The chief judge of Wayne County Circuit Court has urged Gov. Jennifer Granholm to commute the life prison sentence of a former Westland woman who was convicted in 1993 of killing her boyfriend as he slept.

"Unfortunate cases such as this bring home the fact that our legal system is not perfect, as well that the appellate process does not cure each imperfection," Judge Mary Beth Kelly wrote Monday in a two-page letter to Granholm...

Hargrave-Thomas, 53, who is free on bond, was convicted of first-degree murder in a bench trial in 1993 for stabbing Joseph Bernal, 42, through the heart in the bedroom of his Westland home in 1991. A prosecutor argued that Hargrave-Thomas was enraged because Bernal had changed his mind about marrying her.