‘I killed him but my conviction should be overturned because I had bad legal representation’

Wife Former NBA star’s wife who admitted murdering her husband now wants her conviction thrown out

Sherra Wright, 50,who confessed to killing Lorenzen Wright in a June 2019 plea deal, says she was bullied into making the confession

Wright was found shot dead in a marshy field in Memphis in 2010

He’d, 34, played in the NBA for 13 years before retiring in 2009 – he and Sherra had just finalized their divorce

She inherited $1million in a life insurance policy payout after his death, which prosecutors said she exhausted in 10 months

For years, the murder went unsolved until 2017, when Sherra and the trigger man, Billy Ray Turner, were arrested

She confessed, saying she thought Turner would testify against her and that she’d arranged to have Wright killed in revenge for years of domestic violence

Sherra now claims she was pressured by her attorney to make a deal at the time

She says that she only made the confession fearing for her kids’ safety, moreover she says, she was tortured and ‘abused’ by guards in jail and worn down

For seven years, the cold-blooded slaying of retired sportster Lorenzen Wright went unsolved.
Wright was shot in the face multiple times in 2010. He was 36 and two years retired from the NBA, after a 13 year career during which he played for several teams.
In 2017, his estranged wife admitted to murdering her NBA star ex-husband. Sherra Wright, 50, is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence for murdering her NBA star husband, Lorenzen Wright.  
His bullet-riddled body was found in a field in Memphis in 2010, just one year after he retired from the NBA following a 13-year career playing for several teams in the league. 
The couple finalized their divorce in 2010 just a few weeks before Lorezen was shot dead in a field in Memphis.

When the cold case broke in until 2017, Sherra now married to Montgomery County sheriff’s deputy, Reginald A. Robinson Sr., was arrested along with the alleged triggerman man, Billy Ray Turner, a church deacon. 
Prosecutors also said she’d received a $1million life insurance payout from Lorenzen’s death and had blown through it in just 10 months. Two years after her arrest, she pled guilty in 2019, accepting a plea deal that would make her eligible for parole after just nine years. However, Sherra Wright is now claiming that her confession was coerced and she wants it thrown out.
In a petition filed in court last March, she said she was bullied into making the confession because she’d been so worn down by jail guards, and because she feared for her children’s lives. 
In her filing, Sherra did not recant her admission to plotting the murder of Lorenzen, focusing instead on procedural issues she says provide enough grounds to have her conviction overturned. 

On Tuesday, the case was due to go before a judge in downtown Memphis but her attorney was not present and the judge adjourned the case. 
Wright filed a petition for relief last March, claiming that she only ever confessed because she had been worn down so much in custody that she suffered a mental breakdown, and because her family was being threatened.
She wrote that she didn’t have an attorney currently, and asked the judge to appoint her one.
In her petition, she alleged that she was ‘abused on a nightly bases’ by female guards – including one who is the second cousin of the victim – and was deliberately isolated from other inmates so they wouldn’t witness the abuse. 

The lawyers also say that she wasn’t given proper counsel and that her original lawyer, Steve Farese Jr., who they said didn’t hire an investigator as part of the defense. 
The new attorney alleges that Farese Jr. manipulated Wright and her family and never intended to represent her best interest. 
Farese Jr. and Wright’s other attorney Blake Ballin withdrew from the case in 2018, before Wright plead guilty.
Wright pleaded guilty in June 2019.
At the time, her attorney said: ‘“We have been working towards this for about a month or so. 
‘Since we suspected Billy Ray Turner was going to testify against her, our defense was going to be that Sherra recruited Billy to kill Lorenzen because he had beaten Sherra for years.’ 
In an ABC 20/20 special after the murder, friends of Lorenzen said that Sherra always wanted his money. 
‘That girl is crazy. She put moves on him that they don’t do in Mississippi.’ 

Pastor Bill Adkins said, ‘When she saw Lorenzen, she saw a future with a millionaire.’ 
Lorenzen and Wright had six children together. During his 13-year career, Lorenzen played for the Los Angeles Clippers, Atlanta Hawks, Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings and Cleveland Cavaliers, collecting around $55.5 million in salary.
It took Wright just 10 months to spend $973,000 of the $1 million pay-out she received from his death, buying a new home, expensive trips to New York and two cars.
On Tuesday, Lorenzen’s mother was at the court for the hearing. 
She spoke to reporters afterwards to say she would welcome a trial because she didn’t think the 30 years Sherra was given as part of the plea deal was long enough. 
‘I’ve got a lot of questions today. This is ludicrous. I want her to get a new trial. I want a trial. Give me a trial.
‘You’re going to get what you deserve at a trial…all the facts can get out. Thirty years wasn’t right. Somebody needs to do life. I want a trial. 
‘I don’t care what they say – she shot my son in the face. It isn’t over,’ she said.