Lost in Translation: The Wrongful Conviction of Kathleen Folbigg Based on Fresh Medical Evidence and Expert Interpretation of Her Diaries

Lost in Translation: The Wrongful Conviction of Kathleen Folbigg Based on Fresh Medical Evidence and Expert Interpretation of Her Diaries

This article argues that Kathleen Folbigg was wrongly convicted of suffocating her four children and should be immediately released from prison where she has been incarcerated since 2003. The basis for this contention is the fresh and compelling evidence that Ms Folbigg has the CALM2 mutation which she passed on to two of her four children and precipitated lethal cardiac arrests. The current medical and scientific expert opinion is that all four children died
from natural causes. In addition, recent expert opinion from psychologists and linguists on Ms Folbigg’s diaries, which the Crown argued amounted to virtual admissions of guilt, concluded that there was no evidence Ms Folbigg harmed her children and her purpose in writing the entries was to try and make sense of the deaths of her children.

This article was first published by Thomson Reuters in the Australian Law Journal and should be cited as Fiona Hum & Andrew Hemming, Lost in Translation: The Wrongful Conviction of Kathleen Folbigg Based on Fresh Medical Evidence and Expert Interpretation of Her Diaries, (2023) 97 ALJ 180. For all subscription inquiries please phone, from Australia: 1300 304 195, from Overseas: +61 2 8587 7980 or online at https://www.thomsonreuters.com.au/en-au/contact.html. The official PDF version of this article can also be purchased separately from Thomson Reuters at http://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/journals/subscribe-or-purchase.