Florida Department of Corrections/Facebook Dalia Dippolito
On May 15, at 9 p.m. ET., ABC’s 20/20 will explore the case of Dalia Dippolito. In the summer of 2009, Dippolito was arrested in Boynton Beach, Florida, after hiring an undercover cop posing as a hitman to murder her husband, Michael Dippolito. The police staged a fake murder scene and captured Dippolito’s reaction on camera before ultimately charging her with solicitation to commit murder.
Over the next few years, Dippolito was on trial three different times. She was first convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2011. This was thrown out in 2014, and her retrial in 2016 led to a hung jury. At her third trial, in 2017, she was found guilty of solicitation to commit first-degree murder after just 90 minutes of jury deliberation. The 37-year-old was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
What is the latest with Dippolito’s case? Where is Dippolito today?
Dippolito Is Serving Her Sentence at the Lowell Correctional Institution & Her Legal Team Is Seeking a New Trial
Florida Department of CorrectionsLowell Correctional Institution
Dippolito was sentenced to 16 years in prison, which she is serving at the Lowell Correctional Institution, also known as the Lowell Annex. The Annex is a women’s prison with a 1,500-inmate capacity located in Ocala, Florida, northwest of Orlando. According to state records, Dippolito’s release date is set for April 6, 2032.
In September 2019, the Florida Supreme Court rejected a request to review her conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear her case in February 2020. Dippolito’s attorney, Brian Claypool, told Heavy, “We plan on filing in the near future a Federal Writ of Habeus Corpus petition outlining several constitutional due process violations that occurred during Dalia’s third trial. Thus we still have one last hope for a new trial that we believe is warranted.”
He said that Dippolito is “cautiously optimistic” about this federal writ, and she hasn’t given up hope that she will receive a new trial.
Claypool has been Dippolito’s lawyer since her first trial ended, and he told ABC: “She was never a career criminal. In fact, Dalia Dippolito didn’t even have a criminal record when this all went down. Dalia is resilient. She has not given up hope for getting a new trial.”
Dippolito Is Keeping Busy During Her Prison Sentence & Sees Her Son as Frequently as Possible
In a new interview for Friday’s #ABC2020, Dalia Dippolito’s attorney Brian Claypool said she sees her 4-year-old son “on a regular basis” and that his grandmother and aunt are caring for him while Dippolito serves out her prison sentence. Friday at 9/8c. t.co/fkIqsGaE3a
Dippolito became pregnant when she was under house arrest at her mother’s home after her first conviction was thrown out. In 2016, she gave birth to a boy, who is now being cared for by Dippolito’s mother. Claypool, Dippolito’s attorney, said, “It is breaking her heart to not be with her little boy.”
Claypool told Heavy that normally she is able to see her son at least once a month during prison visits. However, she hasn’t been able to see her son since the COVID-19 outbreak canceled in-person visits at Florida prisons, which has been difficult for Dippolito. The Lowell Annex, where Dippolito is serving her sentence, has had zero inmates test positive for COVID-19, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Claypool said Dippolito has been keeping busy in prison during her sentence, working in the cafeteria during the day. He said she is also leading a bible study group. He told ABC that Dippolito is “very well respected in jail for her faith.”
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