Nancy Kissel, dubbed the "Milkshake Murderer," was found guilty of killing her husband in 2003 after drugging him with a cocktail of sedatives in their luxury apartment in one of Hong Kong's most sensational cases.
In turning down Kissel's appeal against her conviction and life sentence, Michael Stuart-Moore, the Court of Appeal judge who presided over the case, said there was "no merit" in any of her grounds for appeal.
"This was as cogent a case of murder as might be imagined," said the written ruling of three judges, handed down by Stuart-Moore.
The crime, which unravelled as a heady mix of adultery, domestic violence, spying, greed and enormous wealth, gripped the former British colony and shocked the expatriate community.
Kissel, 44, who wore a black dress and dark-rimmed glasses, sat motionless for a few seconds after hearing the verdict. She needed the support of four security guards to prevent her from falling as she was finally escorted from the court.
Her mother Jean McGlothlin, flanked by a small group of Kissel's friends, said her daughter would appeal the ruling, this time to the city's highest court, in her ongoing battle for justice.
"We are very disappointed," McGlothlin told reporters outside court.
"We know that this case has merit. The sentence is not justified by the evidence ... The Court of Final Appeal is going to look at it with integrity and that's the way it should be discussed."
Kissel killed her high-flying husband Robert by adding the sedatives to his milkshake and then bludgeoning him to death with a family ornament.
The mother-of-three disposed of the investment banker's body by rolling it up in an old carpet, before hiring workmen to carry it to her storage room.
She continued to sleep in the same room as the body for several nights, according to court testimony.
Kissel's defence team painted her as a loving but long-suffering wife who had been subjected to regular sexual and physical abuse by a husband who abused cocaine and alcohol, and spied on her emails using special computer software.
During the trial, she told the court that her husband was trying to beat her with a baseball bat before the killing and that she was only acting in self defence. She also said that she had no memory of the series of cover-up activities she embarked on after the murder.
Prosecutors in the 2005 trial claimed Kissel stood to gain up to 18 million US dollars in insurance payouts from the investment banker's death.
Their case was that Kissel wanted to grab the money and run away with her lover, a TV repairman living in New Hampshire.
The Kissel family suffered a further tragedy in 2006, when Robert's brother Andrew was murdered in his house in Connecticut, found bound with multiple stab wounds.
The family's saga has become the subject of a book and even an American film showed on television.
McGlothlin said her daughter is very frail after three years of prison.
"She's often transported in a wheelchair. But her spirit is strong, her will is strong," she said.
