Current Keli Lane

Did Keli Lane get a fair trial?

  • Yes

    Votes: 4 22.2%
  • No

    Votes: 14 77.8%

  • Total voters
    18
Apr 23, 2007
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Don't know if to put current or not on this prefix.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/lane-appeals-murder-conviction-20121221-2bqzp.html

It appears however there playing multiple lotto on finding grounds on which to appeal, Which includes the judge allowed the prosecution to switch the burden of proof to the defense and the options of manslaughter or infanticide were instructed to be left off the table. Now some NSW law experts can correct me if need be in defense of murder the defense must raise the defense of infanticide and I don't believe the Lane team did, they stuck for the most part to the story that Tegan was handed out to someone else to care for. The prosecution is understood to have a very strong case this did not happen.

It is worth noticing that the judge does not think the prosecution proved their case but than again , he doesn't need to and of course not grounds for an appeal.

Is there anyone here who thinks the wrong verdict was reached?
 
Aug 28, 2011
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Infanticide isn't so much a defence as a name for the manslaughter of a infant. Just as murder can be mitigated to manslaughter through diminished responsibility, murder can be mitigated to infanticide through diminished responsibility caused by the effects of giving birth. Therefore the defence to murder would be the defendant's mental state.

I'm pretty sure in this situation that the defence doesn't have to raise her mental issues. It's just the defence has to be available on the facts presented, even if the prosecution are the ones who inadvertently bring it up.
 
Apr 23, 2007
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Infanticide isn't so much a defence as a name for the manslaughter of a infant. Just as murder can be mitigated to manslaughter through diminished responsibility, murder can be mitigated to infanticide through diminished responsibility caused by the effects of giving birth. Therefore the defence to murder would be the defendant's mental state.

I'm pretty sure in this situation that the defence doesn't have to raise her mental issues. It's just the defence has to be available on the facts presented, even if the prosecution are the ones who inadvertently bring it up.

I think if you read commentary notes on NSW law you will find infantacide both an offence in it's own right and a defence to murder, in regards to a charge downgrade

http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lrc.nsf/pages/R83CHP3
3.1 In New South Wales, legislation provides for infanticide as both a substantive criminal offence and as a partial defence to murder. Briefly, a woman may be convicted of infanticide instead of murder if she kills her baby aged less than 12 months while suffering from a mental disturbance which results from giving birth or breast-feeding. Legislation dealing with infanticide also exists in Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia, as well as in New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom.1 New South Wales is the only Australian jurisdiction which has both a defence of diminished responsibility and an offence/defence of infanticide.2

in this particular instance the charge against Lane was murder,
3.8 As we noted in paragraph 3.1, infanticide operates as both an offence and as a partial defence to murder in New South Wales. Where a woman kills her baby, the prosecution may charge her with the offence of infanticide. If she is convicted of that offence, she is sentenced as if she had been found guilty of manslaughter. Alternatively, the prosecution may charge the woman with murder, in which case infanticide may be raised as a partial defence. If successful, the defence will result in a verdict of infanticide. Again, the woman is then sentenced as if she had been found guilty of manslaughter. The maximum penalty for manslaughter is penal servitude for 25 years.9

This commentary reads as infanticide may be raised as a partial defense against murder, but reading that it appears to read that it must be raised and if the defence don't raise it it's not a defense. In practice infanticide is always a term our american friends would call a plea bargain, used as a separate offence like murder with diminished responsibility.

Now I didn't sit through the Lane trial but the information tat came my way was that the defense was that Keli gave her child to someone to care for who has gone off the grid. The concept of infanticide was not raised as a defense, and if note 3.8 in this discussion is correct it was the defense responsibility to do so. If they did not put in the table the judge was correct to instruct the jury not to consider it.
 
Aug 28, 2011
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I think if you read commentary notes on NSW law you will find infantacide both an offence in it's own right and a defence to murder, in regards to a charge downgrade

http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lrc.nsf/pages/R83CHP3


in this particular instance the charge against Lane was murder,


This commentary reads as infanticide may be raised as a partial defense against murder, but reading that it appears to read that it must be raised and if the defence don't raise it it's not a defense. In practice infanticide is always a term our american friends would call a plea bargain, used as a separate offence like murder with diminished responsibility.

Now I didn't sit through the Lane trial but the information tat came my way was that the defense was that Keli gave her child to someone to care for who has gone off the grid. The concept of infanticide was not raised as a defense, and if note 3.8 in this discussion is correct it was the defense responsibility to do so. If they did not put in the table the judge was correct to instruct the jury not to consider it.

