A woman can be legally lynched under current flawed North Carolina law and criminal sentencing guidelines. They allow highly prejudicial inference criteria, which enables over-zealous prosecutors to initiate "conspiracy to commit murder" charges against a defendant based merely on any creative or imaginative hypothesis that can be conjured up, and which they believe can be sold to a jury.   

In North Carolina, following the death or murder of a husband, a woman can be convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and be sentenced to life without parole, if any combination of the following factors just happens to be present:

(1). Husband has a moderate life insurance policy. 

Almost all working married couples have a life insurance policy on each other. Dr. Theer and her husband Captain Martin Theer had $500,000 insurance policies on each other. The prosecution based much of their imaginative case on money being a motive, despite the fact that her husband was the one who had selected and purchased the policies 2 years previously, and Dr. Theer being eligible in a few months at the time for a spouse's share of his lucrative military pension, meeting the 10 year marriage criteria. 

(2). At the time of her husband's murder, a wife is having an intimate, though temporary extra marital affair with another man.

Dr. Theer and her husband, going through a marital storm, were both having a brief extra marital affair at the time of his murder. An open marriage having unfortunately evolved, as his duties as an Air Force pilot flying to many locations not only strained the marriage, but exposed him to women desiring to have an adventurous sexual relationship with a good looking pilot.    

Prosecutors in Dr. Theer's case used the marital affairs that she had been involved in as a character assassination strategy at her trial, which had no relevance to her husband's murder, but served to divert the jury from actual facts, thus polluting the juror's minds with innocuous information. Thus, none of the information about her husband's affairs was deemed admissible.  This further set up the roles of "Saint vs. Sinner" and appeared to pit the husband and wife as enemies against each other.

Dr. Theer's extra marital paramour (Staff Sergeant John Diamond) had clearly become obsessed with her, which was more than evident by his many fawning and amorous e-mails to her. These continued after she had told him that she wished to end the affair because of his moodiness and inconsistent behavior, never mentioning her husband as the reason for terminating the affair.

This would then allow her planned repairing of her marriage with her husband who she had known since their days as high school sweethearts, some 13 years prior. Mr. Diamond was so devastated by Dr. Theer ending their affair that he threatened to kill himself in order to manipulate her into continuing to speak to him and see him. This was all borne out by e-mails recovered by police investigators upon seizing her computer.

The prosecution chose to ignore the affair-termination e-mails sent by Dr. Theer to Mr. Diamond, and which were obviously received by him; they chose instead to conjure up a fictional conspiracy theory wherein Dr. Theer in defying logic conspired with Mr. Diamond to kill her husband. The prosecution's imaginative theory demands that Dr. Theer would conspire with a man she was trying to break up with, to kill her husband. Diamond certainly would not agree with her to kill her husband just so she could then collect his insurance money, making her more independent of him.         

In North Carolina, there need not be any incriminating forensic evidence or DNA evidence linking a conspiracy charged wife with the murder of her husband. The prosecution is allowed to claim the default option of "circumstantial evidence" that is based merely on inferences. Regardless of how porous or imaginative the inferences or circumstantial evidence might be. 

The prosecution in Dr. Theer's case had "No" remotely incriminating forensic evidence against her. Neither through recovered emails by the State did they find one iota of evidence that Dr. Theer ever wished any harm come to her husband.  No recorded or overheard telephone calls or conversations existed between Dr. Theer and convicted killer John Diamond that may have substantiated the existence of a murder conspiracy twixt Dr. Theer and Mr. Diamond. Notwithstanding, there is not one witness who heard Dr. Theer ever mention to anyone that she had any knowledge that Mr. Diamond had any intention of killing her husband. Nor did she ever think Diamond was capable of considering such a desperate act as murder. 

(5). There is no history of physical or psychological abuse involving the husband or wife.

Going back from their days as high school sweethearts, there was never a hint of physical or psychological abuse between Dr. Theer and her husband, Captain Martin Theer during their 13 years of knowing each other.  Even during the time the prosecution claims she was planning his murder, they cannot produce one, single witness who can recall her making a derogatory or threatening statement against her husband.  They continued to socialize and appear in public as a loving and committed couple.                                                                                           

The above numbered factors, which all exist in Dr. Theer's case, are sufficient under current North Carolina law to charge and/or convict a North Carolina woman of conspiracy to commit murder along with 1^st degree murder, and sentence her to life without parole. A death sentence.

Dr. Theer's case is a prime example of a bankrupt U.S. legal justice system, where it is more important for prosecutors to obtain a conviction in a major capital case, regardless of the paucity of existing evidence. Prosecutors should be made to present exonerative evidence during a trial when aware of its existence.

In the current adversarial system of justice, evidence is not always thoroughly assessed before charges are brought against an individual, as prosecutors with the aid of law enforcement focus almost entirely on convictions rather than justice, which becomes an afterthought in all too many cases.   

The existing obscenity in the North Carolina legal system, including sentencing, is that a charge of conspiracy is routinely if not cavalierly added in a murder case when it is not justified, being speciously added merely to obtain a life without parole sentence for the accused defendant. Wrongful convictions can be reduced dramatically, along with unjust/ inappropriate sentencing if policymakers, along with the public, media, and legal/law enforcement entities continue to be informed of systemic problems existing in the criminal justice system. 

It should be duly noted that Dr. Michelle Theer was offered an 8 year prison sentence if she pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact.

Dr. Theer turned down the State's plea offer, stating she wasn't guilty of anything; only to be sentenced to life without parole later. Her attorney would not let her testify because he believed no jury could possibly convict her, and believed she was still too emotionally distraught to withstand hostile prosecution questioning.

This is a conviction that demands to be overturned, and Dr. Michelle Theer exonerated of all guilt.