Mushroom killer arrested

[EHocking]

Grounds for appeal have been made public.
The Court of Appeal has accepted the documents, but is yet to grant Patterson leave to appeal.

In documents released by the Supreme Court of Victoria on Wednesday, Patterson raised several issues she said amounted to a "miscarriage of justice".

The Age article lists the points of appeal. It is fairly brief, but perhaps too much to quote in full here.

 

[rjh01]

Grounds for appeal have been made public.
The Court of Appeal has accepted the documents, but is yet to grant Patterson leave to appeal.


The Age article lists the points of appeal. It is fairly brief, but perhaps too much to quote in full here.

I think she will be very lucky if the court gives her leave to appeal. The grounds appear to me to be very narrow.

 

[lionking]

Grounds for appeal have been made public.
The Court of Appeal has accepted the documents, but is yet to grant Patterson leave to appeal.


The Age article lists the points of appeal. It is fairly brief, but perhaps too much to quote in full here.

The only straw the defence has to grasp at is the fact that the prosecution and the jury stayed at the same hotel in Morwell for one night. It seems that the jury remained isolated, but it was a really stupid oversight.

 

[EHocking]

The Supreme Court of Victoria says the appeal for convicted mushroom murderer Erin Patterson will be held on August 19 and 20.

Today, the Supreme Court of Victoria said the appeal hearing would take place on August 19 and 20.

The Director of Public Prosecutions will also appeal against the length of Patterson's sentence at the hearing, arguing it was inadequate.

In the documents lodged in November, Patterson said the prosecution's cross-examination of her was "unfair and oppressive" and the prosecutor's closing address "caused a substantial miscarriage of justice".

They also said the prosecution "changed its case" by implying there was a motive for murder in its closing address, despite saying there was no evidence of motive when opening the case.

The documents also criticised key pieces of evidence used by the prosecution, as well as the decision by the judge to rule photos and videos purportedly showing her history of mushroom foraging as inadmissible.

 

[EHocking]

The Supreme Court of Victoria says the appeal for convicted mushroom murderer Erin Patterson will be held on August 19 and 20.

And it has begun.

If her appeal is ultimately successful, the Court of Appeal could overturn her convictions and order a retrial.

As Patterson fights to clear her name, Victorian prosecutors have lodged their own legal challenge, and are calling on the Court of Appeal to strip her of the chance to ever walk free again.

The hearing is expected to run for two days.

Her appeal are on theses 7 grounds

• The integrity of the verdicts was "fatally undermined" by a gaffe that saw jury members sequestered in the same hotel as a police witness and members of the prosecution team.
• Phone tower evidence and evidence about death cap mushroom sightings in the nearby towns of Loch and Outtrim caused unfair prejudice and should not have been permitted in the trial.
• The trial judge, Christopher Beale, made an error by preventing prosecutors from introducing evidence about photos and videos of mushrooms found on an SD card at Patterson's home.
• The judge allowed evidence from Patterson's Facebook "friends" into the trial, causing "unfair prejudice" and a "substantial miscarriage of justice".
• The cross-examination of Patterson by lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC was "unfair and oppressive".
• A further miscarriage of justice occurred during her closing address to the jury.
• Prosecutors did not outline a motive for murder at the start of the trial, but changed the legal case by later "implying" there was a motive.

Those grounds will be expanded upon, both in written form and oral arguments made in court on Wednesday.

The prosecution are also appealing the original sentence.

After Patterson was found guilty, the prosecution called on Justice Beale to impose a life sentence with no parole, a measure that would effectively see her locked up with the key thrown ​

 

[jeremyp]

She definitely did it, so it will be annoying if she gets let off the hook on technical grounds.

That said, I'm not a fan of a life sentence without any possibility of parole for anybody, so I'd give her that one.

 

[lionking]

She definitely did it, so it will be annoying if she gets let off the hook on technical grounds.

That said, I'm not a fan of a life sentence without any possibility of parole for anybody, so I'd give her that one.

She has a 33 year parole period. The prosecution has also appealed that this is inadequate, but I doubt that will get up.

 

[Darat]

And it has begun.

Her appeal are on theses 7 grounds

The prosecution are also appealing the original sentence.

The only one I can see that may be grounds for a mistrial would be the first one. But I think that would require proof that anything happened to breach the jury sequestration.

 

[jeremyp]

I don't understand why Patterson is appealing this one:

• The trial judge, Christopher Beale, made an error by preventing prosecutors from introducing evidence about photos and videos of mushrooms found on an SD card at Patterson's home.

It seems to me that the evidence that was ruled inadmissible was probably not in Patterson's favour, or the prosecution would not have wanted to introduce it at all.

