The Australian authorities announced on Monday the pardon of Kathleen Folbigg, in prison for two decades for the murder of her four babies, after reviewing her case as a result of an investigation coordinated by a Spanish scientist who linked the deaths to genetic failures. "She has been pardoned. I would also like to say that we took the opportunity, unsurprisingly, to ensure that Ms Folbigg was released without delay," said Attorney General for the Australian state of New South Wales, Michael Daley, during a press conference in Sydney.
The Australian authorities ordered last year to review the case of Folbigg for the death between 1989 and 1999 of his children Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura -when they were between 19 days and 18 months-, after a group of scientists indicated the possibility that these deaths were due to a rare genetic mutation. The pardon came after former judge Tom Bathurst, who was in charge of reviewing the case, concluded that "reasonable doubt exists as to Kathleen Folbigg's guilt for each of these crimes," Daley said.
The 55-year-old woman is believed to have already been released after receiving a clemency from New South Wales Governor General Margaret Beazley, according to Australian public broadcaster ABC.
The review considered that there is a reasonable possibility that three of the Folbigg children died of natural causes, while the evidence for coincidence and trend on the death of the fourth baby was inconsistent, in line with Bathurst's conclusions. The lawyer indicated in that document that he is "unable to accept ... the assumption that Folbigg was anything but a loving mother to her children," Daley said.
A team of scientists, coordinated by the Spanish immunologist Carola García de Vinuesa and led by the Danish Michael Toft Overgaard, concluded in 2020 that the deaths of the Folbigg babies could be due to genetic causes.
The scientific research, published in the specialized journal Europace, of the European Association of Cardiology, links a genetic mutation (CALM2) of two of Folbigg's daughters, Sarah and Laura, with sudden cardiac death. In addition, the study, made up of an international team of 27 scientists, found that the children carried rare variants of a gene that kills rodents by epileptic seizures.
Folbigg was sentenced in 2003 to 40 years in prison, reduced to 30 years in 2005, for the murder of three of her children and for the homicide of another of them, and she has unsuccessfully appealed her sentence several times, defending her innocence and assuring that their children died of natural causes in the town of Hunter Valley, about 120 kilometers from Sydney.
The case was reopened as a result of a letter sent in March 2021 to the Australian authorities by a hundred scientists -including two Nobel laureates- to request pardon and the immediate release of Folbigg.