Interesting. So is there actually any substantive difference between infanticide as a defence and a more general diminished responsibility defence (notwithstanding it involves an infant)? If there is no difference, then it's really just a special name for the more general defence just as infanticide as a crime is a special name for the manslaughter of an infant.

As for who raises the defence, my recollection of the trial is basically the same as yours. Given the defence completely contested that Lane harmed the baby there is no logical way they could have raised infanticide themselves. I'm going to assume it can arise on the facts no matter who presents them.
 

Sabot

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Dec 21, 2012
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Did a quick Google.
So how many of her babies went missing? Or were the others actually adopted?

Hardly likely that The Defence would plead Infanticide if she insisted that she gave the baby away.
 

Sabot

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The Taxi Driver said that there was another woman at the site where Keli left the baby. Could this woman have been given the baby and not want to come forward in case they were to take the child away? Or perhaps she doesn't want the child to know.
 
Apr 23, 2007
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The Taxi Driver said that there was another woman at the site where Keli left the baby. Could this woman have been given the baby and not want to come forward in case they were to take the child away? Or perhaps she doesn't want the child to know.

A little more on our taxi driver, including the Lane defense want nothing to do with it.

http://www.news.com.au/national-old...baby-tegan-alive/story-e6frfkvr-1226041248993

There will be no records of the driver driving that day as if he had he would been driving suspended,
 

Sabot

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Oh My. Very odd. Thanks for the link.

What about this "For Sale" story. Any evidence of that? Perhaps I'm just not very good at believing that mothers kill their babies

How did she do in Water Polo business, by the way? Although I have to say that I'm surprised she found the time.
 
Apr 2, 2013
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Kelli Lane's case to be granted an appeal to be heard in July

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/keli-lanes-murder-appeal-dates-set-20130314-2g1qc.html

Anyone think there is a chance of a retrial?

I remember following this case when the verdict came out and being surprised. Thought the jury would be hung or not guilty.

To answer the question I think there is a good chance that the appeal could lead to a re trial. A number of reasons:

There was no proof of a murder taking place. It seemed that a baby was registered as having been born to Kelli Lane and subsequently no trace was found. Lane's story of giving the baby to the father was disproved through searching the register of births, deaths and marriages, school registrations and other records such as medical where the baby would have had to turn up. Now this isn't conclusive proof by any means. Names could easily have changed and/or Lane was lying. This doesn't prove murder tho.

An alleged circumstance raised was Kelli Lane murdered the baby and dumped the body quickly before going to a wedding. A motive put forward was thus Lane murdered the baby so as not to interfere with her social life/athletic training. This to me seemed pretty flimsy. Lane had shown no propensity to violence and had previous children adopted out. Why then resort to murder? Her story of giving the baby away fits more with her pattern of behaviour, which while no doubt unconventional doesn't assume murder.

To be honest I don't think it would be the worse result and may in fact be quite beneficial if this case went to a re-trial. A lot of questions are unanswered. The prosecution stance was we can't account for the child thus Kelli Lane must have murdered her and gone off to a wedding. Bizarre. Don't forget it was also some time after the birth before a missing person was investigated.

A trial with a clear outline of motive, timeline and substantive circumstances would clear up a lot of mystery hopefully.
 
Apr 2, 2013
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When i first heard about this i always wondered why she or her sexual partners didnt use contrception

True or as a last resort get an abortion. No doubt it was very strange and unconventional behaviour but I don't know how you can leap to murder.

Question for any lawyers or knowledgeable people thou.

In the absence of a body, murder weapon, motive does the crown would look to establish a pattern of behaviour that would indicate a plauisble murder? Violent outburst, talk, threat etc. In so far as I can see that would not appear the case here.
 

CheapCharlie

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Jun 12, 2015
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Keli Lane still declaring her innocence


"Convicted baby killer Keli Lane has broken her 15-year silence, telling the ABC she believes her daughter Tegan is still alive and may now be old enough to come forward.

Key points
In 2010 Keli Lane was found guilty of murdering her baby Tegan
Baby Tegan was last seen when she was discharged from hospital
Keli Lane has always maintained her innocence
Baby Tegan's body has never been found


The 43-year-old has spoken publicly for the first time, making a series of phone calls to the ABC's new investigative documentary series Exposed from inside Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre, where she is serving an 18-year sentence for murdering her newborn baby two days after giving birth in September 1996.

Despite police investigations and a coronial inquiry, Tegan's body was never found. This September marks 22 years since Tegan Lane disappeared.


In dozens of six-minute conversations — the maximum call time allowed by the jail — Lane said she believes she can clear her name.

"The biggest hope for me is that someone comes forward with my daughter," Lane said.

