Ms Anna Maria Sacco faces a possible retrial following Saturday's jury discharge after a three-week trial.
When she was arraigned on May 11th, Ms Sacco, then 21, pleaded not guilty to the murder of her husband, Mr Franco Sacco (29), at their home at Coolamber Park, Templeogue, Dublin, on March 20th, 1997.
The trial jury retired at 5.10 p.m. on Friday last, Ms Sacco's 22nd birthday and the third anniversary of her marriage.
It was discharged at 5.30 p.m. on Saturday, having disagreed on a verdict. Ms Sacco was remanded on continuing bail to appear at the hearing of the next list on June 25th to fix trial dates in the Central Criminal Court.
During the trial the State's case was that a teenage girl shot Mr Sacco on Ms Sacco's behalf. The girl, now 16, cannot be named for legal reasons. She has already pleaded guilty to the murder and is due to be sentenced next month.
When the jury first retired on Friday evening, it was directed to reach a unanimous verdict. Shortly after 12.30 p.m. on Saturday Mr Justice O'Higgins told the members they could reach a majority verdict of at least 10.
When the jury was recalled at 5.25 p.m. it had deliberated for almost eight hours. At that stage, the jury keeper told the judge the jurors were "voting".
However, two minutes later, when they returned to the jury box, the foreman told the court registrar, Ms Siobhan Hayes, that they had not been able to reach a verdict.
Mr Justice O'Higgins asked if there was any prospect of them being able to agree one within the legal requirements. "No, there isn't," the foreman replied.
The judge then thanked the members "on behalf of the community" for the care they had taken.
It had been a very difficult and distressing case and he was sure all of them were "feeling the strain".
He told them: "You should not in any way reproach yourselves for not being able to reach a verdict in the case."
It was "perhaps unfortunate" that they had been unable to agree, but it was much better that they should disagree than that any one of them not do justice to their own view of the evidence.
On Friday he had said of the case: "It's not soap opera, it's not entertainment, it's real life".