Lawyer says Dippolito, in prison, still wants to be ‘vindicated’

Upcoming ‘20/20’ episode to include new interviews

There’s still no quit in Dalia Dippolito, the former South Florida woman and viral video star serving a 16-year prison term for trying to arrange the murder of her husband.

She’s lost every appeal since her 2017 sentencing but remains confident about clearing her name.

“Every time I talk to Dalia in jail, she is still determined to get a new trial and get vindicated,” her trial attorney, Brian Claypool, said in an interview for ABC’s “20/ 20.”

The two-hour episode, titled “Down Payment on Death,” debuts at 9 p.m. Friday, combining previously aired footage with new interviews. It’s presented by co-anchor Amy Robach.

Claypool, who represented Dippolito for her trials in 2016 and 2017, said his former client’s experience in a prison near Ocala has been “a roller coaster ride.”

The baby she had while under house arrest is now 4 and being raised by his maternal grandmother and an aunt. Before the new coronavirus pandemic, they visited the prison often, with the child.

“It’s very painful for Dalia to be in jail and to not be around her son,” said Claypool, who works in Pasadena, Calif., and serves as a legal commentator on national television news shows. “It’s breaking her heart.”

In February, the U.S. Supreme Court put an end to Dippolito’s hopes for a fourth trial on the charge of solicitation to commit first-degree murder. The justices declined to review whether her claim of being set up by police was unfairly blocked from going to the jury.

The case became an international sensation in the summer of 2009, when she was arrested in Boynton Beach and charged with hiring a cop posing as a hit man to kill her newlywed husband.

One video shows her meeting with the pretend contract killer and telling him she was “like 5,000% sure” she wanted unsuspecting spouse Michael Dippolito to get two bullets to the head.

Claypool argued police concocted the murder-for-hire crime to impress the producers of the “COPS” television program.

Prosecutors said Dippolito’s motive was pure greed, and they also presented testimony that she had previously tried to poison her husband by spiking his tea with antifreeze.

The new “20 / 20” episode includes trial highlights as well as a new interview with the undercover officer, Widy Jean.

The Dippolitos divorced after her arrest. She never remarried, and the public had no idea she was pregnant while awaiting what turned out to be her second trial.

The lead prosecutor suggested Dippolito had hoped to use the baby “as a weapon” to gain sympathy from the jury.

According to state records, the 37-year-old Dippolito is set to be released on April 6, 2032, when her son will be 16.

LANNIS WATERS/AP Dalia Dippolito reaches out as she is taken into custody after being found guilty in her third attempted murder trial on June 16, 2017, in West Palm Beach.