SYDNEY, Australia – New South Wales Gov. Margaret Beazley granted an unconditional pardon to Kathleen Folbigg, a 55-year-old Australian woman convicted in the deaths of her four children, on Monday, June 5, 2023.
This decision comes after two decades of imprisonment, as fresh scientific evidence surfaced suggesting the children’s deaths may have been from natural causes.
New South Wales Attorney General Michael Daley announced his recommendation for the pardon, citing preliminary results from an ongoing second inquiry led by former state chief justice Tom Bathurst.
“I have reached the view that there is reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Ms. Folbigg for each of these offenses,” Bathurst noted in a memo to Daley last week. He added that the final report might recommend overturning her convictions.
The recent inquiry sought to reexamine Folbigg’s 2003 convictions, which included 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. She was slated to remain in prison until 2028, serving a 30-year sentence.
Australian lawmaker Sue Higginson told NBC News of Folbigg’s emotional reaction to her release from Grafton prison. “I have had messages that there have been tears, there’s laughter, there’s hug with her friends, and that she is seeing life now very differently from how it’s been for the last 20 years,” Higginson stated.
While a prior inquiry in 2019 upheld Folbigg’s guilt, the second probe was triggered by a 2021 petition signed by 90 scientists and medical professionals. They argued that new scientific evidence “creates a strong presumption that the Folbigg children died of natural causes.”
Bathurst’s new assessment highlights a “reasonable possibility” that three of the children died naturally, referring to a shared genetic mutation, CALM2-G114R, and potential myocarditis. He further suggested an “underlying neurogenic disorder” in Patrick’s case.
The prosecution’s case was “entirely circumstantial,” Bathurst noted, criticizing their reliance on Folbigg’s diary entries, which were interpreted as confessions of guilt but lacked any direct admission of killing. He wrote, “The entries were explicable as the words of a grieving, depressed and traumatized mother, feeling guilt at the unexplained deaths of her four children.”
According to Daley, if her convictions are overturned, Folbigg could initiate civil proceedings against the state of New South Wales for compensation. However, Higginson emphasized, “We need to look at the efficiency, the access, and the effectiveness of our justice system.”
Higginson emphasised the injustice, “There is no greater wrong than taking somebody’s freedom wrongfully and holding somebody in a prison wrongfully.”
Anticipating the emotional toll, Daley informed both Folbigg and her former husband, Craig Folbigg, in advance of the announcement. “We’ve got four little bubbas who are dead, a husband and wife who lost each other, a woman who spent 20 years in jail and a family that never had a chance,” he said. “So you’d not be human if you didn’t feel something about that.”
