Convicted wife killer Paul Allen, whose conviction for aggravated murder was upheld by the Utah Supreme Court in August, has filed a petition in federal court challenging his prison sentence.

Allen, who currently is representing himself, has asked the U.S. District Court for a writ of habeas corpus and wants a court-appointed attorney to help him.

Allen, now 39, was convicted in 2nd District Court of hiring a hit man through a middleman to murder his wife, Jill Allen, 24. She was found dead in their apartment in 1996.

After an emotional 13-day trial in 2000, Allen was found guilty and was sentenced to life in prison but received the possibility of parole.

In a hand-printed petition to the U.S. District Court filed this month, Allen states that he received ineffective help from his trial attorneys and later from appellate lawyers, that his original trial was "fundamentally unfair," and that the state district court was biased toward prosecutors.

Among other things, he also raises questions about whether the jury was confused by the instructions it received.

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball.

State prosecutors insisted Allen is guilty and arranged the murder of his wife through two other men so he could provide himself with an alibi, not endure a costly divorce, and collect a $250,000 insurance policy on his wife.

Prosecutors said Allen offered Joseph Wright $30,000 to kill Jill Allen and Wright, in turn, paid another man, George Anthony Taylor, $10,000 to actually commit the murder. Taylor said he waited for Jill Allen to come home, beat her with a handgun and baseball bat, and strangled her with a belt.

Both Wright and Taylor testified against Allen at his trial, and both of them received prison terms for their roles in the killing.

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E-mail: lindat@desnews.com