Idaho death row inmate Robin Row to have court-appointed mental health exam

BOISE, Idaho (KBOI) — The only woman facing the death penalty in Idaho has been booked into the Ada County Jail this week for a court-appointed mental health exam.

According to Idaho court records, Row is having a clinical interview at the Ada County Jail with a doctor for the state to defend against claims being raised in Row's upcoming hearing in June.

The 59-year-old Boise woman was convicted of killing her husband and two children by setting their home on fire in the early 1990s.

On Feb. 10, 1992, Robin Row woke McHugh up at about 3 a.m., saying she had a feeling that something was wrong with her house.

The two drove over to the duplex, which was in flames and surrounded by emergency vehicles. Paramedics told Robin Row that her children and husband had been found dead.

Fire investigators later concluded that someone had intentionally set the fire, feeding the flames with a hot-burning petroleum product. The home's circuit breaker for the smoke detector was also shut off, and the furnace fan was set to run continuously, feeding the flames and circulating the smoke throughout the house. All three victims died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Days later detectives learned that Row had lost other children under suspicious circumstances years earlier: A baby who investigators said died of sudden infant death syndrome and a son who was killed in a 1980 California house fire that investigators ruled accidental. At that point, according to court records, police began to focus their investigation on Row.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.