An Australian court overturns a woman’s 2-decade-old convictions in the 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 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. But an inquiry into the new evidence also recommended the New South Wales Court of Appeals consider quashing her convictions. Applause filled the courtroom and Folbigg wept Thursday after Chief Justice Andrew Bell overturned three convictions of murder and one of manslaughter.