A leading Queensland DNA lawyer says many innocent people are still languishing in jail and Kathryn Folbigg’s pardon must change the way the “outdated, cumbersome and slow” Australian justice system deals with wrongful convictions.
The tragic story of Kathleen Folbigg is an example of a “broader problem” in Australia’s legal system, says Kathleen Folbigg’s Lawyer Rhanee Rego.
Ms Rego’s comments come as Ms Folbigg is pardoned and released after 20 years of imprisonment over the deaths of her four children.
“The state has done the unimaginable to Kathleen Folbigg,” Ms Rego said during a media conference on Tuesday.
“If Australia really wants to make some good from a tragic story, they will seriously consider reviewing their system of post-conviction review.”
Ms Folbigg, the woman once dubbed Australia’s worst female serial killer over the deaths of four babies between 1989 and 1999, sensationally walked free from Grafton prison on Monday after serving 20 years for murder and manslaughter.
She was released five years after being pardoned by NSW Governor Margaret Beazley following an inquiry headed by the state’s former chief justice, Tom Bathurst KC, which found that scientific evidence had cast doubt over her guilt.
Kathleen Folbigg appears via video link during an inquiry at the NSW Coroners Court in Sydney in 2019. Picture: NCA NewsWire
Jason Murakami, who established the Griffith University Innocence Project in 2001 to help free those wrongfully convicted of serious crimes, said Ms Folbigg’s pardon and the possible quashing of her convictions showed the system was flawed and needed an urgent overhaul.
He said the current petition process for pardons used in all Australian states was “outdated, cumbersome and far too slow”.
“In 2023, there is still reluctance by various players in the justice system that the system does get it wrong and there are victims of wrongful convictions sitting in jail as we speak,” he said.
“Ms Folbigg’s matter puts sharp focus on what we have been calling for for over years and that is a formalised process to deal with post-conviction claims.
“As a country, we are so far behind the UK, Canada and even New Zealand in relation to how we as a society deal with wrongful convictions.”
Mr Murakami, an adjunct professor in law and partner in Gold Coast firm Behlau Murakami Grant, co-wrote an international law journal called Murder, Wrongful Conviction and The Law which was published last month.
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