the Supreme Court in a bid to overturn her conviction for attempted murder.

Her lawyer, Donald Stevens, filed an application with the court yesterday seeking leave to appeal.

Last month, the Court of Appeal rejected an appeal.

She had been found guilty of attempted murder by a Wanganui jury in March 2004 and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. She was freed in December after serving 7 1/2 months.

She was charged after admitting in a book that she helped her terminally ill mother to die in 1999 by giving her a morphine overdose and smothering her.

- NZPA