A woman who confessed to the murder of her NBA star ex-husband is now saying that she was coerced into admitting to the crime.
Sherra Wright was arrested in 2017 along with another man. She subsequently pleaded guilty in 2019 and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder of husband Lorenzen Wright, who played 13 years in the NBA.
His body was found riddled with bullets in 2010 in a Memphis field. The case went unsolved for seven years until Sherra’s arrest. Prosecutors believe that the motive was a $1 million life insurance payout that she was set to receive. However, court docs showed that she blew through the money in a 10-month span.
Now, Sherra is asking a judge to throw out the ruling. In a petition filed last March, the woman claims she was pressured into confessing being worn down by jail guards. She also says she confessed because she feared for her children’s lives. However, she did not deny killing Lorenzen in the filing but focused more on the confession circumstances.
Sherra claims she was “abused on a nightly basis” by female guards and was purposefully isolated from other inmates to hide the abuse. Her lawyers also stated in the documents that she was not granted proper counsel during her initial defense.
The case was scheduled to be heard by a judge in downtown Memphis on Tuesday, but since her attorney was not present, the judge adjourned the hearing.
