Citing discrepancies in circumstantial evidence, Harvard Law School Professor Alan M. Dershowitz questioned yesterday the integrity of a murder conviction lodged against his most recent client, a New York woman accused of hiring her cousin to kill her estranged husband.

Mazoltuv Borukhova, a Queens doctor, was convicted in March of first-degree murder after her cousin, Mikhail Mallayev, shot and killed her husband execution style in front of their 4-year-old daughter in a playground. In the midst of a heated custody dispute, Borukhova allegedly lured her husband to the playground where she had hired Mallayev to carry out the murder.

But in an interview with The Crimson yesterday, Dershowitz said the prosecution’s case prior to the conviction rested solely on circumstantial evidence that failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Borukhova had hired Mallayev to kill her husband, an orthodontist.

“That might happen on television but that’s not real life,” said Dershowitz, who plans to appeal the verdict, providing pro bono counsel after Borukhova’s family pleaded with him to take the case.

The trial against Borukhova and Mallayev was fraught with procedural difficulties that included hasty rescheduling to accommodate the judge’s vacation, Dershowitz’s brother Nathan, who is also helping with the case, told The New York Times. As a result, the prosecution received more time to prepare their closing argument than the defense.

But contrary to the Times report yesterday, Dershowitz said the appeal would not focus on qualms over trial procedure, but would seek to prove the innocence of Borukhova.

The prosecution’s case largely rested on phone records logging contact between Borukhova and Mallayev in the days leading up to the murder. Dershowitz questioned the content of those conversations yesterday, saying there was no proof that Borukhova directed Mallayev to kill her husband in those phone calls.

Borukhova has said she had provided Mallayev and his wife medical advice during the calls.

Proving that Borukhova had hired Mallayev posed a challenge for prosecutors who had records of Mallayev depositing $20,000 days before the murder but no record of Borukhova making a comparable withdrawal.

According to Dershowitz, Borukhova’s salary could not possibly have allowed her to pay Mallayev such a large lump sum.

In addition, Dershowitz said the prosecution had presented an implausible motive for the crime over the course of the trial. He described his client as a loving mother who would not have wanted her daughter’s father dead, let alone executed in front of the young child.

“She is a very devoted mother,” Dershowitz said. “Would she actually hire someone to kill her husband?”

By retaining Dershowitz as her attorney, Borukhova joins the ranks of some of this country’s most notorious defendants—Patricia Hearst, Leona Helmsley, Mike Tyson, Michael Milken and O.J. Simpson.

—Staff writer Elias J. Groll can be reached at egroll@fas.harvard.edu.