Australia: Kathleen Folbigg Inquest April 29, 2019 *PARDONED*

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Folbigg’s pardon yet another alarm bell for how science is used in the justice system

“Folbigg’s case is further evidence of rotting foundations. The system relies on non-independent experts and non-expert judges and jurors, and continues to give great weight to science that has been called into question.”

“There is no requirement on the state, when it calls scientific and expert evidence in criminal proceedings, that the technique be validated and reliable,” says Professor Gary Edmond, a member of the Council of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences.”
 
SouthAussie said:
They are saying on Ch7 News this morning that we will hear "within the hour" from Kathleen's lawyers.
I don't know if that means they plan to address the matters of a potential court appeal to quash the conviction and possible compensation.


I see that Lindy Chamberlain was awarded $1.3M in 1992 - from the NT Govt - for wrongfully spending 4 years in prison.
Henry Keogh was awarded $2.57M in 2014 - from the SA Govt - for wrongfully spending 20 years in prison.
David Eastman was awarded more that $7M in 2019 - from the ACT Govt - for wrongfully spending 20 years in prison.

Kathleen Folbigg may get millions in compensation after spending 20 years behind bars
Click to expand...

SAussie, What is the NT government?
And the ACT government?

Has this case been in the limelight 'forever'... or just now, mainly, because of the miscarriage of justice?
 
nhmemorymaker said:
SAussie, What is the NT government?
And the ACT government?

Has this case been in the limelight 'forever'... or just now, mainly, because of the miscarriage of justice?
Click to expand...
Northern Territory government
Australian Capital Territory government

And this case has been a big deal the whole time. The trial, the sentencing, the appeals. It was all over the media for over two decades. It was a national story, and Kathleen was painted as the dark, deadly, terrible mother who eats her young (not literally, but you get my meaning). The photos of her babies were everywhere, beautiful children.

I have to admit, I am struggling to assimilate this pardon. I was conditioned from a teenager to think of Kathleen as a monster. It should be enough that so many experts all over the world have said there is enough evidence that if the case were being tried today, it would not stand up to reasonable doubt. I love science. I love what it can do, the advances that have been made over the last few decades.

It should be enough, but I obviously absorbed enough media over those decades to still feel a chill and shudder when I see her face in articles.

I'll get there. It's just cognitive dissonance.

MOO
 
Last edited:
iamshadow21 said:
Northern Territory government
Australian Capital Territory government

And this case has been a big deal the whole time. The trial, the sentencing, the appeals. It was all over the media for over two decades. It was a national story, and Kathleen was painted as the dark, deadly, terrible mother who eats her young (not literally, but you get my meaning). The photos of her babies were everywhere, beautiful children.

I have to admit, I am struggling to assimilate this pardon. I was conditioned from a teenager to think of Kathleen as a monster. It should be enough that so many experts all over the world have said there is enough evidence that if the case were being tried today, it would not stand up to reasonable doubt. I love science. I love what it can do, the advances that have been made over the last few decades.

It should be enough, but I obviously absorbed enough media over those decades to still feel a chill and shudder when I see her face in articles.

I'll get there. It's just cognitive dissonance.

MOO
Click to expand...

Thanks so much iamshadow.... you actually discussed what was going through my mind... how were people handling the newer data, if she was made out to be a horrible person earlier.
 
nhmemorymaker said:
Thanks so much iamshadow.... you actually discussed what was going through my mind... how were people handling the newer data, if she was made out to be a horrible person earlier.
Click to expand...
As someone said further up the threads, quoting someone on Triple J... it was Lindy Chamberlain 2.0.

Lindy seems to have built a life for herself on the outside, after a very similar experience, so it can be done.

Kathleen seems to have a core group of longterm, loyal friends who fought doggedly for her release. I think her chances of reacclimatisation are better than most leaving prison after over twenty years. They'll be invaluable in helping her adjust and get up to speed.

MOO
 
TootsieFootsie said:
She had to leave the country to do it.
Click to expand...
If Kathleen is able to have her conviction overturned and is awarded compensation, hopefully she'll be able to afford to build a life wherever she wants to. If she wants that to be in Australia, then I hope she is able to do it here. But I absolutely would understand if she wants or needs to go somewhere else, anywhere but here. As a nation, we failed her. And I wish it wasn't the case, but the press will never leave her alone. I'd like to think that by living elsewhere, she could escape that, but spend five minutes on this site and you realise very quickly that the Daily Mail has long lenses EVERYWHERE. It's not enough to move outside the distribution radiuses of the Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph, The Newcastle Herald, and the other papers closest to the original crime that wasn't a crime. It's not enough to move to, say, New Zealand, to escape the ambulance chasers and foot-in-door investigative journalists like the folks on A Current Affair. Media is global and real time and streaming live on the internet 24/7. It would have been bad back when she was originally arrested, but the media of 2023 is an entirely different beast, and that's going to be one of the most difficult things to learn and come to terms with, IMO.

MOO
 
Yes it was different days when Lindy Chamberlain made a new life for herself in the US.
With the media these days they'd be after you whatever country you moved to.

Just checking and I'd lost track. It seems Lindy and her second husband, who is American only lived in the US for a few years, then moved back to Australia in 1998.

All this time I thought that Lindy and her second husband were living in the US.

So it does go to show that with time, even the press seems to have stopped hounding her.

I hope they give the same break to Kathleen and let her live in peace.
 


Neill-Fraser supporters cite Folbigg pardon in call for inquiry​


Posted on June 6, 2023 by andrew

Rosie Crumpton-Crook, President of the Neill-Fraser Support Group, today said in a statement to media that: “Supporters of Sue Neill-Fraser welcomed the news that Kathleen Folbigg had been pardoned, and we wish her well. The case of Susan Neill-Fraser in Tasmania should be the next to be resolved.”
 
How Australian Story's coverage of Kathleen Folbigg's case helped kickstart the scientific research that ultimately freed her

...last week, Tom Bathurst KC, formerly chief justice of New South Wales, who presided over a recent inquiry into the convictions, said 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".

That might never have happened, had a young legal academic, Emma Cunliffe, not taken an interest in the case while she was working on her PhD.

Dr Cunliffe's ground-breaking book, Murder, Medicine and Motherhood, published in 2011, forensically analysed the evidence and arguments put forward at Ms Folbigg's trial, concluding that she was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Longish article, interesting, on the development of the investigation that lead to the pardon.
 
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