Australian mother Kathleen Folbigg pardoned due to new evidence

Her trial in 2003 focused on her diary entries, in which Folbigg wrote she had “failed as a mother, a woman.” Prosecutors also said the deaths of four young children in a row could not be a tragic coincidence; a jury convicted her of smothering the children to death. But in recent years, doubts have been raised about the conviction as new science emerged.

The attorney general of New South Wales state, Michael Daley, said at a news conference that he had recommended that the governor of the state pardon Folbigg, and that she would be immediately freed. He was notified last week as the report of an inquiry into her conviction was being finalized.

An Australian mom was convicted of killing her 4 babies. Scientists say she’s innocent.

Daley said he received a memo on Friday from Thomas Bathurst, a former senior judge who led the inquiry, stating that there was “reasonable doubt” in each of the alleged offenses.

In 2021, dozens of scientists — including two Nobel laureates — signed a petition urging the governor of New South Wales to pardon Folbigg, arguing that she was “wrongfully incarcerated” and that genetics may have caused the deaths. Geneticists have found rare mutations in the DNA of Folbigg and her daughters that can cause sudden death in infancy and childhood, and other variants found in her sons’ DNA have also been connected to deaths in young children.

“The difference between today and what’s transpired in the past is that new evidence has come to light,” Daley said, adding that it was “appropriate that we do have mechanisms to reconsider these sorts of questions in light of new evidence.”

Brittany Shammas contributed to this report.