Australian mom convicted of killing 4 children seeks pardon

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Nearly two decades after an Australian woman was convicted of killing her four children, dozens of scientists are backing the claim that they may have died of natural causes.

Australian law says Kathleen Folbigg is one of the nation’s worst female serial killers who smothered her four children over a decade. But a growing number of scientists say she could be the victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice.

The schism between legal and scientific opinion has grown with advancements in genetic research in the 18 years since Folbigg was convicted on three charges of murder and one of manslaughter.

Now the 53-year-old’s freedom hinges on a petition to the New South Wales state governor for a pardon “based on significant positive evidence of natural causes of death” in all four cases.

The petition lodged in March carries the signatures of 90 scientists, medical practitioners and related professionals including two Nobel laureates.

But breakthroughs in science have yet to overcome judges’ verdicts on Folbigg’s credibility.

Folbigg took her latest blow from the courts weeks after the petition. Three judges threw out her challenge to retired Justice Reginald Blanch’s decision in 2019 to uphold her convictions. Her appeal had been based on new scientific evidence including the children’s genome sequencing.

After her court defeat, Folbigg said in a statement written from prison through her friend Tracy Chapman that the verdict and the petition raised “valuable questions about how we got here.”

“Many international eyes are now on this case and there’re many more Australians rightly asking why Kath’s still in prison after 18 years when there’s mounting scientific evidence relating to her innocence,”...