"She'd be an adult now. So she obviously has had a whole life perhaps not knowing she is my child.

"I don't want to interrupt her life, I don't necessarily even need to meet her, but obviously for my own family, for myself, I want to show that I did not harm her. And I certainly did not kill her."



 
Keli Lane still declaring her innocence


"Convicted baby killer Keli Lane has broken her 15-year silence, telling the ABC she believes her daughter Tegan is still alive and may now be old enough to come forward.

Key points
In 2010 Keli Lane was found guilty of murdering her baby Tegan
Baby Tegan was last seen when she was discharged from hospital
Keli Lane has always maintained her innocence
Baby Tegan's body has never been found


The 43-year-old has spoken publicly for the first time, making a series of phone calls to the ABC's new investigative documentary series Exposed from inside Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre, where she is serving an 18-year sentence for murdering her newborn baby two days after giving birth in September 1996.

Despite police investigations and a coronial inquiry, Tegan's body was never found. This September marks 22 years since Tegan Lane disappeared.


In dozens of six-minute conversations — the maximum call time allowed by the jail — Lane said she believes she can clear her name.

"The biggest hope for me is that someone comes forward with my daughter," Lane said.

"She'd be an adult now. So she obviously has had a whole life perhaps not knowing she is my child.

"I don't want to interrupt her life, I don't necessarily even need to meet her, but obviously for my own family, for myself, I want to show that I did not harm her. And I certainly did not kill her."



Keli Lane might want to upload her genetic profile into an open source genealogy website and hope her daughter does the same. If she's alive, she may be found that way.
 

CheapCharlie

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NEW details about one of Australia’s most notorious child killers, Keli Lane, will make you rethink everything the case.

The first episode of Exposed: The case of Keli Lane will screen on the ABC on Tuesday, September 25

Not sure if u meant to put a hyper link to the article here

AN EXPLOSIVE new documentary about one of Australia’s most notorious and puzzling crimes, the disappearance and presumed murder of baby Tegan Lane, is set to challenge everything you thought you knew about the case.

In Exposed: The case of Keli Lane, investigative journalists Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Elise Worthington deliver bombshell after bombshell about the former Manly golden girl turned convicted baby killer.

“People have been driven mad by this case,” Meldrum-Hanna told news.com.au.

While we can’t disclose all the shattering revelations ahead of next week’s screening, the three-part series shows a side of Keli Lane that Australia has never seen before.

Lane, now 43, broke a 15-year silence to speak to the reporter in a series of six-minute phone calls from Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre, where she is serving 18 years for the 1996 murder of two-day old Tegan.

In that first phone call from jail, Lane admits to spinning a web of lies to cover up a string of pregnancies and abortions but insists she didn’t kill Tegan and begs Meldrum-Hanna to help her clear her name.
 
Not sure if u meant to put a hyper link to the article here

Thanks Charlie. Should be an interesting documentary, I've heard a very high profile lawyer from Sydney say there's much more to this story than we know and that he's on her side. I can't imagine what that 'much more' could be but maybe we'll find out.
 

CheapCharlie

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Thanks Charlie. Should be an interesting documentary, I've heard a very high profile lawyer from Sydney say there's much more to this story than we know and that he's on her side. I can't imagine what that 'much more' could be but maybe we'll find out.

Should be interesting..

I have found it difficult to believe she could be innocent...
 
Keli Lane is currently serving an 18-year sentence at Silverwater Womens Correctional in NSW for the murder of her two-day-old baby girl Tegan. The infant’s body has never been found and the case against Lane was circumstantial.

Her story is that she handed the baby to the biological father and grandmother before she left the hospital. They have never come forward and Tegan if she's alive, would now be 22 years old.

Investigative journalists Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Elise Worthington delve into the case for the ABC’s new documentary series Exposed: The Case of Keli Lane, to test her claimed innocence, and to analyse the police investigation and the murder trial.

Over the course of several months, Keli Lane rang them to discuss her life and her case. Lane consented to her calls being recorded and published.

No topic was off limits.

Some of the tapes are here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-...rderer-breaks-her-silence-to-exposed/10263954

I'd heard there have been investigators looking into this at least for the last three years and Keli has considerable support for her claim of innocence, despite Keli proving over many years prior to Tegan's disappearance to be a dreadful liar.

Apparently, there's a lot more to her story.

The first episode of Exposed starts tonight at 8.30pm.
 

mr bagcroft

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Yeah that mother was exceptionally weird, defensive and vague.
Something has to be going on there.
Utter bullshit she didnt know Keli was pregnant whilst being the team manager of her water polo team... three times! She is flat out lying there.
 
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