Networked Knowledge Media Reports Networked Knowledge Kathleen Folbigg Homepage This Page Set up by Dr Robert N Moles [Underlini
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Networked Knowledge Media Reports Networked Knowledge Kathleen Folbigg Homepage This page set up by Dr Robert N Moles [Underlining where it occurs is for NetK editorial emphasis] On 4 March 2021 Ellen Whinnett in The Advertiser reported “Scientists want killer pardoned” 76 of Australia’s most respected doctors and scientists have put their names to an extraordinary petition demanding a pardon for Kathleen Folbigg, the mother serving a 30- year jail term for killing four of her infant children. The eminent researchers, including two Nobel laureates and several Australians of the Year, say new medical evidence about a mutant gene carried by two of the Folbigg children creates a “strong presumption’’ they died from natural causes. Pardon mum jailed for killing babies: Joined by another 14 international experts, they have called on NSW Governor Margaret Beazley to pardon Folbigg and immediately release her from jail, calling for an end to the “miscarriage of justice’’ they say the 53-year-old has suffered. Among those to put their names to the petition are Australian Academy of Science president John Shine, Nobel laureate and 1997 Australian of the Year Professor Peter Doherty and Tasmanian-born Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Blackburn, who won the Nobel prize in 2009. Professor Fiona Stanley, 2003 Australian of the Year, and Professor Ian Frazer, 2006 Australian of the Year and co-inventor of the vaccine that prevents cervical cancer, have also signed the scientific consensus statement. “The executive prerogative of mercy is designed to deal with failures of the justice system such as this one,’’ a letter with the petition states. “It is incumbent on the Governor to exercise her power to stop the ongoing miscarriage of justice suffered by Ms Folbigg. “Not to do so is to continue to deny Ms Folbigg basic human rights and to decrease faith in the NSW justice system. Ms Folbigg’s case also establishes a dangerous precedent as it means that cogent medical and scientific evidence can simply be ignored in preference to subjective interpretations of circumstantial evidence.’’ Folbigg, from the Hunter Valley, was convicted in 2003 of smothering her four infant children – Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura – between February 1989 to March 1999. She has always maintained her innocence but her convictions, based largely on entries in her diary, have been upheld through legal challenges. But the scientific experts were always concerned about the case, and genomic work undertaken by an international team of experts – including from Canberra’s Australian National University – uncovered new information that casts significant doubt on her convictions. ANU researchers Professor Carola Vinuesa and Dr Todor Arsov first discovered the gene mutation after sequencing the genome of Kathleen Folbigg in 2018. “Mutations in this gene are one of the best recognised causes of sudden death in infancy and childhood,’’ the petition, also signed by Professor Vinuesa and Dr Arsov, notes. It says there is now a “strong presumption that the Folbigg children died of natural causes.’’ A 2019 judicial inquiry found no reasonable doubt as to the convictions. As part of that inquiry, scientists sequenced the genomes from the Folbigg children and discovered the mutation. But the mutation’s likely lethal nature was not confirmed until after the inquiry was completed. .