06-06-2023, 03:20 PM
An Australian woman who's served 20 years in prison for murdering her four children may be innocent. There's sufficient reasonable doubt for her to have been released & pardoned.
What a tragic series of events, poor woman. I hope she can prove her innocence & be awarded compensation for the years served, damage to reputation etc. etc. This is even worse than the Chamberlain case.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/04/austr...index.html
ÔÇ£This has been a terrible ordeal for everyone concerned and I hope that our actions today can put some closure on this 20-year-old matter,ÔÇØ said Daley, who added that he had informed Craig Folbigg,┬á┬á[b]the babiesÔÇÖ father, of his decision. ÔÇ£It will be a tough day for him,ÔÇØ he said.[/b]
Kathleen Folbigg was jailed in 2003 on three counts of murder and one of manslaughter following the deaths of her four babies over a decade from 1989. In each case, she was the person who found their bodies, though there was no physical evidence that she had caused their deaths.
Instead, the jury relied on the prosecutionÔÇÖs argument that the chances of four babies from one family dying from natural causes before the age of 2 were so infinitesimally low as to be compared to pigs flying.
The police investigation into the deaths of all four children began the day Laura died, but it was more than two years before Folbigg was arrested and charged. By then, the coupleÔÇÖs marriage had fallen apart, and Craig was cooperating with police to build a case against her.
He handed police her diaries, which prosecutors argued contained the deepest thoughts of a mother tortured by guilt for her role in her childrenÔÇÖs deaths.
Examination of the babiesÔÇÖ remains failed to find any physical evidence theyÔÇÖd been suffocated, but without another plausible reason to explain their deaths, suspicion focused on Kathleen, their primary carer.
In the case of the two girls ÔÇô Sarah and Laura ÔÇô Bathurst found there was a ÔÇ£reasonable possibilityÔÇØ a genetic mutation known as CALM2-G114R ÔÇ£occasioned their deaths,ÔÇØ and that Sarah may have died from myocarditis, inflammation of the heart, identified during her autopsy.
In the case of Patrick, who had an unexplained ALTE, an apparent life-threatening event, when he was 4 months old and died at 8 months, Bathurst found that itÔÇÖs possible his death was caused by an underlying neurogenic disorder.
During FolbiggÔÇÖs 2003 trial, the prosecution used ÔÇ£coincidence and tendencyÔÇØ evidence to allege that Folbigg had also killed Caleb. In other words, that having been allegedly responsible for the deaths of three children, it was likely she killed him, too.
However, Bathurst found that the reasonable doubt over FolbiggÔÇÖs role in his siblingsÔÇÖ deaths meant that the prosecutionÔÇÖs case against her for CalebÔÇÖs murder ÔÇ£falls away.ÔÇØ
What a tragic series of events, poor woman. I hope she can prove her innocence & be awarded compensation for the years served, damage to reputation etc. etc. This is even worse than the Chamberlain case.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/04/austr...index.html
"A woman condemned as┬áAustraliaÔÇÖs┬áworst female serial killer┬áhas been pardoned after serving 20 years behind bars for killing her four children in what appears to be one of the┬ácountryÔÇÖs gravest miscarriages of justice.
New South Wales Attorney General Michael Daley intervened to order┬áKathleen Folbigg┬ábe freed, based on the preliminary findings of an inquiry that had found ÔÇ£reasonable doubtÔÇØ as to her guilt for all four deaths.ÔÇ£This has been a terrible ordeal for everyone concerned and I hope that our actions today can put some closure on this 20-year-old matter,ÔÇØ said Daley, who added that he had informed Craig Folbigg,┬á┬á[b]the babiesÔÇÖ father, of his decision. ÔÇ£It will be a tough day for him,ÔÇØ he said.[/b]
Kathleen Folbigg was jailed in 2003 on three counts of murder and one of manslaughter following the deaths of her four babies over a decade from 1989. In each case, she was the person who found their bodies, though there was no physical evidence that she had caused their deaths.
Instead, the jury relied on the prosecutionÔÇÖs argument that the chances of four babies from one family dying from natural causes before the age of 2 were so infinitesimally low as to be compared to pigs flying.
Folbigg┬áwas just 20 years old when she married Craig Folbigg,┬áwho sheÔÇÖd met in her hometown of Newcastle on the northern New South Wales coast.
Within a year she fell pregnant with Caleb, who was born in February, 1989 and lived only 19 days. The next year, the Folbiggs had another son, Patrick, who died at eight months. Two years later, Sarah died at 10 months. Then in 1999, the coupleÔÇÖs fourth and longest lived child, Laura, died at 18 months.The police investigation into the deaths of all four children began the day Laura died, but it was more than two years before Folbigg was arrested and charged. By then, the coupleÔÇÖs marriage had fallen apart, and Craig was cooperating with police to build a case against her.
He handed police her diaries, which prosecutors argued contained the deepest thoughts of a mother tortured by guilt for her role in her childrenÔÇÖs deaths.
Examination of the babiesÔÇÖ remains failed to find any physical evidence theyÔÇÖd been suffocated, but without another plausible reason to explain their deaths, suspicion focused on Kathleen, their primary carer.
In the case of the two girls ÔÇô Sarah and Laura ÔÇô Bathurst found there was a ÔÇ£reasonable possibilityÔÇØ a genetic mutation known as CALM2-G114R ÔÇ£occasioned their deaths,ÔÇØ and that Sarah may have died from myocarditis, inflammation of the heart, identified during her autopsy.
In the case of Patrick, who had an unexplained ALTE, an apparent life-threatening event, when he was 4 months old and died at 8 months, Bathurst found that itÔÇÖs possible his death was caused by an underlying neurogenic disorder.
During FolbiggÔÇÖs 2003 trial, the prosecution used ÔÇ£coincidence and tendencyÔÇØ evidence to allege that Folbigg had also killed Caleb. In other words, that having been allegedly responsible for the deaths of three children, it was likely she killed him, too.
However, Bathurst found that the reasonable doubt over FolbiggÔÇÖs role in his siblingsÔÇÖ deaths meant that the prosecutionÔÇÖs case against her for CalebÔÇÖs murder ÔÇ£falls away.ÔÇØ
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)
