Kathleen Folbigg's case has supercharged calls for a better system of post-conviction review in Australia, so that others who claim to have been wrongly convicted don't languish in prison for years. 9News
had her first child at 21, and like most new moms kept a diary of the times her baby fed, slept, burped and bathed.
At the same time, the case has supercharged calls for a better system of post-conviction review in Australia, so that others who claim to have been wrongly convicted don't languish in prison for years."Today is a victory for science and especially truth," Folbigg said after her release in a video filmed at a rural property in northern New South Wales, where she is recuperating before taking her case back to the Court of Criminal Appeal to have her convictions quashed.
Sarah died during the night in 1993 when she was 10 months old, and finally Laura slipped away in 1999 aged 18 months. Emma Cunliffe, a professor at the University of British Columbia's Allard School of Law, who started studying trials of mothers accused of murder for her PhD in 2004, says she noticed a key difference in Folbigg's case.
" legal system failed Kathleen Folbigg," Cunliffe said. "We didn't need the genetics to know that this conviction was unreliable." "She is blaming herself. She does think that she's done something because no one's explained to her what's happened to those kids."Kathleen Folbigg's lawyer Rhanee Rego laughs with Tracy Chapman, after Kathleen Folbigg's release.In 2019, some of the world's leading genetic experts thought they had the answer.
But while the genetic evidence was accepted as a late submission, the retired judge leading the inquiry, Reginald Blanch, concluded that everything that he had heard and read "reinforces Folbigg's guilt." But more crucially, scientists explained that Folbigg and her daughters carried the CALM2-G114R variant, and that while it was totally new, a similar variant had been found in an American family, where a four-year-old boy died suddenly, and his five-year-old sister suffered a cardiac arrest.READ MORE:
The mothers are being accused of "medical child abuse" or "fabricated or induced illness by carers" – when carers harm otherwise healthy children or fabricate their symptoms to force hospital visits and medical tests. One mother in the United States, who declined to be named, told CNN that she worries that if she speaks out, it'll work against her and she could be imprisoned or lose access to her children, who have been taken from her as officials investigate the claims.
"Part of the profile is the mother has too much medical knowledge. She's overly interested in the medical situation, the mother is doctor-shopping," said Hayward-Brown, pointing out the fine line some mothers need to walk. She entered a cell the same year Concorde took its final flight, former US President George W Bush was claiming victory in Iraq, and MySpace was emerging as a new social network. The iPhone was still four years from its global launch.
Even after the scientific evidence was published, it took more than a year for the government to call a new inquiry and another year before Folbigg's pardon. Andrew Dyer, director of the Sydney Institute of Criminology, says that's due to a lack of political will in a country where society calls for harsh punishments for people found guilty of breaking the law.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Mothers accused of harming their babies turn to same science that freed Kathleen FolbiggKathleen Folbigg's case has supercharged calls for a better system of post-conviction review in Australia, so that others who claim to have been wrongly convicted don't languish in prison for years. 9News
Read more »
Australian Story's coverage of Kathleen Folbigg's case helped kickstart the scientific research that ultimately freed her. Here's howJournalist Quentin McDermott — who secured the first interview with Kathleen Folbigg from prison — gives an insight into Australian Story's investigation of her case over 20 years.
Read more »
Australia’s big test to back the AI good guysThere’s no escaping the rise of the AI era, and governments are trying to grease the wheels of invention, while stopping the baddies in their tracks.
Read more »
Fears Australia will follow New Zealand into recessionEconomists are warning Australians to expect further interest rate rises after higher-than-expected job figures were released yesterday. New Zealand has officially entered a technical recession, and there are fears Australia is about to follow suit.
Read more »
Netball Australia agrees to announce Diamonds squad amid CPA stand-offThe decision to extend the Collective Players Agreement means the Diamonds squad can be announced, concluding a stand-off between Netball Australia and the Australian Netball Players Association.
Read more »