The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear an unusually dramatic dispute: the case of a Pennsylvania suburbanite who allegedly tried to poison her husband's pregnant mistress.
The nation's highest court will reexamine the conviction of Carol Anne Bond for allegedly spreading poison around the home of her husband's mistress, who was also her best friend.
In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled Bond could challenge her conviction under a federal anti-terrorism law, and an appeals court ultimately upheld her six-year prison term.
Now the Supreme Court will hear the case a second time, this time reviewing the merits of the prosecution including whether prosecutors had a right to charge Bond under the Chemical Weapons Implementation Act.
The justices will consider Bond's argument that U.S. prosecutors had no business jumping into a "domestic dispute," especially using a law designed to police chemical weapons of mass destruction.
Bond is represented by legal superstar Paul Clement, who's best known for opposing Obamacare and spearheading the legal battle to preserve the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act.
Clement's Supreme Court petition in the case paints a sad and intimate story of the alleged betrayal that led to a 42-year-old suburbanite's conviction under a federal anti-terror law.
The drama began to unfold in 2006, when Bond's best friend Myrlinda Haynes announced her pregnancy. Bond, who couldn't have biological children of her own, was initially happy for her best friend.
But then she learned her own husband was the father, the petition claims.
"This double betrayal brought back painful memories of her father's infidelities, and petitioner suffered an emotional breakdown," the petition states. Her hair fell out. She had panic attacks.
During the emotional breakdown, she bought potassium dichromate from Amazon.com and spread it around Haynes' house with the intention of giving her former best friend a rash, Bond's lawyers say.
Ultimately, Haynes suffered only a tiny chemical burn on her thumb, according to Bond.
Federal prosecutors then overstepped their authority by prosecuting Bond under an international arms-control treaty meant to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, her lawyers argue.
"Domestic disputes resulting from marital infidelities and culminating in a thumb burn are appropriately handled by local law enforcement authorities," the petition stated.
The government argues Bond's conduct fell squarely within the anti-terrorism law. Haynes suffered 24 "chemical attacks" during a three-month period, forcing her to constantly have to check the area around her house for chemicals, the government says in its brief.
The government goes on to say that Bond "vowed revenge and promised she would make Haynes' life a living hell."
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