BRENTWOOD — A former New Ipswich woman in prison for attempting to hire a hit man to murder the wife of a Manchester lawyer is now hoping a federal judge will toss out her sentence.

Katherine Mendola, 31, has filed a petition of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court in an effort to toss out her 2008 conviction of solicitation to commit murder in Rockingham County Superior Court.

On Friday, the new case was assigned to U.S. Judge Paul Barbadoro, a first step in the Mendola's efforts to have her prison sentence overturned. The state has yet to file a response.

Mendola is serving a 10- to 20-year state prison sentence. Prosecutors said she solicited an undercover state police trooper — posing as a hit man — in November 2007 to kill the wife of Manchester attorney B.J. Branch because she wanted a relationship with him.

There was never a relationship between Mendola and Branch, according to prosecutors.

But Mendola became obsessed with him as he represented her in a worker's compensation case that began back around 2004, according to prosecutors and court documents.

Mendola is now claiming that she suffers from a mental disability and that she was framed by her roommate and one-time boyfriend, who told police of Mendola's desire to hire someone for the killing.

She claims the roommate framed her by conducting searches on her computer, forging several documents in her name and by using her cell phone, according to the petition.

Mendola argues that she did not understand her proceedings at trial and was never given a psychiatric evaluation by the state.

At her 2008 trial, prosecutors showed a video of Mendola giving the undercover $1,000 to kill Branch's wife. Mendola's lawyers argued to jurors that it was her roommate who tipped off police that forced her into the murder-for-hire scheme.

Mendola's conviction was upheld by the state Supreme Court last July.