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Updated June 9, 2006, 6:04 p.m. ET
Closing arguments will go on for Susan Polk, over her objections


Susan Polk
Susan Polk, who is representing herself in her murder trial, told a judge she needed more time to prepare her closing argument.

MARTINEZ, Calif. — Closing arguments will be delivered Monday in the murder trial of Susan Polk, despite the defendant's claims over the past two days that she is tired and unprepared to go on.

"The long and short of it is: I need time," Polk told the judge Friday morning during a final hearing before jurors were read instructions.

Polk's request to delay the proceedings was denied.

Polk, who is defending herself against the first-degree stabbing death of her psychologist husband, said she was taken by surprise when the prosecution rested Thursday.

She lined up surrebuttal witnesses, she said, but had not properly completed her research, review and redrafting of the proposed instructions, nor her closing argument.

Polk complained that she had little sleep in her jail cell with other inmates' screams at night, that she was only given small pencils to write with and that deputies were harassing her and threatening her with keys.

"I use the weekend to catch up on my sleep," Polk said.

The judge was unmoved.

"I don't think there is a sufficient basis here for delaying our jury any longer," Judge Laurel Brady ruled.

After the panel was excused, Polk asked for a mistrial for judicial bias, accusing the judge of making gestures toward her and sipping from a coffee mug.

"There was a bit of 'mugging' going on from the bench," Polk said sharply.

"I don't even know how to address this. My mouth was dry," Brady said, laughing for the first time in weeks of sitting stone-faced through similar accusations.

Jurors are expected to get the case by the end of court Monday.

Polk, 48, unsuccessfully fought to exclude manslaughter as an option on the verdict form. She claims she stabbed her 70-year-old husband Felix Polk in self-defense after he beat her, and that he had a heart attack from his own rage during the altercation.

The prosecutor was granted his request for a special instruction, which would essentially state that jurors could believe that Polk suffered from delusions or unreasonable beliefs and still find her guilty of murder.

Polk argued that, while two of her three sons testified that she was delusional and the prosecutor elicited testimony from an expert witness about the definition of delusional disorders, the testimony was not evidence and her son gave lay opinions.

Polk has accused the court and district attorney of perpetuating her husband's "smear campaign." She says Felix "brainwashed" their children to believe she suffered from delusions.

If she is found guilty of first-degree murder, she faces 25 years to life in prison.



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