Can Australia’s justice system adjust itself to hear new scientific research?

Welcome to a Cosmos Insights podcast, where we talk to scientists in Australia about the impact of their work.

Kathleen Folbigg has served 20 years of a 30-year sentence for killing her four children. She had exhausted all her avenues for appeal. Only after petitioning from grassroots supporters and legal representatives on the basis of new forensic pathology assessments did the New South Wales’ Governor open an inquiry into her convictions.

That was back in 2019, and despite those new forensic assessments being heard, judicial officer Reginald Blanch was not convinced there was a reasonable doubt cast by that and other evidence.

During the course of that inquiry, a rare gene mutation possessed by the Folbigg children was identified by two teams of researchers. One of those teams pursued research into that gene and concluded it would potentially explain the cause of their deaths. That led to New South Wales Attorney-General Mark Speakman opening a second inquiry into Folbigg’s convictions, which has finished hearing evidence from the geneticists, plus cardiologists, forensic pathologists, paediatricians, and psychology experts.

Quite a lot of science! But science that would not have been heard if not for the state of New South Wales enacting the rare provisions of a Governor’s appeal.

So, what can be done to make sure new science that’s potentially relevant to a case is heard when conventional means of appeal is exhausted.

The Australian Academy of Science was granted leave by the commission to appear as an independent scientific advisor to the inquiry. Today Cosmos journalist Matthew Agius talks to its chief executive is Anna Maria Arabia.

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