Kathleen Folbigg spent 20 years in an Australian prison accused of the deaths of her four children. New scientific evidence has now led to her release and an unconditional pardon.
New South Wales Attorney General Michael Daley told reporters he had recommended that Folbigg be pardoned based on preliminary findings from a second inquiry into her guilt by former state Chief Justice Tom Bathurst.
Bathurst has been reviewing Folbigg’s 2003 convictions of the manslaughter of her son Caleb, the infliction of grievous bodily harm on her son Patrick and the murders of her children Patrick, Sarah and Laura.
“I have reached the view that there is reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Ms. Folbigg for each of these offenses,” Bathurst wrote in a memo he sent to Daley last week, citing medical and genetic evidence, as well as the conduct of the trial.
Folbigg was serving 30 years in prison and would not have been eligible for parole until 2028, five years before the end of her sentence. Bathurst’s final report could recommend that her convictions be overturned.
“She is very, very happy,” New South Wales lawmaker Sue Higginson told NBC News. “I have had messages that there have been tears, there’s laughter, there’s hugs with her friends and that she is seeing life now very differently from how it’s been for the last 20 years.”
Higginson also said she thinks “it’s absolutely inevitable that her convictions will be overturned,” adding, “What we’ve seen now is clear evidence, as well.”
An earlier inquiry, which ended in 2019, concluded that there was no reasonable doubt about Folbigg’s guilt. The second inquiry was prompted by a 2021 petition in which 90 scientists and medical professionals argued that new scientific evidence “creates a strong presumption that the Folbigg children died of natural causes.”
“The entire time that Kathleen Folbigg has been in custody is a result of a miscarriage of justice,” they argued.
Folbigg was convicted of manslaughter in the 1989 death of her first child, Caleb, who was 19 days old. She was convicted of murder in the deaths of her three other children: Patrick in 1991 at 8 months, Sarah in 1993 at 10 months and Laura in 1999 at 19 months. Folbigg said she discovered all of the deaths.
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