Dalia Dippolito files appeal seeking fourth trial

Convicted murder-for-hire plotter Dalia Dippolito’s attorneys have filed an appeal seeking a fourth trial for the woman found guilty of hiring a cop posing as a hit man in a scheme to kill her husband.

Challenging Dippolito’s conviction and 16-year-prison sentence, the appeal claims she was denied a fair trial last June for four key reasons.

Chief among them is that the Palm Beach County jury heard an allegation she tried to poison her spouse by spiking his tea with antifreeze before connecting with the undercover Boynton Beach officer in the summer of 2009.

“Prosecutors may strike hard blows, but they are not at liberty to strike foul ones,” attorneys Andrew Greenlee and Greg Rosenfeld wrote in the appeal, contending the court “has no choice but to reverse.”

Recorded on police video, Dippolito’s efforts to arrange the murder of newlywed husband Michael Dippolito caused an international buzz and ranked among South Florida’s most notorious crimes of the past decade.

In her first trial in 2011, Dippolito was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison, but an appellate court later awarded her a new trial because of an issue concerning the same antifreeze claim.

Back then the problem was that a pool of prospective jurors heard the allegation, even though the judge had ruled it would not be permitted in the trial. Still, the judge denied a defense request to boot the entire pool and declare a mistrial.

The appeals court ruled it was a mistake: “Because it involved an attempt to kill the same victim, it was closely related to the pending charges and