Australian court overturns woman’s 2-decade-old convictions in deaths of her 4 children

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Australian appeals court has overturned all convictions against a woman 20 years after a jury found her guilty of killing her four children. Kathleen Folbigg already was pardoned at the New South Wales state government’s direction and released from prison in June based on new scientific evidence that her four children may have died from natural causes as she had insisted. The pardon was seen as the quickest way of getting the 56-year-old woman out of prison before an inquiry into the new evidence recommended the New South Wales Court of Appeals consider quashing her convictions. Applause filled the courtroom and Folbigg wept on Thursday after Chief Justice Andrew Bell overturned three convictions of murder and one of manslaughter.