The NSW attorney-general is under renewed pressure to expedite the release of convicted child killer Kathleen Folbigg.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Folbigg is serving a 25-year minimum sentence after being found guilty in 2003 of killing her four babies.
An inquiry into her convictions last month heard credible evidence her children may have died of natural causes, with the state's top prosecutor accepting there was reasonable doubt about her guilt.
Greens MP Sue Higginson will bring on a motion for debate in the NSW parliament on Wednesday calling on Attorney-General Michael Daley to issue advice to the governor to pardon Folbigg to ensure her immediate release.
"Counsel assisting the inquiry has concluded that on all of the evidence, of which there is volumes, there is reasonable doubt about Kathleen's convictions," Ms Higginson said on Tuesday.
"It doesn't get any more certain than this. The attorney-general needs to exercise his powers and act on the evidence and he needs to do that now."
Ms Higginson said it was legally and politically untenable to keep Folbigg in prison and called on Mr Daley to recommend Governor Margaret Beazley grant her a pardon or conditional release on parole.
Ms Higginson argued the release of the final inquiry report was not a precondition for Folbigg's release.
"We do not need to wait. We should not wait," she said.
"He is the only person currently keeping Kathleen in prison contrary to the evidence, the advice of top criminal law experts and the pleas of many."
"Ms Folbigg has suffered enough ... It takes legal expertise and courage to do the right thing when you have such legal power vested in you."
Folbigg maintains her innocence, saying her four babies - Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura - died of natural causes between 1989 and 1999.
Rare genetic variants later identified in Folbigg and her daughters triggered the second inquiry into her conviction not long after a 2019 examination.
The CALM2-G114R variant impacting the calcium-binding calmodulin protein was a "reasonably possible cause" of Sarah and Laura's deaths, according to cardiology and genetics experts.
Myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, was another possible cause of Laura's death.
Patrick may have died from a neurogenetic disorder, which could have hospitalised him before his death, experts told the inquiry.
Counsel assisting the inquiry Sophie Callan SC said reasonable hypotheses on their deaths undermined the tendency reasoning used to convict Folbigg of Caleb's manslaughter and the cause of his death remains undetermined.
Australian Associated Press
