Lai See | Nancy Kissel's milkshake misdeed costs us millions

We gather that milkshake murderer Nancy Kissel has been granted leave to appeal her conviction for murder. The appeal has been set down for three days in early October. She filed the appeal in February last year after withdrawing her application to serve her jail time in the US.

Her trial, which caught the attention of the world, was told how she drugged her investment banker husband, Robert Kissel, with a drug-laced milkshake before bludgeoning him to death with a lead ornament. However, after two appeals, the Court of Final Appeal ruled the original trial in 2005 was flawed.

She initially pleaded not guilty to murder, saying she had acted in self-defence. At the retrial in 2011, she pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility and provocation.

It's not known what the grounds of her forthcoming appeal are, but it will add yet again to the substantial financial costs the Department of Justice has had to bear with respect to her case. It has already spent tens of millions of dollars on the various trials and appeals.

The Department of Justice exceeded its HK$89.4 million budget for criminal cases in 2011, and had to go cap in hand to the Legislative Council for a further HK$86.6 million to meet its court costs.