 

[lionking]

I’m intrigued about who is funding this appeal, as it isn’t her.

 

[EHocking]

I’m intrigued about who is funding this appeal, as it isn’t her.

Legal Aid apparently, since asset-restraining orders were placed on her $1.2 million Leongatha property by the Director of Public Prosecutions to preserve funds for victim compensation (according to AI search result)

The Guardian has a live blow-by-blow account of the appeal.

 

[lionking]

Legal Aid apparently, since asset-restraining orders were placed on her $1.2 million Leongatha property by the Director of Public Prosecutions to preserve funds for victim compensation (according to AI search result)

I’m not sure it is covered by legal aid. There are strict criteria, including the likelihood of being successful.

 

[EHocking]

New AI Overview

Erin Patterson funded her high-profile legal defense primarily through a multi-million-dollar family inheritance from her grandmother, supplemented by the sale of a property and a registered mortgage held by her defense firm. [1, 2, 3]

Sources of Funding

• Inheritance: Patterson received a $2 million bequest from her grandmother's estate distributed over several years, which funded the core of her expensive legal representation. [1, 2]
• Property Sales: She sold a home in Mount Waverley for $1.025 million shortly after being charged. [1]
• Law Firm Mortgage: Her legal team from Doogue + George registered a mortgage over her Leongatha property to secure their ongoing trial and defense costs. [1, 2]

 

[lionking]

New AI Overview

Thanks. It now makes sense.

 

[EHocking]

Patterson’s appeal seems to have failed for her, with her sentence being increased.
Her appeal against her conviction was dismissed and the prosecution’s appeal of her original sentence resulted in any parole period being removed.

Breaking: Mushroom murderer likely to die in jail after failed appeal

Patterson lodged an appeal against her convictions over the deaths of three relatives who died after eating beef Wellingtons that contained death cap mushrooms.

www.abc.net.au

 

[lionking]

Patterson’s appeal seems to have failed for her, with her sentence being increased.
Her appeal against her conviction was dismissed and the prosecution’s appeal of her original sentence resulted in any parole period being removed.

Breaking: Mushroom murderer likely to die in jail after failed appeal

Patterson lodged an appeal against her convictions over the deaths of three relatives who died after eating beef Wellingtons that contained death cap mushrooms.

www.abc.net.au

Yes, a huge failure. I didn’t expect the non-parole period to be removed, but am glad it was.

It’s always a gamble to appeal against a conviction, particularly in a case like this, where there was little doubt about her guilt, as the result can be worse, as it is now.

 

[EHocking]

Yes, a huge failure. I didn’t expect the non-parole period to be removed, but am glad it was.

It’s always a gamble to appeal against a conviction, particularly in a case like this, where there was little doubt about her guilt, as the result can be worse, as it is now.

The prosecution agreed with you. Their appeal was that the original sentence was not adequate.

 

[lionking]

The prosecution agreed with you. Their appeal was that the original sentence was not adequate.

It also seems that her defence were well aware of the likely fate of the appeal. The court was attended by the prosecution team, homicide detectives and her ex-husband. Not her lawyer though……

 

[rjh01]

I think she will be very lucky if the court gives her leave to appeal. The grounds appear to me to be very narrow.

I was not far wrong. But then it was a safe bet.

 

[Rolfe]

I've just read through an article on the case. Didn't know anything about it till then. Has there been any convincing suggestion of a motive?

You know, this affair is quite reminiscent of the plot of Dorothy Sayers's 1930 novel Strong Poison. The poison in the novel is arsenic, not mushrooms, but the theme of the poison being in a meal which is prepared and shared by the murderer is the same. In the book it is even more elaborate. Every element of the meal is eaten not just by the murderer and his victim, but by the kitchen staff, except for the sherry(?) and an omelette. On hearing about his guest's sudden illness, the murderer ostentatiously seals the cork of the sherry bottle so that it can be proved not to have been contaminated. The omelette was prepared at the table by the murderer, using whole unbroken eggs and other ingredients which could be proved to be uncontaminated by the remains in the kitchen. The omelette was mixed in such a way that it would have been impossible for one portion to be poisoned and the other not.

Through the expert sleuthing of Lord Peter Wimsey, it is discovered that the murderer has injected arsenic into one of the eggs, which was cracked, using a syringe and a fine needle. How come the murderer didn't fall ill? Because he had been ingesting small amounts of arsenic over the preceding weeks to build up a tolerance.

Much more fool-proof (indeed the very tight provenance was itself considered suspicious by Wimsey), and yet the murderer was caught. There's a lesson there somewhere.

I wonder if part of the motivation was the desire to commit an undetectable crime and get away with it? The article I read said that Mrs Paterson was a big fan of true crime stories.