(cont'd)
To fit the police theory, Lu would have had to silently bludgeon her husband to unconsciousness; undress and reclothe the body in underclothes, pajamas and outdoor clothes; then move the body, at least 18 kilograms heavier than her own, down two steep flights of stairs and into the backyard. After that, she would have scrubbed the floor. All without disturbing the neighbours.
The theory is that Lu managed to do this without leaving any discernable footprints in the snow and without suffering a single scratch to herself; leaving no sign of struggle at the scene or on her husband's body - and without breaking a single one of her talon-like fingernails.
"When they were examining my fingernails I couldn't figure out why and then I saw how long they were," she said. "None of them were broken. Not even a chip."
Lu says she never fully understood the legal process in which she was involved. She had 10 minutes with an interpreter before the start of her third trial to hear and consider the plea bargain.
Lu says she did not know her immigration status would be revoked, although it is contained in a statement of fact agreed to by her lawyer.
"At that time, I knew I was going to jail. My mind was not [on my immigration status]. I was scared and I knew I was going to jail.
"I just signed the paper."
Lu didn't know, until she was told by a reporter, that pathologists couldn't confirm that the meat cleaver was the murder weapon.
"In the trial, I had a translator, but you can't translate every word. There isn't time."
There was also a suicide attempt.
Prior to her first trial, Lu drank a bottle of windshield washer fluid at the graveside of her dead husband. Since it had a picture of a skull and crossbones on it, she believed it to be poison.
With murder charges pending, Lu had lost face in the Chinese community and felt she could not longer go on.
Before drinking the windshield washer fluid, she wrote a cheque for $3,000 to her social worker, so the government would not be burdened with the cost of her burial.
It's an indication of Lu's character that convinces those who know her - among them a police officer, the members of her church, her husband, her employer, a parole officer, a psychiatrist and the head of the Elizabeth Fry Society - of her innocence.
Trish Crawford is executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society and has worked with offenders for 15 years. She met Lu when she was serving time at Prison for Women and continued to work with her after her release.
"This is not just about a woman who made Canada her home. This is a person about whom there are serious questions whether she ever committed a crime," Crawford said.
From the start, Crawford was not convinced of Lu's guilt. "Our reviews.... have always indicated that the evidence around this conviction was largely circumstantial," Crawford said.
"In the years we were supporting her, not only was Lucy a model citizen, but she was doing everything she could to improve her own situation.
"She never presented any security concerns and she never exhibited any attitude or behaviour that would suggest she was capable of killing someone."
Lu was paroled at the earliest possible date, she was never involved in subsequent criminal activity and she continued to rent an apartment from Elizabeth Fry until she was married last October.
Psychiatrist J.A. Chandu-Lall saw Lu in 1993, at the time of her first deportation appeal. "I have considerable doubt as to her ever having murdered or being an accomplice to her husband's death," wrote Chandu-Lall.
Brian Begbie, a Kingston Police officer and a member of the congregation of Calvary Bible Church, expressed a similar position. "The thought of Lucy possibly having been involved in the incident for which she was convicted just doesn't seem to fit her character," Begbie wrote.
For some supporters, Lu's guilt or innocence is irrelevant, in view of the possibility that she could be retried and executed for the crime if she is deported to China.
Thursday, the Canadian Union of Public Employees joined the Canadian Auto Workers and the Union of National Defence Employees in condemning Lu's deportation.
Whether she is guilty as charged is beside the point. Ms. Lu has already served time for manslaughter," said Dave Cornwall, local CUPE president.
"It's just plain wrong for our Canadian government to send this woman back to a country where we know she will most certainly be executed."
