Woman pardoned after 20 years' jail for child deaths
The Guardian|June 06, 2023
An Australian woman who has spent 20 years in prison was pardoned and released yesterday, based on new scientific evidence that her four children had died by natural causes as she has always maintained.
Tamsin Rose, Jordyn Beazley
Woman pardoned after 20 years' jail for child deaths

Kathleen Folbigg had served most of a 25-year sentence since being convicted in 2003 of murdering three of her infant children, Patrick, Sarah and Laura, and of the manslaughter of another, Caleb.

Folbigg was pardoned by the New South Wales attorney general, Michael Daley, who yesterday released summary findings prepared by an inquiry into Folbigg's convictions, led by the former state chief justice Thomas Bathurst.

Bathurst told the attorney general that he had reached "a firm view that there was reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Ms Folbigg for each of the offences for which she was originally tried".

This prompted Daley to recommend to the state's governor that Folbigg be unconditionally pardoned and released immediately.

Bathurst advised there was a reasonable possibility that three of the children had died of natural causes. In the case of Sarah and Laura Folbigg, there was a reasonable possibility a genetic mutation known as CALM2 G114R had caused their deaths.

This story is from the June 06, 2023 edition of The Guardian.

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This story is from the June 06, 2023 edition of The Guardian.

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