Nearly after two decades, scientists said that she is innocent. She was convicted of murdering her four children – Caleb, Patrick, Sarah, and Laura, each before their second birthday.
She was jailed for 40 years with a non-parole period of 30 years – which was reduced to 25 years after an appeal. Now after 18 years in jail, a group of 90 scientists claimed that she is innocent and have submitted a petition to pardon Folbigg.
The scientists said that the babies might have died because of genetic causes. “There is no medical evidence” the scientist argues in support of the Australian mother.
According to the petition filed by the scientists, both Sarah and Laura had a genetic mutation in the CALM2 gene, which can cause sudden death in infants and young children. Pediatric geneticist Jozef Gecz told that the group is still working to determine the exact reason for the boys’ death. But it is estimated that Patrick who died at 8 months suffered from epilepsy and Caleb who died at just 19 days, was reported as sudden infant death syndrome.
The scientist said that the court has rejected the medical evidence in favor of the journal entries, “which contained no admissions of guilt.” The petition read, “A reasonable person should doubt Ms. Folbigg killing four children. Deciding otherwise rejects medical science and the law that sets the standard of proof.”
The petitioners also claimed that Ms Folbigg has also suffered from emotional and psychological trauma in the police custody.