The Supreme Court has rejected a special appeal for a retrial for a 78-year-old woman who was convicted and served time for murdering her brother-in-law in 1979, her lawyers said Wednesday.

The top court upheld a high court decision that new evidence presented in the case was not sufficient to hold a new trial, they said.

Ayako Haraguchi, who served a 10-year prison term, said Wednesday in Kagoshima that she will consult with her lawyers about Monday's decision and will continue to try to have her name cleared.

In October 1979, Kunio Nakamura, a 42-year-old farmer, was found dead in a cattle barn near his home in the town of Osaki, Kagoshima Prefecture.

Haraguchi and three others -- Nakamura's two brothers and one of his nephews -- were charged with murder. The two brothers confessed to the slaying.

The Kagoshima District Court ruled Nakamura had been strangled with a towel, and sentenced Haraguchi to 10 years and the brothers to seven years each for murder and abandoning a corpse. The nephew was given one year for abandoning a corpse.

The three men did not appeal, but Haraguchi went all the way to the Supreme Court.

Haraguchi and the nephew filed for a retrial in 1995 after serving their sentences.

Their defense team presented the court with a document that said there was a possibility the death might have been caused by Nakamura falling and breaking his neck that day.