58-year-old American woman convicted in absentia for the murder of her French lover's wife 15 years ago claimed her innocence in a French court on Monday.

   VERSAILLES, France, April 8, 2008 - A 58-year-old American woman convicted in absentia for the murder of her French lover's wife 15 years ago claimed her innocence in a French court on Monday.
   Barrie Taylor was convicted to 30 years in jail in 2000 for bludgeoning
53-year-old schoolteacher Roxane Pavageau to death with a hammer.
   Arrested in California in 2003 and extradited to France last year, she
denied any recollection of the events.
   "I remember the victim came to my house, but I have no memory of the act. I
am innocent of the charges against me," she told the court in Versailles.
   Up until now Taylor had admitted to the killing but claimed self-defence,
saying the victim came to her home in a fit of rage to kill her and her lover.
   Pavageau's body was found in the stairway to her basement in September
1993, wrapped in two plastic bags, her limbs tied with electric wiring and
several dozen blow marks to the head.
   Taylor was arrested after police found her digging a hole in the victim's
garden to bury her.
   Granted release from custody on medical grounds, she skipped bail in 1998
and fled to California.

AFP