Court won't rehear newlywed murder appeal

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a petition to rehear an appeal by a Montana woman who admitted pushing her husband to his death off a cliff eight days after their wedding.

In an order dated Feb. 5, the Circuit judges denied a petition filed by the attorney for Jordan Graham, of Kalispell, to rehear her appeal. Graham also was denied a rehearing before a larger panel of the court’s judges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Hornbein said the petition denial means Graham’s only remaining option is an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. But Hornbein said she believes it’s unlikely the high court would take up the case.

“As far as we’re concerned, it doesn’t present any new areas of law for them to rule on,” she said.

Michael Donahoe, Graham’s federal public defender, said he has spoken with his client and they intend to file an appeal to the Supreme Court. He said the petition hasn’t been filed yet, but Graham has 90 days after the 9th Circuit denial to submit it.

“It’s pretty likely that we will file,” Donahoe said.

He declined to comment on the 9th Circuit’s decision.

On July 7, 2013, Graham and her husband, Cody Johnson, scuffled and she pushed him backward off a cliff at Glacier National Park. She then went home to Kalispell.

On July 11, after days of telling law enforcement that Johnson drove away from their house with friends, Graham led a search party to his body.

Shortly before closing arguments during her December 2013 trial in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Graham pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as part of an agreement in which federal prosecutors dismissed a first-degree murder charge and a charge of making a false statement to law enforcement.

Graham was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison.

In November 2015, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit upheld Graham’s sentence.

Graham is being held in federal prison in Alabama.