Pennsylvania Neuroscientist Guilty in Wife’s Death

A Pennsylvania neuroscientist is guilty in wife’s death through cyanide poisoning.

Dr. Robert Ferrante, a University of Pittsburgh researcher, faced a mandatory life sentence in the April 2013 death of his wife, 41-year-old neurologist Dr. Autumn Klein. Jurors convicted him of first-degree murder on Friday.

The Klein family issued a statement through the district attorney’s office, saying, in part, “While we are pleased that the person responsible for Autumn’s death has been brought to justice, nothing will ever fill the emptiness that we feel in our family and in our hearts.”

People reported:

Ferrante will be formally sentenced on Feb. 4. A life sentence is mandatory in any first-degree murder case. Prosecutors declined to pursue the death penalty because they said they found no aggravating circumstances that would have made the killing a capital offense.

After the verdict, prosecutors thanked the various investigators, the jury and Klein’s relatives “for the quiet strength and dignity they have shown over the past year and a half.”