 In 2000 , represented by a new legal team , Green filed a request for a new trial on the basis of having been rendered incompetent by the psychiatric medications she was taking at the time of her hearings . She alleged that her original attorneys had failed to represent her adequately , instead focusing on avoiding a trial and the death penalty . She withdrew the request when prosecutors determined that they would seek the death penalty if a new trial was awarded . When , in 2004 , the Kansas Supreme Court ruled the state 's death penalty unconstitutional , she filed a second request for a new trial based on a claim of " manifest injustice " . Green 's attorneys claimed that new scientific techniques invalidated the evidence that the fire had been caused by arson . The request was denied in February 2005 . 
