Who is Robyn Naismith from Cruel & Unusual: A Novel and what is their importance?

Robyn Naismith was a television reporter. Ten years before the novel begins, Robyn returned home from the store to find a man burglarizing her house. She was attacked and viciously murdered. Afterward, a friend came to check on her and found her body propped up against the television. Robyn's killer was convicted and sentenced to death. In the weeks after his death, however, it appears that the killer somehow escaped death row and began killing again.

It later turns out that Robyn was having an affair with then district attorney Joe Norring, although he was a married man. He went on to become governor of Virginia, and he used his influence to have a man released from jail and his fingerprints changed, sp he could return to Robyn's house and find the briefcase Norring left behind.